Hi all! I know, it’s been a while, but I must admit that I’ve been busy making images, getting some continuing education, shooting a couple of personal projects and taking some mini vacations. So, where to start? How about with the continuing education…
Photoshop World Orlando, Florida
A few weeks after my last blog entry in late March, Ann and I took a week off from work and traveled to Orlando, FL to attend our first Photoshop World (PSW) presented by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. The number and scope of the educational courses presented by some very big names in the photography business was just overwhelming. So much so, that Ann and I only duplicated one course and we still wish that we had been able to clone ourselves to attend additional courses. Those however, will have to wait until next year. But we both came back energized and with our creative juices pumped.
We went down a few days early for one of those mini vacations, getting over to SeaWorld and Universal Studios amusement parks prior to attending PSW. We enjoyed SeaWorld immensely, particularly the dolphin and sea lion/walrus shows. Over at Universal we caught the Blues Brothers visit, listened to some great jazz and watched the street dancing. Our lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant was a definite parrot head experience. Yes, we even made a stop at the Hard Rock Café for dinner prior to leaving the park.
Making Images
It seems as though something is happening with the economy and business is coming back a bit. I’ve been very busy taking a lot of head shots, for everyone from real estate agents; to HVAC company owners, to PR/Marketing folks. Here are just a few.
Now a shameless plug, if you or someone you know needs a new or updated shot, we have revamped our product and it now includes two poses in print and web resolution on CD for only $140.00. That’s a deal folks, so call for an appointment!
Four Generation Shoot
We had a location shoot on Mother’s Day, it was a family of 20 that included four generations, ranging in age from two infants that weren’t quite there yet, to about 88 years. They were a blast to work with and even fed us some great BBQ after we were done packing up.
Thanks to Joyce Forgoston-Bogrow for requesting the shoot and setting this up. According to Joyce, this was the first time in many years that a full family image was made.
Personal Projects
After returning from PSW with my creative juices flowing, I set up a couple of shoots in order to bring my vision to life. My first idea was to put together a shoot with a body painter and model. It was to be artistic in nature and mimic some of the great masters of the cubist era of fine art. vOn a Saturday in April it all came together. vLynn Cole did the body painting and Sally Klein was the model who agreed to be painted. In order to get some images to make composites, I shot Sally for around 30 minutes prior to letting Lynn take her. It took Lynn about 3 hours to paint Sally in the cubist look that you see below. People who have seen this image, tell me they like the juxtaposition of a work of art looking at a person as a work of art! There was a lot of fun had that day by all and when Sally got home, in her body paint, her son couldn’t quite believe it was her and that it would come off. She told me he gingerly touched her cheek to see if it was permanent! How cute was that!
Another project involved working with chiaro-scuro to do some figure studies using just one light. Chiaro-scuro (Italian for light-dark) is a technique that has light areas next to dark areas in an image. A model I shot a few years ago posed for this series of images and this is just one I really like.
Another Mini Vacation
The middle of May brought our anniversary and we took a long weekend and stayed at the Stonefort Inn in Chattanooga, TN. This was recommended to us and let me tell you, it is well worth it. It’s an old hotel converted to a bed and breakfast with only 16 bedrooms. A great place and the breakfasts are truly gourmet!
During our stay, we took a day trip from Chattanooga to Lynchburg, TN. I bet some of you know what’s there. It’s the home of the Jack Daniels distillery and it’s in a dry county. Talk about a dichotomy! The tour was interesting, particularly with our ‘good ‘ole boy’ guide. I never knew that maple charcoal could add such a great taste to the whiskey.
We stopped by the White Rabbit Bottle Shop at the end of the tour and came home with a commemorative bottle of single barrel Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. We haven’t opened it yet, but we are thinking about having a few folks over for a taste testing with the other Jack Daniels products that can be found at your local bottle shop.
So as you can see, I’ve been busy lately and really enjoining it. Until the next time, take care and call if you’d like a portrait or need some images to update your web site. I know, I know, another shameless plug!
Some of you may know that during the last part of 2009 I was out of touch for a while with total hip replacement surgery. Well I’m glad to say that all went well and I am back at making images. I want to give a shout out to Reagan Powell for helping me out at the studio during that time, great job Reagan!
Prior to going out for the surgery, we had a great time shooting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s (JDRF) Walk-a-Thon in Alpharetta, GA. for AT&T as one of the participating businesses in the event. Images from that event went to both AT&T and to the JDRF.
