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Posts by: Tony

Busy, Busy, Busy

0 Comments September 30, 2010|Tony|General

Hello all, I’ve been busy with a lot of things around here the past few months and it’s kept me away from my blogging duties. So much so that I’m not going to try and cover all of them in this post. Watch for a couple more of updates over the next couple of weeks. We’ll be talking about shoots, enjoyable visits and some big news.

BIG NEWS

One of the major things that have been keeping us busy is our studio move. Yes, we are no longer in that great space on Holcomb Bridge Road. Our lease ended at the end of June and we were unable to negotiate a new lease. So…we have moved to a studio space just off of Windward Parkway at Alderman Drive. It’s a great space and we are looking forward to working from there for the foreseeable future. The phone number, email and web address are still the same, the only thing that’s changed is our address. Our new address is:

Photoplex Studios
1005 Alderman Drive
Suite 101
Alpharetta, GA 30005

No, we didn’t change the name of the business. We’re still di Sogno Photography but because the physical studio is shared with other photographers; think of an office with multiple doctors sharing the facilities, the name on the door is Photoplex Studios. As always, sessions are by appointment only. We look forward to seeing you there!

ENJOYABLE VISITS

I often take side trips to places that can keep my creative juices flowing. One of those trips this summer was returning to the Atlanta Botanical Gardens where they’ve recently finished their remodeling and have opened the new canopy walk, which is fantastic. They’ve totally changed the entrance and I must say that what they did is absolutely great. Thank goodness the rain came back this year, because it definitely showed in the gardens. The past few years during the drought, the gardeners were challenged to keep the place green. Now, it’s so green and colorful and everything really looked fantastic. Take a look at some of plants and flowers on display there.

We’ll be going back often because this place has so many photo opportunities it just helps to rejuvenate life in general.

A SUCCESS STORY

In the middle of the studio move, a new client called after finding me through an internet search. Her divisional VP was in town for a few days attending a family wedding and he had some free time, so he finally decided to get those executive portraits done his company’s been asking him to take. We scheduled time in the new studio for the next day and he was in and out in just over 30 minutes. He didn’t want to view the images online but he did purchase 4 poses just by looking at them on the back of my camera! After all of that, before he got to his car, he was on the phone to his operations director. She emailed me saying “Hi Tony, Bob called me and was pleased with the shoot earlier today – great job! Please call me; I would like to make arrangements for you to take some additional pictures for us. Perhaps next week?”.

As you can see in the image above, it turns out those pictures were executive portraits of 26 associates and were used during their Presidents Club presentation that took place the week after that shoot. Six people in the image above were Presidents Club sales winners. Can you find the ones who won?

And with that success story I’m going to end this blog update. If you’re on Facebook, be sure to follow us at our fan page, www.facebook.com/disognophoto. And be sure to get the RSS feed by clicking on the SUBSCRIBE button in the right column. Until the next time, keep snapping!

It’s June Already!

0 Comments June 9, 2010|Tony|General

Hi all! I know, it’s been a while, but I must admit that I’ve been busy making images, getting some continuing education, shooting a couple of personal projects and taking some mini vacations. So, where to start? How about with the continuing education…

Photoshop World Orlando, Florida

A few weeks after my last blog entry in late March, Ann and I took a week off from work and traveled to Orlando, FL to attend our first Photoshop World (PSW) presented by the National Association of Photoshop Professionals. The number and scope of the educational courses presented by some very big names in the photography business was just overwhelming. So much so, that Ann and I only duplicated one course and we still wish that we had been able to clone ourselves to attend additional courses. Those however, will have to wait until next year. But we both came back energized and with our creative juices pumped.

We went down a few days early for one of those mini vacations, getting over to SeaWorld and Universal Studios amusement parks prior to attending PSW. We enjoyed SeaWorld immensely, particularly the dolphin and sea lion/walrus shows. Over at Universal we caught the Blues Brothers visit, listened to some great jazz and watched the street dancing. Our lunch at Jimmy Buffet’s Margaritaville restaurant was a definite parrot head experience. Yes, we even made a stop at the Hard Rock Café for dinner prior to leaving the park.

