What's in a Package?

The other day I was thinking about print delivery. I was trying to decide how to best package prints in a pleasing way.

When you go to any "chain" portrait studio your prints are delivered in a cheap envelope with a window. These envelopes usually have "Portraits" stamped on them in bold letters. They are just as cheesy as when your school portraits used to come home.

I thought a lot about how to stylishly package my prints.

I wanted to package my prints in a way that showed how much I care for my clients prints and their business. I did not want to hand my client prints in a plain envelope marked "portraits".

So after looking around the house and dragging my wife through the local craft stores, I came up with a solution I am happy with.

Using tissue paper and twine I wrapped the prints and placed a thank you card in a clear plastic presentation folder. So to give you an idea of how your prints will arrive I snapped a photo of my packaging.




Enjoy,
Chris

Photo Session

I had a photo session the other day at O. O. McIntyre Park District's Raccoon Creek County Park. This was a session with a brother and sister. We had a great time taking the pictures and I really enjoyed the shoot. The park provides a great place to photograph. Take a look, if you want to arrange your own photo session contact me.(just click the link)

So here are the photos. They were taken with natural light. On a few I had to use a little fill flash to bring out the shadows.



Jenny was a great subject we shot several poses and had a lot of fun.



It took Eric a little while longer to warm up to camera. Lilly the dog was the easiest subject though.


Thanks for looking and Enjoy.

Where Did Summer Go

Summer, so many plans, but where did it go???

With a new job getting the kids ready for school it was hectic. It was a wet summer and the garden did not do well but we did get some stuff canned. I have not been out shooting like I wanted to. With fall coming I hope to change that. I had my first portrait shot the other day and I am happy with the results. I have a couple of ideas for some shoots but lining up willing participants may be difficult. Last night I forced my self to go out and shoot a little and got some results I am happy with. I also have some new gear and will be talking about it later.

So now for the pictures. I ventured out after dinner to O. O. McIntyre Park District's Raccoon Creek County Park. I thought I would just hike around and see what jumped out as interesting. While hiking I ran across a mushroom. With light I used my tripod and 10mm extension tube on my 70-300mm.



I shot a quick Panorama overlooking the hills of the area.



While leaving I grabbed a bracketed shot of the Hummingbird Gazebo to try to put together an HDR. Using QTPSFSGUI



Last I stopped in town at the Bandstand in the Gallipolis City Park and snapped another set of bracketed shots for an HDR of the Bandstand after dark.



Thanks for looking and enjoy!

Vacation

I am still working on post processing my vacation pictures so I will throw some out here and there. You can view a larger image or go directly to the gallery by clicking on a photo.

We left May 24 for 8 days and 7 nights at Walt Disney's Pop Century Resort. We left right after school was done and drive through the night. We arrived at 7:15 in the morning and got checked in. Our room wasn't ready of course, so we freshened up and headed to Magic Kingdom. We arrived for park opening and headed for Dumbo the Flying Elephant first off. When we got in line we were up for the second trip of the day and with the sun out it began to rain.




We rode a few other family favorites including Peter Pan, Big Thunder Mountain Rairoad, Pirates of the Caribbean, and the Haunted Mansion. We had lunch at Columbia Harbor House and headed back to the room for a much needed nap. After a nap we started back to the park and it was really cloudy! We rode Buzz Lightyear Space Ranger Spin and rain looked emanate so we headed to an inside ride the Carousel of Progress. When we exited it was an absolute deluge. With no end in sight and 3-4 inches of water everywhere we decided to call it a day. I did not get many pics on the first day.

So day 2 finally rolled around and it was off to Disney's Hollywood Studios for Star Wars Weekends. At opening we made a dash for the most infamous of villians, Darth Vader.




After Vader Jango Fett was close so we ventured over to see him.





We also visited Mace Windu, Princess Leia, and Ahsoka Tona before running into some jawa's. I stayed back but they moved in to try to trade Trevor's camera for a hair clip. Good thing he did not trade.




We also ran into some clone troopers before scouting a place to watch the parade. After the parade we returned to the room for a nap. After a nap we went back to Studios for the evening. We timed it just right because we arrived as the rain was ending.



We rode a few rides and headed back to the room. I left for the Magic Kingdom on my own for some photos during Extra Magic Hours.






Enjoy,
Chris

I'm Back

The past few weeks have been very busy. While on vacation I was offered a new job that is 3 miles from my house instead of 37 miles. So between the transition, my garden which was overgrown with weeds and life in general I have not had time to post so here goes.

Chris

Back from Vacation

Just returned from vacation and had a really good time despite a few issues. During the second day of the trip my Sony 70-300mm f4.5-5.6 "G" lens quit auto focusing. I neglected to bring my Minolta 75-300mm with my so I was stuck manually focusing this lens the rest of the trip and using my 50mm f1.7 for portraits. I love this lens for macro work, portraits, and for its zoom so needless to say I was disappointed. So Monday when I got back I shipped it to Sony's Laredo Texas service center for repair. It should be a warranty repair and I have heard only good things about Sony's repair services.

Here is a teaser from sunrise at Amelia Island Plantation.



Enjoy,
Chris

Vacation

I was hoping to put up another post before we are off to vacation, but things did not work out. I was hoping to get on at work Saturday but we had severe thunderstorms and the power was out for 2 hours and we ended up being busy any way. So Sunday we had a Cub Scout pack hike in the afternoon. Monday Isaac had a school picnic and parent conferences in the evening. Tuesday at work it was a busy shift. So basically the week was shot and here it is Thursday and we leave tomorrow after school for a week at Walt Disney World. While there I know I will have plenty of shots to discuss since last time we took 2300 photos. So I will get back here in a little over a week to add some more to the Evolution of the Shot.