On Location Portraiture's Jpeg Blog

Mark Owens Headshots

Mark Owens is a musician, actor, and screenwriter, and he's intending to go to L.A. this summer. Here are his headshots photographed at the studio:

Congrats, Spindrift!

I photographed Spindrift Beck and her brother, John Henry, just before the holidays. Spindrift is apparently an amazing swimmer, and she's in this week's issue of Sports Illustrated in 'Faces in the Crowd'. Earlier this year she set the national independent-school record in the 100-yard breaststroke (1:00.66), breaking the mark of Olympian Caroline Bruce. She's qualified for three events in the Olympic trials. Here's a video of her.

Congrats, Spindrift!

Added 1/26/08: And look at this! Spindrift is also on WFAA (Channel 8) - the show will air on Sunday the 27th at 10:30 pm, but here is the video clip in case you miss it.

Smith & Nguyen Family Portraits

The Smiths and the Nguyens had family reunions during the holiday season, and wanted family portraits created in their homes:

Rachell Shrouder's Headshots

Rachell Shrouder is a country singer who is about to move to Nashville. I photographed her senior portraits around four years ago - and now she needs headshots for her move!

Cara Williams Senior Portraits

Cara's a huge Beatles fan and is a writer. Her senior portraits were created at the studio.

3,810 Miles Later

We're back!

We had a wonderful time visiting family, seeing our old haunts, and attending the PPA convention in Tampa. Here are some images: Erin and our nephew Brendan on Christmas, my mom and dad's Christmas tree, Annapolis on New Year's Eve, Mama Lou and our newest nephew Alistair, Alistair with Mom, Alistair on Mom's shoulder, Alistair on an upset moment, on a happy moment, The King's Arms Tavern in Williamsburg (I worked as a host and waiter there for almost four years in college), my friend Mark Mollner's daughter Madeline while we were indoor rock climbing, our niece Archer, Archer looking out her home's window, myself and Archer, my brother Mike, Mike, Archer, and Carter, the view outside our hotel window in Tampa, Erin and I at Disney World, and a familiar sight at Epcot.

I was also shooting with a new (but old) camera of mine. I've become fascinated by 3D photography lately, and I recently found and bought a Viewmaster camera on Ebay. It's a camera made in the fifties that takes the slides that can be put into Viewmaster reels. Here's a link of the camera itself (the reels from the trip will be at my studio soon).

Erin

I happen to be married to my best friend. I'm so lucky to find myself in a marriage with a deepening love, affection, and appreciation as the years pass. Here are a few recent images of Erin - preparing for her 'Amethyst' concert at the Pocket, during the 'Amethyst' concert (she performed and sang her own compositions, mostly from her new album), at Texas Stadium before the McNamara shoot, an image from a class I gave to other photographers about lighting, during a family trip in Arkansas, on the cruise to Cozumel, visiting Williamsburg with Mark, on Mom and Dad's boat, and an unused promo photo for 'Amethyst'.

We'll be on the road heading back to Dallas by today. The next post will include some images from the trip itself, and then I'll be posting Cara Williams's senior portrait session!

Disney World

Well, the convention has ended and we will be headed back to Dallas very soon (like I've written earlier, these entries were done before Christmas and are auto-posting while we're on our trip).

But first, we thought we'd go to Disney World for a day and a half. It's where we spent most of our honeymoon, so it should be fun to see what's new and reminisce about what is familiar. Here's an image from our honeymoon in 1994. Objects may appear younger, thinner, and with more hair.

Raggedy Ann

Valecia and I did another concept shoot earlier in 2007, and I basically need to pick one of the images below for print competition in 2008. This is a sort of 'variations on a theme'. The concept for the shoot was rooted in news reports at the time about the sexualization of youth - how children are being exposed to sexuality at an earlier and earlier age, and how they're basically being indoctrinated by peer pressure and the media. So, the shoot basically contains my own thoughts on the subject. The model is Layne D'Angelo.

A Banner Year

Okay, it should be official now. I'm not technically allowed to post this until the awards banquet - which is this evening.

2008 is a banner year for myself in two ways - one, I just received my 'Master of Photography' status from the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) this evening, and two, I am the President of the Dallas PPA for 2008.

The first honor is a goal I've had since I started as a professional portrait photographer. It's an achievement earned only by a very small fraction of portrait photographers in the country, and only a handful in Dallas, and it's basically earned by doing very well in the PPA print competitions over an extended period of time and by being an active member of the PPA for several years.

The second honor wasn't a goal of mine, but I am happy to serve an organization that I believe strongly in. The Dallas PPA (the local guild of the PPA) meets on a monthly basis, and it has monthly speakers, but more importantly, it is a powerful networking tool for professional photographers in the area. The goal of the guild, in a nutshell, is to keep each other at the top of their game in service and image quality and support each other in advice and action. We're competitors, naturally, but the Dallas PPA is THE best way to make sure the competition is friendly.

No photos today!

