Quick Entry 6/27 - I'm finding that Twitter is working great. I received several emails liking the idea as all they need to do is go to Twitter and see what I'm up or planning without having to join or follow.I should make an entry most days of the week.
Quick Entry 6/23 - Had to cancel the patriotic/vintage photoshoot as we only had 4 sign up for it. Disappointing as it is my 2nd favorite next to capturing the wonderful expressions of the children as they sit on Santa's lap (which I hope to be able to do again this year after missing last year). I will, however, use the extra time to take some photographs of our beautiful area and also work on my post-processing of the portraits I take. (I do realize that there are about 8 - 10 families who make many of the photoshoots and to them I send out a warm thank-you).
June 21, 2010 - (This is added to the June 18th blog entry). For the Fathers Day photoshoot I was asked to print and matte some photographs for two mothers to be used for Fathers Day. One mother who had 3 different photographs printed at 8 x 10 and matted to fit 11 x 14 frames emailed me this morning saying in her words "...were a HUGE hit..." with the father and grand-fathers. Needless to say it made me feel awefully good. This is something that I had been hoping would happen for over a year now because as I work on each and every photograph you get I can tell which ones would just be adorable matted, framed, and hanging somewhere in your home; infact if I had the wall space I would probably hand them in mine :) Also remember I can now print and matte some photographs for you and as I get use to the new, top of the line printer the prints will become even better and sharper. And this way I can make sure the colors are as I want them to be. I can use a white matte which I keep on hand or you can buy a matte and frame set at Walmart and I will frame if for you if you like. Believe me when I tell you that I learn something from every shoot and aim to be the best photographer you can get in Western NC. And so as I photograph your children growing you can watch as I grow in my photographic skills. Remember, I'm a Marine 1st, a special ed teacher 2nd, and a photographer 3rd so I'm still learning :)
I also have made contact with a wonderful mother at the the School Board and she will be mentioning my offer to the Elementary School secretaries at the end of the month. We may aim at the Kindergarteners and 1st graders first and see how it goes. Now for the June 18th entry...
- First of all thank everyone who has supported my efforts, given me valuable feedback, and trusted me to provide you with memorable photographs of your family. We are over 6,000 of my 10,000 pound food goal as of now with 4 weddings and about 10 Party Zone events to go (Depending on the turn-out from the email list as it takes hours just to set-up and take the sets down, I may start to use some Party Zone events to photograph sports teams and/or classes. In order to meet the 300 pound minimum goal for the 8-10 hours of work involved on the photoshoot day it takes 12 - 14 familes to sign up). As my goal is to raise food for the needy (not to make money) I am willing to try different things until I can find the right formula just as I would if I were trying to make money. The last 2 email photoshoots raised 375 pounds with 16 families/seniors and 313 pounds with 12 families. I may end up only scheduling email photoshoots once every month or two. They are really time consuming as besides the photoshoot day itself I spend hours and hours getting ready for it as I try to make sure all the bases are covered and then it is the time spent preparing the photographs/portraits after the photoshoot. For 300 pounds or more I find it all worth it.
One thing about nice photographs/portraits is that if one doesn't get them they probably won't miss them. But if they do get them they will look back in later years and say I'm glad we did.
As the year moves into its 2nd half I've learned a lot and have been slowly making a few minor changes in the way I go about things. For one I've decided to photograph more weddings then I planned to. Infact I've received a couple of referrels from a wonderful mother who has been allowing me to take photographs of her children for over a year now. But in order to do that I am phasing out photographing children's birthday parties (which, like weddings, usually occur on a Saturday).
As I've learned that the green-screen works well for 3/4 body photographs to shoulder and head shoots such as for Seniors and Cap & Gown photographs, I will be using complete sets for the other Party Zone events such as I used or the "Spring has Sprung" and "Summertime" photoshoots. I plan on investing in about 3 more backgrounds to go along with the 2 colorful ones I have as well as the black and the white ones. I want to make each of the Party Zone events different so I can give you a nice selection of photographs of you and your family.
I also finally, after a lot of talk :) and for a donation to keep me in supplies, have the ability to print and matte the photographs you like the most. For someone who would like many photographs I can order them through a professional lab. Infact I just recently ordered over 100 - 5 x 7's, 6 - 8 x 10's, and 40 thank-you photocards for a recent wedding I photographed.
