Last year, I became a dog owner for the very first time. Thus, this was a whole new experience for me to learn.  One of my biggest challenges was to learn how to train a dog and teach it how to obey my commands. It took me a few months to really get the hang-of-it and to begin controlling my dog.

Naturally, I decided that I wanted to incorporate Pet Photography into my photography business. Now, my training techniques would really be put to the test.  My biggest concern was, “would my new training skills work on other people’s dogs?”.  Thus, I hosted a Pet Photography Portrait session for the very first time.  I invited 4 dog owners to arrive at my studio in 1 hour increments for their Pet Portrait session.  It was a BIG success!  Now, I know that I can control most dogs, especially in studio.

Border Collie

I already knew what type of portraiture I wanted to attempt for Pet Photography, mostly in studio. Studio Photography gives me an advantage over natural lighting because I can photograph any subject at any time of the day and in any weather conditions. One thing that I learned about this first go-around with dog portraits is that it is almost like photographing Toddlers, unpredictable.  However, the benefit of photographing dogs over toddlers is the leash.  You can’t put a leash on a Toddler, (or you really shouldn’t).

Weimaraner

During this first session, I decided to cater to large breed dogs.  Thus, this first group of dogs were in the 40 lbs and over category.  It was very interesting to see how each dog behaves differently toward me versus their owners.  The neat part was to see each dog’s separate personalities.

Overall, this first attempt for Dog Portraits went very smoothly.  I am very pleased with the outcome of this event and learned a lot from it.  Next time, we are going to try medium size breed dogs.

It’s that time of the year again, Senior Graduations! Each year we select a handful of High School Seniors to model for our Workshops and Represent our organization to help solicit other Senior Models. Well, it’s time to wish our 2011-2012 High School Seniors, Happy Graduations!

We are now concentrating on our High School Senior Model Reps search for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year. Any upcoming Seniors are welcome to contact us for more information and to submit their application as a Senior Model Rep.

As a Senior Model Rep, they will get to participate in a variety of Photography Workshops and Model Shoots. These events typically takes place either in our studios in Downtown McKinney or on-location in and around the North Texas areas.

Unlike typical Senior Reps programs from other photographers, we DO NOT…

* Require Senior Reps to pay any fees to the photographer for their participation.

* Require any exclusive, “No Compete” contracts to be signed.

However, here are some benefits for becoming one of our Senior Rep Models…

* Multiple photo shoot sessions throughout the school year at no cost to the models.

* CD of digital proofs from every event for Facebook albums.

* Online Web Gallery for image sharing and print ordering.

If you are interested in becoming one of our High School Senior Model Reps for the upcoming 2012-2013 school year, then please contact us, via email.  We will request that you send us the following information…

* Name, age, and High School currently attending.

* Briefly describe a list of your current hobbies, sports, and/or extra curricular activities.

* Send us a recent image of yourself.

Please feel free to contact us for more information regarding our Senior Model Rep program. We hope to hear from you soon!

Now, I feel confident enough to share my examples of a couple images that I transformed into digital paintings.  This first example is of a Bridal portrait session that I photographed last year.  Here is the original images after I had apply my standard editing processes on it using Lightroom.

Here is an example of the same image that I applied my new Digital Editing techniques.

Mostly, the techniques I used were a variety of Blurring Filter, Sharpening Filters, and the new Mixer Brush command found only in Photoshop CS5 and the upcoming CS6.

However, none of these techniques could have been accomplished without the use of my new Wacom Graphic Tablet.  Last year, Wacom release a whole new series of graphic tablets that are the upgrade versions of their Bamboo series.  Thus, I bought the new “Bamboo Create” model the same week it was released.

This is the largest of the Bamboo series.  It has roughly a 6″x9″ drawing surface with 1024 level of pressure sensitivity levels.  It is still portable enough that I can carry it in my laptop bag.  This instrument has been a big asset to my digital editing skills.  Being an Architect, I have used Graphic Tablets for years.  Now, in my digital editing workflow, I can get the same realistic style and feel of drawing with a pen like Stylus.  I can create certain types of brush strokes with hand moving gestures just like I was actually drawing on real piece of paper.  To me, it is more natural movement as opposed to drawing with a clunky mouse.  Today, I do not edit anything with out it.

Inspired by this article and the author‘s analogy, I wanted to write about my own article of motivation and inspiration for others to read.  One of my favorite Disney animated movies is “Ratatouille”.  It is a simple story about a rat who believes that he is far about the average rodent with an extreme desire, passion, and natural talent for food and cooking.

Remy, the rat, is inspired by a legendary French Chef, Gusteau, who published a cook book entitled, “Anyone can cook.” This was the basic philosophy of the late Chef as his inspiration for anyone interested in cooking.  Remy was constantly barrage by his family and external forces that he should learn to except “the normal” and not to upset the “standard order” of life.

