Grad Portraits tag:www.gradportraits.com,2012://2 2012-01-04T01:10:15Z High school senior portraits, college & law school graduation, Eagle Scout & Girl Scout Gold award portraits along with professional pictures of families in a professional studio. Movable Type 3.33 web ad 3 tag:www.gradportraits.com,2012://2.140 2012-01-04T01:09:35Z 2012-01-04T01:10:15Z Bill Hodge ]]> web ad 2 tag:www.gradportraits.com,2012://2.139 2012-01-04T00:59:09Z 2012-01-04T00:59:54Z Bill Hodge ]]> web ad tag:www.gradportraits.com,2012://2.138 2012-01-04T00:18:05Z 2012-01-04T00:18:32Z Bill Hodge ]]> Wilderness is Part of Every Scout tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.137 2011-12-19T18:12:24Z 2011-12-19T18:15:52Z Portraits of Orange County Council & California Inland Empire Council Eagle Scouts Bill Hodge Scouting encompasses many things: teamwork, values, survival skills, camping, hiking, and all the other careers represented by merit badges. In this image, William Hodge pictures one part of the Scouting experience with another art portrait.]]> Young Jesus & The Guardian Angels - Sculptures tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.136 2011-10-20T17:58:42Z 2011-10-31T17:52:24Z Young Jesus & The Guardian Angels This image is inspired by the sculptors and stonemasons of Colma, California, and brings together much of the artwork being created during the late 1800s when Colma was the burying ground for San Francisco.... Bill Hodge Young Jesus & The Guardian Angels This image is inspired by the sculptors and stonemasons of Colma, California, and brings together much of the artwork being created during the late 1800s when Colma was the burying ground for San Francisco. It was illegal to bury anybody within the city, so they went south to Colma. It's often said that there are more dead people in Colma than alive. These sculptures are spread throughout a two mile area of the oldest of cemeteries in Colma, named Cypress Gardens. Many of the state's early business families are buried here. In the early 1900s it cost $10 to move the coffin from San Francisco to Colma. Copyright 2011 by William Hodge]]> Generation Y - Martial Artist Portrait Art tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.135 2011-09-22T16:02:59Z 2011-10-18T18:49:16Z Many people speculate on the direction of Generation Y, those young people born after 1985 and some demographers estimate this group to eventually peak at 100 million people. The leading edge of their generation is just now entering the full-time... Bill Hodge The activities we participate in mold us as human beings. Participating in a community..... provides us with with a framework for life. In this portrait view you'll see portraits of a young man who has practiced several forms of martial arts and has been doing so for better than 15 years. It is an ingrained part of his life. Martial Artist
"Virtus tentamine gaudet"......"Strength rejoices in the challenge" ]]> Martial Artist - Flying Kick ]]> Android and iPhone Apps Have Eagle Scout Portraits for Southern California tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.134 2011-08-31T18:37:58Z 2011-10-12T00:11:40Z You can now have portraits of Orange County Council Eagle Scouts in your SmartPhone, both Android and iPhone! View Orange County Council's 'Future Leaders of America' in either of these applications. Included in the App are the art canvas images... Bill Hodge iPhone App
Install our Eagle Scout Android App in your Smart phone, scan this logo for the direct linkEagleScoutsAndroid2inch.png For the iPhone version scan and download this QR code.Eagle%20Scout%20App%20iPhone2inch.png
]]> SmartPhone Cameras - The End of the Dedicated Point & Shoot Camera tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.133 2011-07-30T16:11:39Z 2011-07-30T16:33:30Z Is the consumer's love affair with dedicated digital cameras coming to an end? Will consumers reacquaint themselves with professional photographers as they jettison their bulky DSLRs and unconnected point-and-shoot cameras? Has the consumer realized that little 'P' on the Mode... Bill Hodge Is the consumer's love affair with dedicated digital cameras coming to an end? Will consumers reacquaint themselves with professional photographers as they jettison their bulky DSLRs and unconnected point-and-shoot cameras? Has the consumer realized that little 'P' on the Mode dial doesn't think for them? Will the pinpoint camera in their cell phone become the new standard for consumer imagery? 