Bill Boards and the new Advertising

Times have changed in the Advertising world of photography. I got a call from a client who was trying to buy stock photos for a billboard but it was too expensive. Then the client said we can take a still from the TV commercial since they are shooting HD and we can get a pretty good image...No go...could not coordinate it so that is when I get the call. " We want you to shoot two images for this ad campaign her is the layout" Ok what is your budget? well the client didn't want to pay for stock and is limited usage for a billboard in the Northwest for limited time...etc...we a agree on a fee..." Who are the model?" we don't have any, any ideas? How much can you pay them? $75 each for a an hour session..." ok....this is Missoula afterall....No casting calls no hair and make up no stylist no models until the day of the shoot. I call my favorite high school senior ( Ms. Teen Montana 2010) she can do it but has to finished by 10 am so she can head off to Idaho...but still no male model for the other shot...Dakotal comes in for the shoot, I happen to have some Everest hats left over from a catalog photo shoot I did for them, perfect..she is perfect for the shot..I tweak my photographic lighting and start shooting showing the image to the Art Director via my small LCD on the back of the camera...30 minutes later we have the shot...give a hug to Dakota and than her. The Art Director goes to my office and I download the images into Lightroom and we begin to edit while the client go walking around Missoula looking for a male model...while we are editing the client calls and sends a pic from his phone to my e-mail...he found the male model working at Butterfly Herbs...he is almost perfect for the shot ( would have been perfect if he played guitar) he has the right look...He arrives at my studio, I tweek the lights and start shooting and within a 30 minutes we have the shot...he leaves and the AD and I go through the selects and I burn her a CD so she can make comps for the client..the next day she sends the comps and the client loves them.....and within a week the images are being prepared for the bill boards....The client calls me a "hero" and well he is right we pulled it off...

First Friday at Begleiter.com Photography Studio

Wow, what a great turn out for FauxPink First Friday at the studio...a constant flow of people at times wall to wall...All the bubbly disappeared before the end of the night and more new people to add to my mailing list. At the end Jill, Shelly and I were all interviewed for TV on KPAX which will run Saturday night. I will place a link to interview when I find it. OK it is late and I have been up since 5 am so I am going to crash. What a fun night signing out Begleiter.com photography in the heart of historic downtown Missoula...

Breasts and Cancer prevention and Photography

About three years ago I was commissioned to photograph Architectural detail of an interior of home in Hamilton Montana. The artist was Jill Meyer of Meyer Design. She had done beautiful work, very classic faux application to a multi-million dollar Italian design home in the middle of the mountains. It was a fun photo assignment, as all architectural photo assignment are for me. I enjoy the lighting challenges, seeing how how other people live and creating visual arresting images of inanimate objects. So how does this connection relate to breast and cancer prevention? Well, as fate would have it, I received an e-mail from Jill about 5 months about entitled " breasts", my wife thought it was another porn solicitor spamming our e-mail. I saw the name Jill Meyer in the subject line and opened it. Since I last met Jill, she had, like many Americans was negatively effected by the economic downturn, her business was on the verge of bankruptcy, she had gone through a divorce, given birth and was diagnosed with cervical cancer. As I had found out Jill is an unsinkable person and an inspirational artist. She took it all in stride and decided to make the most of her financial misfortune and new fortunes, her beautiful son birth had detected early onset of cervical cancer and she was able to fight it because of early detection...Being and altruistic person Jill decided to use her gift as an artist and go on a visual campaign to bring awareness to early testing and detection of breast cancer by painting. Her idea was simple; find breast cancer survivors ask them to dip their breasts into paint, press there breast onto the canvas and paint incorporating the breasts imprints. She and her partner Shelley Bickel joined forces and created their company FauxPink. Since the have exhibited and sold and raised money for their cause. Back to my connection, the e-mail asked if she could barter her services, paint my studio in exchange for photographing her paintings...of course. And now Friday November 6 2009 I will have an opening at my photography studio in downtown Missoula, Montana of her work. To promote the event in a provocative but aesthetic way we gather 8 women who either had breast augmentation or reconstruction due to breast cancer at my studio. I wasn't sure how it would go since I would be the only male photographing 8 women at once naked from the waste up. I set up up my lights, a simple lighting set-up with two Profoto strip lights from about and a white seamless behind. The ladies arrived and I introduced myself to them to make some personal contact. Jill made the announcement of what we were trying to do. I assured them that their face would never be revealed and they could sue me if they were since they did not sign model releases. It was a festive atmosphere, Jill had brought some chocolate and wine and everyone was drinking a glass to ease the tension. Once we all felt comfortable, I was a bit nervous we asked them to take off there tops while Shelly and Jill place paint on their breasts. I went to my office so I didn't appear like a voyeur but when I came out they were all laughing and having fun and my presence was not big deal. In truth I went into artist mode and was really into the creative process of constructing a strong compositional image. I had all the women raise there hands and chins to lift their breasts and shape their torsos and began shooting. They were all in a lineup and my objective was to make sure there breast were all on the same height since we were doing a tight crop and very panoramic image for the poster. The whole session took about 20 minutes to arrange and that was it. I saw that I got the shot and the women were great. They hung around drinking more wine, wiping off the paint and getting dressed while I downloaded the images into Adobe Lightroom began editing and cropping. When I found the shot and cropped I brought them into my office and showed them the results...they were ecstatic. Many of the women told me that it was an empowering experience and thanked me for such a great job. The one women who had the bilateral mastectomy was especially pleased with her willingness to reveal herself, scars and all to strangers. It was a great night and the results were all positive. Tonight is the opening and we will see what the public thinks. The paintings are beautiful and I anticipate a fun party, Jill, Shelly and her mother were all working to transform my studio into a party atmosphere and I am looking forward to seeing what they did...What a great profession I chose....