Making Images

It seems as though something is happening with the economy and business is coming back a bit. I’ve been very busy taking a lot of head shots, for everyone from real estate agents; to HVAC company owners, to PR/Marketing folks. Here are just a few.

Now a shameless plug, if you or someone you know needs a new or updated shot, we have revamped our product and it now includes two poses in print and web resolution on CD for only $140.00. That’s a deal folks, so call for an appointment!

Four Generation Shoot

We had a location shoot on Mother’s Day, it was a family of 20 that included four generations, ranging in age from two infants that weren’t quite there yet, to about 88 years. They were a blast to work with and even fed us some great BBQ after we were done packing up.

Thanks to Joyce Forgoston-Bogrow for requesting the shoot and setting this up. According to Joyce, this was the first time in many years that a full family image was made.

Personal Projects

After returning from PSW with my creative juices flowing, I set up a couple of shoots in order to bring my vision to life. My first idea was to put together a shoot with a body painter and model. It was to be artistic in nature and mimic some of the great masters of the cubist era of fine art. vOn a Saturday in April it all came together. vLynn Cole did the body painting and Sally Klein was the model who agreed to be painted. In order to get some images to make composites, I shot Sally for around 30 minutes prior to letting Lynn take her. It took Lynn about 3 hours to paint Sally in the cubist look that you see below. People who have seen this image, tell me they like the juxtaposition of a work of art looking at a person as a work of art! There was a lot of fun had that day by all and when Sally got home, in her body paint, her son couldn’t quite believe it was her and that it would come off. She told me he gingerly touched her cheek to see if it was permanent! How cute was that!

Another project involved working with chiaro-scuro to do some figure studies using just one light. Chiaro-scuro (Italian for light-dark) is a technique that has light areas next to dark areas in an image. A model I shot a few years ago posed for this series of images and this is just one I really like.

Another Mini Vacation

The middle of May brought our anniversary and we took a long weekend and stayed at the Stonefort Inn in Chattanooga, TN. This was recommended to us and let me tell you, it is well worth it. It’s an old hotel converted to a bed and breakfast with only 16 bedrooms. A great place and the breakfasts are truly gourmet!

During our stay, we took a day trip from Chattanooga to Lynchburg, TN. I bet some of you know what’s there. It’s the home of the Jack Daniels distillery and it’s in a dry county. Talk about a dichotomy! The tour was interesting, particularly with our ‘good ‘ole boy’ guide. I never knew that maple charcoal could add such a great taste to the whiskey.

We stopped by the White Rabbit Bottle Shop at the end of the tour and came home with a commemorative bottle of single barrel Jack Daniels Tennessee Whiskey. We haven’t opened it yet, but we are thinking about having a few folks over for a taste testing with the other Jack Daniels products that can be found at your local bottle shop.

So as you can see, I’ve been busy lately and really enjoining it. Until the next time, take care and call if you’d like a portrait or need some images to update your web site. I know, I know, another shameless plug!

Back at it!

0 Comments February 23, 2010|Tony|General

Some of you may know that during the last part of 2009 I was out of touch for a while with total hip replacement surgery. Well I’m glad to say that all went well and I am back at making images. I want to give a shout out to Reagan Powell for helping me out at the studio during that time, great job Reagan!

Prior to going out for the surgery, we had a great time shooting the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation’s (JDRF) Walk-a-Thon in Alpharetta, GA. for AT&T as one of the participating businesses in the event. Images from that event went to both AT&T and to the JDRF.

A few weeks later, a contact at JDRF gave my name to the Operations Manager of the Southeast Customer Service division of Ford Motor Company. They were hosting a golf tournament to raise funds for JDRF and needed a photographer to document the tournament.

The event was held at the Manor Golf & Country Club in Milton, GA. and dealers from all over the southeast as well as Ford corporate executives from Detroit, Mi. were there. All had an excellent time, played some great golf and raised more than $50,000.00 for the JDRF. In addition they all went home with an image of their foursome with Ford’s General Sales Manager.