'So this begs the question, why would consumers want two cameras (a point & shoot camera and a SmartPhone camera) when they can condense the function of both into one item?' According to Arthur Rainville, VP of Photographic Development at Lifetouch and long time mentor to many portrait photographers, this new technology along with recessions in the early 1970s (does this all sound familiar?), put a lot of photographers out of business. "Right now, both of those things have happened again." We've had a major shift in technology along with a painful recession. This has changed society, “People enjoy doing it themselves and don't want somebody doing it for them, even if it is not good enough.” In the early 1970s, the pendulum of consumer behavior swung back when amateurs found that even equipped with new powerful cameras, they couldn't perform like a professional photographer with creative capability. Within a couple of years consumers came back and started spending money on professional photographers. They learned that a quality tool (a nice camera) does not make artful imagery. Instead, it is the individual photographer who creates artful imagery with professional tools. The same thing is happening again today, consumers are about to move away from more expensive dedicated camera to pocket cameras - specifically camera phones - the pinhole camera you have in your purse or on your hip. Consumers are tiring of their dedicated cameras as they migrate to easy to use SmartPhones (again this happened in the late 1960s & 70s with the advent of Instamatics and the 110 camera.) As the SmartPhone's camera technology crested 8 megapixels last year camera store managers are expecting to see declining numbers of digital point and shoot cameras. According to three camera store managers interviewed, their point and shoot sales numbers are flat, their dollar value is down, and their biggest threat to consumer camera sales is mass migration to a SmartPhone as their prime camera. Each manager expects this change to occur. A camera manufacturer representative says, "Camera phones keep getting better and better. The new iPhone even has HDR technology. Unless regular cameras make it easy to upload directly to Facebook and other social media they will become less and less the camera of choice, giving way to phone cameras. People not only want to document their memories – they want to share them." There are 72.5 million SmartPhones in the United States as of the end of March 2011. Monthly sales are up 15% over the previous year-to-year figures. However, camera phones are high end pinhole cameras with no control over focal length, exposure and aperture. Can technology condense these traits into a phone that is a part-time camera? Or will technology make a camera with upload connectivity? The Photo Marketing Association (PMA) reported three interesting points in June 2010: *There were more camera phones in use as households are more likely to own more camera phones than digital phones. *Digital cameras overtook film cameras sales in 2004 when the majority of cameras sold had 4 million pixels or higher. *Camera phones are not expected to catch up with the highest resolution cameras anytime soon: but we should see their use increase once resolution of most maistream units surpasses 4-5 million pixels. Little did PMA know, the wave of change was already swamping the industry. The fact was in June 2010 there was a phone making a splash with 8 megapixels - double the resolution of PMA's predicted tipping point - the HTC Evo was on the market. This change was occurring then, and continues today. The iPhone comes out with an eight megapixel camera this fall.
'Speak with most people today and ask them how many of their pictures they print? They rarely make prints. Images they shoot solely for online social activities are rarely printed. We think this is a travesty.'
The corollary to this change in consumer behavior is seen in the sales of GPS units by TomTom and Garmin, manufacturers of high and low end navigation systems for automobiles, boats and airplanes. TomTom reported on June 27 that their sales in the US and would drop 30% in 2011. Garmin didn't release figures but said via the Wall Street Journal, "Nothing that TomTom has released today contradicts those expectations." Why would this occur? Well again, we go back to the SmartPhones, both Apple's Iphone and Google's Android products sweeping the nation. The navigation system inside a SmartPhone is in your pocket, constantly updated and reasonably accurate. So why would we want to have another GPS system by Garmin or TomTom in our car dedicated to only one role in life. Why spend the money on two pieces of hardware? So this begs the question, why would consumers want two cameras (a point & shoot camera and a SmartPhone camera) when they can condense the function of both into one item? Again, why spend the money on two pieces of hardware? Why do we need dedicated cameras for snapshots? We now have our address books, pagers, texting, answering machines, social networking, desktop calculators and cameras all rolled up in our SmartPhones. More and more technologies are being compressed into a single tool. For an amateur photographer, a basic camera in their SmartPhone is all they need to share themselves with the world. Speak with most people today and ask them how many of their pictures they print? They rarely make prints. Images they shoot solely for online social activities are rarely printed. We think this is a travesty (see our blog entry on archiving imagery, 'Hard Prints are your Archive - Digital Files are your Backup' and 'Hard Prints vs. Digital Files On Memory - Why Print Pictures', from February 2011 at SeniorPicturesOC.com.)
'Possessing the tools of a professional doesn't give us the skills nor artistic vision to create consequential portraits any more than computer word processors allow us to write better prose than Ernest Hemingway, JRR Tolkien or Tom Wolfe.'
