Where do I begin? I’m so proud and excited to announce, and finally introduce, Jesse’s first musical debut, “Two-Faced” which although I am obviously biased, is an amazing compilation of  4 edgy, indie folk rock tunes.

On the very first date Jesse and I went on, I remember walking into his house to find him in his sunken lounge playing music. I was excited about his sound back then, and that was 10 years ago!   After many arduous years of  writing lyrics late at night in the kitchen,  and playing around with different band members, sounds and melodies,  Jesse has finally honed in on his own unique sound as a singer songwriter.   His music is haunting, edgy, and there are even a couple of sappy ballads that I’m personally a sucker for (“Julie”).  I am so freaking proud!!!  Check out Jesse Daniel’s myspace profile and some lovely pics by yours truly below…

Thought I’d share one of the places I go for inspiration. I’ve probably seen this compilation 50 times. It’s a long one, but worth every second if you draw inspiration from a darker side. Lynch in a genius.

I realize that I haven’t posted a wedding or portrait shoot at all this week. Things are winding down, and clearly so am I. But in the meantime between all the editing, premiers and 12 shoots a week, I manage to give myself plenty of music listening time. I fancy myself a bit of an “indie music whore”. Check out my latest “Procrastination” play list and stay tuned for my next blog post with some actual images (by me, of course)! Thanks for your patience! xoxo

1.)3 Rounds and a sound: Blind Pilot
1.)Various Stages: Great lake swimmers
3.)Blood Bank: Bon Iver
4.)Crystalized: The XX
5.)Dominos: The Big Pink
6.)Fresh Blood: The Eels
7.)Halfway House: TV on the Radio
8.)Burn the Flag:Choir of Young Believers
9.)Ashamed: Deer Tick
10.)Hooting and Howling: Wild Beasts
11.)Gentle Hour: Yo La Tengo
12.)Soft: Kings of Leon
13.)Fire: Augustana
14.)Early Spring Till: The Wheel
15.)Keep a Friend: Dr. Dog

I was so honored when my good friend and amazing photographer, Paige Elizabeth asked me to collaborate on this crazy project with her.  In all honesty, I did the shoot for Paige, and of course  for the sheer adventure of photographing her, surrounded by 20 dogs! The image is based loosely on two classic photos  (One of which was this shot of Jim Henson and the Muppets.)  The shoot this was a riot–completely hilarious and total mayhem.   Getting 20 dogs to sit still and “smile for the camera” was not easy task and I had no idea if we would actually make the finals, however I am excited to announce that this photo,  and Paige’s studio has been selected as a  finalist for the “We are Miller’s” contest.

The photo we entered is below. And here’s the link to the contest. (You can vote every day this week! And the voting closes Friday September 4th.) Please do take a look and vote. Thanks!

While I will be sad to see my old space go, I am proud and excited to announce that I will be moving my studio.  Jesse and I purchased our first commercial property—a storefront boutique a block down from our home in the old Weir building.  We share a lot with Anna be, Duo and Gallop.   Great synergy, we think!!   We will obviously be having a huge grand opening party, as well as hosting some other fantastic events, so stay tuned to the blog for future details.   For now, here are some photos of the bare bones of the space (and a few shots of my old space)—we plan on doing some pretty exciting renovations along with some new surprises.

On another note—this new space will require that I have a personal assistant.  I’m calling for applications and plan on spending the most of next week interviewing.  If any of you would be interested in taking on a personal assistant role, or know anybody that might be interested in working with me, shoot me an email to:  Julie@julieharrisphotography.com.

farewell 2226 W 29th….  I will miss you

Introducing the new Julie Harris Photography Boutique at 2405 W 32nd Ave….

Bob Dylan, Cat Stevens, My morning jacket, and maybe even Weezer …. These are just a few that I might compare Blitzen Trapper’s sound to.  But honestly I couldn’t make a “comparison” with this band—I simply stood back, snapped a few shots and enjoyed the diversity of the music.  And it was quite entertaining to see what kind of innovative instruments this sextet pulled out of their hats—toy flutes, seed pods, and yes, even a beer bottle!  It was a fantastic show and I was super excited to be able to see this band so “up close and personal”, thanks to a good friend who put me on the “list.”

