Couch Couple Calendar 2017

At the end of 2014 Lauren and I had the crazy idea to do a themed photoshoot every month for a year. After turning those photos into a 2016 calendar for friends and family, we had no choice but to do it again. May I present Couch Couple Calendar, Volume 2!

Abusing our couch

Like the previous year, we tried to do as much of the photo shoot as we could using practical elements. Poor couch. We were actually on the sled, and it was not nearly as fun or comfortable as it looked. Ever do a bunch of physical activity inside with your coat on? Worth it though.

Alright… the snowman and the trees are fake. We had to make some compromises. I’d say on average I put about 5 hours of photoshop work into each of the photos in the series. As someone who is quite fond of post production, I was more interested in having a fun end result than saying everything was done right there in front of the camera. And now you know.

Speaking of in front of the camera, our dog Roddy really hates having his picture taken. It took a lot of coaxing and treat giving to get him to give a high five on camera.

One Patch At A Time

Our solution for making a grass-covered couch was simple in theory and tedious in execution. At Michaels craft store you can buy patches of fake grass that come in a 1×1 square. We bought one. Then we took that one patch of grass and shot a series of about 80 photographs covering every visible spot on the couch. One ridiculously long photoshop session later, and the couch looks like it’s completely covered in grass!

I really put our lawnmover on the couch. The dog did not, however, actually pee on it. We re-used the same old high-five trick for Roddy and made him swiping at a butterfly. In reality I think he would probably care less about them. He’s a very unconcerned dog, most of the time.

Embracing Our Inner Geezer

I didn’t have to try quite as hard as Lauren to become an old geezer. This surprisingly simple photo shoot didn’t involve all that much photoshop work afterward. I enhanced the wrinkles on our faces and the gray in our hair, did a teensie bit of liquify to make our jawlines more jowly, and added veins in Lauren’s legs. Oh and the wallpaper, of course.

One more thing I’d like to mention…

Deven and Lauren Langston
Est. June 2017

This was the month that Lauren and I got Married.

If you haven’t seen our first calendar yet, what are you doing!?

The Series That Never Was

After two years of doing the couch calendar, we tried to start a new series called “floorscapes.” We thought shooting from above would give us new creative ideas, which it did, but without an assistant to man the camera it became too impractical. Instead we used it to announce our trip to Japan, which was where I proposed to Lauren.

@patterns_errywhere

One Picture Every Day

Couch Couple Calendar 2016

At the beginning of 2015 Lauren and I started a photo series framed around the couch in my apartment. By December we had enough quirky photos to make a calendar. Here it is complete with 12 scenes, additional photos, and fun facts. This calendar makes other couches jealous.

About The Series

Lauren, my then girlfriend now my wife, was the brains behind the couch calendar series. Don’t get me wrong. We both wanted to do this. But she developed the concept/pre-production theme each month and I would handle the post/editing of the final shot. Here she is performing a “brainstorming” session.

Keeping it Real

Ask any great digital artist what makes a realistic composite believable and they’ll tell you… it’s having real elements in your shot. I could have just found some images of leaves and blended them in to a photograph of us jumping on the couch, but it was just so much better to get a bag of leaves (or nine) and dump it on the couch for real.

We needed a bad 80’s Christmas family portrait.

But Why The Couch, Though?

The problem with starting an ongoing project is that without consistency, you’ll lose momentum. The couch grounds us. Gives us a reason to consider this a series. Plus it’s in the middle of my living room and we couldn’t really move it anywhere else.

We did another one of these, you know?

Christmas Tree Upgrade!

Found this big ‘ol tree at a Goodwill for $30. we couldn’t turn it down, so we set it up.

Season’s Greeting from the 80’s

Thus completes 12 months of couch photos from Deven and Lauren Whitley. We really hope you enjoyed them! In case you missed the announcement, we’ve turned the photo set into a 2016 calendar you can hang on you wall. Available for $15 with free shipping, and to sweeten the deal, use coupon code GIMMEIT for a whole $1 off! Check it out Here.

Couch Couple Calendar 2017

Couch Couple Calendar 2017

Abusing our couch

One Patch At A Time

Embracing Our Inner Geezer

Deven and Lauren Langston Est. June 2017

The Series That Never Was

@patterns_errywhere

One Picture Every Day

Couch Couple Calendar 2016

Couch Couple Calendar 2016

About The Series

Keeping it Real

We needed a bad 80’s Christmas family portrait.

But Why The Couch, Though?

Christmas Tree Upgrade!

Season’s Greeting from the 80’s

Deven and Lauren Langston
Est. June 2017