One Small Step for 2C

Hi everyone! The last few weeks have been a little active around here and there is a lot to talk about. So lets get right to it.

About 18 months ago a vision for 2C Photography was adopted and plans set in motion to expand our abilities and services. Those included having an "in house" lab where we could not only edit and print our photos but also add more editing option right up to finishings and matting/framing/displaying. As a result we can now offer photo packages that before were not reasonable for us to do due to the expense of farming the project out. Not only that but now we will have the ability to do even more online service for our products including thing that are not photographic. We will now be able to expand and pursue our Photogology/Photogologist project much better than before (that I'm really looking forward to do).

So, what took so long? There has been a lot of headaches and sore eyes during that time. Research online and experimenting with home made equipment has played a large part in the implementing of the lab. Of course, the lab was not the only focus for us. A lot of changes have been made in our souvenir division and that has taken a lot of time getting that serviceable. Just looking at what to include in the lab and the time frame in introducing them has not been easy. And if that wasn't enough, just getting the area ready for the lab and moving into it has been anything but fun. It took nearly 11 days from start to finish to get the area ready and get the equipment moved in which was completed late Wednesday night. There was divine intervention and a little magic from others that made the move possible. I can't begin to tell you how involved and complex an effort it was. But the move is made and the getting familiar with the new equipment and techniques has begun. Thursday was the first full day in the lab and other than a few computer faux pas things went pretty well.

Over the next few days the skills with the new equipment and techniques will improve and than the next wave of lab introductions will get underway in earnest. In upcoming blogs and on facebook will be posted some photos of the work being put out of the lab and the changes being introduced online, so make sure to keep checking us out.

The next post will go into some of the changes that effect the quality of our photos and the things we as professionals can now offer that you just might not be getting from the weekend "beer money makin'" folks that you might be tempted to use for your important memory photographs. Look for that post this weekend!

Well that's all for the moment. Have a great day everybody!

Richard

Hello everyone! A lot has been going on around here that has kept me from getting on the blog to make a post. In fact that is the subject of the post today so let's get to it.

Mike at Bear Creek Productions has contacted me to help in locating several scene location and consulting on the overall "story boarding" of the new documentary. The project is gaining momentum and I'm hoping that it won't be very long before we start shooting. While I don't want to give out the details of the movie I can tell you that this will prove to be a very ambitious project and it will require a large numbers of "Extras" for many of the shots. There are numerous court room scenes both indoors and out. You can bet that we will put a note on the blog to let you know when and where we will being needing extras and what kind of clothes to wear.

Speaking of the movies, we now are selling "The History of Branson" video at our location at the Apple Tree Mall on west Hwy 76 in Branson. They sell for $19. 95 plus tax and the best thing is no shipping or handling not to mention you walk out of the store with it so you can view it right away. This is a great movie and a must see if you have any interest in how Branson got to be where it is today. There is a promo on the You Tube site called "The making of the History of Branson" if you would care to view it. Some of the folks that worked on the video give a recounting of there feelings and experiences in the making of the movie and it will add to the information that you will get while watching the show. And with the upcoming movie that's getting ready to go into production, the information that you get will help in getting you up to speed as many of the stories that are told in this video will be continued in this next movie.

Now while you're at the Apple Tree Mall you will want to take a good look at our photo products that are for sale. Currently we have a collection of large and small photos all mounted on foamcore and have a UV and water resistant coating each with a unique sayings printed on them. I've posted one of my favorites here. The cute little puppy's name is Brodie and this was taken on the day he was adopted by is new owner (not me) who I've known for a while. If you look really close in his eyes you can see me taking his picture. I'm happy to say that both owner and puppy are getting along admirably at last report. In fact I think that Brodie has the owner and entire family well trained.

This isn't the only cute picture on sale out there and of course there are many inspirational sayings and scriptures used so I'm sure you'll find one that will fit in your life. We are planning on adding many more photos of all kinds in the upcoming weeks so don't forget to stop back by and check them out. But if you don't want to go to all that trouble we will be looking to start offering them on this website in a new shopping area that we have been looking into in the upcoming weeks as well. The only problem is that there is a price to pay for convenience........shipping.