I am also considering the town events which I have photographed 3 years running. They are basically the same thing each year so I have been thinking about putting a slidevideo together of the previous events for folks to download. And selfishly, then I can go and just enjoy them.
Panther Football is just around the corner which will start the busiest time of year for me. Besides my normal scheduled events I will be photographing the Varsity Football games for the 3rd year in a row.
Take care...
April 26, 2010 - Had a very busy weekend starting with pre-homecoming photographs and video clips at Cullasaja Elementary and a wedding rehearsal Thursday, photographing the Cullasaja homecoming on Friday, and then photographing Jennifer's beautiful wedding on Saturday from the salon to the reeption. Sunday was a little disappointing as we were only able to raise 111 pounds for our neighbors in need. But as of today we have raised 943 pounds of food for the month with another 500 or so pounds being added tomorrow from Jennifer's wedding. Will break a 1,000 pounds for the month which will bring the total for 2010 to over 4,700 pounds. We are well under way of meeting my goal of 10,000 pounds for 2010 with 8 months remaining in the year. Thank you all!
With Mother's Day on the 2nd Sunday there will only be one Party Zone event in May which will be held on the 23rd.
I will be putting together a videoslide show of the Cullasaja School soon. And a very special thanks goes out in advance to Mr. Brown and Kerri Willet of Cullasaja and Eric Rogers of Drake software for their input and support in the project. I hope to make it a memorable, heartwarming and a thoughtful rememberance of the wonderful community school which has served so many for so long. It, as with everything on the site, is not for sale or profit but rather as a community service for the beautiful town of Franklin and a tool to provide memorable photographs and portraits to its wonderful families while helping to provide food for our neighbors in need through Care-Net.
Side Note: After hearing that Franklin had been named a Gateway Community through the Appalachian Trail Conservancy I remember they asked me to use some photographs I had taken and were on my website. As I hadn't seen them myself although I had been meaning to check it out and there they were. 6 of the 7 photographs (all except for the "Trail to Siler Bald" by Franklin'sown Michael Rogers - it was an honor to have my photos in with his) on page two are Beautiful Franklin photographs and they give credit at the bottom. If you would like to see the artical in the A.T. Journey click here and scroll down to A.T.Journals May/June 2009 and then on Trail Towns. It is in PDF format and you will be able to see them on page 2. Made me feel good.
April 2, 2010 - As I don't like to accept cash (I would use it to buy more food for the needy) I would accept things like CD-R's (Partial to Sony or TDK - Sony can be found at K-Mart and TDK at Radio Shack and sometimes at buy one and get one free) - and white Memorex sleeves (Wal-Mart) to place them in. I order my cards, envelopes, plastic sleeves from www.redriverpaper.com and use greeting card 60 lb Premium Matte Double Sided item #1567 (50 for $16.25) or item #1569 (100 for $35.15) both are 7 x 10 which fold to 5 x 7. I also use white envelopes item #7163 which fit the 5 x 7 cards (100 for $12.59), The plastic see through envelope resealable bag which I place your card, envelope, CD/DVD with while sleeve is the A7 which sells for $6.99 for a 25 pack. Please let me know you donated the items so I can give you a proper Thank-You. Little things like this mean a lot to me.Items can always be dropped off at the Party Zone or brought to a photoshoot.
March 30, 2010 - Its wonderful to announce that Beautiful Franklin and the families that participated in the photoshoots, birthdays, weddings, etc.raised over a TON (2,165 pounds) of food during the month of March to help for our neighbors in need. That plus the 1,153 pounds raised during January and Februsry brings us to 3,318 pounds for the year. What a great start for my goal of 10,000 pounds during 2010. Thank- you all! I don't know how many photographs and portraits I've worked on so far this year but I think its close to a gazillion :)
NEW - Feed a Family for a Week: Although I haven't set a number for the amount of food one brings I would like to start asking that a family consider bringing a brown grocery bag or milk box full of food and personal items such as mouth wash, toothpaste and soap. The milk box is what Care-Net gives the food out in - it also helps me load the food into my little Mazda - By the way, for the Easter shoot I needed to make 2 trips in order to get the 583 pounds to Care-Net! A grocery bag or milk box woul be the equivelent of $15.00 to $20.00 worth of food if you look for specials (Ingles,for example, has pork and beans on sell 5 for $3.00). I've told a few people that if they plan on attending a photoshoot get a milk box and start putting goods in it in starting with what they may have in their cabinet but haven't used. Not including items such as meat, bread and milk your bag or milk box would be a great start to helping feed a family of four for a week. And when I see a lot of food it really makes me feel as if my work is appreciated. I teared up and was on cloud nine when the total for the Easter shoot broke the 500 pound mark. It really gets me motivated thinking of how many families we helped! Remember my first effort 2 years ago netted "0" pounds :) We've come a long way since then.
