Photo Services

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Mission & Services

Mission Statement
Refreshing your memories is our goal. We help you capture, restore, retouch, and present images that are important to you and your group, company, church, family, or club.

Images recall memories in two important ways; they contain meaningful moments unique to you and your group, and they contain universal symbols. Our goal is to work with you to recognize those elements and then use the best photographic techniques to present them to the viewer. The main goal is not "fine art," but fine art techniques are employed when they achieve the client's goal to communicate to the viewer.

Photo Creation Philosophy
The photograph creation process is about and for the subject communicating to the viewer. It answers the question, "What is the subject's message to the viewer?"

The photograph is not about the photographer.

The photographer helps the viewer understand and relate to the subject. The photographer's role is to find the subject's photogenic message and translate it into a visual language the viewer can understand intuitively and quickly.

"There are always two people in every picture: the photographer and the viewer."
Ansel Adams

Photo Services
Examples of how we implement our Mission include the following:

M_Tom_1045_170x170	We provide photo services to the following clients For-profit companies Non-profit organizations Large family events
	Capture Memories: Event Photojournalism We help you think through a photo storyboard for your event, implement the photography plan, and then create the best-fit final output in prints and/or digital files. We work with available light and spontaneous moments as much as possible. We use strobe lighting sparingly. We set-up studio lighting for in-event personal, couples and group portraits. We seek spontaneous moments and encourage event participants to request photos in real-time.
Nitro Night program cover 2010 170sq	Car Culture Photography Street, shop, and studio photography that captures the art and culture of cruisin', hot rods, and customs.
	Image Editing by Perceptual Re-Imaging (sm) The goal of perceptual re-imaging is to use editing to recapture the original perception of the story and convey in the edited image the original perception to the viewer. This goal is achieved by editing the image perceptually to emphasize the key story-telling elements in the scene, create eye-flow to those elements, and de-emphasize distraction.
BA_Mom_Daughter_after_170sq	Retouch memories We turn your scanned photos and digital snapshots into the best images they can become. We help make your images flattering, professional, and better story-tellers of your original intent and memory of the moment. We retouch your digital images to correct for eye-flow, composition, color balance, dynamic range, and exposure.
BA_Grandma-Grandson_after_170sq	Restore memories ~ photo restoration The restoring process includes the retouching process listed above. We restore and retouch your oldest, faded, and damaged photographs. Whether you're an established company that wants a lobby display of images of the founders from the founding days, or a family that wants to display a hallway gallery of family and friends, we work with existing images to archive your goals. Part of the motivation for restoring images is to preserve them on archival papers and DVDs/CDs.
MSLR-Eco-Justice-poster-2009-170-sq	Adding iconic images, composite designs In the case of projects for organizations we help create additional images that identify the organization; e.g. adding logos, product photos, facilities images, creating composite designs and posters, etc.
Acacia-Custom-Website1a-170sq	Online Photo Galleries for Clients Public and/or password protected galleries for clients Collections of 'proofs' for clients to select from for final editing Fund raising galleries: Galleries clients send to their customers/guests to select and purchase digital files and/or prints as fund raising products Custom web pages/galleries for client-specific uses

Technology in Support of Event Photojournalism

Mobile technology

Color calibrated high resolution LCD display, DVD/CD burner, archival disk media
Professional software for processing images, page layouts, and documents
High resolution photo and negative scanner

Photography equipment includes

High resolution full-frame digital camera and back-up
Multiple strobes for on & off camera lighting with modifiers
Multiple studio strobes with modifiers for event portraits
Camera-Computer remote tethering with 17" LCD display
White balance sources and software

Print and digital media

Professional matte and luster papers
Archival and art papers
Archival digital media, CD and DVD
LightScribe DVD media
Online print services and specialty products
Custom lab services

Déjà Vu
"The illusion of having already experienced something
actually being experienced for the first time."
The American Heritage Dictionary