Now before I close this post out for the day I'd like to tell you that we will be looking to hire some highly motivated people who are looking to make money. Some of our venues will be opening within the month with the rest opening around the first to mid April. Our new restaurant venue mgr. has come up with a payment package that can make you a serious chunk of change if you got the drive to make it. The problem with this area is that there are few places where a good quality employee with drive and motivation can earn good money. Kelvin (our new mgr.) is one of those and has structured this years compensation plan to reward like talented employees. So if your sick and tired of doing not only your work but having to make up for the lack of effort that your fellow works just can't get the motivation to do and not receiving any thanks or additional pay for it, maybe you might want to fill out one of our online work apps. What do you have to lose but a crappy job.

Well that's it for me guys. Tomorrow I'm finally getting the chance to go hunting for pictures and movie location sites. Sounds like a lot of fun to me! Have a great day everybody!

Richard

New Photogology Requirement

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by. I have some funny things to talk about today. So let's get started.

Recently, I've been spending a lot of time looking on the Internet for different projects ideas for some things I’m doing. The Internet's kind of an amazing thing. It's surprising what you can find on the Internet. The information that’s available is simply boundless. It seems like that if there is some sort of an idea for a project you have somebody has already put something about it on the You Tube. The thing that has struck me the most is the kind of knowledge that seems to be exhibited by some of these folks who are putting these examples of techniques on the You Tube. Some of the ideas they are demonstrating are quite good. But in demonstrating those ideas they also show a great deal of inexperience and lack of knowledge of photography. In fact I was watching one gentleman trying to demonstrate a technique using a fishbowl and different lighting setups. This guy would record his video for about a minute describing what he was doing and then pause the video to set up for the shot and then come back and say, "We're going to change our lighting set up." This guy changed his lights set up four times before he even took the shot. It drove me crazy to watch it. You would think if you want to make a good tutorial on the You Tube you would have your set up the way you want it before you start videoing. Don't get me wrong, the information that I got from the video was great. I got a lot of ideas from it. But the way he did the video made him look silly. This is but one example of many that I saw on YouTube. It was really clear that the majority of the people who were giving these tutorials were falling into the old saying of the blind leading the blind. On a couple of these tutorials, they were instructing people to use a higher ISO and shutter speed. This would probably be a good time to have one of my own tutorials as I tell you that when you use a higher shutter speed or higher ISO setting the colors of the photograph will not be as vibrant or as sharp and therefore the quality of the picture overall will be diminished. With that said, the idea is that these guys are just out shooting blindly it would appear and there’s not sound reason or skill behind their actions. Just what appears to be trial and error. Don’t get me wrong, lots of photographs have a certain amount of trial and error to them but there needs to be some knowledge behind the efforts not to mention that if you are giving a tutorial on a subject it would be on one that you had a bit of experience in doing at least once.

So what’s my point? Just more evidence that there are a lot of folks out there who have a “good camera” and think that makes them a “good photographer”. I was reminded while I watched some of these “train wrecks” of the words of Abraham Lincoln when he said that “It’s better to remain silent and be thought a fool then to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.” If the object is to gains some credibility it didn’t work, in fact it did just the opposite for me. Now, am I an expert in these matters? Nope! But I am in the field and while I want to give them some credit for the effort and at least experimenting, I’m not sure these folks are giving a good name to those in the profession when they fumble around reminiscent of the Three Stooges or the Keystone Cops.