All this leads me to think the momentum will begin to swing back to professional photographers working in targeted niches, functioning at a high level. Along with this movement to simple SmartPhone cameras, consumers will be more optimistic as we recover from the shock of 2007-2008 and begin to pay for professional servies (in all fields - not just ours) as they feel more comfortable. The son-in-law of the 90 year-old gentlemen I photographed sat next to me at a Rotary meeting and asked an interesting question. After complimenting me on my portrait of his father-in-law, he asked, “Is there really a market for professional photographers in the future? Digital has really changed things!” That's a great question I answered, and added, "There is a a market for professional photographers because no amateur shutterbug could have created the portrait I recently created of your father-in-law. Possessing the tools of a professional doesn't give us the skills nor artistic vision to create consequential portraits any more than computer word processors allow us to write better prose than Ernest Hemingway, JRR Tolkien or Tom Wolfe." Inexpensive camera phones will become the consumer norm (just as they did in the 1970s with Instamatic & 110 cameras.) In the future, pro photographers (along with some of the prosumers - some will become pro also) will get back to work with their creativity as consumers demand better imagery and are willing to pay for images of consequence. But, it will still not be easy to sell your photography skills in an age of deleveraging in the post recession world. Dr. Henry Oles, long time veteran of the photo wars, author of 'The Perfect Storm' about the challenges facing pro photographers and his Virtual Background system says, "As the amateurs have upgraded in every respect, professionals have become more amateur like. They give up their studios. They give up their lighting. They resort to the 'natural look'. They work on location. Basically pros have become amateur like. The amateurs have all of our tools except one...Virtual Backgrounds. Every other tool, every other secret is now shared. The only way for the pro to grow out of this will be to be totally different...doing things the amateurs cannot do. They have to go back to producing quality professional level images and stop screwing around taking snapshots and calling themselves professional." He adds, "Another problem is that there are now hundreds of thousands of people who think of themselves as professional. Skip Cohen (founder of Wedding Portrait Photographers International - WPPI) estimates as many as 700,000. That’s a lot of competition and worse when combined with all amateurs who now can take good pictures." This matches Rainville's take on professional photography. “The new reality is the part-timer is the New Face. They are doing weddings, high school seniors kids, creating still and video at the same time. They're not technically proficient and they're 'spray and pray' shooting. The customer thinks that is okay. This is what people know as a pro photographer.” So, in the end, it's up to professional photography artists to await this change of consumer perceptions, or to come up with a way to change that consumer behavior, awaiting consumers to move to their SmartPhones as a primary camera. Then it's up to us to be better image creators, more creative and be more innovative than the consumer if we want to continue as professional photographers making a good living while satiating our creative right brain.]]> Senior & Eagle Pictures - Are We Performing? tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.129 2011-05-24T13:23:46Z 2011-05-24T13:29:56Z Some nice words from a recent customer……. “I just received my son’s Eagle Scout & Senior pictures and they are just wonderful, the are really great. I’m just really pleased with them. Thank you so much. again these pictures are... Bill Hodge Some nice words from a recent customer……. “I just received my son’s Eagle Scout & Senior pictures and they are just wonderful, the are really great. I’m just really pleased with them. Thank you so much. again these pictures are wonderful. Thank you, thank you, thank you! This wall portrait is really just beautiful” -Judy N. Thanks Judy! You warm our hearts and confirm why it is important to create these family heirlooms…..they’re an important part of your family, an important part of your son’s future family, spouse, children, grandchildren. ciec display wall image tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.128 2011-05-22T15:41:09Z 2011-05-22T15:41:28Z Bill Hodge ]]> CIEC Eagle Scouts: Portraits of America's Future Leaders tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.127 2011-05-22T15:36:58Z 2011-05-22T15:43:11Z Pictures On Exibition... Bill Hodge Pictures On Exibition
CIEC%20Eagle%20Wall.jpg]]> at this link.]]> Eagle Scout Portraits - Pictures of our Future Leaders tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.126 2011-04-11T15:43:21Z 2011-04-11T15:51:01Z One of the highlights of creating portraits is making these: Eagle Scout portraits for Orange County, Inland Empire, and Los Angeles County. Here you see our recent Orange County Council Session. Our next date is June 11 for the OC.... Bill Hodge online appointment center to reserve your time. Eagles%20April%202011.jpg ]]> Loyola Law School Graduating Juris Doctorates - Portraits of Future Leaders tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.125 2011-04-11T15:36:32Z 2011-04-11T15:42:41Z More portraits in our series on Future Leaders of America: Juris Doctorate candidate's portraits from Loyola Law School. Pictures of seniors.... Bill Hodge ]]> University of La Verne Senior Pictures - 2011 Grads tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.124 2011-04-11T15:33:06Z 2011-04-11T15:52:39Z This is the season as all of our future leaders prepare to graduate from college. We were recently at University of La Verne for senior pictures (or as we say, portraits.) You may visit our studio for your portrait or... Bill Hodge online appointment center to reserve your time. ULV%20Grad%20Fair.jpg ]]> ULV Screen Shot March 2011 tag:www.gradportraits.com,2011://2.123 2011-04-11T15:32:32Z 2011-04-11T15:32:56Z Bill Hodge ]]>