This blog post has been six months in the making.

This past summer, Sara, my associate and dear friend of eight years,  told me she had a wonderful opportunity to work with one of the local giants in the food industry.  As many of you know, food has always been a passion of Sara’s.   I’ve always told Sara that it may be unrealistic for me to expect her to retire with Dean Lavenson Photography but to plan on me making the idea of leaving the most difficult, heart-wrenching decision she ever had to make.   I know that it was hard for Sara to leave and even harder for me to see her go.  With the two month notice Sara gave, the hunt for a new associate began.  After a long search, we found just the person.  Megh, a graduate of U of L’s photo department, began the end of August, learning the ropes from Sara, before she left.  I feel really fortunate to have found someone who fits in so well with the studio and with our clients.  To find out more about Megh and her background, visit our bio page and scroll down.

Well, perhaps not the cover, but it’s still neat.  We were randomly flipping through a January edition of Rolling Stone magazine and what do we see?  Our latest photos for Maker’s 46.  It tickles us like a kid on Christmas morning to see our work in print.  Fun stuff.

Steve Jobs.  1955–2011.  Our lives are forever changed because of your vision. You will be greatly missed.

We insist. They are salty and buttery and wash down wonderfully with a cold beer. Made by our very own Chef Sara. Aren’t we lucky? They were a treat to photograph and even more of a treat to eat.…post-shoot, of course.

Instead of commenting on where we’ve been since our last post, we wanted to let you all know that one of our photos was recently chosen for the cover of High Performance Buildings magazine. Our client recently designed and constructed their new headquarters, putting many of their energy efficient ideas into practice. It is arguably the most ‘green’ building in Louisville. Neat!

It’s funny the topics that come up during the work day. Today we started chatting about holding your breath. We shared stories holding our breath, trips at the lake, and the sensations that come when you know you need to stop holding your breath. That lead us to ponder: how long can a human not breathe? Bets were made, hands were shaken, and quick Google search answered our question (Dean lost, btw).

The most recent world record is 19 minutes and 21 seconds. Let that sink in. That’s a REALLY long time. A Swiss Free-diver named Peter Colat is the latest freak of nature. We’re still having a difficult time comprehending that he doesn’t have gills.

We recently did an editorial shoot for a local children’s hospital. The article was highlighting a new service that help kids deal with the anxiety and stress of being sick. The Coping Cart is a computer video recording system that allows patients to document their experiences, thoughts, fears, and coping techniques associated with their serious illnesses. The Cart works in tandem with a website that in turn shares these videos with other kids needing support.

What an amazingly positive use of technology! Needless to say, we spent an afternoon watching video after video of brave kids speaking honestly…and we were humbled.

Check out their site here!

We do feel the need to note that we hired locally. This town is booming with creative talent, so there’s no excuse to not use what we’ve got. The more we nurture our creative community the more it will nurture us in return.

Ty Kreft, designer, and Ricky Irvine, developer, provided us with one-two punch we were seeking. If you haven’t had a chance to work with these guys, give them a try. We couldn’t be happier with the end result.

We are a bit slow to report, but are happy to announce that our studio was recently featured on Adweek Media’s web page. Wonderful Machine featured 15 of their photographers and we made the cut. Check it out here.

We are thrilled to announce that we now have representation! A great group out of Philadelphia picked us up and we couldn’t be happier.

Check us out here!