A few weeks later, a contact at JDRF gave my name to the Operations Manager of the Southeast Customer Service division of Ford Motor Company. They were hosting a golf tournament to raise funds for JDRF and needed a photographer to document the tournament.
The event was held at the Manor Golf & Country Club in Milton, GA. and dealers from all over the southeast as well as Ford corporate executives from Detroit, Mi. were there. All had an excellent time, played some great golf and raised more than $50,000.00 for the JDRF. In addition they all went home with an image of their foursome with Ford’s General Sales Manager.
For the second year in a row, we were asked to shoot The Novel Exchange book exchange and fund raiser. Marc Fitten, author of ‘Valeria’s Last Stand’ was the guest speaker and the event was held at the Glenridge House in Sandy Springs, a small community just north of Atlanta, GA. At the event, organized by Dale Israel, more than 50 folks brought books to trade, socialized over hors d’oeuvres and enjoyed Marc’s talk about his book. It also raised more than $2000.00 for the Community Action Center.
With the start of the year, we are focusing our business more on commercial photography. We are still shooting portraits, so keep those families and seniors coming, but the main focus will be on business to business work this coming year. As the economy starts its long recovery, we are seeing small businesses wanting new and updated imagery for their web sites, marketing collateral and new product announcements. If you’re an owner of one of these businesses, or know someone who is, and are in need of photography, please contact me at the link above.
The summer is gone and the chill of the fall season is beginning to appear in the air. The cool temperatures the past few mornings have reminded me that the holiday season isn’t that far off either. If that gets you thinking about what to do for friends and family, as well as what you can do to help others during the holiday season, may I suggest that you help me create a smile?
October is PPA Charities’ Family Portrait Month. During Family Portrait Month, participating professional photographers donate funds from every photo session done during October to Operation Smile.
In developing countries, 1 in 500 children is born with a correctable facial deformity…but their families don’t have the resources and some countries don’t have doctors to perform the surgeries. Operation Smile is an organization that provides doctors and healthcare professionals that treat these children by giving them the gift of surgery to repair their facial deformities.
We at di Sogno Photography are again participating in this campaign to support the PPA Charities and Operation Smile. Individuals and families, who have a retail photo session during the month of October, will receive a 50% reduction of our session fee, a $50.00 savings, and we will then donate half of the remaining session fee to Operation Smile. In addition, we are offering a 20% reduction on our normal prices for prints purchased from Family Portrait Month sessions.
If you would like an individual or family portrait, if you traditionally send a portrait on holiday cards, or if you are just starting this tradition, Family Portrait Month is a great opportunity to check off one of your fall ‘things to-do’ items and at the same time help create a smile for a deserving child.
Session times are going fast, so be sure to call the studio to reserve a time for your appointment. The number to call is 770-817-0945.
Offers end 10/31/09 and are not to be used on frames or with other offer(s).
Cars and Characters…
This past holiday, we went to our old home town of Cincinnati, OH to catch up with some family. Knowing that each 4th of July, the city of Aurora, IN (near Cincinnati) holds a judged car show, I made sure to bring my camera along. (Like I ever go on a road trip without it!) There were many different types and ages of cars there and I felt that two of them stood out from the rest.
The first was this 1957 Chevrolet Corvette. It was finished in a beautiful red/white and of all of the ‘vettes there, my attention just kept coming back to this one. Probably because it was almost as old as me! The only nit was that the mechanical restoration wasn’t original. Even with that, it still grabs me even in a vintage black and white image.
The second one, that I thought was the most unique car at the car show this year, is a 1929 Chevrolet 3-Door Woody. It is totally customized with a 327 cu. in. engine bored out to .060 over the standard cylinder size and has 3 two-barrel carburetors . For those that don’t understand car-speak, that is a modern engine that has been made larger and more powerful to give better performance, not gas mileage.
The owner of this vehicle seems to be honoring our military personnel, past and present. The chalkboard dedication says “In honor of all our Military Hero’s, POW * MIA”.
He displayed what is called a Soldier’s Cross. It’s often placed at a spot of a fallen soldier and represents the final march of the last battle - items the soldier no longer needs. It is also displayed as a memorial to those who didn’t make it home.
The fuel tank seems very dangerous indeed…surrounded by .50 caliber rounds and fragmentation grenades! And his passenger (below) has a very ominous stare.
Since this was over the 4th of July holiday, I suppose the sentiment was well meant, but some of the imagery was fairly gruesome. I guess the owner was trying to add a bit of reality.
