Friday, December 30, 2011
Window Shopping
My two year old was jumping for joy, pointing at the Old Navy window and giggling his heart out when he saw his big brother on the poster in the window. I think the confused elderly woman walking past us thought he was more excited about the 50% off sale than a 2 year old should be. Happy Holidays everyone! Hope you're all jumping for joy and giggling your hearts out this holiday season.
Thursday, December 22, 2011
Monday, December 5, 2011
Kim Lowe Brings Holiday Cheer to C2C
PDN's Barbara Goldman posted this about me and my recent work with Cradles to Crayons and Boston Parents Paper:
Kim Lowe is one very talented woman who wears many hats. She is a Boston-based mama and a kids and lifestyle photographer. She graduated from the Art Institute of Boston and became an art director-designer at several big-time ad agencies including Hill Holliday and Arnold, and even managed to win a few awards. With ten years of ad experience under her belt, Lowe decided to put it all to use doing something she loved more. She opened her own photo studio in 2003.
Recently Lowe was contacted by Susan Flynn, Associate Editor of Boston Parents Paper, to shoot their December holiday cover of Clara from The Commonweath Ballet's 'The Nutcracker.' As an avid reader of BPP, Lowe was thrilled to do the assignment. Because the publication is free, they offer full-page ads in exchange for work that is done for the publication. The ad space did not really work for Lowe and her audience, but she knew of a group who could use the exposure and promotion, especially at this time of year. Lowe used the ad space to help promote the kids non-profit organization Cradles to Crayons. C2C was founded in 2002, with the mission of providing children ages 0 to 12 some of the most important basics of life—free of charge. These basics include clothing, school supplies, toys and much more. They provide all the physical goods that help children feel safe, protect them from the elements and help them to learn. C2C was thrilled but unfortunately didn't know how to pull an ad together in just two weeks. Lowe put on her hat as art director. She used one of her shots of a little boy bundled up in the snow, wrote the headline "With your $25 donation a child gets a winter coat. And the freedom to bury himself in the snow," and also designed the body and copy of the ad. Which she said was "...easy and fun."
With the ad created for C2C, she started work on her shoot for BPP, set for Sunday October 30th, notable this year as the weekend of the great snowstorm that hit the whole Northeast. Lowe was scheduled to shoot young ballerinas of The Nutcracker in a dance studio that also happened to be dark, was in a basement and had no windows or natural light. As luck would have it, the dance studio had a power outage from the snow storm, and Lowe had barely any light for the shoot or heat for her young dancers. They had to bundle up in coats to stay warm between shots.
The challenges mounted but the ever-resourceful Lowe used a monolight and a few carefully placed reflectors and was able to capture the grace and joy of the young ballerina Clara meeting the Nutcracker. "The girls were real troopers," says Lowe. The BPP magazine with Lowe's cover of Clara jumping for joy came out December 1st and can be found all over the state. In her e-mailed response to Lowe, Associated Editor Flynn could not have been happier, "The photos look terrific! Lots of choices, which is great. You have so much fun energy and helped to make the ballerinas feel relaxed. Thank you!"
The C2C ads that Lowe created will run in the Boston Parents Paper, Boston Business Journal and on local billboards, all space offered up for free. They will also appear in Old Navy stores across Massachusetts as they help C2C collect donated kids clothing this holiday season. “I was happy to do this for Cradles to Crayons because it's been a tough year for them and the families that depend on them. They need all the exposure they can get,” says Lowe.
And still there’s more, Lowe also donates her photography for her “Two Birds" fundraiser that she began two years ago that also helps the C2C organization. She posts 45-minute time slots on her Facebook page, and parents can bid on those timeslots to get holiday pictures taken of their kids. Their entire bid is donated directly to C2C. “It's not just sitting down and getting a pretty picture taken — each timeslot also has a hair and makeup artist and a wardrobe stylist to pamper the kids and make them feel like superstars. It's pretty cool,” says Lowe. "Some of the kids don't care about getting their picture taken -— they're just excited to have their h+mu and wardrobe created by a professionals." The entire crew donates their time and talent—it's really a group effort. Photography retailer EP Levine, also in the Boston area, donates the lighting equipment, and different photographers donate their studio space each year.
Kim Lowe certainly knows the meaning of gift giving with her photography for all seasons. You can see more of her kids, lifestyle and product work on her site and also on PDN's photoserve. For more information about Cradles to Crayons, please visit their site at www.cradlestocrayons.org.
Kim Lowe is one very talented woman who wears many hats. She is a Boston-based mama and a kids and lifestyle photographer. She graduated from the Art Institute of Boston and became an art director-designer at several big-time ad agencies including Hill Holliday and Arnold, and even managed to win a few awards. With ten years of ad experience under her belt, Lowe decided to put it all to use doing something she loved more. She opened her own photo studio in 2003.
