HM&P Corporate Event Photography

Scouting Family Portrait - Baloo's Pride

2011-07-06T17:22:27Z

A mother of three Scouts challenged us to create a portrait of her sons with her husband, in a Scouting theme. This creation, from a studio portrait session, is the end result. Look for other Scouting and family themed art works in the coming months.

sub ball picture

2011-05-30T14:21:19Z

SubCom 11 Birthday Ball Portraits - 111 Years of Submarine Service

2011-05-30T14:15:37Z

Several times every year we go south to San Diego where we'll create portraits of the couples attending military birthday balls. This weekend SubCom11 celebrated the 111th birthday of the Navy’s submarine service and we were there. These portraits are all about the love of a couple, whether they serve in a sub or at home. Our team created over 200 portraits during the evening...some of which you see here.

'Some Boats Are Designed To Sink, Others Needed Our Help'

Bill image vb profile

2011-03-09T16:28:55Z

Profile William (Bill) Hodge by Virtual Backgrounds

2011-03-09T16:25:47Z

You may view a profile of William Hodge in Virtual Background’s monthly newsletter, The Backgrounder. Remember when STS-1 (the first Space Shuttle Columbia) returned from space? William was there covering it. The film strip numbering indicates #37, but there were only 36 exposure rolls of film back then. Except for Ilford, which was test marketing a thin emulsion roll of 72 exposure film. William wanted it for coverage of the Shuttle landing because he needed images of the Shuttle far away, and close up, and down the landing strip. 36 images just wouldn't suffice. So he found a bunch of Ilford's product, tested it and loved it, using it on the Shuttle landing project.

Pictures - Why Make Prints?

2011-02-03T16:26:02Z

Will you sell me the original portrait prints you have of your grandparents? Would you sell them for $50? 100? I'll give you $300 for the original prints, okay? Probably not! In fact, if your parents found out you sold those prints they would be livid and you'd lose the car for months.]]> 'The formal portraits we create today are not just about you. They are for your family, your future children and those who come into your life later, your future spouse.' But, all of us cherish formal portraits of our grandparents, great grandparents, aunts uncles etc. And these prints are from negatives, which (if they're not damaged) few people still posses. They handled their negatives with little to no concern and most were scratched, damaged and discarded. Just like we handle today's digital files: with little to no care. (More on caring for digital file issues later.) At a portrait session recently I sat down with a woman graduating from college. She looked at me and said, “I'm not sure why I am purchasing these portraits” I asked her, “Aren't you purchasing these portraits for your family and loved ones, perhaps for your future children?” A Short Senior Portrait Video She answered, “My mother is dead, it's been four years and it's just my dad and I.” My answer, was a question. “Do you cherish the formal portraits you still have of your mother?” As she digested the question, I could see her start to cry. And frankly, I was getting misty eyed as well. She said, "Of course I cherish those portraits." We both knew the unsaid answer to her original question, 'Why purchase portraits of ourselves?'

'How many times have you had storage media fail, or you lose it, or we can't read anymore because technology continues to move forward, or your computer crashes? '

The formal portraits we create today are not just about you. They are for your parents, your future children, family and those who come into your life later, your future spouse. Because, while this is an important milestone in your life, the portraits, the commencement, the celebrations are not all about you. There are many people who helped you get to this point in life. They need and want portraits to celebrate your accomplishments and your life, this important rite-of-passage.

'Just like your grandparent's negatives, which don't exist anymore because they were scratched, damaged or thrown out years ago, your digital files will not exist forever, unless we make hard copy prints of them.'

And, you want hard prints of your portraits. Yes we know it's a digital world and you want the files in your phone, your iPod and your computer (oh, and now your tablet.) But the negative here (no pun intended) is that these digital snapshots will not exist in 25 or 30 or 50 were 100 years. The reason I say this? We are not making prints of these images nor are we archiving them in multiple locations for back-ups, nor readable with future technologies (remember the 3.5" floppy.) How many times have you had storage media fail, or you lose it, or we can't read anymore because technology continues to move forward, or your computer crashes? How about trying to find a particular image amongst thousands of images on the CD? Is there any way to search the images by name, date, location, metadata? Just like your grandparent's negatives, which don't exist anymore because they were scratched, damaged or thrown out years ago, your digital files will not exist forever, unless we make hard copy prints of them. But ultimately, real portraits on the wall will last. As David Williams (a portrait photographer I admire) says, "The memory of loved ones never leaves this world until all of their pictures disintegrate into dust. This is why portraits are important." Can you say that about your digital images stored on your thumb drive or computer? This final note is for your parents. Mom & Dad, remember yourself as well. Document your relationship at this important juncture in your child's life with a portrait of yourself, without children.

