Coming soon to a computer near you

AT LAST !!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I got the word from my webmaster that it is time to start getting him images for the website. Yee Hawwwwwww !!!
I spent most of the morning and afternoon collecting past images and it's more work than you can imagine. I'll
obviously keep you posted. Stay tuned....

Ya only go around once...

Great week end !!!! Members of  "The Class of "68" turn 60 this year and a bunch of us got together to mark the notch in the handle. What a Hoot and Holler...!!!!! It's amazing that we have lived this long and are only 16 years old.

If you are anything like me, I've had lingering questions for years over images from my minds eye that have just seemed to nag at me on occasion. Probably the two most pressing over the years have concerned two individuals whose paths in life have passed through mine. I don't know why, but these images/thoughts have been with me for years.

I can remember being outside waiting for my ride home from Miss Tilly's Kindergarten and I have had frozen in my mind the image of a kid, my age with a tan and brown eyes, looking back at me, background out of focus. For years I thought it was Tom Loydd, a classmate of mine through high school. But he didn't go to Miss Tilly's , so that left me confused as to who was looking back at me.

After I opened my studio in 1972, a couple of Lawyers moved to town, Tom Williams and his wife, Mickey. They had to have moved to Carthage after 1975 as they rented my old office as I had purchased the building down the street. We became friends and in later conversations Tom told me that we had been at Miss Tilly's together, but he went to school in Sarcoxie Mo, 10 miles down the road. It was him !! One question solved.

At the birthday party the last question was solved. We had a classmate that had grown up in Brazil, the son of Missionaries. His parents wanted him to experience his Senior Year in Carthage so he became a member of our Class. I remembered his name and face, but had lost track of him the minute we graduated. He was at the Birthday, looked the same -maybe looked like he was 19....but he was there. After graduation he went to William Jewel College and went to work in K.C. Because of different family obligations or work situations he was NEVER able to be at any of the other reunions we had had in the past. BUT HE GOT TO THIS ONE !!! We spent some time catching up and it was fabulous, second question solved. I'll post some pictures tomorrow for grins....Yee Hawww....quality time with friends, nothing like it and so special I don't think we will ever be able to replicate it....it was just drop dead fun.

The Logo.......

When I started my studio in Carthage, Missouri October 1st, 1972 I had no intention of making the business a career...it was a holding pattern until a teaching job on the University level became available....little did I know what I was in for. As part of the process I needed a logo and got Joplin Printing involved. They were and still are a fabulous printing firm in Joplin, and had a very creative artist on staff, Rita Swanson. Rita and I met and we conversed on what I wanted and the image I wish to project. That image really told the story...value, return to the past values of the our parents, trust, a true caring for clients, a warm fuzzy "life is as good" attitude, and a "can do" approach to any visual challenge or problem. Several ideas were batted around and  I went back in a week to view the roughs of Rita's ideas.
It is very gratifying to find someone that can turn words, vision and ideas into a physical entity. Rita and I were on the same wavelength, she hit the nail on the head. At the  time she was dating a guy, Sam Lopp who operated Windfall Light Stained Glass in Joplin. Sam and I met and became solid friends. When I bought the building at 340 Lyon in Carthage in 1975, Sam turned my Logo into a stained glass piece to fit  above the double door as clients entered the studio. It became my brand, looks fabulous, and I now have it hanging in my new studio.

Sam and I became fast friends.........and he and Rita got married. How about that.....

New week......

Cards are printed and the cold calling starts tomorrow morning...it should be interesting. The new Kid on the block always has a challenge, but it's not my first rodeo.

The interesting part of my business is getting behind the scenes of manufacturing. One of the companies I've worked for manufactures the floats ands different accessories used in Dock Floatation. I really had never thought of where the floats come from.....just never put two and two together. Someone has to make them and it's a really interesting business. Storage is costly so the inventory is kept at a minimum and production on demand can keep up with the orders. Extrusion of the plastic is pretty amazing and it looks like they can manufacture any shape. These images are for their catalogue, website, and general advertising. It was a fun shoot.

Website

Well today I've started to get my website together. With business starting to flow I need it. I've been in conversation with a local web design company but the effort has been fruitless. There seemed to be person in charge so to speak. The initial conversation pretty well set up our relationship, Morgan Studio and the design company as a cooperative venture with each of us feeding each other clients. The conversation was great ! But...that is all it amounted to........empty conversations. What was proposed, accepted, and looked like a solid deal vanished into thin air. I really wasted some time on that project. Not a problem, there is more than one way to get things done. I have a new web design partner that will get me up and running with immediate controls on design changes etc. It is amazing how things work out....one opportunity that was "smokey" gets replaced by one that is solid. I guess I actually dodged a bullet. The unfortunate thing about it for the previous company is that my commercial clients that ask about my site will be referred to my new design partner. I'll keep you posted on the website so you may follow whats happening here in the Studio.