I have fought with myself over the past day or so trying to decide how these guys might fall into my Photogology movement. On the one hand they have very little if any knowledge backing them up let alone professionalism but on the other side they are experimenting and trying to get better. All of them were using manual or shutter/aperture priority settings so they were above the Automatic curve. Even up to now the fight continues, so much so that I took a break to think it out again. My conclusion? Well, I’m not sure that I have one other than this. As I thought about this I recalled a photographer who has a business that thrives much better than ours. He doesn’t have any formal training that I have heard about and, if I not mistaken has even been heard to say he doesn’t know much about how camera works or at least the principles behind its operating. But the guy does know how to make it work even though he may not know the reasons or science behind it. He has just continued to work at taking great photographs and learns from his experiences. He’s taken outstanding photos all around the world and makes far more money at what he does than I do. So if he can take all those outstanding photos without being a whiz at knowing the ends and out of all the parts of the camera and proper names of all the fancy techniques of photography what’s the difference? I know a lot of other “Professional Photographers” who have all kinds of degrees, certifications, and a lot of letters behind their name and they sure don’t impress me a bit. It’s kind of like the old heater repairman who was called after numerous younger repairmen from a couple of big name repair companies had failed to repair an old outdated heater. After being on the job for only 15 minutes, the outdate heater roared back to life. When the company received his bill for $1000.00 they called protesting the amount. After all, it only took 15 minutes to complete the work. The old repairman said he understood and would resend another bill. When the second bill arrived it stated that for the 15 minutes it took for the need repairs the charge was $50. For knowing how to repair the heater the charge was $950. The company paid the bill.

So where is the foul on these You Tube videos if not the knowledge levels on display. After all experimenting helps to acquire knowledge and as pointed out in the example above with the photographer I was writing about, that’s reportedly how he has gotten where he is today. Let’s face it. Even the best pro photographers take some very ugly shots. They make faux pas all the time, and that includes me! The question is how many of those miscues are you the viewer of the work going to see? That’s right, NONE! Why? Because the love and passion for the field demands that we get it right for our clients and all who view our work. “If a thing like this is worth doing at all, it’s worth doing right.”- Hunter S. Thompson. And there in lays the key to all of this. There are so many folks out there who “play at it” in my opinion. They take pictures of weddings and students because they like to or to make a fast buck but don’t want to take the effort to do it right. They’re placing the focus in the wrong place. It’s not that they don’t care; it’s what they care about. The Bible in the books of Matthew and Luke both say that “For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.” In an earlier posting I talked about the three dirty little secrets of photography. Maybe we should add a forth. Care about your work and be passionate about the profession. Don’t get personal value at the expense of the client or the profession. Yes it’s ok to receive pay, recognition, and value from you work and even take a health amount of pride in it. But I am afraid that far too many folks don’t have any of that in mind. When one’s care doesn’t venture past themselves, it doesn’t venture far enough. The moments we work to capture are important and will never be repeated again. They are someone’s life long memories, not momentary ego builders. They are a one of kind act of art and captured beauty, not another dollar towards a 42” TV. Yes, times are hard but that gives no excuse for gaming the profession. Times are hard for the clients as well which is why we should care for them more than ever. Zig Ziglar once said, “You can have everything in life you want, if you just help other people get what they want.” Caring is not a one way street if you want to be a success in getting what you really want. I don’t know much about Chi but I know that a lot of folks believe that “what goes around, comes around”. You may get by with gaining at the expense of others for a while but sooner or later you learn that Pigeons shouldn’t poop on statues. If you don’t get that let me know and I will tell you the story.

So where is your treasure? What do you care about? I don’t know what some of those folks on You Tube were attempting to accomplish but it has reminded me of how important caring about my work is and should continue to be. How about you?

That’s it for me today kids! Have a great day everybody…..and care!

Richard

Happy New Year - Good Riddance 2010

Hi everybody! Thanks for stopping by the blog today. So we're coming to the end of 2010. Boy, what a year it's been. Even the weather has been weird. It's after midnight, and it's still almost 60°.

I hope the Christmas Holiday has been good to you. As I write this it's New Year's Eve morning. Of course, it's always in the morning when I'm writing this blog. I hope that you have safe plans for this evening but I hope those plans are fun as well. With the coming of the New Year, I hope that you have a better, more prosperous year. 2010 seems to be a year that most of us would rather forget. While there were many things to be happy for during the year, there were still many others that was not good at all. The economy has taken a downturn, the tourism industry has taken a hit in the nose, and our government to some degree seems to be out of control. Unemployment is still at all-time high, a lot of businesses have gone out of business, and a lot of people, both business owners and employees, are worried about future. And now with the coming of the New Year, there are still people that are claiming gloom and doom statements, both on TV and radio. But with the coming of the New Year, we need to keep hope and faith alive. We must continue to look to our God for guidance and strength. Sometimes that's not an easy thing to do especially with things that are going on in the news and on the world stage. Maybe a good New Year's resolution would be to find time to pray on a regular basis every day. For now, my prayer is that God will bless you and your family throughout the upcoming year.

Pro Pix Tips: For the last Pro Pix Tips of the year. I thought we would continue our discussion on composition. This should be especially fun as I am using a new computer program that is a voice-activated dictation system. The instructions say that this system and I need to learn each other and learn how we talk to each other. For the most part we seem to be speaking the same language, even though we have had some problems over this section of the blog we’ve been typing. So in the interest of keeping the party going, especially on New Year's Eve, let's get to it.

Part of composition is the use of shadows to the advantage of the picture to show 3-D definition in the subject of which we are taking a picture. Without the light shining shadows onto our subject, our pictures can take a two-dimensional or flattened appearance. As we spoke about in earlier blogs, shadows can also be used to create a certain emotion or feeling in the picture. But sometimes we're using shadows in order for us to have a more natural appearance for our photograph. An example of this is when we take a picture of a subject who is outside. With the sun obviously shining in the background, having no shadows projected on the subject face doesn't show a natural effect. Our picture will look obviously staged, and it will look flat as well. The lighting on our subject's face would not be very flattering to our subject. Don't get me wrong. That doesn't suggest that we never use a fill light, schrim, or reflector. It's just that when you choose to use any one of these tools you need to make sure that the light that you're introducing into your picture matches the ambient light that's around your subject. Sometimes it can be quite a trick, especially on a bright sunny day. Therefore, you have to use all three of photography's dirtiest little secrets. You remember them, right? If you don't, I'll list them here. The first one is never allow the lack of equipment or the type of equipment keep you from getting the shot that you need or want. Don't ever go around saying if only I had this or if only I had that. Sometimes photographers need to turn into MacGyver's and use whatever's around them to make things work. You might be surprised of all of the things just laying within arms reach that you can use to make a difference in your shot. From experience I can tell you that you can use a number of things around you that you wouldn't normally find in a normal photography bag. The second dirty secret is making sure that you balance all of your artificial light with the ambient light. In other words, your pictures should look like there is no artificial light being introduced into the picture. This dirty little secret requires some practice. Adjusting the power on your light, or putting the light closer or further away from your subject, introducing a schrim, or using a reflector board all require experience in learning how to use them properly. And just for something I'll throw in for free, when using a reflector you have to remember what type a reflector you want to use, whether it be a whiteboard, silver sided board, or gold sided board. All take experience to learn which kind gives you the feeling you want in your picture. That leads us to the third dirty secret, which is to take a lot of pictures. So many young photographers stop at taking just one picture of the subject. This is probably one of the most common mistakes that any new photographer makes. This is the digital age! You can take and delete as many pictures as you want off your memory card. I hope that doesn't come as a shock to many of you. The second part of that dirty secret is to only show the good pictures. And for you who need a little extra help, you always delete the bad ones. The only possible drawback to this is if you're paying your model by the hour. There are ways to get around this as well. As an amateur photographer just starting out you want to find people who will get their pictures taken and not charge you anything for doing it. But let's get real, professional photographers don't just have the subject walked into the set and take one picture and have it automatically turn out great. They have to adjust their lighting and the positions for their subjects to stand in just like anybody else does. But because they have the experience and they know how to set things up as well as how their lights are going to react to certain situations, they can do it fast and not waste money by taking a lot of time to adjust those lights when they're paying their models $100 per hour. And that's just for the cheap models. Trial and error as well as indecisions are very expensive during times like this.

So with all of that said, shadows are our friends. One of the pro photographers that I've studied under, David Ziser, has made some bumper stickers and given out to people who attend his class. The bumper sticker says, "Save the Shadows". You'll want to keep this thing in mind the next time you want to use an onboard flash. They don't call these types of flashes "ugly lights" for nothing. Shadows are an extremely important part of composition. I know that we have talked about them in this blog several times in the past, but they are what gives character and feelings to our pictures. So if you ever see the bumper sticker "Save the Shadows" you know two things. One is that this person is a photographer and, two, this person knows David Ziser. But it should also serve as a reminder to you to remember that when you take pictures, the shadows are important. Not paying attention to the shadows when it pertains to composition is much like not paying attention to breathing to your health. Breathe in, breathe out.

Well, you may not be able to notice it but this new voice-activated dictation system does work pretty well. I can't tell you how much fun it is to speak into a microphone and see your words pop up on the computer screen. It's kind of like talking in a cave and saying "echo, echo", and having it echo back at you. It kind of reminds me of the movie "How the Grinch Stole Christmas" starring Jim Carrey. I want to say "I'm an idiot!", but I'm afraid that instead of the computer calling it’s self an idiot what I will see on the screen is "You're an idiot!" I will say that the instructions are correct. It will take some time to get use to it. But I can tell you that it's a whole lot easier than typing all of this. And in time with a little practice I'm sure that I'll even get faster at it. I will say it saves me a lot of time not having to look up words in the dictionary to know how to spell them. But at least I can say for now, my fingers don't hurt as bad.

An old New Years Toast: "Here's to the New Year. May she be a damn sight better than the last one, and may we all be home before she's over." Henry Potter, M.A.S.H. 4077

Well I guess it's time to give this thing a rest. Happy New Year and have a great day everybody!

Richard

HO HO HO!? Put the Ho Ho Ho in the shed shed shed!

Hi everyone! Well it finally happened. I've dawned my Santa hat. Normally this would have been done weeks ago but well the mode just hadn't moved me. This year seem a little different for some reason, why, I don't know. My grandson is off seeing the other grandparents, one of my daughters is over 17 hours away and can't get here. The other daughters, well one of them may not get here due to the weather and the other daughter well, let's just say that the usual is in play this year. And while this is a time for families to come together and exchange gifts this year has just not got in gear for me yet. That would be fine if Christmas was TOMORROW, aaauugh! I guess I'm more Charlie Brown this year than usual. Maybe I ought to make an appointment with Lucy, I might have Pantophobia but I'm scared to find out. Irregardless, ready or not Santa's coming tonight and my lack of enthusiasm isn't going to stop him. Even the Grinch found out you can't stop Christmas from Coming and he was pretty resourceful. Well maybe I can try to regain a little enthusiasm just as Charlie Brown did when he asked if anyone could tell him what Christmas was all about. Linus gave him the answer by quoting the below listed passage of the Bible.

The Holy Bible: King James Version. 2000. The Gospel according to St. Luke 2 The Birth of Jesus The Shepherds and the Angels 8 ¶ And there were in the same country shepherds abiding in the field, keeping watch over their flock by night. 9 And, lo, the angel of the Lord came upon them, and the glory of the Lord shone round about them; and they were sore afraid. 10 And the angel said unto them, Fear not: for, behold, I bring you good tidings of great joy, which shall be to all people. 11 For unto you is born this day in the city of David a Saviour, which is Christ the Lord. 12 And this shall be a sign unto you; Ye shall find the babe wrapped in swaddling clothes, lying in a manger. 13 And suddenly there was with the angel a multitude of the heavenly host praising God, and saying, 14 Glory to God in the highest, and on earth peace, good will toward men.