Recently Lowe was contacted by Susan Flynn, Associate Editor of Boston Parents Paper, to shoot their December holiday cover of Clara from The Commonweath Ballet's 'The Nutcracker.' As an avid reader of BPP, Lowe was thrilled to do the assignment. Because the publication is free, they offer full-page ads in exchange for work that is done for the publication. The ad space did not really work for Lowe and her audience, but she knew of a group who could use the exposure and promotion, especially at this time of year. Lowe used the ad space to help promote the kids non-profit organization Cradles to Crayons. C2C was founded in 2002, with the mission of providing children ages 0 to 12 some of the most important basics of life—free of charge. These basics include clothing, school supplies, toys and much more. They provide all the physical goods that help children feel safe, protect them from the elements and help them to learn. C2C was thrilled but unfortunately didn't know how to pull an ad together in just two weeks. Lowe put on her hat as art director. She used one of her shots of a little boy bundled up in the snow, wrote the headline "With your $25 donation a child gets a winter coat. And the freedom to bury himself in the snow," and also designed the body and copy of the ad. Which she said was "...easy and fun."
With the ad created for C2C, she started work on her shoot for BPP, set for Sunday October 30th, notable this year as the weekend of the great snowstorm that hit the whole Northeast. Lowe was scheduled to shoot young ballerinas of The Nutcracker in a dance studio that also happened to be dark, was in a basement and had no windows or natural light. As luck would have it, the dance studio had a power outage from the snow storm, and Lowe had barely any light for the shoot or heat for her young dancers. They had to bundle up in coats to stay warm between shots.
The challenges mounted but the ever-resourceful Lowe used a monolight and a few carefully placed reflectors and was able to capture the grace and joy of the young ballerina Clara meeting the Nutcracker. "The girls were real troopers," says Lowe. The BPP magazine with Lowe's cover of Clara jumping for joy came out December 1st and can be found all over the state. In her e-mailed response to Lowe, Associated Editor Flynn could not have been happier, "The photos look terrific! Lots of choices, which is great. You have so much fun energy and helped to make the ballerinas feel relaxed. Thank you!"
The C2C ads that Lowe created will run in the Boston Parents Paper, Boston Business Journal and on local billboards, all space offered up for free. They will also appear in Old Navy stores across Massachusetts as they help C2C collect donated kids clothing this holiday season. “I was happy to do this for Cradles to Crayons because it's been a tough year for them and the families that depend on them. They need all the exposure they can get,” says Lowe.
And still there’s more, Lowe also donates her photography for her “Two Birds" fundraiser that she began two years ago that also helps the C2C organization. She posts 45-minute time slots on her Facebook page, and parents can bid on those timeslots to get holiday pictures taken of their kids. Their entire bid is donated directly to C2C. “It's not just sitting down and getting a pretty picture taken — each timeslot also has a hair and makeup artist and a wardrobe stylist to pamper the kids and make them feel like superstars. It's pretty cool,” says Lowe. "Some of the kids don't care about getting their picture taken -— they're just excited to have their h+mu and wardrobe created by a professionals." The entire crew donates their time and talent—it's really a group effort. Photography retailer EP Levine, also in the Boston area, donates the lighting equipment, and different photographers donate their studio space each year.
Kim Lowe certainly knows the meaning of gift giving with her photography for all seasons. You can see more of her kids, lifestyle and product work on her site and also on PDN's photoserve. For more information about Cradles to Crayons, please visit their site at www.cradlestocrayons.org.
Friday, December 2, 2011
Our Advent Calendar
My 4 year old is learning to write numbers so I decided to create our own personalized "25 Days of Christmas" but you can do this for any age and for 12 days instead of 25. After he writes each number on a separate piece of paper, he can turn over the matching day-number on the calendar every morning. Under each number is a special treat or something special to do relating to the holiday season.
The first day started with 'The Snowman' by Raymond Briggs that Santa left, "Under your pillow you should look. Santa left you a special book." The second day was to pick out a xmas tree. I won't bore you with the entire 25 but a couple more are things like "Donate toys to other little boys." "It's xmas eve, leave out carrots. For the reindeer silly, not for parrots." "For the birds make, a nutty suet cake." "In your coat pocket is a treat. Enjoy something sweet." And "Cookies you will bake. A smile you will make." The gift found in their stockings that morning were chef hats and after baking cookies we brought them to a local elderly home.
Now I'm well aware these aren't genius rhymes people. It's for my 4 year old, who really thinks that Santa's in cahoots with Frosty and Rudolph and they're all leaving him special messages every morning. He's not going to believe in magic for very long so I'm playing into now while I can.
The first day started with 'The Snowman' by Raymond Briggs that Santa left, "Under your pillow you should look. Santa left you a special book." The second day was to pick out a xmas tree. I won't bore you with the entire 25 but a couple more are things like "Donate toys to other little boys." "It's xmas eve, leave out carrots. For the reindeer silly, not for parrots." "For the birds make, a nutty suet cake." "In your coat pocket is a treat. Enjoy something sweet." And "Cookies you will bake. A smile you will make." The gift found in their stockings that morning were chef hats and after baking cookies we brought them to a local elderly home.
Now I'm well aware these aren't genius rhymes people. It's for my 4 year old, who really thinks that Santa's in cahoots with Frosty and Rudolph and they're all leaving him special messages every morning. He's not going to believe in magic for very long so I'm playing into now while I can.
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