It will be a portrait your married children will look back upon and remember from their important times, and be inspiration for their life, raising their children.

When was the last time a professional portrait was created for you? Well, for 80% of Americans their last portrait as a couple was at their wedding. Imagine how important a portrait of you now, at this moment, will be 10 to 20 years from now. It will be a portrait your married children will look back upon and remember from their important times, and be inspiration for their life, raising their children.

Born Anew as a Photography Artist: A week with Arthur Rainville

2009-07-08T18:03:00Z

Get Off the Garden Path! As a professional photographer it's important to grow professionally and artistically everyday, every month, every year. That's why in the past two years I've spent five solid weeks in weeklong seminars learning from some of the more creative portrait photographers in our business. I've spent a week each with Arthur Rainville & Jennifer Hudson, Tony Korbel, Joseph & Louise Simone, Trevon Baker and Carl Caylor, all disciples of Don Blair (you'll notice, I'm vicariously learning his styles through others, since he's no longer with us.) ]]> A Quick Look At My Art Take on the Week

Spending a week with Arthur Rainville and Jennifer Hudson was meant to push my orbit out of place just a little bit. In fact, I wanted them to push my orbit out far enough that I wouldn't drift back to the same orbit I followed at the beginning of June. To some this may seem mystic and overly artistic. To some of us who go through these weeks, we are born anew. It's not that I don't like my work, I do. I cherish the portraits and make for Eagle Scouts, university graduates, law school graduates and their families. It's important work creating portraits of America's future leaders.

"I want you to get off the garden path you are traveling, I want you to go to the side of the trail amongst the leaves, the logs, the fogs, the rocks and stub your toe, and grow as an artist." Arthur Rainville

My goal was to let them push me further down the creative road to create better portraits, more passionate portraits, more interesting portrait studies. This way I can make better images about these future leaders, and, have the opportunity of creating portraits of them as they achieve their goals. Over the five days much was discussed of posing, lighting, reality, creativity and the business side of portraiture and the pictures we provide. The one thing that sticks out in my mind as I write this is Rainville's message about following the creative ruts on which we sometimes travel. He defined what he calls, "Garden Pathing." It's the thought that all of us continue to follow the first successful path we take with our careers. We forget that there are other directions we can take to success, and we should not stop on the first and only path were we find successful. It's corrallary is, "taking the path of least resistance." To nudge us off the path, he said, "I want you to get off the garden path you are traveling, I want you to go to the side of the trail amongst the leaves, the logs, the fogs, the rocks and stub your toe, and grow as an artist. You'll fail occasionally, but you'll grow as an artisit. Get off the damn trail!" It's a simple thought putting words to the constant growth we all go through as portrait photographers. We take chances to try something new, oftentimes, creativity that might fail, or, might create a better portrait. This brings another Rainville thought to the forefront, "How do you carry this forward after our week?" Keep in tune with these pages and you'll see.

Your house is in the path of a fire: what do you take with you?

2009-07-03T17:53:57Z

In the final analysis, things are just things. Lamps, cooking utinsels, bedding, etc are things that can be replaced with or without insurance money. To see what things in our houses that are really important to us, take this short test to see what we really want from our home if we're about to loose it quickly.

A Big Gala Ball For Little Girls & Their Fathers

2009-04-20T01:09:29Z

One of the cutest and enjoyable balls for which we create portraits is the Armed Services YMCA-San Diego Father Daughter Dance.See Our Work With An MP4 Video Of This Event! ]]> Book us for your special event and we'll produce a complimentary MP4 video of our images for you our your customer.

Portrait Incentive Program In Southern California

2009-04-03T15:41:59Z

Day and Night: Creating Picture Memories With Hollywood's 'Stars' When incentive groups come to Hollywood they want to see the stars (and of course take home a photograph with them.) That's just one of the services we provided SunLife's inbound incentive group when they checked into their hotel in Los Angeles. The Meeting Manager, our customer, asked if we could photograph 200 guests and their families arriving at the Beverly Wilshire Hotel with celebrity look-alikes (you know Jack, Whoppie, Brad, Angeline, and that guy who played Jack Sparrow) as guests arrived in town. Check out our 120 second overview of our work creating great memories for inbound incentive visitors (requires MP4 player capability): ]]> Book us for your special event and we'll produce a complimentary MP4 video of our images for you our your customer. The meeting planner went to bed that night knowing all the product, all the pictures, all the memories were in hand and ready for distribution to SunLife's guests. No problem, no sweat, everything is good. That's the way we like it.