Alela Diane opened for Blitzen Trapper and also kicked ass!  I’ll be checking out some more of her music, for sure! I loved that her Dad plays the guitar in the band, and that the bassist rocks a felt hat with a feather.  I also appreciated the “Gold Dust Woman”  cover that Erik Menteer and Brian Koch of Blitzen Trapper joined in on….

Eric Earley dropped his cow bell during the last song, so he improvised by blowing over a beer bottle.  Awesome!

p>So it took me two weeks to get back to this post, but that is because I’ve been working hard on the prize!  Actually as cliche as this sounds, everybody that participated in this little contest is a winner.  Do you honestly think that I take myself so seriously that I would pick the best love song cover?? (I wanted to sing a cover of Heart’s, “Alone” and to my dismay it was apparently covered on American Idol last week.  That tells you about how cool I am).

In all honesty though, I  wanted to learn something about some of my blog readers out there—music choice says a lot about personalities, don’t you think?  And of course the main reason for the contest is so I could have an excuse to make a new mix CD!

So to those of you who participated –thank you!!  And please get back to me with your mailing address so I can get you a copy of my fabulous  new cover project!

I know it doesn’t fit my branding, but I must confess that I’m a sucker for Valentine’s Day.  I don’t remember the last time I didn’t celebrate it.  Even when I was single I would make Valentine cookies or watch a really sappy love flick with my girlfriends.  No need for the singles to pout, right?

Tonight was no exception.   Although Jesse and I didn’t do anything grand, we did go to the Boulder Cafe for a romantic dinner.  Then  we ended up at the food court at Flatirons crossing for some subway sandwiches (no joke–we really did!  Jesse apparently wasn’t satisfied with the fondue, crab and oysters that we had at dinner).  On the way home from the mall I was smiling and happy, and thinking to myself how great it is to simply celebrate love.  It doesn’t have to be fine dinning and a couples massage on the 14th of February, or chocolate and roses.  The food court with my hubby was perfect, plus I got the chance to pick up the latest sweethearts CD at the mall’s Starbucks.  In case you haven’t caught on to this fantastic annual tradition, Starbucks puts out a love song  cover compilation every February.  2004′s was the best yet, but this year’s wasn’t bad.  Anyhow, it prompted me think…. If I were a rock star and could  cover just one love song—what would it be?  I thought about this the entire way back from Broomfield and came up with a few, but it boiled down to either  “Alone” by Heart or  “Blossom” by James Taylor.  It also made me think about how good I would be at putting one of these compilations together (I’m stellar at a good mix CD), which then led me to this brilliant idea:  A love song blog contest!

If you could pick just one love song to cover— one song that you could sing with all your heart and perform even better than the original—what would it be?   Whoever (in my humble opinion) picks the best love song that they would hypothetically cover, will receive a  love song cover compilation put together by yours truly.  The contest will end in one week.  Leave your entry in my blog comments and if you win I’ll contact you for your address!  Yippeeee—I love this holiday!  Good luck, love birds!

P.s.   Please participate—or I’ll feel really lame.

I’ve been doing a bit of blog stalking lately, and have noticed that there are certain “it” things to do in order to be a photographer who gets a lot of “blog love”. Apparently, it’s really hot to post images of yourself all over every other post. Or to simply create posts about oneself in general.

My blog traffic has seemed slow and my comments are tragic. So I thought I’d bite the dust and keep up with the industry standards.

If you leave a comment and inflate my ego, maybe I’ll lead a workshop! And by the way, I’m now selling Julie Harris Photography mouse pads, earmuffs, koozies, t-shirts and Christmas mugs with my face and/or logo on them, if you’re interested….

These aren’t actually my earmuffs but are a product from my friend’s nail salon, Tootsies. However, I did do all of their promotional photos. I’d link to my blog so you can see them in all their glory, but wouldn’t you rather look at me??

I so rock and roll! I might patent this “sign” as the official “Julie Harris Photography” gang sign.

But of course I wouldn’t support gang signery…. I am all about sharing the love and peace, yo! (and if you sign up for one of my upcoming seminars, I’ll also share my secrets).

