Where have I been?

I know, I’ve been gone for awhile. I haven’t done any shooting in the past few weeks other than messing around, so I don’t have much to post but I do have some great things to talk about.

First, I went to the ImagingUSA conference for Professional Photographers of America which was excellent. I was able to meet Anne Geddes, baby photographer extraordinaire, I listened to a great presentation from Sandy Puc’ on newborn photography, learned a ton about business from the lovely Carol Andrews and the incredibly knowledgeable Ann Monteith. I was also lucky enough to attend a class by Mr. Jon Woodward. It was like drinking through a fire hose, but it was very informative. I hope to sit in one of his weeklong classes in the future. Man did I learn a lot. There were several others that I learned from as well but these people just blew my mind time after time.

Second, I just signed a deal with Marathon Press to be a member of their Marketing Advantage Program. This program will provide me with the tools and knowledge I’ll need to market myself more effectively and grow my business. It isn’t cheap, but they are a well respected company in the photography world and their products and services come highly recommended. I look forward to working with them in the future.

Third, I’ve joined the PPofSC. They are the Professional Photographers of South Carolina organization. They are the local branch of PPA and like PPA, have the goal of educating photographers with the hopes of raising the level of photography of all their members. This translates into higher quality work produced by the photographers and better products and services for our clients. In addition to joining, they are having their upcoming conference starting Feb. 6^th. I’m looking forward to that as I will again be learning from Mrs. Sandy Puc’ and getting an opportunity to learn from Ron Nichols. Great stuff.

Forth, if I haven’t gotten enough of Mrs. Puc’ by then, in March I’m scheduled to attend her “Tots 2 Teens” tour coming here to Columbia. I can’t get enough of this woman. I bought her DVD from her “Bellies and Babies” tour last year because I missed that. Now I’ve purchased her “Bellies and Babies” package which provides more educational and artistic materials for me to learn and grow with. I look forward to getting that and seeing her again in March when I’m sure I’ll purchase her T&T package, whatever that will turn out to be. She is my idol I guess. I know this may not be a great thing to say, but if I could remake myself, I would be the intellectual and artistic child of Jon Woodard and Sandy Puc’. My little brain probably can’t handle the amount of knowledge I could gain from those two, but gosh if I could grab a bunch from each of them I’ll have no trouble being successful and making beautiful art for all my clients.

Anyway, I think I’ve gotten you caught up. If anyone actually reads this keep your attention here for the near future as we will be rolling out a new web site, new blog, and so new photography as I have two great shoots coming up.

Thanks for visiting

David M.

So you've seen the maternity, here is the result.

Well, you’ve seen the maternity shots, now it’s time to see the after affect. This is Averie Grace, the beautiful daughter of Leslie and Ronnie. She really didn’t want her picture taken this day, and it was cold in my garage, too cold for a newborn so that was my fault for not getting the heater going soon enough. All that being said, she still took some beautiful pictures.

Another maternity shoot - Leslie and Ronnie

This one was shot shortly after the first, so I haven’t made any changes yet. I’m still experimenting with the light direction and background. I love this black velvet. I bought it at the fabric store, 10 yards of 60 inch wide black velvet. Cut it in half and sewed it together side by side. Made a 10 x 15 backdrop basically, give or take a few inches. If you decide to do this, be careful how you sew it together as velvet has a grain and if you don’t match the grain, half the background with be shiny and the other have dark. You need to match the grain, it is critical. To tell, just lay the two pieces side by side on the floor under a light, one side may be dark and the other shiny, if so, switch one, so they are either both shiny or both dark, then sew it together like that. You’ll be glad you did.

What kind of blog friend am I?

What kind of blog friend am I that I could let the new year pass without so much as a “have a good one” to my reader friends? I’m sorry it’s late, but Happy New Year! Now that I’ve said that let me get back to work so I can show you all some more photographs.

Decided to go to ImagingUSA conference

I’m a member of the PPA…new member, and so far all I’ve done is listen to a webinar telling me what their website already told me about the services they offer. I don’t mean that to sound bad, it’s just that I haven’t had an opportunity to use their services yet. I’m still in the fledgling stages of all this you know. Yesterday afternoon, my wife calls and says that she believes I should go to the conference in Phoenix in January because she feels like it will be a good way to jumpstart my business. I agree with her, we have talked about this before and I thought the money was too much to justify but she made some valid points. If I spend $2500 going to this conference and the pre-sessions I want to attend, and it saves me from making big mistakes from the beginning and it sets me up to succeed from the start, then it is money well spent. So, I’m going.

Now I’m a planner. I’ve been to several conferences for my regular geek job, including my favorite, Microsoft TechEd, which I’ve attended several times. Each time I plan on going to a conference, I go through the scheduled classes and events and plan out my time there. I don’t always follow the plan as once you are there you learn more about what the sessions are like and find that you may want to change some things, but I do this anyway. I don’t know if it is time well spent or not but it makes the planner in me happy. So, in case anyone is curious…here is my plan:

Thursday & Friday
9am - 5 pm	The Business of Photography
Thursday 7pm	Coyotes vs. Lightning Hockey
Saturday
9am - 5pm	All I Know: Mastering Light
7pm-1030pm	Coyotes vs. Stars Hockey
Sunday
7-830am	Importing and Organizing Images with Lightroom
9-1030	The Magic of Posing and Lighting (The Lost Art)
11-1230	Bellies and Babies
5-630pm	Profitable Portraits
7-9pm	Under the Desert Sky - Opening Night Party
Monday
7-830am	From Ordinary to Extraordinary in Children's Photography
9-1030	Retouch Secrets of the Masters
11-1230	Portraiture in Today's World
5-630	2008 Benchmark Survey Unveiled: What it takes to Succeed
7-830	Anne Geddes
Tuesday
730-9	The Joy of Pricing
1-230	The Structure of an Event - Event and T&I
3-430	The Subtle Art of Family Portraiture
5-630	How to Photograph Everyone
7-830	PPA Awards and Degree Ceremony
830-1030	Nashville…Next Stop! Closing Night Party

Yes, that is Hockey on the schedule. I figure if I’m going to go across the country for a conference, spend all this money and vacation time from my geek job, then maybe I should have a few hours dedicated to just relaxing and enjoying something not related to photography. I happen to be a southern boy who loves hockey. Well, I’m not very southern, I just happen to live down here. But I love it. We have a minor league team in town, the Columbia Inferno (ECHL) but they are taking a break this season in hopes of building a new arena in time for next season…unfortunately I don’t think it is going to happen. Anyway, I need my hockey fix, and I’ve never been to an NHL game, so I’m going to at least one of these. Anyone who wants to go with me, let’s go!

One last thing, sorry I didn’t post some of the other shoots yesterday. I got really busy at home. I’ll try my best to get them up today. Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. I really appreciate it.

Shots from my first maternity session ever

Good morning, and thanks to those who commented about my first post. It's great to have someone actually read something you've written. I wanted to start off with a bang and show some images from a maternity shoot I had not too long ago. I have two more shoots I'll upload images from as well, but this is Allison and Kyle's shoot.

Little heart fingers...yes, I stole it from someone, not my idea. Not sure who but thanks to whomever I stole this from.

Pretty standard pose here. Nothing big.

I liked this image. If I could learn how to color the flower one color and make the rest black and white I would...haven't gotten that far in Photoshop yet. But I will.

Hope you liked these. I'll post more later.

David M.

My web site

I forgot to mention my web site...shame on me. http://www.davidmphotography.com
Check it out too.