Visual Mentor - Andrew Wyeth

2009-01-20T16:04:43Z

One of my visual mentors has died. Andrew Wyeth passed away last week. I mention this because early in my newspaper career as a photojournalist, I enjoyed and emulated the view two people had on the world. One of them was Wyeth. The other is John Malman, a staff photographer for the Los Angeles Times. Both saw the world through a 28mm lens. This became my primary view of the world, and how I often documented history for the various newspapers for which I worked. It's interesting to read obituaries in both the Los Angeles Times and the Wall Street Journal and see how Wyeth was treated by the mainstream media. And I was astounded to find out that many critics thought his art was too mainstream, too simple, not good enough, in comparison to the surrealists that were popular during the time (Warhol, Dali, Pollock, etc.) His realistic watercolors were criticized by some people because he was simply painting a photograph. One critic said his work was, "photographically meticulous." That's the beauty of his work. They were gorgeous, raw, documentary images of life in New England. He always showed us something most of us would walk past and miss, and never see. The images he showed us would never even get on our personal radar. As a photographer, the nicest thing someone can say about your image is, "I never saw that!" And every time I looked his images, I thought the same thing. I saw the world just a little bit differently. But that's the beauty of any type of art. That's why I like Robert Werling's scenic black-and-white images, Salvador Dali's surrealistic images (and his realistic period too) and Andrew Wyeth's wide angle paintings. They're all beautiful. They are all wonderful views of the world and you really have to enjoy how they see things. I'm grateful I had the chance to see his work, to appreciate it and learn from it. As a photographic portrait artist, my goal is to do the same. So, what's my favorite painting? 'Christinas World.' Drop me a note to tell me which of his work is your favorite.

Affinity Marketing With Photographs: Toyota Off Road Expo

2008-10-08T02:18:56Z

The brand-new book 'Age Curve' by Ken Gronbach describes all of the generations of consumers in the United States. All of these these generations were at the recent Off Road Expo at the Pomona Fairgrounds for Toyota Motor Corp. where we had the chance to photograph them.

]]> 'All we saw were Toyotas here, Toyotas there, Toyotas everywhere.' They are a major sponsor of the Off Road Expo, supporting the program with their name, test drive program (yes you could drive a new Toyota FJ in the arena's off-road course) and of course an owners' hospitality area. If you came through their booth, drove one of their cars, visited a Toyota booth or owned one of their cars (just show your key) you can enter into their spacious hospitality suite for lunch, prizes, a live band and of course our special-effects photograph of guests driving an off-road racer high above a jump. We used a photograph of one one of their sponsored trucks in mid air during a race, and set it up so that guests would be photographed driving the truck or sitting in the truck bed (like the photographs you see here.) Their affinity marketing program was brilliant. We saw no Ford, General Motors or Nissan presence anywhere in the Off Road Expo. There was a minor presence by Jeep's manufacturer. All we saw were Toyotas here, Toyotas there, Toyotas everywhere. And everybody coming through the photo station kept telling us about how much they love their FJ Cruiser, and how many Toyota trucks they've owned in the past. It was an interesting lesson in the power of affinity marketing and the crossgenerational market consuming off-road vehicles and the products necessary to drive through the wilds of the desert and the mountains all the way to the sea. For our part, entertaining guests with a special keepsake photograph of themselves was a great success. According to our client, "Everybody loves their picture." Now all we need to do is go to the local Toyota dealer and check out one of these new FJ Cruisers everyone's talking about.

toyota vertical mage 290 wide x 1036

2008-10-08T02:17:06Z

Purchase Images From Your Recent Event

2008-04-19T14:33:43Z

Follow this link to purchase portraits from your recent event.

Mass Photojournalism: Covering Four Concurrent Award Ceremonies For End of Day Delivery

2008-02-01T02:02:24Z

We all believe our profession is populated with the crazy, funny, wild side of humanity. From bartenders, policemen, to salespeople, and photographers, we all think we are the craziest of the bunch.

]]>