The talented feet of Julie Harris Photography.

I’m currently working on a T.V. commercial where I will entice you to call to me….

I have to say that I don’t do all this alone…. there is the man behind the woman in this grand enterprise. Meet Jesse Chatham ( my husband) of photographik. photographik is the industry’s standard when it comes to “elite” wedding and portrait directories. It’s pretty much the coolest thing since, Vanilla Silk Soymilk.

J-Dawg is in the hizzy!

It’s not that we think we are cool—we just are. Everybody wants a piece of this!

Wow, shameless self-promotion is exhausting!

It was such an honor to get a call from Jan a few months ago asking me if I would do some maternity portraits of her and her husband Rob.  Jan used to assist me at weddings a few years ago, and I was moved that after two years, she would still choose me to photograph such an intimate and amazing time in her life. Jan and Rob are so sweet and were quite bashful in front of the camera—- I love the emotion and excitement that they were able to convey through the images.  I can’t wait to meet the little one—I wonder if he/she will have dimples like Jan!

This little lady may look familiar to you from an earlier shoot I did with Rebelle salon last August ( “Let them eat cake!”). Jill Mercer has become the face of both Rebelle by Tootsies as well as Tootsies nail shoppe—two great salons owned by Roxy and Castle Searcy. I can’t tell you how much I’ve loved working with these dollies on these campaigns—It’s been an honor and a riot! We went with an Audrey Hepburn theme for Tootsies, but of course had to throw in some “rock and roll” as well….

If you haven’t had a good pedicure in a while, drop on in to Tootsies salon on Old South Gaylord, or Tennyson St. You won’t be disappointed with the immaculately clean foot tubs and the impeccable service! (Ask for Kent if you’re at the Gaylord location).

I don’t know if I was ashamed or if my feelings were hurt when Caleb of Kings of Leon said tonight, “I don’t know if we would still be a band if it weren’t for this part of the world (this part being the UK). Americans will probably one day come around and most likely say, “yeah, I liked them all along”. It was mockery but it was true. Where is the American love for Kings of Leon? I swore I wouldn’t blog while I was here in Ireland, but I couldn’t contain my excitement after this rockin’ concert. Jesse surprised me with a trip to Ireland for 10 days (I know, life is rough) and then surprised me again while we were here with tickets to see Kings of Leon. What a man! He has gone above and beyond to give me the “down time” of my life!

We got to see the Kings of Leon at the O2; a music venue in Dublin that seriously just opened last Friday! Kings of Leon was the first band to officially play the venue…. and I have to brag just a bit more; Caleb (the lead singer) also said, that although this was the hardest touring season of their career, that this was their best performance yet! And I was there! The photograph isn’t the best, I know but it’s from an i-phone…

If you aren’t familiar with the Kings of Leon ,then shame on you! Check them out! My personal favorite song is “Holy Roller, Novocaine” or “Arizona”, or “Charmer”…. or, well—you get the point! I love the Kings of Leon!

Check out this video

So, my comment system hasn’t been working for a week but it is now fixed. Supposedly. I love it when people leave comments so if your comment hasn’t been going through, please try it again. If it doesn’t work, email me at julie at julieharrisphotography.com so I can get Jesse to do something about it. Also, we put in a spam catching filter so let me know if that gives you any trouble too.

I’m excited to say that a wedding I shot is featured on the wedding blog, Style Me Pretty! Check it out at : http://www.stylemepretty.com/2008/11/24/the-white-dress-by-the-shore-ii/

And, I wrote an article for photographik. It’s really long but worth the read (I hope!). It’s basically about how I lost my soul this summer by working WAY TOO MUCH and how my sabbatical in Paris has revived my spirit.

You can read it here: Stocking the Pond

Oh, Rainy Day!  It was beautiful none the less.     While I was devastated to arrive to Keystone to find snow on the ground, I couldn’t have been more pleased with how beautifully and smooth Julia and Matt’s wedding went—and I think they were as equally pleased to say the least!  Not only did Emily Campbell of Bella Design and Planningdo a fabulous job coordinating the day, but I don’t think Julia and Matt noticed the weather for a second.  I don’t even think they blinked about it….  they were walking down the aisle for one reason—to get married, and while they were so happy to be with their close friends and family, their romantic union was clearly the beauty and magic of the day.  I loved this authenticity, and I have to say that it speaks wonders for their future….