Weekend..........finially getting the right stuff

I had a new account come in on Friday for a consultation on two portrait sessions. One now and one in October. It will be two family groupings the first being composed of the original family, the second will include the original family, wives, husbands, and first grand child, inside and environmentally. Both sessions are planned that way due to different considerations. The total family, because the grand child is a newborn and somewhat limiting in what we can do, and the fact that the Hospital took new born pictures for the family...it was felt that they had enough portraits.

Because of the great light of the golden summer, we will do the immediate family environmentally in a casual setting in the evening light. On the October session we will do all sorts of grouping with the entire family, only this time indoors as well as outside. I'm looking forward to it as it should be a hoot. Being this late in the year we will also be able to create Christmas cards for each family, individually as well as all of the entire group.

The session...the result...

I spoke in my last blog about the Intellectual properties issue of writing, photography, general creation of tactile items. To make a long story short, my client that I photographed on Friday wanted a disk of all of his images. We hit a conversational impasse concerning who owned them ( the files ) as they are by law mine as the creator. Granted I had two hours of shoot time, some wait time as he was late, stuff happens...not the end of my world, and the time it took to download the images. I am amazed that , as an "author", he does not realize the copyright issue directly effects him. In our long conversation I asked him if it would be OK if I bought one of his books then made 100 copies for all of my friends cutting him out of the financial loop. If I printed his book on pink pages with a yellow and red cover altering his concept of how the book should be presented, would that be OK with him ?? I never got an answer...if he objected then how could he expect to receive the files ?  My main concern is NOT the money. The concerns belongs to the quality of the finished image. He takes the image to a processor, probably a drugstore, large discount chain, who knows......I will gaurentee that the finished prints will not be up to my standards. I just won't have that happen.

Another interesting point that came up in the conversation is his concept of loyalty. I spoke with the web design company that referred him to me and told them the course of events. I didn't feel that it was fair for him to have digital files in his possession that were a direct result of their reference, especially when he said, " I have not signed a contract with them, I may go with someone else or do it myself." If he had the files there is no telling who would end up finishing his web site, with great pictures, gained from a reference from a company that he may or may NOT use. Just to keep things simple I decided to cut my losses. I gave him his money back and showed him to the door. Life is just TOO short. Tomorrow will be a great day !

Monday Monday......

Wild weekend....Rain...more rain....and more rain......
I loaded some new software on my Mac and PC this weekend. Two different programs that will facilitate my getting images out, time IS money. My client that I spoke of the in last Post is coming in this afternoon to select the images. Which brings up an interesting question.....who owns the "image". Depending on how the sale was made, I own the images exclusively. I very seldom ever release the rights to images I create unless there is a valid reason. My reasoning in this stance is that each image I produce must be a reflection on the type of work I do - Top Drawer. By giving up a digital file or negative I am giving up control of the final look of that image. All processors are NOT the same and all printing substrates are not the same....both of which effect the "look" of the image as well as the longevity. When I deliver a product to a client it has MY approval. Nothing else will do....

Session fees, hourly rates, both pay for my experience which spans 38 years of learning. The print costs pay for the cost of doing business and help me earn a living. If I would relinquish a digital file or negative I have ended all sales of that image and any profits therein. If an author publishes one book....are people then entitled to copy that book for themselves, cutting him out of payment for his efforts ? Absolutely not. Intellectual property is intellectual property, be it a book, movie, painting, photograph, anything that is someones creation. Just for grins check out your ability to use a photograph of the Statue of Liberty, Mount Rushmore, or the Golden Gate Bridge, in a publication or ad. They are copyrighted, just as all of my images are. How about that......

The dust has settled...

Back from KC and my stepfathers 90th birthday....YEEE HAAWWWWW. I finally addressed the elephant in the corner - the dressing room in the studio. It has lingered as a space to store all of the tools from the build out, needed paint, carpet, and a bit of TLC. Yesterday and today I moved stuff in and out...out to measure and thought I'd get the rug cut and down-fantasy-then back in, as I had a session this morning. It was fun and was for an author of several books. The images will be used on his website which is being created by Winston Web here in the PhilTower. We worked for about two hours and had several ideas for imagery over the span of time. As is ALWAYS the case...the first several images were pretty tough as he wasn't used to being photographed and I was still looking for a direction. He was pretty set on the look he wanted..........I just had to figure out how to get there. After a while we started to go in the right direction and the more we worked, the better it got. Going into a shoot with an idea of what you want reminded me of the problems associated with the Platonic Ideal. I hadn't thought of that since philosophy class in College taught by Dr. Brown. Plato, in one of his dissertations, talked about the "minds eye"  concept/view of an object. In the mind it is perfection......achieving that perfection is impossible as in reality - it is what it is. My idea of the perfect chair is different than yours and to achieve the "perfect"chair" your perfection must match mine...impossible. It's enough to drive you crazy........but we got some great shots. After we view them on Monday I'll see if he'll let me post one or two on the blog. Tomorrow I'm out of town and Sunday I'm in training for some new software.....Talk to you Monday....if not sooner.