Photography at the Tucson Best Bead Show, Spring 2011

Here are some fairly unedited preview images of jewelry I photographed at the Tucson Best Bead Show.
Martha Brown and husband Steve drove down to the Tucson show all the way from Illinois. Like many of the show's attendees, they were expecting to have escaped the frigid weather of their home state, and were a bit surprised when arriving in Arizona! They brought several of their beautiful PMC and bronze clay pieces to be photographed, two of which are below.

My mom, Kristen Frantzen Orr, has been exhibiting with the Best Bead Show since the beginning. She and I used to go down to the Tucson show together when I was just a kid in grade school, hunting for the next amazing find for my mineral collection. She helped get me into jewelry photography, and I've had lots of practice over the years photographing her incredible floral lampwork beads! Here are a couple of her designs for sale at the current show.

Suzanna DiMarco Jewelry Fashion Portraits

Here are some recent jewelry fashion portraits we photographed to highlight Suzanna DiMarco's amazing jewelry designs. We created these images in our home studio over the course of three hours. Special thanks to the gracious models!

Thank you for visiting us at the Bridal Fashion Debut show

Thanks to everyone who stopped by our booth this past weekend at the Bridal Fashion Debut show in the Phoenix Convention Center. It was great meeting all of you and hearing your plans! We are looking forward to a year filled with many beautiful weddings!

Toddler Portraits in Our Home Studio

Our good friend Megan brought over her now 19-month-old daughter for some portraits in our home studio. Megan gave the photos as a surprise Christmas gift to daddy Erik.

It's great to see how this little one has grown over the past year and a half!

Thanksgiving-Christmas in St. Johns, AZ

Having families in different states prompts Amanda and I to get creative with how we celebrate the holidays. This past Thanksgiving we also celebrated Christmas in St. Johns, at Amanda's parents'.

Our first night there brought an early dusting of snow, which added to the Christmas feel of things! This is Amanda's grandfather's house.

Some grass in the front yard with a frosting of snow.

Pyracantha berries and snow.

Rocher enjoying a good run over the cold snow. She's never seen this stuff in Phoenix!

Rocher and her buddy Sailor romping around.

Rocher sitting unusually still.

A Christmas tree topper to end all Christmas tree toppers.

One of these things is just like the other.

The world's largest Christmas stockings, courtesy of Monica.

This year Amanda's mom Nellie introduced us to a new Christmas tradition, wreath making. The girls were incredibly talented and came up with some award-worthy designs. I, on the other hand, will probably just stick to photographing the completed wreaths! :) (Guess which one's mine.)

Amanda, Monica, and Nellie, and their finished creations.



Contemporary Silver and 18K Gold Jewelry by Suzanna DiMarco

It's been almost exactly a year since I first met Suzanna and discovered her beautiful jewelry designs. This year she brought several new silver and 18K gold pieces for me to photograph. Her ring designs are especially cool as they consist of three interlocking pieces that combine to form a unique whole. You can browse more of Suzanna's work on her website.

All designs are copyright ©2010, Suzanna DiMarco.

Petroglyph Glass Bracelets by Kevin O'Grady

I recently photographed these new petroglyph bracelets by glass artist Kevin O'Grady. Each bracelet features cutaway windows that reveal intricate petroglyph designs inside the bracelet. I also had the opportunity to photograph one of Kevin's vortex marbles. The image you see here is a composite of 5 separate images, which were necessary to capture the depth of the marble and to minimize the reflections of the studio lights.You can see more of Kevin's work on his website.




All designs are Copyright ©2010, Kevin O'Grady.