 As some of you may know, my husband, Jesse, is the founder of an awesome photographers’ directory called photographik. They just launched their first ever Wedding Photography GiveAway! The winner of the contest will win $1500 towards their wedding photogaphy package from the photographer of their choice (the photographer must be a member of photographik, of course!).

The theme of the contest is creative, fun, and/or romantic engagement stories. Only engaged couples who are getting married after December 15th, 2008 qualify for the contest. As Jesse’s wife, I, unfortunately, am not eligible to win. However, I’ve come up with my own little workaround. To any of my couples who are getting married in 2009, I will give you $750 off your wedding package if your entry finishes in the top 5.

For more information, click on the banner above or head out to this page.

And for all of my former brides and other clients, tell all your friends about this great contest! I can’t wait to read some of the stories. Blog it if you have a blog, etc. I think this is going to be a lot of fun!

Ciao,

Julie

I already knew Mike from doing some corporate photography for his company Stratavia but was super excited when he asked me to do his engagement photos….  What Mike didn’t realize, is that there would be much more involvement here with this shoot, than with the typical office photojournalism…. hee hee!  It was a good time though, and so great to meet Farrah, his stunning fiancee.  We started the shoot at the St Julian where we had a couple of cocktails (actually, beer for the ladies and Mike had a cocktail) and then went over to the Boulder creek to take in the beauty and heart of my old home town….  Check out the colors!  Wow!

….No, he is not my husband.  I was actually editing a wedding about 2 minutes ago and found this image.  I had to stop what I was doing and pay a little tribute to all those “uncle bobs” out there who have an undying  appreciation for photography.  I’m really not even being sarcastic.  I get a kick out of the small things in life!

What would we do if we could not find inspiration? What if one day we woke up and thought, “I am the best at everything I do. I have mastered my art. There is nobody better than me and I am amazing.” Sounds like arrogance at first, but after a second’s thought, just really tragic and sad. What if there were no muse? What if we stopped learning?? This is the topic on my mind tonight, after stalking a few blogs and needing two wiskeys to dull my jealousy to a point of being able to function….

And Here is my epiphany: I’d be stunted without inspiration. I don’t think I’d be able to make it to some weddings without looking at somebody like Sean Flanigan for a glimmer of hope that a cake shot can actually transcend wedding photography. So why do I wallow in my envy, instead of doing what I used to love to do—look at, and be inspired by, Art….   Because the day we have “arrived” and are the “best around”, is the day that we have died as an artist. We can no longer grow at that point. The world does not stop moving for artists who have become the best—there is always a better on the horizon.
So I thought I’d share with you a few people who are spicing it up, blowing my mind and who I’m losing sleep over—

Check out:

Nadav Kander: http://www.nadavkander.com

Cass Bird: http://www.cassbird.com/

Amy Stein: http://www.amysteinphoto.com

Generally, I am working my tail off on Sundays…. which may precisely be the reason why I long for a good ole’ fashioned sabbath. It seems every time I have to work on a Sunday, I start whining to Jesse about how lucky he is, and how, if I had the day off, I’d be doing….. blah dee blah, etc, etc…. So today, I sat down for a minute or 10, and tried to think about what I really would do if I had the Sunday off. Of course it really depends on what time of year it is, so I’ll keep it to a summer Sunday. (This may be my most boring post ever, but humor me, I’m dreaming)!

If I had a summer Sunday off, I would sleep in until 11am. (Jesse sleeps in until 12 or 1, so I’d have the morning to myself). I’d make a strong, steaming pot of french press coffee when I’d wake up and sit out by my fountain to enjoy the morning caffeine. I’d then read for about an hour( depending on the heat, I’d do it in my hammock, but since it’s been 90+degrees in Denver lately, I’d sit in the shade). Right now I’m reading “The fool’s Progress” by Edward Abby which is very good.