Like many of us, our friends and families may be our biggest discouragement from our dreams and desire. We may be constantly reminded that we are either “Not good enough”, “Not educated enough”, or “That’s not a safe decision” from the very same people whom we are suppose to lean on for help and get advice from.

For Remy, there was no moral support for his desires and passions from his immediate surroundings, except from the ghostly apparition of the late Chef.  I will equate this scenario to that little voice that we hear inside our own head telling us that we are definitely “good enough” and “talented enough” to achieve those aspirations.

Chef Gusteau’s emotional and physical demise comes from a negative review of a restaurant / food critic named Anton Ego.  The words of this one person were strong enough to bring down the great legendary Chef.  This character symbolizes all the negative people and forces that barrage our minds and drain our motivations from our dreams.

Remy finally becomes the “Little Chef” that he always wanted to be.  His creations have created an overwhelming popular rage in the restaurant world.  Indirectly, he is confronted by the same critic who brought down the great Chef,Gusteau.  Without any hesitation and doubts, Remy prepares a very simple dish from the Chef’s list of recipes, Ratatouille, for the critic to review. Ego is extremely overwhelmed and pleased by the simple meal and demands to meat the Chef.  After discovering the true identity of the meal’s creator, Ego has a complete revelation about his reviews.  He writes one last final glowing review of his career with a new appreciation for this industry.  However, there is one line in the movie that I believe most people with miss its understanding.  In his review Ego is stating his new found enlightenment and understanding of Chef Gusteau’s motto “Anyone can cook”.  But, the last line in the movie, Ego says “…only a few can be a great Chef.”

This last segment brings me back to the industry of photography.  As a Professional Photographers and a Photography Instructor, I meet dozens of people who struggle with these same elements of life. They tell me that they are either “not confident enough” or “not skilled enough” to be a good photographer. Confidence and Skills are like Yin and Yang.

They compliment each other and one does not exist without the other. As one’s Skills develop, their Confidence builds and as one builds more Confidence, they begin to increase their Skill levels.  However, it all starts with education.  Make an investment into your personal development and seek out all the educational venues that you can afford.  Photography education DOES NOT have to be expensive in order to be beneficial.  I have personally learned from Community College classes, Online Webinars, Traveling Road-Show Seminars, and participating in Photography Club’s Workshops. I have never spent over $100.00 for a single one-day event to learn something about photography or digital editing. There are hundreds of resources out there. You just have to be WILLING enough to seek them out and participate in them.

Just remember that “Anybody can cook”, but it take years of training and education to become a Chef.  Just like Photography, anyone can take a Snap Shot of an image, but it takes training and education to become a true photographer.

I’ve recently had the honor of photographing a large family portrait session.  This assignment comes from one of my Club members, Bob Maher.  When Bob first contacted me, he asked if I was capable of photographing 16 people in my studio. He explained that he wanted his family portrait taken of all his children and their kids too.  Right away I said, “Absolutely, yes!”

I instantly recalled the May 2010 issue of Professional Photographer magazine.  I specifically remember this particular issue because the cover photo was a tri-fold layout of a large family group shot taken by Drake Busath, a professional photographer in Salt Lake City, Utah. This cover image featured 15 people within the group portrait, 2 grandparents, 4 independent families, and 5 grandchildren with 1 more on the way.  This was a challenge that I definitely wanted to tackle.  I’ve done large group shots before, (i.e. Weddings Parties, Corporate Employees, and Cheerleader Squads), but I have never done one this large in my studio.

The magazine article about Drake told of his large family portrait philosophy.  He breaks down the separate families into their individual clusters, photographs them separately, and stitches the separate images together in Photoshop.

Thus, this was my main plan of action.  First, I began photographing each family unit separately.  This way, I was able to control the smaller groups to assure that I got the perfect shot from each family unit.

After each family unit was photographed, the next step was the post-processing.  I have found that working with a High Key White backdrop setting gives me a better results than working with a typical Chroma Key Green or Blue backdrop. This assures that the background will remain consistent and the editing will be very quick.

Thus, this became my final composite image.  The main focus was to keep all the images consistent with composition and camera height. The editing segment was really easy.  All it took was a full understanding of Layer positioning, Layer Mask, and proper cropping.

I have to thank Bob for giving me this opportunity to attempt this project and Drake Busath for sharing his knowledge and techniques.