NEW COOL DVD PRESENTATIONS: Besides the greeting cards I give out I, as you may already know, have started putting together short but I hope entertaining presentations of the events. As it takes another 4 - 6 hours getting the photographs sized right, sequenced as I want them and adding my own text slides, video clips and selecting the music I will start putting a mimimun of food raised for events such as Birthdays and Weddings if they would like one. And its really not much. For a birthday party it will be a minumum of 150 pounds and for a wedding it will be 350 pounds.
SPRING HAS SPRUNG ON APRIL 11th - It will be colorful with a park bench, flowers, plants and little critters. As I found out that if I work straight through to 5 or so I could photograph 40 families so I've kind of set my limit to that. Some of you already know I have a numbering system but what you may not know is that one can come when I'm setting up, uaually start at 9 am, and get a number to come back later. I have set up a Best Bet Time card so, for example, if you wanted to come during the 2 to 3 o'clock hour I would give you a number that would most probably be photographed during that hour. I will also have music and some treats to help pass the time - its also fun just to watch what some of the other children are doing during their time to be photographed :)
WEDDINGS: I really need a little time to prepare for a wedding so I would ask that one gves me at a minumum of 6 weeks notice. I will attend the rehersal then photograph the time at the salon, getting ready, the ceremony and the reception if you would like. In other words, besides the rehearsal your wedding day will be photographed.
March 8, 2010 - Just a short note about the wonderful wedding I photographed Saturday. The church was a little small and the lighting was somewhat dim for a good exposure without the flash but the more than kind Reverand allowed me to use a flash which I bounced off the celling. He also allowed me to position where I could get the best photographs.
As I start working through the photographs (the 24 thumbnails were just a quick run through so I could tell the story) I am already planning for the next wedding. I'm compliling a list of what worked (most of everything worked well) and a few things to watch for. I'm also going to find a portrait with which I can blend the vows a la a couple of the finished portraits here. For furture wedding where the bride and groom write their own vows I will use the beautiful wording from those. Oh - the Quantum battery worked great! Full recharges in a little over a second.
March 1, 2010 - Well here we are on the edge of Spring. As I'm getting more and more into flash photograpy for events such as birthday parties and weddings I've learned some valuable lessons. 1) That when the flash heats up the recycle time really slows down which could prohibit capturing a precious moment. The remedy as far as I can tell is to bring a second flash and change it after a predetermined number of flashes. This will allow the 1st flash to cool down while using the 2nd. I happen to have a 430EX II besides my 580EX II which I will start bringing until I get a 2nd 580 (which is more powerful). 2) That the flashes burn through batteries which in themselves can be costly and could burn out at a time when I may need fresh ones. The remedy is the Quantum SC battery which can hold a charge for up to 400 flashes and the recycle time only takes a little over a second. I will order the battery today and have it prior to the wedding on Saturday. A little costly but a good investment. One day I should have everything I need :)
We've reached over 1,000 pounds of food in the 1st two (cold) months of the year and that was with a postponement due to bad weather. I feel things will start to pick up now. To put it in perspective 1,000 pounds fed 25 famlies for a week (using Care-Nets numbers of approximate 40 pounds per family of four). Or to look at it another way, we collected enough food to fed one family for half a year. Thanks everyone!
Also remember that when I go to an event I just don't take snapshots. As Ansel Adams once said good photographs are not taken they are made (Even in the old days photographers would use lab techniques to enhance their photographs). So at an event besides some group snaphots to help fill in the story, I look for individual photographs I can work into a portrait. Then when I load them into the computer I look at each one (mainly pose and expression) and see what can do with it; cropping and foreground/background adjustment to name a couple of things. Remember I may take over a hundred but only use less then half. Some just don't meet my expectaions and would just be another picture. I want them to stand out.
It looks like the March 14th photoshoot may have at least 20 families attend - could be even more. For the Valentine photoshoot we had 14 families, half of which were new to the photoshoots. I think as long as my photography skills improve and the participantes like the final product the word will spread even further. At that time scheduling may become necessary as I hate for people to have to wait. And if anyone wants to help for a little while at a shot just let me know. Any help is always appreciated. Writing names on board etc.