After that, I would head to duo or the Berkshire for bottomless mimosas. I’d get a little buzzed, come home and take a nap, and then a shower where I would exfoliate with my favorite Aveda Caribbean salt scrub, shave my legs, do an extra conditioning treatment on my hair and then sit around in my robe for awhile. To avoid getting lured in my computer, I would then take the dogs for a walk to the farmers market where I would buy a bunch of fresh veggies and herbs for cooking an amazing dinner. I’d of course pick up a bottle of wine, since we can now purchase alcohol on Sundays—probably a Portuguese red. After dinner, I’d sit out by the fountain again with Jesse and talk politics, religion and traveling (I’m still trying to get Jesse across the Atlantic). Then, when we’d have nothing more to argue about, we’d retire to veg in front of the tube. I’d either watch a series on HBO, or a good David Lynch movie. I’d take a bath (because you really can’t get enough water therapy these days), and go to bed in 500 thread count linen sheets—preferably just laundered and white.

However, I did work today, so I’ll have to do this another Sunday. Until then, enjoy the shots!

I’m officially done with this old blog—and have a new too cool for school, custom blog by Treble Red Media.  LInk here and contine down this path with me…. https://www.julieharrisphotography.com/blog

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It’s only appropriate for me to kick off my new blog in this manner…. in a way where I feel like I’m completely exposed and vulnerable–showing not necessarily my most beautiful work, but the work that I’m most connected to right now.
It’s been an interesting journey for me—both as an artist, and as what I’d like to call a “new adult”. I can’t complain about my childhood at all. It was quite perfect, actually–at least when you compare it to a lot of other upbringings. What I’ve come to realize in the last year in particular, however is that I never appreciated growing up with what I had. I was blessed with parents who never showed me anything but love and support and as a married adult of 30, I’ve started to look at my parents and siblings in completley different light (I’m the oldest of 4). I’m starting to see my parents and siblings as comrades and people that I’m connected to on a deeper level. Those whom I share a history with. It’s been a year of discovery, appreciation and a year of longing to know more about these people in my life. I’m interested in their struggles, their dreams and their hearts. It’s beautiful and heartbreaking all at once.
Last week I made the decision to cancel all my shoots and go out to my family’s farm in Eastern Colorado for Harvest. It’s been close to 15 years since all of us were together— and 15 years since I was there. We grow wheat and some millet, and that’s about all I know. I’ve been a “city slicker” my whole life, but some of my very best and sweetest memories are of arrowhead hunting with my dad and walking the land out by our farm or waking up to the smell of my Grandma’s bacon and coffee early in the mornings. It’s like a dream, actually, and I’m nostalgic for these days.
So that’s what I wanted to capture in these images— a sense of loss, appreciation, nostalgia, love and of course an undying desire to know my family and our history.
These two images are of our quonset. The image above is of my brother, Robbie who is reading the instructions on how to put together a pressure washer—the one below is of the beautiful chaos of many unfinished projects that the quonset hosts. When I showed this image to my grandma, Nonie, she said that Papa, my grandpa would roll over in his grave. That made me smile. He should see my car!

This is my youngest brother Mark. He just turned 21 on June 20th–He’s a riot and has the best dry sense of humor.

And this is my other brother, Robbie. He is 25 and is my kindred spirit—always looking for adventure and a good time.

We employ a harvesting crew to come out to harvest our wheat every summer. We’ve been using Frederick Harvesting crew for the last 20 years. This is a photo of Zane, one of the boss’s sons giving me a ride in the combine.

These are a couple other guys from the crew—One of them came all the way from ireland to work.

Instead of getting a new car when I was 16, my parents gave me my uncles old car from the 70′s. I drove a 1970 yellow ford maverick for most of my formative years. I loved this car. Loved it! It’s retired now out at our farm, but I’ve always wanted to take it home and restore it… maybe next year.

This is my family (minus my dad). In order from left to right: Mark, Amy, my mom, and my brother Robbie.

This is maybe my favorite image from this series. I did not tell my dad to pose like this—-this shot is pure “John Harris”. I’m blowing it up for my studio. I love it!