Christina Gressianu Photographer

Portrait Photography Studio in Loveland, Colorado

Personal Branding Experience with Dawn Todd

Confession: Photographing Dawn always makes me nervous. And it’s because she was one of my first clients, my first cheerleader, supporter… I’ve been photographing her for the last 8 years, and in the back of my mind, I think “what if she doesn’t like her photos this time?” And that even happened once. And the sky didn’t fall. She didn’t hate me after that. Life (and business) went on. And she even came back to try it again.

Great relationships are like that. Great business people are like that. Honest, straight-forward and persistent.

And I am so grateful for Dawn. Her encouragement. Her energy. Dawn has an amazing courage – to try things in her business, and to get up and try something new if it doesn’t work. Not to mention that she’s smart enough to keep doing the things that do work! Nothing gets in the way of this woman’s success. She is a raving beauty inside and out. Wouldn’t you agree?photographers-fort-collins dawn-todd-personal-branding fort-collins-headshotsheadshots-fort-collins

 

Sunny Photography on a Rainy Day – Editorial Photography for Outfront Magazine

Out Front Magazine Cover Photography

Last month I got to photograph the cover for Out Front’s Pride & Summer Guide. I love working with Out Front magazine, and this shoot was no different there. The only challenge was that the creative direction I got was “Retro Summery Poolside” and it rained for the entire month of May. There was no rescheduling the shoot, because with magazines there are deadlines that can’t be changed… and so, I had to figure out how to make a cloudy day look sunny.

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The models were great sports… braving the chill and dodging rain drops here and there. At least the pool was heated! And my lighting was under an umbrella. Hair and makeup took some time, so I had about 45 minutes to light and shoot. Fun time in photography all around! See the rest of the photos below.

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Featured Client: Thompson School District… and what’s up with School Funding

A couple months ago, Loveland’s Thompson School District commissioned photographs to hang in their boardroom. You know, the room where the School Board sits once a month and makes decisions regarding how our kids spend 35 hours a week. Seems like a great idea to have photos of their students around, to keep it real.

Going to the various schools and programs with Mike, the Public Information Officer, was an education in Education for me.  I didn’t know our school district has an early learning school… like a public Pre-K. We didn’t have that when I was a kid… my mom had to wheel and deal arrangements for me until I was in first grade.

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I also learned about the various funding challenges that the schools face. Everyone has an opinion on how schools should spend their money, but the reality is that sometimes carpeting actually does need to be replaced and teachers are largely underpaid. Which made me wonder why big companies don’t sponsor teachers the way the do race car drivers. Why doesn’t Home Depot sponsor really great shop teachers? Why don’t Franklin Covey and Brooks Brothers sponsor great principals? Ooh and Simon & Schuster could sponsor Literature/  Writing / English great teachers. Then, teachers would get paid for being really great and these companies would be making more of a difference than paying a guy to drive around in circles faster than he should, while everyone is really just waiting for him to crash.

So I was thinking about all that when Mike brought me to the junior high Mesa Foam Fighters class. mesa-foam-fighters
Now this blew my mind. It’s a class where these kids building remote-controlled (rc) planes out of foam core board. So it’s cool that they learn the physics and such of making the thing fly, and the electronics of making the remote work, etc. But, it gets better. They also make kits for building rc planes THAT THEY SELL ONLINE!! And the kids get to earn money fulfilling those orders. AND wait, it gets even better. Because the kids make video tutorials and such for RC plane fans and folks buying their kits. On top of a normal shop with shop tools, they have banks of computers, a couple of 3-D printers, laser cutters, video cameras, etc. Fancy equipment… and this program is sponsored by 10 or companies like Hobby Town USA and Otterbox. It’s freaking brilliant!!! These kids are learning so many things integrated together and applied!! It’s how schools should be all over, every where, every single class!! 

I don’t know how that teacher, Mr. Jake Marshall, got that ball rolling, but every single teacher should go ask him and do it for their own students and schools. It is truly the most inspiring story around education I’ve heard in a very long time.

On Caring and Commitment

In just the last week or so I have experienced a handful of things have me thinking about caring and commitment. What does it take for you to care about something? And why is commitment so unattractive to so many of us?

