HM&P Corporate Event Photography

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.

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Marine Corps Sample Images

2007-11-17T15:20:59Z

Marine Birthday Ball Formal Portraits

2007-11-13T01:16:13Z

Celebrating 232 Years of Service To The United States of America ]]> This is our chance to say thank you to the men and women serving as our guardians of liberty. Our role is creating portraits of consequence of the young men and women, then branding and delivering their portraits on-site. Some of these portraits you see here. These are portraits of enlisted, noncom, officers, generals and commanding generals at gala balls celebrating the milestone of other year in the Marines, another year of service. We are always struck by the respect and grace of these Marines, to each other, and to us. They're congenial and glad to see us. There aren't many places where you walk in the door and hear "Sir" aimed at you 10 times in five minutes. Amongst themselves there is joy, humor, humility and a comfortable bond of friendship visible among the Marines. We see them in the comfort of their own unit, with no challenges or dangers lurking in the distance. They are at parade rest. They are relaxed. As we make their portraits it's always interesting to see these warriors switching to their other role in life, husband, wife, father, mother, son or daughter. Our portraits are about relationships. Our portraits are about the bond between people in love. It's a joy to see these warriors switch into The Hug, Spoons, the Touch, or the Prom pose for their portrait. And it's a special joy to see a Marine who brings their child to the ball for a portrait.
Quote of the Day:
"I've been getting portraits at birthday balls for 15 years, and yours is the best portrait I've ever seen. Thank you." Unknown Marine leaving MCRD's Officer Ball with portraits in hand

This year we created 873 portraits of Marines, their spouses and families. To the soldiers at Marine Corps Recruit Depot-San Diego, Recruiting Station San Diego, 3rd Marine Aircraft Wing and Marine Aircraft Group 39 and 1st Marine Expeditionary Force, we at HM&P Photography say Happy Birthday. Thank you for your service. We're proud of what you do and proud to serve you at another Marine Corps Birthday Ball.

Fashion Portraits

2007-06-25T22:09:34Z

Portrait Photography Lighting Boot Camp

2007-06-25T19:59:10Z

As a photographer who considers himself an artist, it's important to step outside my existing skill sets for an occasional challenge.

Once in a while you need to face failure by testing new waters, new techniques, new thinking and a new way of seeing the world. In this situation, we were going to learn to see light better. We could only create portraits in open shade with no strobes. Ambient side light was to be our only source of illumination.]]> By committing to a weeklong photography session with Carl Caylor, a well-known Michigan environmental portrait photographer, I'd be putting my ego on the line. It would be five days of lecture, creating portraits and critiquing work in an intimate photography class with only 15 people. As Caylor said on the first day, check your egos at the door. It was time to learn a new way of seeing light and life. Among the my fellow photographers taking this class, some were advanced advanced pro-sumers looking to make their living as a photographer, while most of us were already paying the mortgage, putting kids through school and enjoying our roles as professional photographers. We all checked our egos, waiting to see who had an eye, and who could learn to see and develop an eye. On the first day of shooting we all stumbled along and managed to come back with reasonable images. Some people struggled, some people thrived, but we were moving forward. On the second day we had all of 45 minutes to find our light and create some portraits. Ultimately this meant we had 12 minutes each to create some portraits of consequence. Few of us, including me, did well that frustating day (though one image you see here -the young man- came from that day's portrait sessions.) We roared back on the third day though, with enough time to seek out locations, light and backgrounds that make sense for portraits. Working in San Diego's Balboa Park, if you looked hard, we had side light, columns and arches with which to work. Splitting time with two other photographers over a two hours, I was able to create a dozen reasonable portraits, five of which will stand the test of time. They're portraits of consequence, portraits that tell a story about a person. By the end of the week, most of us had accomplished the process of seeing differently, seeing the subtleties of light and mastering the technology of exposures for consequential images in a difficult environment. Now, the challenge is to continue this process and painting with light, form, environment and people to create storytelling images of those who I see through the lens.

Irwindale Raceway Diesel Speedsters

2007-06-11T17:38:30Z

Bosch showcases their cool, smooth running diesels

They wanted to show Californians their fuel saving engines. Setting up at Irwindale Speedway on a crisp, clear California January, media and invited guests had the chance to see an eyefull of their new technology. ]]> Then they invited HM&P Special Event Photography to document the vehicles on the track, the media, and guests zipping around Irwindale Raceway. Invited media and guests were able to touch and feel the hardware scattered about the infield of Irwindale Raceway before they donned helmets and hopped into diesel powered vehicles by General Motors, Volkswagen, Dodge, BMW, Volvo and Mercedes Benz. Along with these passenger vehicles there were also race trucks and a Mercedes-Benz (diesel equipped of course) that set a record for long-distance duration driving. We documented chrome plated diesel engines and people getting up close and personal with the hardware. Along with this we documented the news conference and every car zipping around the track through a course bordered by thousands of brand-new traffic cones. How do you photograph speeding vehicles safely? First you'll need to keep things between you and the cars on the track. These are things like cement barricades, other cars and distance. Secondly, you need to be very aware of your environment and the behavior of those around you. This is because their behavior tells you if anything crazy is happening on the track. The best quote of the day, "What are we going to do with all these brand-new cones." This photographer happend to have the phone number for donating them to the local AYSO (American Youth Soccar Organization.)

About Us

2007-03-24T03:45:31Z

Starting with your corporate logo on the print, we deliver beautiful photographs on-site. From Gala balls, conventions, award dinners, special events, corporate events to golf tournaments, your guests receive take home memories of your special event.