INSTRUMENTALIST STYLE

All day I've been thinking about how I would photograph a subject with a violin. Ya, I'm THAT nerdy. Anyway, being that I love taking portraits of people with their instruments, the first 2 people to call and make an appointment, get a free, no hassle creative session with their instrument. I'll even throw in a free 8x10 in our new METALLIC finish of your favorite image.

CALL ME! (702)646-4441

Las Vegas Children's Photography

We love specializing in children's photography! It is great to be able to capture those funny and spontaneous moments that every child experiences. We can photograph your children here, at our studio, or anywhere else you would like. ( At your home, a park, etc). This month's special is focusing on children's photography. We will do an in studio or on location session with your children at no charge (a $65-150 value!), as well as give you 25% off of any portraits that you would like to purchase. Place your order before the deadline (August 30th) to take advantage of this offer, and capture your special memories.

Oh, here are some portraits of Dustin's 3 awesome kids. Enjoy!

On location.

I recently photographed a couple in their home. Not only was the portrait going to be displayed in their beautiful home but it is also going to be used for a sculpture being made. WOW! I can't wait to see it.

***CALL US [(702)646-4441] AND MENTION THIS BLOG BEFORE AUGUST 5, AND I'LL PHOTOGRAPH YOU/YOUR FAMILY ON LOCATION FOR FREE. I'LL EVEN OFFER YOU 20% OFF OUR NORMAL PRINT PRICES.***

Wrastler

So I photographed this terrible wrestler yesterday. He has somethin like a 20-0 record. Really terrible at wrestling, he should give it up for something he's good at.:)

Anyway, he also likes motocross so we took some pretty cool portraits of him in his gear. Enjoy!

kong

You know how car lots have those big inflatable gorillas on their roofs to attract business? I wanted to know how it would look at our studio so I put this together...somehow I don't think it works for us. :)

Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS)

Well, for several months now we've been involved with an organization called Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS). Let me give you a quick background of the organization. It was founded by a woman named Cheryl Haggard whose child passed away right after his birth. Cheryl wanted to have portraits of her baby that would go with the portraits of her other children. She didn't want pictures of the baby with tubes and life support getting in the way. She wanted something that could be cherished, a real portrait. She called a photographer in her area who'd never done a job like this before. The photographer accepted the job and made beautiful portraits of the baby (who had just passed away).

After this experience, Cheryl teamed up with her photographer and started what is now known as NILMDTS. The organization provides support and training for photographers and the parents of children who pass away quickly after birth. As a NILMDTS photographer we have the privilege of providing portraits for families that have this need free of charge.

Check out the NILMDTS website here

Cheryl, her family, and her friends were moved to tears by the portraits of her son. I've heard her say that the portrait helps her other children remember him as their brother, not just a baby that they never met.

I was recently invited by KNPR Radio to do an interview with Cheryl and another local photographer that provides this service. You can listen to the interview below.

We're grateful for the opportunity to serve the community in whatever ways that we can. Having a death in the family is never an easy experience and we like to help where we can.

We're looking for organizations in Las Vegas that have a need for any type of Photography. We'd like to offer the services free of charge. If there isn't an organization for the cause that you're thinking of and you'd like to partner up on it just let us know.

With Your Image In Mind,

Dustin Olenslager
Photography By Van
(702) 646-4441
www.PhotographyByVan.com

the runnin soccer lovin' tennis player

This is a senior I photographed this morning. I couldn't ask for a more easy going session. Before I knew it, we were all done and my day was half over. The time flew by extremely fast.
Anyway, here are two of my favorites from the session.

3 seniors

I had a lot of fun photographing with these three. Here are a few that we all liked.

Ruff! Ruff! Ru--oops...meow meow meow....

Loop the following video while reading this post for ultimate affect.


So the other day, I walk out to our outdoor photo area to prepare for an upcoming family session. I heard some rustling in the bushes so I looked a little closer near the wall and there I see a cat and her 4 kittens. They ended up being a great conversation piece for the little kids in the family.