And remember, at this and future shoots each family will receive a 5 x 7 folded greeting card with envelope with a photo I select printed on the front. It is part of my new packaging for the delivery of the CD. The photo will usually be printed with muted colors to give it a very classy (I feel) look.
Prior posts:
January 31, 2010 - For those who visit the site you notice that I have changed a few things; adding this BLOG for one. At times I have tried to relay uncoming events and other things through remarks within an album but figure this may be a better way.
As this is my third year of my photographic journey I seem to have fallen into the "3rd year thing" of the teaching profession. I have been told and experienced it myself, that the 3rd year was the year when all the things you have learned in the first two start coming together. And that is the same experience I am having with photography and what I want to use it for. Over the Christmas break I started to get "my ducks in line" for 2010. I have been working on improving of my photography skills such as composition, lighting techniques and post-processing of the images. You should be seeing a difference from when I first started and will see even greater improvement in the future.
And with an ambitious goal of the amount of food I want to raise in 2010 (10,000 pounds) and needing to be more organized in my efforts, I have set-up a annual schedule. As of today I have 8 birthday parties and 2 weddings scheduled, a monthly visit to Serendipity Salon and Spa and 20 open events at the Party Zone (most 2nd and 4th Sundays). I have also scheduled three town Summer events I enjoy photographing; the Taste of Scotland (3rd year), Independence Day (4th year) and the Folk Heritage Festival (4th year). And finally I have scheduled Football Fridays in the Fall as the Panther Varsity Football Games will be photographed for the 3rd year in a row but with more involved coordination with fhspanthers.com to bring you the best of Franklin Football!
2010 Schedule is here
PS: I'm really looking forward to the new "Baby Shots" which will be soley for babies and held the last Sunday in March, June, September, and November. For a donation of food (Baby Formula and Food for these events), new parents will have the opportunity to have baby portraits made every 3 months (except between September and November which is 2) while helping to provide for the babies born to those in need during this difficult time. The lighting and props will be set-up for the precious and beautiful babies.
Babies, of course, may be brought to any event as I always have some baby props and posers with me.
For more of January 31, 2010 Blog entry click here (About food donations; how much should I bring?)
February 22, 2010 - I had a very good visit with my mother who is a very vibrant 87 year old golfer and line-dancer ;) While visiting I stopped by Michael's and Joanne Fabric and picked up some more props for the Easter photoshoot - March 14 (I will add them to last year's props) and a few more pieces of soft fabric for the upcoming baby shoot (Mar 28). Both on a Sunday and both at the Party Zone. Besides more flowers I bought some over sized Easter eggs and some really cute bunnies, clicks, and Flowered Easter hats for the girls. (I actually bought the bonnets and flowers and my wonderful mother hot glued the flowers on them. They are precious and make a beautiful addition to the portraits (They are a little different from last years). See some of last year's thumbnails here. I should have those props in addition to the great ones I just purchasedd
Since the last entry I have scheduled 2 more weddings and several more birthday parties.
I'm also trying to head for a 500 pound (or more) per Party Zone event goal. Watch for the public events section in the Franklin Press the week before. You can also pick-up mini-flyers (I call them refrigerator reminders) at the Party Zone. Remember I do accept donations to help pay for the rental of the room (donations above the cost of the room go towards buying more food - for Valentine's it paid for approximately 120 more pounds. (Some may go to help with supplies for the free cards, ink, etc. if needed)
Our event for Valentine's Day (the first one) netted close to 300 pounds and I know some famlies who could not make it. It seems that once a family attends an event they are very likely to return. If the events start to get crowed I will need to start some type of reservation system and maybe add another date.
I am also going to give each family who participates a 5 x 7 greeting card with envelope with one of their portraits printed on the card and the Beautiful Franklin Logo with Portraits for Food 2010 printed on the back. The inside will be blank for you to write in. Your CD will be placed with the card and envelope in a protective sleeve. If you more events you will have have a nice collection at year's end. In order to help me wil the cost of the cards, envelopes, ink CDs and protective sleeves I have put a small donation jar in the Party Zone, Serendipity's, and Chocolate Obsession. I plan on placing a new order each month to make sure I have the supplies on hand.
I decided to make the theme for May 1950's Retro. It should be cute and colorful.