The latest event I experienced was learning of someone’s incredible hardship. Matt and Katie are an adorable couple, husband and wife photographers and people seriously committed to a cause. I met them once, two years ago, at a photographers’ conference and what I remember about them is how truly committed they were. And since then their lives have been turned upside down… well, that’s understatement. When I read about what they’re going through, my heart went out to them… all the way around to Australia. I cared, and not only with my heart, but with my wallet too. And watching the dollar figure go up, I’m grateful that so many other people care too.

Another thing that happened this week was a monumental argument in our house about plastic straws. Not a typo… plastic straws. Because it seems a little bit insane to drill oil out of the ground, ship it to China, make plastic straws, and ship them to the US so that I can use it for seven minutes and throw it away. Insane… and pretty disgusting. For the most part, I don’t use straws. But my stepdaughter puts a straw in her glass every time she makes a smoothie. So I bought these nifty 2-part, dish-washable silicon straws. And the argument presented to me was  “what’s the big deal?” I didn’t know exactly, other than over-archingly plastic is a gigantic pollution problem. So I Googled, and discovered that in the US, we use and throw away 500 million plastic straws Every Single Day. That’s half a billion… every. Day. So if there’s a giant problem, but you don’t experience it in your daily life, what does it take for you to care about it? If we throw away 500 million plastic straws, but you only see the 1 or 2 you throw away, what does it take for you to give those 2 straws up?

I also had the privilege of creating staff head shots of the incredible team at Realities for Children. My favorite thing about RFC is that they are helping, saving, serving children right here in my town / county / state. Look around Fort Collins, and you think things are pretty honky dory. But in 2012, there were nearly 5,700 reports of child abuse or neglect in Larimer County. Not so honky dory after all. What makes you care about the abuse you don’t see? About children you don’t even know exist?

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And that brings me around to commitment. Because Craig and Molly, who started Realities for Children 25 years ago are the living portraits of commitment. And I go back to the problem of two straws, and I think about getting married in a few weeks… so I’m thinking about why commitment is so unpopular. See the problem, I think, is that so many of us think of commitment as a binary, as black or white. Either I’m on a diet, or I’m not. Either I’m being eco-friendly, or I’m not. I’m either vegan, or I’m not.  Every one knows some one who was vegan or vegetarian, and then “had to have a hamburger” and then was no longer vegan or vegetarian. And I ask why? Having been all these things and none of them, I see commitment as a “practice.” I mostly eat foods that are grown in the dirt, and then when I just have to have cheesecake, I have cheesecake. And then I re-commit to my health, and all those sweet cows I’ll never meet, and my waistline. And that’s that. I got water at a restaurant a couple days ago and the waiter brought it with a straw it in. What the heck did he do that for? I didn’t ask for a straw…

And when I think about the people at RFC, I get that commitment gets heavy. They can’t save every child who needs saving. That’s depressing. Disheartening. So when my commitments to saving animals and helping kids and cutting down on plastic and fitting into my jeans and leaving the world in a better place than I found it… when those get heavy I put them down. I have ice cream or suck on a green Starbucks straw or buy that dopey fun thing at Target. But the next day I pick those commitments back up and re-commit. I get better at doing good. What can you find to care about? And can you care enough about the problems you can’t see to commit to making a difference?

 

Editorial Photography for Out Front Magazine

Over the last few months I’ve been developing a relationship with the staff at Out Front magazine in Denver. Since other people’s sexuality and gender expression is such a non-issue for me, it didn’t dawn on my that it was an issue for others until I photographed Ariel and Collin’s wedding in May. Ever my cheerleader, Ariel struck up a conversation with Out Front connecting us. And so there have meetings, ideas, conversations… laughs, coffee… you know how things roll.

Last week I had the pleasure of photographing the extraordinary people Out Front will be honoring at Saturday’s Power Party. See them below, get a glimpse of their stories and attend the party to meet them in person! Get your tickets here: http://outfrontonline.com/power/

One Colorado
Mark Ferrandino
John J. Kelley
Ginger Douglas
DeMarcio Slaughter
Debra A. Johnson
Courtney Gray
Anthony Aragon
Angel Bradley