Nate's are everywhere

What's up, PBV lovers! I've been photographing tons of people lately and enjoying all my sessions. Last night I took some photos of Nate for his senior portraits. Have you ever noticed it always feels weird when you talk to someone and they have your same name? Whenever you say their name it feels like you're talking to yourself. Nate and I share the same name and as perfect of a name as it may be, I felt like this. My solution was to call him other things like, "sir" or "my friend." ie: "Turn your face this way, my friend."
Enough blabbin'. Here are some photos.

updates

Just a few quick photos to share from the last few days. Enjoy.

yours truly

We look good, eh? That's Libby (I call her Lib though 'cause 2 syllables are a lot of work to say...) on the left. She's the office manager and the one who keeps us all in line and greets you on the phone nine times out of ten. That's Dustin on the right. He used to be the photographer here for 2 years but then bought the business from Van. To get to either of these two you have to survive a brutal beating by that guy in the middle. No joke, he will crush you. hahaha I kid I kid. So ya, that's me in the middle. I'm the photographer.

By the way, I'll be updating the blog with some new stuff this weekend. I've got some new seniors, families and some cute lil youngins to show off to you guys. In the mean time, check out our new family slideshow on YouTube.



-Nate

neva had a job

Saturday was so fun. In fact, all my sessions lately have all been really fun. Maybe it's the time of year or my irresistible charm...ya, that's it. Anyway, I photographed Katie on Saturday afternoon. I don't think she, her mom and I went more than 3 minutes without laughing at something. I love sessions like this.

Katie has had 2 older sisters within the past 2 or 3 years who also had their portraits taken here so I opened up my archive and had a look at what poses and locations they had done. Her sisters' photos were unique to the girls themselves. I did not want replicate anything that had already been done with Katie's sisters. I had a lot of fun...probably to an unhealthy degree but when all was said and done, we took some beautiful portraits.

Watch the whole thing.

Watch this lil slideshow I put together of some of our senior portraits. Enjoy the show.


-Nate

Las Vegas Senior Photography Video

Check out our brand-new senior video at any of the links below:

YouTube, MySpace, Metacafe, Google, Revver, DailyMotion, Blip.tv, Crackle and Stupid Videos

More senior images at - www.PhotographyByVan.com

FIRST 3 GET A FREE FAMILY SESSION

Just for fun, the first 3 people to leave a comment on this blog entry get a FREE family session (normally $65) either here at the studio or at their home (normally a $150 an hour charge). All you gotta do is leave a comment to this blog entry and call us at (702)646-4441.

I'm looking forward to photographing your family. :)

Witty Bunch

Before I go home today, I gotta show off this family from this morning. I wanted to do something a little more casual for this great family outdoors. So, I found a nice spot where the lighting was nice and came up with this. I hope to make a 20x24 of this in the next month or so to hang up on the wall here in the studio. Our project of updating the display gallery here is slowly but surely underway.

Other than wallets?

For anyone that reads this, feel free to add a comment to tell me what you think.

Wallets are the usual choice of print to put inside of graduation announcements. They're small and don't cost much. Some even like to personalize them by putting their name and graduation year on each print. This senior season we're adding an alternative to the traditional wallet. Check it out:

They will come in the same quantities as wallets--sets of 8, 16, 32, etc. etc. and their very affordable as well. Each will be 3.5" x 5" so they'll easily fit in graduation envelopes with no problem. We figured it might be fun to cater to those who were looking for something a little outside the norm of just sending wallets.

Tell me what you think of this idea. Do you like it? Do you want to just stick to the old fashioned wallets? What other alternatives to wallets would you like to see? We were thinking of also offering mini-DVD slideshows to enclose inside of your announcements as a new way of letting everyone know of your graduation in the near future.

Leave a comment. Don't be shy. I'm getting sick of talking to myself. :)

NEW PROMO IS IN THE MAIL!

