{"id":9753,"date":"2013-12-26T00:47:13","date_gmt":"2013-12-26T08:47:13","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=9753"},"modified":"2024-01-20T11:12:54","modified_gmt":"2024-01-20T19:12:54","slug":"the-john-remus-photography-2013-christmas-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/the-john-remus-photography-2013-christmas-card\/","title":{"rendered":"The John Remus Photography 2013 Christmas Card"},"content":{"rendered":"<p>Cookies and Milk.<\/p>\n<p>This was definitely the most difficult Christmas card I&#8217;ve shot in the last four years.<br \/>\nMilk splash is something I&#8217;ve been wanting to do for over two years since I first saw the guys at Aurum Light Studios in the UK posting their splash photography work with models online and it making the rounds in the photo community. I&#8217;ve owned all the same lighting equipment for several years. And, honestly, it&#8217;s something I thought would not be very difficult with a bit of practice.<\/p>\n<p>Finding models. That was the tricky part.<br \/>\nYou&#8217;d be amazed at the flakiness of models. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I understand that a test shoot where you&#8217;re getting splashed may not sound all too fun. But the results are far better than the same&#8217;ol &#8220;go to the beach and test in a bikini&#8221; type photos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9756\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_3014-Edit.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_3014-Edit\" width=\"700\" height=\"466\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_3014-Edit.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_3014-Edit-150x99.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_3014-Edit-300x199.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So the original plan for this card involved four models &#8211; even if it was a lofty goal, I thought &#8220;fourth card. four models.&#8221; sounded like a great plan. But it didn&#8217;t work out that way.<br \/>\nAmber and Elizabeth returned to my card this year again after posing for <a href=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=5962\">last year&#8217;s Christmas card<\/a>, which some of you will remember.<br \/>\nAnd lucky for me both Amber and Liz are incredibly attractive AND keep themselves in shape year &#8217;round. So, mixing two gorgeous women was a fun contrast to my planned Ugly-sweater-vest idea as the Tacky Christmas Party Host.<\/p>\n<p>Hair was done Tammy Nguyen and Make Up by Tina Luong. We shot at our apartment which was converted a bit to be able to handle the mess that milk splash would make.<br \/>\nI probably spent about 30-45 minutes with each model for the splash portion. Post work took me a while because I didn&#8217;t want to rush anything and I knew I had plenty of time. The plan of adding two more girls was dropped because as I started to hit up models and ask if they were interested, no one was in bikini-ready shape because it&#8217;s winter and they all said they&#8217;d been eating too much. Haha! Oh well.<\/p>\n<p>The funniest part of this entire experience this year wasn&#8217;t even with the girls and the milk, though. It had to do with the cookies&#8230;<\/p>\n<p>I used three bags of Chips Ahoy! cookies for this project, to create the cookie tower you see me holding. So, I posted on twitter apologizing to Chips Ahoy! for wasting three bags for my project. They promptly responded and it was all laughs from there. You can read below:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9755\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/chipsahoy.jpg\" alt=\"chipsahoy\" width=\"1025\" height=\"638\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/chipsahoy.jpg 1025w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/chipsahoy-150x93.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/chipsahoy-300x186.jpg 300w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/chipsahoy-1024x637.jpg 1024w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 1025px) 100vw, 1025px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Not only were they great sports about the whole thing, but they contacted me and said they&#8217;d love to see a copy of this card when it&#8217;s done! So, I sent one out to their offices in New York! haha! Can&#8217;t wait to see if hear anything back from them about it! LOL<\/p>\n<p>Unfortunately just yesterday my phone had some sort of file error and I lost all the data on my memory card &#8211; I&#8217;m pretty annoyed. I lost several months of photos from my camera phone that I hadn&#8217;t yet backed up. Funny part is that the day before I told myself &#8220;Oh, I need to back up my phone this week&#8230; it&#8217;s been a while&#8230;&#8221;<br \/>\nThe reason I mention this is that I use my phone for Behind the Scenes photos when I&#8217;m working on projects, and this means that I&#8217;ve lost those images that I was planning on sharing here. Bummer.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9761\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6553.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6553\" width=\"691\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6553.jpg 691w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6553-148x150.jpg 148w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6553-296x300.jpg 296w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 691px) 100vw, 691px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>We did take this photo right at the end purely to have one fun Behind the Scenes shot. This doesn&#8217;t exactly represent how the shot was created, but you get a bit of the idea. haha!<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9758\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6385.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6385\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6385.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6385-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6385-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Silly shot with Amber when she was done. And no, the irony wasn&#8217;t lost on her. She looked down, laughed, and just said &#8220;&#8230;haa&#8230;. jugs.&#8221;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9759\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6555.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6555\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6555.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6555-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6555-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>And of course a shot with Liz when she was done, too.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9760\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6557.