For the second year in a row, we were asked to shoot The Novel Exchange book exchange and fund raiser. Marc Fitten, author of ‘Valeria’s Last Stand’ was the guest speaker and the event was held at the Glenridge House in Sandy Springs, a small community just north of Atlanta, GA. At the event, organized by Dale Israel, more than 50 folks brought books to trade, socialized over hors d’oeuvres and enjoyed Marc’s talk about his book. It also raised more than $2000.00 for the Community Action Center.

With the start of the year, we are focusing our business more on commercial photography. We are still shooting portraits, so keep those families and seniors coming, but the main focus will be on business to business work this coming year. As the economy starts its long recovery, we are seeing small businesses wanting new and updated imagery for their web sites, marketing collateral and new product announcements. If you’re an owner of one of these businesses, or know someone who is, and are in need of photography, please contact me at the link above.

Unique cars, characters and restorations!

2 Comments July 14, 2009|Tony|General

Cars and Characters…

This past holiday, we went to our old home town of Cincinnati, OH to catch up with some family. Knowing that each 4th of July, the city of Aurora, IN (near Cincinnati) holds a judged car show, I made sure to bring my camera along. (Like I ever go on a road trip without it!) There were many different types and ages of cars there and I felt that two of them stood out from the rest.

The first was this 1957 Chevrolet Corvette. It was finished in a beautiful red/white and of all of the ‘vettes there, my attention just kept coming back to this one. Probably because it was almost as old as me! The only nit was that the mechanical restoration wasn’t original. Even with that, it still grabs me even in a vintage black and white image.

The second one, that I thought was the most unique car at the car show this year, is a 1929 Chevrolet 3-Door Woody. It is totally customized with a 327 cu. in. engine bored out to .060 over the standard cylinder size and has 3 two-barrel carburetors . For those that don’t understand car-speak, that is a modern engine that has been made larger and more powerful to give better performance, not gas mileage.

The owner of this vehicle seems to be honoring our military personnel, past and present. The chalkboard dedication says “In honor of all our Military Hero’s, POW * MIA”.

He displayed what is called a Soldier’s Cross. It’s often placed at a spot of a fallen soldier and represents the final march of the last battle – items the soldier no longer needs. It is also displayed as a memorial to those who didn’t make it home.

The fuel tank seems very dangerous indeed…surrounded by .50 caliber rounds and fragmentation grenades! And his passenger (below) has a very ominous stare.

Since this was over the 4th of July holiday, I suppose the sentiment was well meant, but some of the imagery was fairly gruesome. I guess the owner was trying to add a bit of reality.

Speaking of unique things, I captured this individual walking around at the car show and I thought he was the most unique person there. After all, how many people do you see walking down the street with a pet Boa Constrictor wrapped around their neck! Unique INDEED!

All in all, it was a fun morning at the car show.

Saving Memories

A few months ago a friend of ours lost her mother to an illness. While going through old photos, she realized that she didn’t have any photos of her mother other than snapshots taken at differing times in the past. She asked if I could take a couple of the images and help her save some memories by creating a formal images from the snapshots.

She wanted to use this image because of the great smile on her mother’s face. The original 4×6 image was taken about 10 years ago and her mother and friend appeared very small in comparison to the whole image. To separate her mother from her friend, and create a formal image, the crop needed to be very small. After scanning the image to a digital file and cropping, a lot of the original film grain could still be seen. This meant that it wouldn’t be a clean, sharp image, so I cleaned up the scratches and dust spots and softened it a bit to remove the graininess. Printed on water color paper it looks more like a piece of hand drawn art rather than a photograph.

This image of her mother was taken at their rehearsal dinner. I cropped in a bit to help remove the background clutter and added a vignette. That almost completed the work but her face was a bit washed out by the flash, so I hand colored it to make it look more natural. And that finished the work on the images.

Our friend purchased both a desk size and wall size of each image. I am glad I could help her save some memories.

Head Shots

We’re still doing a good business with corporate head shots. Even with a slow economy, folks understand the need for a professional image and are coming in to have me create it. Remember that the image you show on your website or collateral, IS the image people see of your business. Make sure it conveys what you want it to!

That’s all for now. Be sure to follow us on Twitter or become a fan of our Facebook page! You can also follow all updates by subscribing to the RSS feed on this page. Take care!