Heads up, everybody! We're mailing out a new promo for senior portraits. This letter has some amazing deals offered. I can't remember us ever giving a better offer. No joke. Here's what it's going to say:

For seniors who place an order for any senior package by March 29, 2008:

• 75% off studio session charges. (Saving anwhere from $11.25-$67.50-depending on length of session)
• FREE location senior session at the place of your choosing (in addition to the regular session) $150 value
• FREE $20 Gift certificate to your favorite retailer or restaurant
• FREE desk portrait $90 value
• FREE set of 24 wallets ($65 value)
• 5 new digitized portraits to update your MySpace or FaceBook page ($125 value)
• Graduation DVD slideshow (online viewable as well) with 1 song of your choice. ($150 value).

That's at least $650 worth of bonuses.

That's a sweet deal. There's more info in the letter. I really hope you all capitalize on it, especially for the location session. That alone is worth it. Seniors HATE their photos to look like everyone else's. That's a BIG reason why they come to us. It's more fun for the subject AND for me. So for your sake and mine, let's go down to Lake Las Vegas or somethin!' :)

Having a location session is a surefire way to ensure that their portraits are even more unique than everyone else who just stands by those big blocks that say "SENIOR" or "2008" on 'em...hey, when I graduated in 2002, I had to do that and I was thinking, "Oh man. I'm gonna look so stupid." Definitely wasn't my thing. So think of a fun place and we'll go there. It'll be fun.

-Nate

Wow, two posts in one day everybody! I enjoyed photographing Robert for an hour today. He was willing to try out some new ideas I threw at him and let me feed my need to try out some new things. I had a fun time.

The Guard

It was a very busy day this past Saturday. Aaron was a cool cat, real easy going and easy to photograph. He and his dad were excited to replicate a portrait of Michael Jordan of him with his arms spread like wings while holding one basketball. It's in the rough draft version at the moment but I'll be sure to post the final version later this week or next. For now, these are a few I liked from the session. Enjoy!

Hallways

Across the street from the studio is a Wells Fargo, a Church's Chicken, a Starbucks and a daycare center. The building has a great little hallway where all the shops are located. I usually like to take seniors here at the beginning or end of a session. Sure, we have a outdoor area that works great for greenery but incorporating (ooh! big word from Nate!) architecture into a portrait is always fun.
My favorite locations for seniors are the really ugly kind. Old scaffolds and pipes, rotting wood, etc. etc. is what I like. It's different and the ugly location makes the subject look even better!
This post is dedicated to the hallway across the street. See you for my next session, old buddy.

Falllng for you...and you and you and you...

I laughed my head off watching this. The slow-mo had me dying!


Don't be mad. I have the right to laugh at this because I've fallen in public quite a bit too. I once fell backwards in the middle of church when it was reaaaaaally quiet. My right leg shot up straight in the air. I bet it looked hilarious.
I once tried to hop over a chain that separates the regular parking from valet. Didn't put enough power into my hop and my foot caught under the chain and I went flailing forward onto the oily ground at lightning speed. Again, I bet it looked hilarious...

Oh ya! Photography! Umm...what can I share? What can I share? Hmmm...well...I can't think of any photo I've take to top that video right now. I should have posted the portrait first. What was I thinking?

-Nate

Instruments...

I really enjoy taking portraits with instruments. Maybe it's because I admire musical ability, having none myself...well, I whistle a lot but that doesn't count does it? When someone calls to make an appointment and they mention they will bring their instrument, I get pretty excited. It could be a harmonica and I'd still say, "This will be fun."

I would like to do a portrait of someone with their instrument in an outdoor setting. Maybe a harp in a grassy field or a cello at Caesar's Palace or even just on a sidewalk on the strip with light trails from the traffic and blurred people walking by. Oh! A sax player in a tunnel! Hmm...what else can we think of.......whoops! Gotta go! The phone is ringing! Please have an instrument, please have an instrument, please have an instrument, please have a...................................