Speaking of unique things, I captured this individual walking around at the car show and I thought he was the most unique person there. After all, how many people do you see walking down the street with a pet Boa Constrictor wrapped around their neck! Unique INDEED!
All in all, it was a fun morning at the car show.
Saving Memories
A few months ago a friend of ours lost her mother to an illness. While going through old photos, she realized that she didn’t have any photos of her mother other than snapshots taken at differing times in the past. She asked if I could take a couple of the images and help her save some memories by creating a formal images from the snapshots.
She wanted to use this image because of the great smile on her mother’s face. The original 4×6 image was taken about 10 years ago and her mother and friend appeared very small in comparison to the whole image. To separate her mother from her friend, and create a formal image, the crop needed to be very small. After scanning the image to a digital file and cropping, a lot of the original film grain could still be seen. This meant that it wouldn’t be a clean, sharp image, so I cleaned up the scratches and dust spots and softened it a bit to remove the graininess. Printed on water color paper it looks more like a piece of hand drawn art rather than a photograph.
This image of her mother was taken at their rehearsal dinner. I cropped in a bit to help remove the background clutter and added a vignette. That almost completed the work but her face was a bit washed out by the flash, so I hand colored it to make it look more natural. And that finished the work on the images.
Our friend purchased both a desk size and wall size of each image. I am glad I could help her save some memories.
Head Shots
We’re still doing a good business with corporate head shots. Even with a slow economy, folks understand the need for a professional image and are coming in to have me create it. Remember that the image you show on your website or collateral, IS the image people see of your business. Make sure it conveys what you want it to!
That’s all for now. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or become a fan of our Facebook page! You can also follow all updates by subscribing to the RSS feed on this page. Take care!
Last month we mentioned a new product we were creating. Curtain Call has now been launched.
Curtain Call is a product of di Sogno Photography, and is specially designed for ladies to celebrate their womanly charms and to re-energize and reconnect after life has gotten in the way once too often.
You enjoy a private photo party* where you and up to 4 of your lady friends spend a fun evening creating spicy, HOT images for you, or to share with that special someone.
From now until August 28, 2009 we will give a 30% price reduction on items purchased as a result of a Curtain Call party. Mention that you saw this on the blog to make sure that you receive it!
Find out more about Curtain Call by going to the
web site or calling the studio at 770-817-0945 for information.
Call now to reserve your party time!
*Individual sessions are also available.
I’ve finally done it. I’ve opened an account on Facebook and Twitter. Tweets can be followed at ‘tfiorda‘ and you may search on my name or ‘di Sogno Photography‘ for the Facebook account.
I’ll be periodically posting to them with information about happenings at the studio or to let you know about stuff you may be interested in.
I promise not to post housekeeping stuff, just good stuff!
Take care!
Since the last time I updated this blog at the end of January I continued building the commercial side of the business, put a new product together, attended group shoots and took some time off to rejuvenate. Ahhhh!
A lot of business people understand that in the down economy lays an opportunity to grow their business or to start a new one. I’ve been doing business photography like at no other time. I’m pleased to see that this portion of my business is still alive and kicking as I really enjoy helping small businesses advance their brand through photography.
My wife and I have been busy putting together a new product for our studio called Curtain Call. The production is for ladies only, and provides a night out with a few of her best friends on a closed set with wine and hor d’ourves for some of the best, relaxed images of all time. We’ve done a couple of these and have received great feedback. Call us for information if you can’t wait for the website to be completed. We’ll post more information about it here with links when it’s done.
I don’t know if many of you have heard of Meetup Groups, groups of people that join together to pursue their interests and likes. I’m an assistant organizer of the Kennesaw Photographers & Modeling Meetup Group. This group meets once a month at a studio run by a friend and normally has an outdoor meetup once a month, too. About 30-40 pro and amateur photographers and models get together to talk shop, trade stories and shoot, adding to their portfolios while filling the experience with a lot of fun and camaraderie. I don’t get the opportunity to attend the outdoor meetup as much as I’d like, but I have attended a few. Two of these were in Acworth and Kennesaw, GA. Both locations are beautiful, small communities north of Atlanta. We shot the models and the locations and below are Chrissy and Alicia from those meetups.
After all of that, I really needed some time off to refuel. And I did over at the Huntsville, AL, Space & Rocket Center. I grew up in the space age and I really enjoyed remembering the pioneering projects of Mercury, Gemini and Saturn! If only they could ‘Fly me to the moon!’ Here is a shot from that trip.
So until the next time, stay tuned and subscribe to the RSS feed to catch of the updates to the blog.