Oh, the craziness!

From left to right, top to bottom: my beautiful wife, from my own promo headshot shoot (photographed by my good friend, Elena Hernandez), setting up during the Chromatic Aberration shoot, motivating a client to smile (maybe that approach didn't work), during Erin's Optimystic shoot, at the old studio, shooting a UT frat party for my friend, Arnie Levine of TOP Photo, Erin on a cruise to Cozumel, myself on the same cruise, ditto, a photo of the two of us at a dance I was photographing, and another image of Erin and I at a high school band dance I covered.

The PPA

The PPA (Professional Photographers of America) is holding their annual convention this year in Tampa - so that's where we are! I try to attend every year, but this happens to be a very special year for me individually (more about that on the 8th).

The convention as a whole is a great way for me to keep my finger on the pulse of the photographic industry, and there are seminars in addition to a superb trade show and print exhibit. Four of my own images will be appearing in the show - and here they are! The first is entitled 'Almost Forever', and it's a bridal portrait of Kristin Yager. The second is 'Black Dahlia', from a forties era concept shoot with Valecia. The third is another concept shoot with V, and it's called 'Chromatic Aberration'. It's basically a joke for photographers. Chromatic aberration is a photographic term and I wanted to illustrate it with another sort of chromatic aberration. Too geeky? Ah well - it was a lot of fun to photograph. The last is 'Nocturne' and is a wedding image of Travis and Kambrie Sanderfer. 'Nocturne' is going to be in the Loan section of the exhibit, which means it's among the best of the best, and it will be printed in the PPA's annual Loan Collection book.

Ibiki

By this time, we're surely missing our own 'child', Ibiki. She's currently staying with Pets Are Inn, a wonderful concept business that finds a temporary home of pet lovers for pet owners. Here are some images of Ibiki over the last couple of years. The last is a cell phone photo.

Meet the Herndons

We'll be with my brother, Mike, and his family in Charlotte, NC, today. The first three images are from our trip to Charlotte in 2005, and the remainder are from our visit with Mike, Carter, and little miss Archer after Christmas last year. I'm sorry, but I have the cutest niece on the planet.

Mike and I both have blond hair, blue eyes, and err, another thing in common. (Waving hypnosis watch over your eyes - you do not see the hair line, you do not see the hair line, you do not....oh forget it).

Mark

Mark Mollner is my good friend whom I met as we were freshmen in college. We roomed together for three years, and have stayed in touch since we graduated. Mark stayed in Williamsburg, but I followed Erin to Texas. The first image is from a cruise Erin and I took with Mark and his wife, Nancy, 4-5 years ago, and the remaining are images of Mark and his family.

We'll be with the Mollners today! (Like I mentioned previously, these posts were actually done before Christmas and are updating themselves on a scheduler).

Colonial Williamsburg

One of Erin's and my favorite places in the world is the small area centering on the Wren Building in Colonial Williamsburg. It's where we met, attended college, and really started our lives as young adults. Naturally, we have a lot of fond memories there.

We're planning on spending the day today walking around campus and CW, and then hopefully drinking Liebotschaner Ale and/or eating peanuts at Gambol's in Chowning's Tavern.

Here are some images from a previous trip to Williamsburg in 2005. The first is Swem Library - I spent countless hours pretending to study there. The second is Crim Dell (to alumni, yes, Erin and I did kiss on the bridge). The third is a statue of Thomas Jefferson, another alumnus. The fourth is the Wren Building, the oldest college building in continuous use in the U.S., the fifth is my freshman dorm, and the last image is the freshman dorm's t-shirt I drew for residents (I was a cartoonist during that time and in high school). Like all cartoons, there's a fair bit of exaggeration, but there are also several inside jokes.

Ch-ch-ch-changes!

A few months ago, I mentioned in the blog about updating the price list. That's still definitely happening, but I got so busy with my current work that I wasn't able to incorporate it as soon as I intended. My intention is to start the new prices in 2008, and I'll post more about that when we return from our trip.

The past year has been all about changes: we changed our location, changed from the concept of shooting in the studio with lights and backdrops into doing all natural light with real furniture and settings, changed our proofing system to private viewings, and changed even little things like the way we do framing. In 2008, I'm going to be continuing with the changes - some just as radical as last year's. More will follow on that later, but for any photographers out there who are familiar with how I shoot, one of the big changes for me shooting-wise is that I intend to go from all tripod shooting to 90% hand-holding shooting.

The changes have not been for change's sake - but a response to the simple fact that the portrait and wedding photography business is undergoing its most radical change in at least 50 years with the advent of the digital age - and that's tied in with other major changes due to the internet. Professional photographers everywhere are scrambling to stay apace, and as one of them, all I can ask is that you all have patience with us.

That said, I believe that all areas of my own business and photographic work are at least equal if not far superior to what I was offering five years ago - when digital was still something in the future rather than the present.

Those who have seen the new studio might find these images interesting - they're what the studio looked like just before I started moving in: