Grad Portraits

Grandmother Loves Me Portraits

2009-09-20T14:36:48Z

Portraits you for today, and all their tomorrows]]> View an 80 second portfolio of one session

Give them a legacy of portrait memories with an image of you two that will last for all their tomorrows. Call us now at 562-596-8999 and schedule a portrait. We’re right here locally awaiting you and a portrait with your beautiful grandchildren. It’s a great gift for birthdays or the holidays! And, grandfathers, you can get in on the action too!

Portraits En Blanc 3 from Bill Hodge on Vimeo.

California Clouds: Alchemy of Color, Shape & Light

2009-08-15T21:26:11Z

Foliage Of Spring Is Still Blooming In Fall The color and shape of spring are still with us in California. So I spent an hour creating portraits in my backyard. Portraits of carnations, plumeria, henna and the other plants around my home. And, my exercise was limited to the use of a small point-and-shoot consumer camera. No professional camera was used here. No professional lens. Just a small Canon SD1200. The lesson here is: 'The camera is only as good as the person using it to create images.' As an example, since I have a word processor, am I a better writer than Steinbeck, Conrad, Tolkien or Wolfe? No. My mind doesn't put words together like they did. But my mind does see the patterns of light, shape and color you'll see in this video. Enjoy. Come back occasionally for new installments.

]]> Elk Horn Kelp Wrapped tightly around my boat's mooring line, I spied a large Elk Horn Kelp trying to garner my attention. At first I thought it was a problem. With so much flotation, I thought, it wouldn't allow the mooring line to drop to the bottom of the ocean away from my props and would create all kinds of trouble and grief.

For 24 hours, this kelp remained tightly wrapped around the mooring line. In the morning light I saw it differently than I'd seen it the day before and I retrieved my camera. I saw beauty in its form, the way light caressed it amidst the colorful waters in one of Catalina's hidden coves. Slowly, when it had my attention, it started unraveling itself from the mooring line and I photographed it with new interest. Not satisfied with these images, I waited. Slowly but surely the kelp completely unwound itself and began drifting away. For a brief few moments it unfolded itself, showing the beauty of an underwater world that came to the surface for a few brief hours.

An Ongoing Look At the Clouds Over California California is know as a place where the sun always shines, it's always warm and never rains. Yet this year springtime blended into summer bringing us many weather fronts. It gave this photographer a show of color, shape & light - simple parts of nature that came together to give us a show of beauty and visual delight. We only needed to remember to stop from our daily tasks, responsibilities and work, and look up to enjoy the beauty. In this two minute MP4 video you'll see some of these images. More are certain to come. Check in occasionally for more visual treats.

If you're interested in looking at these fine art 11x14 prints, give me a call and we'll schedule a studio visit for you to preview the images.

Orange County Girl Scout Gold Award Portraits

2009-07-29T02:38:05Z

Calling all Future Business Leaders, CEOs, Community Leaders, Mayors, Congressmen and Governors Who Have Achieved Their Gold Award. Your Formal Gold Award Portrait Commemorates This Great Achievement. Congratulations! Your official Girl Scout Gold Award portrait will hang in the council service center in Orange County after your portrait is created. Portrait sessions on October 3 will be at our studio (12832 Valley View St., Ste. 104, West Garden Grove, where the 405 & 22 Collide!) Your portrait session is complimentary. If you are interested in purchasing portraits as gift prints for relatives, parent's office display or home, we'll offer options for purchase.

If you cannot wait until this date, you may come to the studio by making an on-line reservation at our Portrait Fridays.

That's right, you may take your home & gift collections home the same day. Payment is due at time of delivery. View Our 90 Second Tribute to 2009 Gold Awardees
Visa or Mastercard accepted. 2009 Dates at the West Garden Grove studio are: Saturday, April 17, 9am-1pm Saturday, July 24, 9am-1pm Saturday, November 6, 9am-1pm A limited number of appointments are available, so make your reservations early. Reservations may be arranged by following this link. If you cannot wait until this date, you may come to the studio by making a reservation. Please be advised that you must attend with a parent to 'live edit' and purchse your portrait. Regular studio pricing will be applied to the 1/2 hour session (we will give a 15% discount as a Girl Scout.) We look forward to seeing you and celebrating this special achievement.

Born Anew as a Photographer Artist: Boot Camp with Arthur Rainville

2009-07-08T17:32:05Z
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?

2009-07-03T17:34:51Z

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.

12 Points of Eagle Scout Portrait Law

2009-06-17T17:32:18Z

Download file

Portraits For Business - Media - Government - Community

2009-05-02T16:32:54Z

Business Portraits With Flexibility Quality, and Lots of Background. When you need a business portrait, we have the options of creating pictures with environment, graphics and beauty all while standing in the studio to save you time and money (that's right, every image you see in the video below is in our studio.) Once you've scheduled your appointment, you may walk out the door with your portraits, production ready. Just hand the file over to your printer and you're all set.]]> View Our 76 Second MP4 Sample Portfolio

Call 562-596-8999 for a complimentary consultation.

Newest Video Portfolio

2009-03-26T02:58:41Z

Take a look at our newest addition to our product line.....

padilla Jose, CIEC eagle flag

2009-03-06T15:45:14Z

tanner eagle image

2009-03-04T17:34:52Z

Andrew Wyeth Passing - Visual Stimulus

2009-01-20T16:17:05Z

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 at 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.

BSA Los Angeles Area Council

2009-01-05T18:08:49Z

Calling all Future Business Leaders, CEOs, Community Leaders, Mayors, Congressmen and Governors Who Have Achieved Their Eagle Scout Rank
]]> View our 120 second tribute to Eagle Scouts (MP4 file)

Your parents are proud of you, and so is your council. Take this chance to create a

Are you looking for Eagle Scout Gifts to show how proud everyone is of this achievement. Purchase a Portrait Gift Certificate for the new Eagle! Call 562-596-8999 for details.

formal portrait so they'll have a memory to cherish and celebrate your accomplishment few Scouts achieve. Your portrait will hang proudly in the council's office, your parent's home & office. And, a decade or so down the road, your son will look upon this portrait and decide to follow your path.

'It was the quickest, easiest, lovliest portrait session we've ever had. We love the pose and portrait.' Laurie D.

We create, you edit and receive your portraits on-site so your official Eagle portrait will hang in the council office. Portrait sessions will be at our studio on March 6. Other date locations are TBA. Your portrait session is free of charge. 2010 Dates: Saturday, March 13, 9am-1pm in our West Garden Grove Studio. Other 2010 Dates: Saturday, June 5 (location TBA) Saturday, November 13 (location TBA) If you are interested in purchasing additional portraits as gift prints for relatives, your Court of Honor display or home, we'll offer options for purchase that are printed during your session.

'We love the portrait and have had so many complements on it. His Eagle COH is this weekend so we are going to proudly display it.' Ann U.

That's right, you may take your home & gift collections home the same day. Payment is due at time of delivery. To see our information sheet 12 Points of the Eagle Scout Portrait Law (hints and info about looking good in your portrait) follow the PDF link above. Visa or Mastercard accepted. For those of you who cannot wait to purchase Eagle Scout portraits, you may come to our Studio Portrait Sessions. Follow the above link to make your on-line appointment. If you want your portrait only for the Eagle Honor Wall, please wait until our regularly scheduled LAAC Service Center dates so we may accomodate as many Eagles as possible in studio who need CoH and family gift & display prints to obtain these images. A limited number of appointments are available, so make your reservations early. Session reservations may be arranged by following this link to our on-line reservation system. Set your Eagle Portrait Appointment now! Portraits are by appointment only and you must have an adult with you during your visit to our studio. Your investment in our in-studio portraits will be higher as we are dedicating 1/2 hour of creativity to your portrait.

Portrait Survey: Wife/Husband Portraits

2008-09-06T14:35:04Z

High School Senior Portraits Male Jonah Snyder

2008-06-02T17:45:10Z

Senior Pictures Portraits 2 BW Meg

2008-05-24T00:02:26Z