New Product and Special Pricing!

0 Comments July 9, 2009|Tony|Commercial, General

Last month we mentioned a new product we were creating. Curtain Call has now been launched.

Curtain Call is a product of di Sogno Photography, and is specially designed for ladies to celebrate their womanly charms and to re-energize and reconnect after life has gotten in the way once too often.

You enjoy a private photo party* where you and up to 4 of your lady friends spend a fun evening creating spicy, HOT images for you, or to share with that special someone.

From now until August 28, 2009 we will give a 30% price reduction on items purchased as a result of a Curtain Call party. Mention that you saw this on the blog to make sure that you receive it!

Find out more about Curtain Call by going to the web site or calling the studio at 770-817-0945 for information.

Call now to reserve your party time!

*Individual sessions are also available.

Facebook and Twitter

0 Comments June 4, 2009|Tony|General

I’ve finally done it. I’ve opened an account on Facebook and Twitter. Tweets can be followed at ‘tfiorda‘ and you may search on my name or ‘di Sogno Photography‘ for the Facebook account.

I’ll be periodically posting to them with information about happenings at the studio or to let you know about stuff you may be interested in.

I promise not to post housekeeping stuff, just good stuff!

Take care!

I’ve been neglecting my blog! Arrrrrgh!

0 Comments May 26, 2009|Tony|General

Since the last time I updated this blog at the end of January I continued building the commercial side of the business, put a new product together, attended group shoots and took some time off to rejuvenate. Ahhhh!

A lot of business people understand that in the down economy lays an opportunity to grow their business or to start a new one. I’ve been doing business photography like at no other time. I’m pleased to see that this portion of my business is still alive and kicking as I really enjoy helping small businesses advance their brand through photography.

My wife and I have been busy putting together a new product for our studio called Curtain Call. The production is for ladies only, and provides a night out with a few of her best friends on a closed set with wine and hor d’ourves for some of the best, relaxed images of all time. We’ve done a couple of these and have received great feedback. Call us for information if you can’t wait for the website to be completed. We’ll post more information about it here with links when it’s done.

I don’t know if many of you have heard of Meetup Groups, groups of people that join together to pursue their interests and likes. I’m an assistant organizer of the Kennesaw Photographers & Modeling Meetup Group. This group meets once a month at a studio run by a friend and normally has an outdoor meetup once a month, too. About 30-40 pro and amateur photographers and models get together to talk shop, trade stories and shoot, adding to their portfolios while filling the experience with a lot of fun and camaraderie. I don’t get the opportunity to attend the outdoor meetup as much as I’d like, but I have attended a few. Two of these were in Acworth and Kennesaw, GA. Both locations are beautiful, small communities north of Atlanta. We shot the models and the locations and below are Chrissy and Alicia from those meetups.

After all of that, I really needed some time off to refuel. And I did over at the Huntsville, AL, Space & Rocket Center. I grew up in the space age and I really enjoyed remembering the pioneering projects of Mercury, Gemini and Saturn! If only they could ‘Fly me to the moon!’ Here is a shot from that trip.

So until the next time, stay tuned and subscribe to the RSS feed to catch of the updates to the blog.

Another month gone…

0 Comments January 29, 2009|Tony|General

…and I don’t know where it’s gone to. It was just New Year’s Day yesterday wasn’t it?

Starting a new year is tough, and a lot of it doesn’t involve shooting. Things like getting the taxes together, holding annual meetings, putting together this year’s business plan, putting new products together, etcetera, etcetera, etcetera.

With all of this stuff going on, you’d think I didn’t have time to shoot anything. Well a good photographer always finds some time to shoot and you’ll be happy to know that I did too.

Moda Spa and Salon had their grand opening this month with drinks, hors d’oeuvres, a fashion show and a live photo shoot. Guess who the photographer was. It was me! Their stylists did the hair for five models that modeled dresses from Lola’s Boutique, and they brought in a makeup artist. While the evening progressed, I shot each of the models in a Hollywood/dramatic lighting style while guests mingled in and out of the shooting area. The images created will be used by the stylists and the salon for their look book and some will even be hanging on the walls of the salon.

