Hanging out at the refreshment table!

Such a great venue for a show.

Hanging out with the Westwood gang.

A shot with my friend and mentor Gail Nogle, in front of the portrait she inspired.

—–

It was so nice to finally see all the images enlarged, framed and hanging in one place. The best part was find out each person’s favorite image. It was so interesting how everyone seemed to have a different favorite. The show will be on display through the end of the summer, when it moves to the Goodrich Gallery in Dallas. If you are in Plano during July or August, I hope you will stop by and check out the images.

It was quite an undertaking - trying to figure out where to hang everything and getting them spaced out properly. Luckily I had a couple of helpers available to assist!

The show officially opens next week with a reception Thursday night. Click HERE for the details.

Also, its not too late to be a part of the show. Wanna know how?

I started with with a very simple setup - Heather standing at her vanity putting on an earring. There was nothing extra spectacular about the setup or the lighting - in fact, her back is to the camera and you can only see her face in the mirror. I started adding color, then applied lots of very loose brushwork. I finally ended up with a portrait I really liked…

Back several years ago - when I started trying to earn my Master Photographer degree from PPofA, I decided I would try to get a merit with every member of my family. By the time I got my degree, I had successfully entered portraits of everyone in the family - including an image of our Chocolate Lab, Annie- everyone except Heather. I just never had a portrait that I was really excited about.

A few months ago, I entered this image in PPA’s International Image Competition. Not only did the image receive a merit, but it also was selected for the prestigious Loan Collection - an honor reserved for the top images from the competition. At last- mission accomplished!!!

“The Bayswater Omnibus” by Joy

Amazingly, it is not where the idea originated. A client had requested a portrait in the style of her favorite artist - Frida Kahlo. We decided to recreate one of her most famous pieces, “The Bus.”

When the day came to create the image, she decided she didn’t like how she looked in the traditional Indian outfit, so she opted for her wedding dress. It turned out great because it gave the shot such a sense of oddity and contrast.

“The Bus” by Kahlo (top) my image below
  

If you look in the upper right corner of my painting, you will see a small version of Kahlo’s “Bus” - A subtle tip of the hat to the original image.

The crazy thing is… as I look at all the images, mine actually looks more like the Joy painting than the Kahlo. There is a person in black standing at the edge of the image and a man with a hat reading - neither of which are in the Kahlo. How weird is that? Of course, neither of the previous images had a kid in a monkey suit sitting next to a bride, so hopefully that will set mine apart a bit!

I photographed the model in a variety of different poses and angles, then selected the best 4 or 5 images to work with. From there, I chopped the images up into pieces, warped them a bit, then assembled them onto one canvas. The hard part was figuring out exactly where to put them. I had to find a balance between keeping it more or less abstract, but not so scrambled that you couldn’t tell what it was. Once I was satisfied with the arrangement and composition, I adjusted the colors, added some texture overlays and ended up with the final layout. We had a great time shooting it and I was thrilled with the final image.

Last month, I entered it in the Professional Photographers of America’s Electronic Imaging competition - basically a test of your Photoshop/digital skills. The image did well - in fact it was selected to be in next year’s Showcase book. It was a great chance to really stretch myself creatively - what do you think?

It was very exciting to see all these images and I can’t wait to see them all hanging on the wall together.

If you would like to help out with the exhibit, you can sponsor your favorite week and keep the framed print after the exhibit. All of the profits from the print sales will go to charity - so you’ll get some good Karma too! If you are interested, call the studio at 972.596.8888 or send me email.

So which was your favorite image!!???

As most of you know, last year I took on the biggest project of my career with the 40@Forty Project. Over the course of 40 weeks, I created 40 self-portraits - all to commemorate my 40th birthday. It was quite an adventure.
The culmination of the project is going to be an exhibit of 25 of my favorite images from the series. They will be on display at the Courtyard Theater in Plano during July and August, then at the Goodrich Gallery in Dallas during September.

I’m also going to give this exhibit a special twist - by allowing people to sponsor or adopt their favorite week! All the profits from the print sales will go to charity- so you are getting some good Karma too! Each print will have the sponsor’s name on a card next to the piece. At the end of the exhibit, the print is yours to keep - hang it on your wall or (if for some strange reason you don’t want a picture of me in your house) you can just use the frame for something else. The cost is only $125 for a framed 11×14 - too good of a deal to pass up!

The only catch is, the weeks are first-come, first-served - so get going today and make sure you get your favorite!

Here’s all you have to do:
1. View the selected images at:   4040Previews
2. Email me with your first and second choice of images.

It going to be a lot of fun -so sign up today!

http://theonlinephotographer.typepad.com/the_online_photographer/2010/05/letter-to-george.html

When I arrived there, I was shocked to realize that I had been to this place before. It was the same baseball complex where I had photographed my very first paid photo assignment - when I photographed my boss’ little league team several years ago. How funny to return to the same spot and photograph my own kid so many years later!

I’m still working on several of the images I created, but thought I’d share a few grab shots we took while exploring the city.

One of our first stops was the Broadway Theater to catch a performance of Promises, Promises - which was great. We hung around afterwards and got to see Kristen Chenoweth and Sean Hayes.

The next couple of days was a lot of walking around trying to get acclimated to the sensory overload that you get in NYC.

My buddy Chad and I spent several hours shooting in Central Park - trying to get some killer New York images. While we were doing this, Heather took this shot with the point-and-shoot … which was better than most of the stuff I got!

On the last day, we visited Central Park again and happened onto the New York City Aids Walk. It was unbelievable how many people were there. It was just people, people, people as far as you could see.

Now that I’m back home, I’ve got to sort through the hundreds of images on my laptop and separate the keepers from the junk - which could take a while! As I get more of the images sorted, I’ll post them to the blog, so be sure to check back often.