July 28th, 2011
One of my favorite things to do with photographs is to make things with them and see them in PRINT! I used to be a full time designer and art director, and I still love to design. So I am always stoked when I get to design something with the photographs we make for people. All too often in this digital age, photos never see the site of a good paper or product, and it makes me cry. Digital images are awesome for sharing on Facebook and for an archive of work… but nothing is better than something printed.
Darcie and Matt are getting married this year and I helped them out with their Save the Date cards and their guestbook. One of wedding details is the compass rose, so I used that in details in the save the date and guestbook. It was a lot of fun to work on these two items, because I could incorporate the same items from both pieces and start to create a brand to their day… the image became their main graphic, I could pull typography and style through, and I could use some quality materials to make some great products for them.
The save the dates were made on high-quality New Leaf matte cover stock, 50% recycled fiber and bleached without the use of chlorine compounds. To keep the same feel and make for easy signing the guestbook was made on matte paper as well. The guestbook design is pretty simple, lots of space for people to sign. A dust jacket was made with the main graphic with 40 pages inside. The book is 8×10 landscape, printed on uncoated archival-quality 100# Mohawk Fine Paper (Mohawk Superfine Eggshell Ultrawhite). For the cover we did an Oatmeal Linen which is made of 100% renewable cotton and linen fibers and backed with tissue for increased durability, paired with White End Sheets. We did the dust cover, just for the added flexibility to remove it and just have the linen hardcover book.
Take a look:
If you need some help making some products for your wedding, let me know!
No Comments | In: Products | tags: guestbook, Milwaukee, milwaukee wisconsin, Photographers, Photography, products, save the date, Valo, Valo Photography, WI, Wisconsin. | #
July 27th, 2011
I have known Dana for quite a while, and always seem to run into him at Milwaukee tech meetings and social events. He runs a tech company called dfco, and they find their passion in new media and web technologies. It was an honor when he asked Simon and I to make some photographs of him and his business partner Lance, while he was in town. Dana is also a huge cycling fan (so am I) so I was pretty stoked when we showed up and found out he and Lance had rode their bikes to the shoot and wanted to use them in some of the shots. Anyways, check out some favorites from the set Simon and I made for dfco.
1 Comment | In: Commercial, Personal Branding | tags: branding, co, colorado, environmental, lifestyle, Milwaukee, milwaukee wisconsin, Photographers, Photography, portraits, Valo, Valo Photography, WI, Wisconsin. | #
July 9th, 2011
I had the chance to meet with a future wedding client a couple weeks ago at their future wedding venue… which just happens to be a boat. Really excited for this wedding, as I have never photographed a wedding on a boat before. New things are always exciting. The fog was amazing, the air was calm, the feeling in the air was refreshing and pure… and of course I couldn’t not make some photographs…
No Comments | In: Personal Work | tags: cool, film, Fine Art, fog, meeting, Milwaukee, Photographers, Wedding. | #
March 29th, 2011
A follow up to these posts about our recent work with 2 Cents MKE:
2 CENTS MKE – MILWAUKEE FASHION STORY
and
“PASSING” A SHORT FILM DONE FOR 2 CENTS MKE
I finally got my hands on a physical copy of the new issue, so I thought I would snap a few photos of it. You can pick yours up at a ton of local spots. I got mine at Beans and Barley. I know they are also located at Comet Cafe, Ians Pizza, Stonefly, Project M, Art Bar, and Alterra on Humbolt – just to name a few…
No Comments | In: Commercial, Fashion | tags: @jakedavidrohde, Jake, Jake Rohde, Milwaukee, milwaukee fashion photography, milwaukee wisconsin, Photographers, Photography, Rohde, Valo, Valo Photography, Waukesha, WI, Wisconsin. | #
March 25th, 2011
Two Cents is a new visual resource guide for Milwaukee, by Milwaukee. Simon and I had the pleasure of working with Publisher, Editor In Chief, and art director, Katie Donoghue, of Two Cents for their latest issue. Every issue contains an 8 page photo spread that deals with the overall issue topic. Issue #5, the issue we were working on, was all about Riverwest. So we got together with Ms Katie and brainstormed about what we wanted to do. After a lot of thoughts we decided to do a two person story, which ended up being called “Passing”. We came up with a loose story, and Katie went to work on organizing… and man, she is good. So with the fantastic team that Katie put together, with the great Riverwest locations we had to work with, we made the story come to life in photographs and video.
A quick synopsis of the team:
For – 2 Cents MKE
Photography and Video: Valo Photography – Jake Rohde & Simon McConico
Art Director: Katie Donoghue
Fashion Stylist: Bree Rose | Project M Boutique
Makeup Artist: Kristin Lindemann
Hair Stylist: Maggie Connolly
Models: Svetlana Stoycheva & David Taniguchi
Again, I can’t say how great this team was. Everyone was awesome.
So take a look at the issue… some of my photographs from the issue… and go out and get an issue, because there is nothing like the real thing. Oh and also watch the short fashion movie for “Passing” if you haven’t already…
1 Comment | In: Commercial, Fashion | tags: @jakedavidrohde, Jake, Jake Rohde, Milwaukee, milwaukee fashion photography, milwaukee wisconsin, Photographers, Photography, Rohde, Valo, Valo Photography, Waukesha, WI, Wisconsin. | #
September 29th, 2010
Aliza and Matthew are a great couple from Los Angeles, California, who were getting married here in Milwaukee. A Hollywood wedding in Wisconsin so to speak, and Simon and I were lucky enough to spend the day with them, making photographs. I put together a slideshow of images from there wedding, which they could use at a party they were throwing in Los Angeles. Since a lot of the people at the party were not at the wedding, I wanted to make sure there were a ton of photographs in the slideshow, so that people who were not there could get a real good taste of the day. So I warn you, the slideshow below has a lot of photographs in it…
If you can’t see the slideshow for some reason, check it out here: http://vimeo.com/15380299
Now there are a couple reasons why I wanted to share this slideshow here on the blog.
- I wanted to show you what more of a wedding looked like. This is not all the images from the wedding, but beyond the ones we share here on the blogs usually. I thought, since hopefully there are brides to be looking at this blog, that you might want to see a little more of one wedding.
- I needed to get them a DVD slideshow before their party… So, since time was an issue with this project I did not have the bandwidth to fully retouch every photo in the slideshow. In fact, non of the images are fully retouched. All the images in the slideshow are proof images. Why would I want to call this out? We always want our clients to know that their proof DVD are proofs, and not fully retouched photographs. However, not everyone understands the difference between a proof and a fully retouched photo. As you can see from the slideshow, our proofs are all great images, ones that are perfectly usable, printable, and shareable.
- If all the proofs are good images, then why would I want retouched images? That answer is pretty easy. Our fully edited and retouched images are just that much better. We dive into each photograph, mask out areas, touch up skin, get rid of misc items that might be distracting… Basically we take a good image and make it great. This is important especially if you are ordering large prints. In a large print, you start to see things that you may not have seen in a 4×6 or online. And since a large print is usually hung in a prominent place, you want it to be as perfect as it can be.
- The last reason I wanted to share this slideshow with you, is because I love sharing the work we do at Valo. This slideshow is a mix of both Simon’s work and my own.
I would love to hear your thoughts on the wedding, the proofs, or anything else.
On another note: Plain New York Style Cheesecake is amazing. Probably my favorite food item in the world.
2 Comments | In: Wedding Photography | tags: Hinterland, Hollywood, LA, Los Angeles, Milwaukee, Photographers, Photography, Valo, Villa Terrace, Wedding, WI, Wisconsin. | #