Have you ever wondered why those angels went to shepherds to make this history changing announcement? If you stop to take a look at were the shepherds ranked in the social rankings most individuals agree they would be above or below skunk level depending on who you ask and what direction the wind was blowing. It was because the point that this was a gift to ALL people was being emphasized by giving the news to the lowest of the lows first. I'm personally aware of several people who feel lower than a snakes belly in a wagon rut. They feel they have all the value of a crushed ping-pong ball. But when you read this story and realize how lowly the shepherds were only to have been thought enough of that they were chosen to receive the greatest birth announcement ever made, it would suggest that the lack of value is of our own doing. In the Charlie Brown classic Christmas story there is a part were Lucy was handing out the parts of the play they were going to put on. Sherman is given the part of a shepherd to which he replies "Every Christmas it the same! I always end up playing a shepherd." There is no other account of God making that announcement to anyone else! Sounds like honor to me, how about you?

There was a Grinch involved with the very first Christmas. Who? Herod the King tried to ruin Christmas. But like our modern day Grinch, he didn't stop Christmas from coming but he did cause a lot of hurt and pain. The difference was that Herod didn't learn anything and change his ways like our modern day Grinch. That's the whole point of the Grinch, a Charlie Brown Christmas, and a Christmas Carol (Scrooge) is learning the true meaning of Christmas being changed in the process. So, I need to shake off this lack of enthusiasm and get with the program or I just might be visited by those three spirits. No matter how bad things are in our lives we need to remember that we got the greatest gift ever given long before we arrived on this planet. Try to tell God you have not value! As the child said in church once, "God don't make no junk!"

MERRY CHRISTMAS EVERYBODY!

Richard

We've Been Eclipsed!

Hi everyone! Thanks for stopping by and checking out the blog. I have a few things to pass on so I will get right to it.

2C Photography is the official online distributor for the "History of Branson" documentary but to order it for right now you will need to go to Bearcreekproductions.com. We intend to have an order page on our website soon so watch for it, but if you can't wait (and I hope you can't) go to the Bear Creek Productions website and if you can't use the History of Branson button use the About us button and use the Order button there. Both of our websites are in the process of updating and that takes a little time especially when your in the middle of the Christmas season.

Hey, did you catch the lunar eclipse Tuesday morning. If you did't, check this out cause I was fortunate to have a clear enough sky to get these and many other pictures.

It was a great show but a little cool for my taste. From start to finish it took almost three hours. I got set up about 12:30 am which was about 30 minutes before it started and stopped about 2:45 am just about the time that the moon had reached about half eclipse state. Temperature was around 40 degrees throughout but it sure seemed like it was getting colder. And while I'm on the subject of photos in the cold let me give a quick Pro Pix Tips. If you take photos in cool or cold weather don't just walk back inside a warm area with your cold camera in hand. The condensation that will likely occur will not be a good thing. In stead, take your camera bag with you and allow it to cool with the out door temp and place your camera inside the bag and close it up before you go back inside. Set the bag down and leave it for about 45 minutes to an hour so the the bag with the camera warms up gradually. Then you should be able to get your camera out and start up shooting again without any trouble. So what if you need to start shooting right away after you get back inside? Well, that's when a backup camera proves valuable.

Taking pictures at night can be challenging. If you haven't tried it, why not? I've talked about it before but for you who don't remember I told you that you might be surprised at the settings you end up using. And just for a freebie piece of advise, using a flash to take a photo of the moon won't work unless it's a really, really powerful one (if you try this please don't let anyone see you!). As the eclipse unfolded, I was continually having to work my settings (and no I wasn't using a flash....I turned on the porch light instead cause it's a spot light bulb........not!) in order to compensate for the reduced reflection of light. It was a real fun time despite the annoying chattering of teeth. I got well over 200 photos from start to near finish and considering the haze and fog in the area I'm pretty pleased with them. I always find that when I take these kind of shots I always start using the "wish" word.......I wish I had this or that. However, it's always good to try new challenges because that's when you discover if you're making any improvements in your skill levels. So just don't stand around watching dust collect on your equipment. Get out there and shot something.....with your camera of course. Push the envelope of your skills because if you don't you'll be missing a lot of great shots in the future! Choosing to stay in your comfort zone today will only make you uncomfortable and disappointed tomorrow (or next week, month, year, you know what I mean). If you do choose to push yourself I think you'll find as I have that the more you learn the less you know and that's not a bad thing at all. Opportunity to improve will only knock on your door for so long a time and it can't come in while you're trying to guess who or what it is. So do what people tell me to do, "Open the door, Richard!" ( if you know your old time music and a Yosemite Sam fan you'll find that really funny, if not, google it...some of the versions are better than others).

