On Location for a High School Senior Portrait

Yesterday, I had the opportunity to photograph a very interesting high school senior. Since I am the "Studio Without Walls" I went to his home for the session. We worked both indoors and out. We did images with his dogs in the backyard. I set up my portrait set in his front hall to create more portraits on a painted background. As I was walking in and out of his house, I noticed this little area with the concrete wall. The light was perfect! He was in the house changing into his tennis gear for a portrait on the painted background. I asked him to come outdoors for a couple after we did the ones indoors. Here is one of the images we got. It is exciting to me to work with all the potential of creating beautiful images like this. Shooting on location not only affords a no ending supply of brand new sets and creativity, but it is also more personal to the subject.

This is the house Brooks grew up in. Gotta love it!

New Class of 2010 and visit to my old High School

Today I am working on a new advertising piece directed to the Class of 2010.
What an exciting time!
There are so many different things that High School students are involved in now.
I was in Milwaukee, Wisconsin last week for the Fourth, and I visited my high school building.
I remembered all the great times I had there, and marvelled at the changes in the building and the neighborhood around it.
I set up an account on Facebook while I was in Milwaukee. Already I have been contacted by two of my high school friends. How in the world did they know I was on Facebook?
I have now "accepted them as friends" and we are linked.
I am looking forward to writing them to learn what has transpired in their lives since we all graduated.
I had gone to College my first year at a Wisconsin State University, then transferred to Arizona State. I fell in love with Arizona, and have established my life in Arizona.
My high school has had two reunions, but due to them not having my address, I never knew of them.
Well maybe the nnext one I will.

Welcome

Family Time

I am looking at life now and wondering where my babies went. Of course they have and are about to have children of their own. I'm fortunate enough to have them both living in Phoenix, but somehow still am surprised at how fast the time has passed since they were just learning to walk and talk. My oldest grandson starts school in 2 weeks. In  three months I will have a third grandson too! I am enjoying being a grandpa, but I am also realizing that my kids are not really kids. They are now enjoying their own families. We are looking forward to taking the "kids" out on Saturday night for dinner and a play. It should be a good time for us all to get together and enjoy being adults! 

I have also just finished my second bulk mailer of the summer. This one is geared towards families and children. It's hard for first time parents to sometimes grasp the speed at which their children grow up. It seems like forever before they can talk, then they can walk, then they are out of diapers....next thing you know school arrives, followed by them asking for the keys to the car. It may seem drastic, but you can ask most people with grown "kids" and they would tell you the same thing. I feel so honored to get to capture the portraits that represent the first year, the school days, and even that last year of high school. Every year since I got married (36 years ago if anyone's counting!) we have sent out a family portrait with our Christmas card. My wife has made a book of all the cards through all the years, and these are such a treasured memories. I understand not everyone has a photographer in the family (which is good for my business), but I work to stress the importance of capturing these images before the little ones become teenagers, and before the teenagers are living all over the country. 

I know I am glad I did, and I know my customers over the last 31 years are also very glad they did too! Take the time, make the time, and enjoy the time you have while the kids are still kids, before they become "kids."

Summer Sessions

Today I had art class again. I really am enjoying being challenged in different mediums and with different subjects, but it is a challenge. Today was pencil art, which is one of my favorites. I am loving using my artistic abilities in a new way, besides being behind the camera. I am taking the class sponsered by the city of Scottsdale recreation deparment.
I also completed another project, and am off to the post office shortly. I have made a mailer card for the 2009 Seniors in the area, and I had fun doing it. It's great to get so much variety from being on location and being able to showcase some of it on the cards I send out. It seemed like everything was against me in regards to this mailer. The printing company took extra time which they have not done in the past. The CASS certification software completely shut down and wouldn't open again when I was trying to load the names. After an hour on the phone with techical support it was all solved, but I was exhausted. So now I am off to the post office. To deliver my large mailing. Hopefully I will hear from some more of the valley Seniors from this, I look forward to photographing the excitement that the High School Seniors have as they finish that final year of school!

Started today with two bank jobs..

Ok, so I might not be living a life of crime, but I am entertained by the opportunity to say I did a bank job. I have been photographing for this particular bank for a few years now, and this morning started off meeting at 7am to catch some outdoor shots before the temperatures got out of hand. The bank was having a portrait done of one of their employees with one of their clients. I really enjoy getting to meet people at these type of shoots. Today was the owners of American Valet. If you live anywhere in Phoenix, you're probably familiar with the company, American Valet. The owners, Mike and Shawn, were both amazing to work with and we had a lot of fun. I had debated bringing Kathleen along to help and I was very glad I did. I had to use a scrim for shade and the wind was blowing just perfectly against the flat side and towards the people and car for the portrait. She even had a hard time making it stay up on the stand! I don't want to think of what could have happened if I had just had it on the weighted stand!!
From there I went to the bank building just up the road. I worked in the beautiful lobby and actually even picked up a possible new client just from being there. The shoot went very well and we also had a great time doing it.
I have a short amount of time for turnaround on the images from today so I better get back to work, then off to Rotary!

Bringing families together...digitally

I have not had a request to do this in a few years, but somehow I've had two in just one month. Most families have a few family members who live out of state. Recently a family of 17 had all but one person together here in Phoenix and so they decided to get the family portrait done. That's three generations and families from 2 different states!! The one not able to make it is in the Navy and currently serving our country. Of course I'd be able to add him to the portrait. 

The other family had 13 people in the image and one person at school in Chicago. Although we had done her Senior portraits, there wasn't really an image that worked well with the family, so we will be doing her session soon. 

I like that technology has allowed this to happen. Family portraits are a treasure, and it's often hard to get absolutely everyone together to be in one. Now instead of going without, there's an option to add the person in later, and I hope more people will think about doing that now. 

Our most recent family photo with my wife's side of the family is treasured. It was one year before her sister was diagnosed with cancer. She fought the battle for a year and got to see another Christmas, her favorite holiday! We were so glad that we had a portrait done while everyone was here and in good health. Since then we have also had another grandson join our family and my third grandson is due in October. Hopefully this time next year we will have another family portrait on the wall. Have to capture the moments while they are here.