Later in the month I had the opportunity to shoot at a workshop. It was interesting and a few ladies were there to add to their portfolios. I was able to get some interesting fashion images and here are a few examples.

That’s it for now, don’t forget to check back often for updates or add us to your RSS feed to get the updates automatically.

What’s been happening at the studio?

0 Comments December 28, 2008|Tony|General

Wow! Has it really been two months since I’ve posted to the blog?! Either time flies when you’re having fun or I’m not very good at keeping you informed about what’s been happening at the studio. I prefer to think it’s the former.

Well here’s what’s been happening at the studio. Last month we started a new email newsletter that we’ll use as another way to keep you informed of upcoming events, specials and general news involving the studio. If you’re interested you can sign up by clicking this link. SIGN ME UP! If you like it, forward it off to friends and family that you think would find it interesting. Of course you may opt-out at any time if you wish.

The holiday season brought a visit from Santa Claus. Circa History Guild had an Old Fashioned Christmas party at their location and I was able to shoot Santa…with my camera of course. He was there visiting with the children for a couple of hours and this is one of the images from that shoot that we used on our Holiday Card.

Family Christmas images were busy also. The Diaz family was particularly enjoyable to work with. The girls, Kendall and Kayla, kept Ann busy while I shot Krystal and Mark. Here’s the image they chose for their Christmas cards.

We also had numerous business clients in during this time. Ivan Ruiz of Georgia Brace and Spine, who’s putting together a product catalog showing the different styles of back and body braces used after spinal surgery, is using a number of our images in their catalog which is being assembled by MMI Creative.

Melissa, Kelly, Chuck and Sam were in need of head shots for ads, new web pages, and business cards. This is Melissa.

I took part in a Fire and Ice workshop. Yes, fire and ice. On day one, we built an array of six propane gas burners that were set up behind a model. Then we lit them up. We got some very interesting shots and we were kept busy keeping the place cool so as not to set off the fire alarm from the heat created by the burners.

The next day we built a set to hold the ice and water. Two 350 pound blocks of ice were brought in and the models posed either in the water or on the blocks of ice or a combination of both. I’ll just say they were troopers and I’m glad I wasn’t in that water.

That just about wraps up the last two months around the studio at di Sogno Photography. As you can see it’s been busy. I’ll endeavor to update it more often in 2009. We’ll have some new things to talk about soon, so check back or add us to your RSS feed to get the updates automatically.

We hope you have had a great holiday and a safe and Happy New Year.

A Novel Exchange

0 Comments October 20, 2008|Tony|General

I had the pleasure of photographing an event this past week called A Novel Exchange. It’s a social, a book exchange and a fund raising event created and hosted by Dale Israel. Around 50 readers from the Roswell and Alpharetta area attended and enjoyed snacks, socializing and exchanging books as well as hearing local author, Brad Cohen, talk about his story and his latest book.

The event benefited the Tourette Syndrome Association of Georgia. The guest speaker, Brad Cohen, author of the book “Front of the Class: How Tourette Syndrome Made Me the Teacher I Never Had” has been featured on Oprah and in People Magazine as well as other print and electronic media. Hallmark Hall of Fame has produced a movie based on Brad’s book that will air on CBS the evening of December 7, 2008.

Brad shared his extremely interesting story about living with Tourette’s for most of his life and how, after college, when given the opportunity to teach at a Cobb County elementary school, he not only excelled at it, but was named recipient of the Sallie Mae First Year Teacher of the Year Award for the State of Georgia!

To learn more about Tourette Syndrome and Brad, check out their websites by clicking on the links in the above paragraphs. To learn more about A Novel Exhange, contact Dale Israel.

A good time was had by all and here are some of the images from that night.

Dale Israel, Brad Cohen, Tricia Kardon
Dale, Brad, Tricia

Brad Cohen and his Wife Nancy

Socializing prior to the book exchange.

Brad telling his story.

The audience listening intensely!

That’s it for now. Take care and leave your feedback or questions in the comments section. Be sure to subscribe to the RSS feed if you wish. Until the next time!

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