Well I guess that I will stop here cause I have to get ready for Wednesday activities. It's almost Christmas you know. There are places to go and important people to meet.....all I need now is a bus. There's another hidden song reference for ya!

Have a great day everybody!

Big, Big Week Up Here At The Lodge! (Again!)

Hello everyone! The last week or so has been so hectic around here. When we get to the end of the season it just seems that the work just has no end. So I have to apologize for skipping out on the blog but frankly over the past few weeks I forgot where I put me and couldn't find me for days at a time. It got so bad that while I was driving from place to place I often passed myself going the other way and I know I saw me but I didn't wave hello. When I finally catch up to me I'm going to give me a piece of my mind I'll tell you! That's just plain rude (the doctor says I'm getting much better)!

It's almost Christmas and I'm just now getting into the swing of Labor Day. I really don't know if I'm going to get into the Christmas mode before the end of winter. We had our year end/Christmas party/bash Wednesday and it was one for the books. Despite all the distractions that were going on we took a look at what our company is able to do and our plans for the upcoming year. We didn't cover a third of what we needed to and still I'm exhausted. So just in case any of the staff have logged into the blog I'm going to give a much better list of all the services that 2C Photography is getting ready to push in the upcoming months.

Photo directories (church, clubs/civic groups, etc.)

individual and family/group portraits

senior and student photos/packages

I-stock photos

retail outlet locations selling photos and photo creative items

real estate photography/video promotional services

360 degree photography services

e-bay and other sale venue item promotional photos

modeling program

wedding chapel services

wedding photographer services

movie/documentary productions

official online distributor of the new "History of Branson" documentary movie

And that still isn't the full list of services. Are you tired out yet? This is a very exciting time with our company and we are taking action to see to it that we are ready to provide professional service in each and every one of these programs. But to do that we are going to have to make some changes in our souvenir program. At our party we announced that some of our staff were going to have some new duties in the upcoming year. One of those changes involve Chris our graphics guy who will be the companies general business manager. While most of his duties will revolve around the above listed programs he will also serve as an overseer of the restaurant souvenir operations. We anticipate our lead restaurant photographer will be handling the overseeing of the general day to day operation in the restaurants. So now along with Jackie and Chris the name Kelvin will most likely find it's way into this blog from time to time. As for Jackie her work load will stay mostly the same with some vital additions as this off season planning continues.

The changes don't stop with our staff. At least one of our operations are making changes that should greatly benefit our business, to include a complete makeover of the restaurant. We are updating our equipment and will be changing our sale operation in several of our venues in a way that we believe has not been done in this area but proven very successful on the east coast. And we have a few other tricks up our sleeves as well.

And the excitement is just only beginning. Mike from Bear Creek Productions contacted me just in the past few days. His new project is starting to gear up and is in the early stages of planning. From what he has told me up to this point this project is going to be even better but also much more challenging. But with five Crystal Award under his belt and a great team of excited and committed staff in support I have every confidence that this movie will be outstanding. Shooting could start as early as February and I am told that there will be a need for a number of extras. So if you have ever had the wish of being in a movie and can round up some clothing that would match the 1850s t0 1870s era then this could be your chance for a dream come true. We will keep you posted as the plans become known.

Well I guess that's enough to have your head spinning for a day or so. No Pro Pix Tips this time but be ready cause they're on the way. Have a great day everybody!

Richard