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_6557\" width=\"700\" height=\"467\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6557.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6557-150x100.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/IMG_6557-300x200.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Love her, she&#8217;s always down for any crazy idea I want to try with photos.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9762\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/988402_10101945431142408_2070093259_n.jpg\" alt=\"988402_10101945431142408_2070093259_n\" width=\"525\" height=\"700\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/988402_10101945431142408_2070093259_n.jpg 525w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/988402_10101945431142408_2070093259_n-112x150.jpg 112w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/988402_10101945431142408_2070093259_n-225x300.jpg 225w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 525px) 100vw, 525px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>After picking up my massive order of cards when I was in the Bay Area, <a href=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/?p=8947\">Stephanie<\/a> came out over to help me stuff envelopes and fill out addresses.<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9763\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1513322_10101949346590818_1245407262_n.jpg\" alt=\"1513322_10101949346590818_1245407262_n\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1513322_10101949346590818_1245407262_n.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1513322_10101949346590818_1245407262_n-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1513322_10101949346590818_1245407262_n-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>The following day TJ came over to help me apply nearly 100 more stamps to the pile and seal nearly 200 envelopes<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-9764\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1475923_10101949457917718_2130628021_n.jpg\" alt=\"1475923_10101949457917718_2130628021_n\" width=\"700\" height=\"525\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1475923_10101949457917718_2130628021_n.jpg 700w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1475923_10101949457917718_2130628021_n-150x112.jpg 150w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2013\/12\/1475923_10101949457917718_2130628021_n-300x225.jpg 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 700px) 100vw, 700px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>Once at the post office I took my usual &#8220;here&#8217;s the stack of cards THIS year&#8221; photo&#8230; damnnnnn!!!<\/p>\n<p>So, again, we&#8217;ll see if I hear anything from Chips Ahoy! about what they thought.. but so far everyone else seems to like the card.<\/p>\n<p>This year I sent out 225&#8230; That&#8217;s a 50 card increase over last year&#8217;s total. That&#8217;s nuts. Next year will be the fifth year of my annual card, and I&#8217;m looking forward to coming up with something awesome. I&#8217;ve also been keeping tabs on who signed up for which years so I might try and do something special for those who have all four. And this year&#8217;s milk splash is going to be very difficult to top.<\/p>\n<p>But I already have one girl who has said she&#8217;ll shoot with me again for next year&#8217;s card&#8230; my other friend friend Amber, who you guys will likely remember:<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"alignnone size-full wp-image-3213\" src=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/IMG_7100-Edit-2_1.jpg\" alt=\"IMG_7100-Edit-2_1\" width=\"433\" height=\"650\" srcset=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/IMG_7100-Edit-2_1.jpg 433w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/IMG_7100-Edit-2_1-99x150.jpg 99w, https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/09\/IMG_7100-Edit-2_1-199x300.jpg 199w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 433px) 100vw, 433px\" \/><\/p>\n<p>So, keep your fingers crossed that it works out that I&#8217;ll be shooting with Amber for next year, because she&#8217;s ridiculously gorgeous as well.<\/p>\n<p>I have at least one more blog I&#8217;ll put together before the year is over next week. So stay tuned for that post if you&#8217;re interested. But above all, I hope you guys enjoyed my card for 2013 for those of you who signed up for it. And those who didn&#8217;t, there&#8217;s always 2014 just around the corner<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>Cookies and Milk. This was definitely the most difficult Christmas card I&#8217;ve shot in the last four years. Milk splash is something I&#8217;ve been wanting to do for over two years since I first saw the guys at Aurum Light Studios in the UK posting their splash photography work with models online and it making the rounds in the photo community. I&#8217;ve owned all the same lighting equipment for several years. And, honestly, it&#8217;s something I thought would not be very difficult with a bit of practice. Finding models. That was the tricky part. You&#8217;d be amazed at the flakiness of models. Don&#8217;t get me wrong, I understand that a test shoot where you&#8217;re getting splashed may not sound all too fun. But the results are far better than the same&#8217;ol &#8220;go to the beach and test in a bikini&#8221; type photos. So the original plan for this card involved four models &#8211; even if it was a lofty goal, I thought &#8220;fourth card. four&#8230; <\/p>\n<p class=\"more\"><a class=\"more-link\" href=\"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/the-john-remus-photography-2013-christmas-card\/\">Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":9754,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[20,70],"tags":[1139,1035,1261,203,746,1262,1254,667,726,1258,1255,1342,7,1256,1257,1260,1259,1263],"class_list":["post-9753","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-models","category-studio-work","tag-1139","tag-amber","tag-chips-ahoy","tag-christmas","tag-christmas-card","tag-cookies","tag-gogos","tag-john-remus","tag-liz-sterling","tag-milk","tag-milk-splash","tag-models","tag-photoshoot","tag-splash","tag-splash-photography","tag-tammy-nguyen","tag-tina-luong","tag-ugly-vest","is-cat-link-border-bottom"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=9753"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":21145,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/9753\/revisions\/21145"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9754"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=9753"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=9753"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.johnremus.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=9753"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}