Canon Camera Choices

In this digital age of photography every year I am confronted with the dilemma of a new purchase.
Being a Canon camera guy, bought my first Canon in 1972, I have been pretty happy with their product, innovation and commitment to building a better camera. Back in the film days I would buy a camera every 10 years, maybe since there was not much innovation back in the film days. That was a good thing because then I could spend my hard earned dollars on better lenses. Perhaps this discipline of waiting has saved me from purchasing the latest " greatest" new digitall model of cameras. I passed over the 50D since I was quite happy with the performance of 40D and there wasn't much of a jump. Now Canon has come up with a 7D with hi res HD movies capabilities ( not to a replace a real HD video camera) but some of the new functions are very enticing, the new auto focus, 8 fps, leveler ( a very cool device to help level the camera and of course the 18mp cmos sensor...all very enticing...but of course it come with a 1700 price tag...The dilemma, pay off some of my debt or increase it by $ 1700..stay tuned later in the wacky world of Begleiter Photography located in the heart of Missoula Montana...a Full service photo studio serving Senior Portraits, Montana Weddings and Commercial photography

The Opening and then

The one year celebration was a stressful endeavor albeit worth noting. The turn out was pretty good, around 50 showed up. Pulling it together, the actually art work, food and basic clean up took it's toll. I ended up exhausted and catching an upper respiratory infection that, if I could have rested, laid me out for the next four days. Advil and Nyquil seem to be my medication of choice ..had some weird dreams..but my health is back and just in time to photograph my sons class and all his students tomorrow. It is the second year I will doing this and I have to admit it is fun and rewarding and somewhat financially sound. I really get to know my sons fellow classmates and they get to know me, plus I meet their parents sort, when they place print orders and the morning is pretty low stress and sometime very comical. A far cry from photographing celebrities and billionaires but personally more relevant to my life.

I do plan to photograph my Missoula photography studio and gallery and post them on my blog. So if anyone is reading can see the current show. I did join the Missoula Downtown association in hopes of making new contacts. I am contemplating on do a Santa Claus sitting in December in collaboration of a new friend Stefan who is a great musician and just moved to town. We both agree we can do a better job then what is out there and at a cheaper price...So my career becomes more and more diverse....oy vey....

One Year later

Well, I celebrating my one year opening of my downtown Missoula Photography studio with an exhibition of personal photographs from Stickeville. Unlike a year ago the weather was decent, cool but sunny and I had a bigger turnout of around 50 people, 4o of them I never met before. There were even three RMSP folks, thanks, Charles, Scott and Jessica. Putting the show together really wiped me out...it is tough having to do everything yourself. I ended up getting a chest cold and not sleeping well. I did manage to have 20 new people to add to my mailing list. A sweet couple from New Jersey visited, they were vacationing in Montana. Real interesting folks and when she finishes her residency is thinking about moving here. There seemed to be a lot of interest in the work, people really took their time to look at the images, which is what it is all about. I am proud of this work and I am seriously considering if any museums my interested in purchasing prints. I am also happy that the show is over and I can get back to the sort of routine of running a studio. As soon as get my health back I will photograph the show and post the images with the "guitar picks and string" frames I painfully put together. Since I could not get the band I wanted for the opening I have to admit I did have fun researching bluegrass greats and downloading their music onto my I-pod for the opening. The show will be up till the end of October when it comes down for another artist to exhibit her work. Which is a relief for me because all I have to do is show up...It is cloudy, cold and windy and I believe fall is moving in .

Wow, Thanks

Wow, I want to thank all of you who have gave me such inspiring responses to my last post. I literally got choked up with your kind and words and support. I suppose that is what I get when I write a post 4:30 in morning. The truth is photography to me is like breathing and if I can't make a living at photography .... so I push on..do my best and keep creating. Call it an obsession, addiction or just plain crazy. Meeting great people like the ones who commented on my blog makes it all worth it... that all for now...oh yeh I suppose I should say Montana Wedding Photographer, Portrait Photogher in Missoula Montana, Crazy insane photographer in Montana and so on...thanks