Spark & Tumble

photographing people and events

Spark & Tumble is lively event coverage and portrait making by photographer Lisa Beth Anderson.

Lisa enjoys photographing weddings, the verve and wonder of which provide consistently stunning visual opportunities. She keeps it lively by photographing in some of the western hemisphere's most interesting cities and wild spaces—most frequently in the beautiful Bay Area, the enchanted island of Puerto Rico, and the built-world wonder of Chicago.

Lisa's portrait work has appeared in books and magazines, and has provided her the perfect excuse to collect vintage suitcases that are rarely completely unpacked.

Contact Lisa to book Spark & Tumble for your wedding or portrait session.

architectural artifacts: ravenswood engagement session

I heard stories about Ravenswood’s Architectural Artifacts before I visited. Curation of the space has resulted in rooms of reclaimed windows and doors. Vintage lighting fixtures. Old school desks, charts, and maps. Enormous old light bulbs. Anatomy class skeletons. Theater seats. The space functions as an idea catalyzer for design ideas, a venue for weddings and other celebrations, as well as one of the best places on Chicago’s north side to let your eyes wander.

Which is what Bob and Brooke like to do together when they’ve got a little time on their hands.

I was elated to find out that the couple frequented Architectural Artifacts, having never had a proper excuse to shoot in the space. And the stories were true. It’s a visual feast—and difficult to leave with out a new idea of something to make or do or fix.

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windy city: logan square engagement session

The windy city. If you take an architectural boat tour, they’ll tell you that the wind in the city’s nickname refers to windbagging done by politicos back in the day. But there is also this: Chicago is a city on the plains and at the edge of the great lake of Michigan and so, some days, it is on the receiving end of all that prairie-grass-swaying goodness.

So the city is not just metaphorically windy—not even in an election year. But though wind can make unexpected trouble, it also means that if we play it right, we’ve got a skirt-flaring, locks-mussing ally.

As was the case during Liz and Mark’s session in one of Chicago’s great neighborhoods, Logan Square.

Between our visit to neighborhood favorite Lula and the newly renovated Logan Theater, Liz, Mark, and I were out in it—enjoying the wind and its way of mixing things up. It’s such a pleasure to work with people who are open to a little bit of the playful.

Liz and Mark: congratulations. So looking forward to your wedding.

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la nada: light and the beauty of nothing

Castillo de San Cristobal is a few blocks from the house, so yesterday I walked over with the upstairs neighbor girl—the one whose ballet practice I hear in the mornings. We climbed around on the thick walls of the compound, tripped through its hallways, and decided that a particular colonnade would be a good place to take a notepad and pencil first thing in the morning.

And then we came to this series of rooms. The light was so kind. I asked Ella to stand still for a second.

As we were making this photograph, I felt someone behind me.

Someone #1 (yelling from a few rooms away): Bob! What’s in there?

Someone #2 (disappointed and answering from a place very near my right shoulder): Nothing.

The two left before I got a visual, but Bob’s nothing reminded me that light is a language I’m happy to be learning. Not just because of the way it translates into photographs—but because knowing a little about light and its absence makes wherever you are a more interesting place to be. A place full of shadows, edges, reflections, and silhouettes.