July 2009,

With the addition of my business partner, we are starting to emphasize marketing and PR to get our name out in the community. In our area, 'word-of-mouth' advertising is very important and making good contacts with people is essential. I am fortunate to have a business partner that is very adept at this and we are already seeing the benefits of those efforts.

In our county they have an annual celebration called "Christmas in July". They close part of downtown to traffic, setup vendor booths, bands play and various activities take place over a two day period. It is a fun time with a large number of tourists attending the events. Part of the festivities is two regiments of Civil War actors come and recreate a Civil War battle scene. They are very realistic in their appearance and equipment. You can view some of my pictures of this event at http://www.hdelitephotography.com/gallery/8813716_MsQQc#583734596_U6kcs

The same day, we also photographed three large White Pyrennees dogs in our studio. Their owners and the dogs were a joy to work with. Individually the dogs were easy to photograph, but it was a challenge to get all three of them to pose together. But we did manage to get a few photos which the owners and I liked. You can look at the results at http://www.hdelitephotography.com/gallery/8790492_M6zyd#581982925_88vZH

As for studio equipment, we have pretty much purchased most of what we needed. We are working on furnishing the studio with items such as storage cabinets, some remaining furniture and other accessories. We continue to improve our main street window space with new pictures and a large TV screen that displays our pictures 7x24.

Last week there was a local car show to benefit our high school. This picture is a fine example of several very nice autos at the show (69 Camero Z28).

June 9, 2009

May 2009,

April and the first of May have been busy, which is good. I've completed the church directory and we are starting to print it out and get it ready for distribution.

I have spent time in the studio painting, getting additional furniture and equipment and improving general processes. We decided to add photo restoration to our services, something I have done many times and enjoy doing. A new high quality Epson scanner has been purchased and with Adobe CS4, we will be able to restore most old photographs or at the least, improve them significantly. We have a couple of examples to our website under the Portfolio/Commercial section: http://hdep.smugmug.com/gallery/7552456_9PyJU#554766474_ZZmXm

We have our new signs installed for the business. One is for the awning and the second sign is beside the entry doors. They look great! Next we have to start our advertising campaigns to get our name known more out in the surrounding areas such as Wilkes County and Watauga County in addition to Ashe County. It is always challenging to know which media is the most effective to get this accomplished.

April 2009,

We have found a studio location. It is located on the main street of our little downtown area. The ceilings are high with room for a large studio, reception and viewing areas. It also has two additional rooms, one for an office and the second for a dressing room. The studio area will be approx. 24'x24' which will allow me to setup backdrops on three sides. With that capability, it will be easy to move lights to accomodate the background of choice. We share a common area with bathrooms and kitchenette with another business in the same building. This will workout just great. More work coming..... we need to paint, get furniture, office equipment and supplies, etc. But it is great to have a location ( 1 N. Jefferson, West Jefferson, North Carolina) for HD Elite Photography.

At the same time as the studio is happening, we have a large job to shoot. The church I attend wants a new church directory. I have found software that can be purchased for this purpose and we made the decision to do the directory on our own. We researched a good color printer and leased that for the church. Now comes the task of shooting 170+ families. We schedule the shoot over an 8 day period, at the church, to provide flexibility in accomodating people's schedules. The lighting and backdrops are setup, a small computer network connects the laptop to my camera and a second laptop that will be used for people to view their pictures. People are welcome to order pictures on the spot or to have them posted on our web site and purchased at a later time. Since I am new to the church, it has been a great way to meet people.

I had a great time photographing Luke and Courtney. They were a lot of fun and are not shy around the camera.

March 2009,
We decided to go with Smugmug for our photography business web site ( www.hdelitephotography.com ). We contract to have the initial web layout modified for our needs. Now starts the process of populating it with photos and getting it customized.

The search for a studio location is on. It is not an easy task in our small community. Trying to find a good building with high ceilings, sufficient space, a good location at a decent monthly rent is challenging. We have looked at several building so far, and a couple have possibilities.

There is a lot of paperwork involved in getting the studio started. Contracts have to be drawn up, price lists for services have to be produced, model release forms completed and much more. Fortunately there is a wealth of information for these things on the Internet and from books. I have been doing a lot of reading and typing.

I have started taking a few photos which I will share. Nothing too fancy yet, still getting familiar with the new equipment.
http://hdelitephotography.com/gallery/7552449_M2FrK#494318989_fXDs2

http://hdelitephotography.com/gallery/7552449_M2FrK#502064411_5WdBV

http://hdelitephotography.com/gallery/7552449_M2FrK#499808258_hhpbW

February 2009,
Much of our new equpment arrives and is setup in our garage. This will provide an area to get everything setup and tested until we have a studio location. I went ahead and purchased Paul C. Buff transmitters/receivers for the Alien Bee lights, and this combination works very well. A few backdrops have been purchased and I can now start taking some photos. Watch out family and friends!! Actually they have been very understanding and some even love having their picture taken.

I signed up for a photography class from Scott Smith of Lighting Magic ( http://www.lightingmagic.com/ ) in Fort Worth, TX. This was a 2 day class which is focused on lighting techniques and how to read light. Scott is an accomplished master photographer and has taught photography for several years. I opted for the one-on-one class which allowed more time to experiment and ask questions. Scott is a great teacher and I would highly recommend his classes.

I have always worked for large corporations in my previous career. Running your own business means you now have to do everything like ... accounting, paperwork, making phone calls and other details that used to be handled by multiple people. But, you certainly learn a lot starting a new business.

This picture is one of the first I took in my garage prototype studio. It is my wife with our dog, Lex. He loves to cock his head sideways when you talk to him.

January 2009,
I have been researching photography equipment needed to start our studio. There is much to choose from. Canon has been my camera of choice for years and we will continue to stay with Canon. The new Canon 5d MkII is investigated and I like it...what's not to like. Since we need to buy two cameras and we need to stay within budget, we opt for the Canon 50D instead. Our primary lighting sources will come from four Alien Bees (1600 version) complete with grids, gels, stands, umbrellas and accessories.

Investigation starts on how to setup our web site for HD Elite Photography, LLC. We need a place to store a lot of photos and with the option to purchase online. At this time, we don't want to spend a lot of money on a custom web site, so the search is on. For my personal photos, I had already signed up for Smugmug.com (http://www.alh.smugmug.com/) so Smugmug is a contender for our business website. Still researching.....

There are two churches in our area that have frescoes. This picture is one fresoe of the Last Supper and it covers the entire back wall of the sanctuary.

December 2008,
We are in our new rental house in Jefferson, NC. We had a great time spending Thanksgiving with my family ( first time in 30+ years).
Most of our household items are in their rightful place, but we still have several boxes that are not unpacked. Did I mention I hate moving!

I start the process of making a business plan for our photography business. It will be called HD Elite Photography. Selecting a name is important and can also take time to ensure it is not used by someone else and the domain is available. There is much to plan and things to learn when starting a business. We decide to form an LLC (Limited Liability Corp) and the operating agreement is completed by the end of December. Of course, it has to be filed with the state gov along with a filing fee.

December is also a time of winding down from my previous job and from the move.... both stressful and now behind me. I take some time to photograph some of the beautiful landscapes in northwest N.C.