]]> http://mendior.com/blog/2011/12/27/maher-family-portrait/feed/ 0 http://mendior.com/blog/2011/02/02/product-photography-pearl-jewelry/ http://mendior.com/blog/2011/02/02/product-photography-pearl-jewelry/#comments Wed, 02 Feb 2011 08:16:01 +0000 Administrator http://mendior.com/blog/?p=550

I just photographed another Product Photography session in studio.

I’m very fortunate to have picked up a new client, Margaret Palmer Jewelry.  She sells a complete collection of custom Cultured Pearls and Gem jewelry.

This was a very interesting experience.  I got to photograph a couple dozen pieces of her new Cancer Pearl Collection.

Although, I’m mostly a Portrait Photographer, I have photographed Product Photography many times before.  I treat each product as if it were a portraiture.  However, I could not resist incorporating a model into a few shots.

In addition to the standard tabletop product photography method, I felt that the presence of a model wearing the product also added a more real feeling to the images.

I would like to thank my lovely model, Jessica, for assisting me with this shoot.

I also would like to thank my assistant, Robert Dombowski, for his assistance with this photo shoot.

Jeremy is one of my photography club members. He asked me to photograph his Family Portraits as part of one of my Portrait Workshops, especially since they now have a new addition to the family.

His wife, Kimberly, was one of our Maternity Portrait models for a Workshop that I held back in July of last year.

I frequently make these types of arrangements as a benefit to the Club Members and my studio.  I love inviting the Club Members to participate as our model for various type of Workshops and Photo Shoots.

BIG “Thank you’s ” go out to Jeremy, Kimberly, and the Family for participating in this Family Portrait session.

This Family is no stranger to us.  We photographed Ashley’s Senior Portraits a couple of years ago and she has modeled for several of my photography workshops.  Erika has just recently joined the workshop classes as a model.

As anyone can imagine, these two sisters show nothing both sisterly love towards each other…

Most of our Standard Portrait sessions give the Family the opportunity to have 2 or 3 outfit changes within the same session…

…in addition, they will have the opportunity for 2 background or set changes.

As we began to wrap-up, I decided that it was finally time for Mom to have her individual portrait taken.

Melissa’s portrait turned out even better than I had anticipated. Here, she is absolutely radiant.

“Thank you!” to the Pipes Family for giving me the honor to capture these special moments together and another BIG “Thank you” to Melissa for her wonderful daughters and their assistance with our Workshops.

]]> http://mendior.com/blog/2011/01/02/pipes-family-holiday-portraits/feed/ 0 http://mendior.com/blog/2010/10/15/new-wedding-photography-products/ http://mendior.com/blog/2010/10/15/new-wedding-photography-products/#comments Fri, 15 Oct 2010 21:44:11 +0000 Administrator http://mendior.com/blog/?p=145 We are excited to announce that we are now offering new products for all of our wedding packages.

These new products are listed above at no additional cost.

Custom Labeled CD and CD Case:

We will design a custom CD label and CD Case from image of the wedding event.  This way this item is a “One of a Kind” product.

Custom Print Box:

Like the CD Case, these Custom Print Boxes are designed with images from the actual Wedding event on both the top lid and bottom cover.  These are 4″x6″ print size box and come in 3 different print quantity sizes, 100 prints, 250 prints, and 400 prints.

Proof Books:

This is an 8 1/2″ x 11″ spiral bound Proof Book.  The Client will receive a tangible printed book of the images from their wedding day in addition to the digital images on the CD. We created this product for our Clients to share their special day among friends and family members without everyone huddling around a computer system.

We are confident that our Clients will love these new products.  Please feel free to contact us if you should have any questions or comments.

]]> http://mendior.com/blog/2010/10/15/new-wedding-photography-products/feed/ 0 http://mendior.com/blog/2010/04/26/portrait-elvis-lives/ http://mendior.com/blog/2010/04/26/portrait-elvis-lives/#comments Mon, 26 Apr 2010 02:35:46 +0000 Administrator http://mendior.com/blog/?p=127 How Cool is this?!  I recently had the pleasure of photographing a professional Elvis Tribute Artist, Larry “L-vis” Stilwell.

Funny story is that I bumped into Larry while walking out of a donut shop in my neighborhood.

As he walked towards me, I could not help to notice how much he looked like Elvis.

I jokingly told him that he reminded me of “The King”. He laughed and told me to look at the back of his truck.

On the back glass of his SUV was his logo sign “Larry L-vis Stilwell”.  Turned out that he really is a professional full time Elvis Tribute Artist.

So, immediately I offer to take his portraits to help him build his portfolio with some professional images.

Here are some of Larry’s links where you can preview some of his web sites…

Larry L-vis Stilwell:

Web Site -  http://www.larry-lvis.com

Facebook page – http://www.facebook.com/people/Larry-Stilwell/1081207794#!/larry.stilwell?ref=ts