It was a very fun day of shooting in spite of the weather, but these High School Seniors will have some unique portraits. It seems the most frequent request for senior pictures are to be unique and not like all the others. It’s a challenge I truly enjoy.

Related posts:

1. Class of 2011 Models Wanted

Our Senior Model Program is a way for Class of 2011 Seniors to earn discounts on their senior portraits, while helping us show off the latest styles and update our senior images!

Here are the details…

Senior Rep Benefits…

#1) A Free 45 minute test modeling session taken before April 2010 with 3-4 fun, funky and fashionable outfits. (later you will do a full session)
#2) You are required to purchase a 2 1/2 hour Summer Session at 50% off – that is $137.50 (normally $275 session fee)
#3) Your own Facebook Promo Code-to track friends who came to James Crossman Photography.
#4) Designer Rep Cards – 50 custom designed cards with your name and image to get you started… Let’s hope you need more!!
#5) Website, Blog, Brochures, and Facebook – are some of the places in which you may appear!
#6) You’ll receive a cool video slideshow and two images to display on your Facebook.
#7) For every rep card or Promo code redeemed from your friends, you will receive $50 off your final portrait order and your friend will receive $50 toward their session fee. Valid one card per senior, per session. Plus other great prizes based on the number of seniors you bring in.

You don’t have to be a perfect model size or look like a model to get IN. We base our decision on personality, activities and eagerness to be in the program. We are looking for models that truly appreciate our quality, and can see the difference in our work.

Related posts:

1. Unique Senior Portraits in Urban Setting

I am pleased to announce that the Houston Strobist meetup for January is open to all who wish to either practice what we learned this past week, to share new projects that are built, or who just want to learn and practice how to light their photography. It will be at the Coffee Groundz once again, on January 24, 2010 from 6:30 to 9:30pm.

If there is anything you want us to work with you on, please leave a note here in the comments or on our Houston Strobist Flickr group.

Related posts:

1. Strobist 101 at the Houston MugtoMug
2. Photographing Dinosaurs

As an example of what I have been able to do since I started on the Strobist journey, please consider these Senior Portraits and other images:

The Houston MugtoMug group is a local Smug Mug Users Group or SMUG. I use Smug Mug for displaying proofs of my work to my clients and for managing on-line sales. The people there have been awesome, and worth checking out.

If you are one of my fellow Strobists from my Flickr group, Houston Strobist, please come and share and help keep me in line. Or if you caught my presentation at PhotoCamp Houston last year, and have been inspired to make your own light modifiers, please bring them.

I look forward to seeing you there.

If you had any problem opening the link to the Coffee Groundz website to get the address and directions, they are at 2503 Bagby Street Houston, TX 77006 and here’s a map.


View Larger Map

Related posts:

1. Houston Strobist Meetup – January 2010
2. Photographing Dinosaurs

A Toy Dinosaur from my son's collection, lit with a Canon 580EX II at 1/32 from above in a shoot-through, and a Rayflash on a second 580EX II at 1/128 power for balanced fill. A flag was used to keep light off the background.

I have been impressed with the way the Houston Museum of Natural Science (HMNS) has taken to social media with their blog and twitter access and reached out to photographers. Some time ago, Erin at HMNS and I had a phone call and HMNS is doing something that I am so excited and jazzed about. On Sunday, March 8, 2009, HMNS will open its doors to those of us in the Houston Strobist group for four hours of after-hours lighting and fun.

For those who don’t know, a Strobist is a person who learns to use light in photography more creatively by getting the light off of his camera. So we have permission to bring models, and to set up our lights as we need to get the best use of the museum.

If you are a member of Flickr.com and want to attend the meet-up, please drop me a line or leave a message in the Houston Strobist Group. And if you want to spend some time reading and learning about lighting, let me point you to the Strobist website, and the Lighting 101 class.

It has done wonders for my photography and I am grateful that HMNS could work something out for my fellow Houston Strobists.

Update! Someone noticed that I never included the results of that question about dinosaurs. Here’s a shot that involved 12′ lighting stands to highlight the teeth and then other strobists holding strobes for me on the balcony above:

Related posts:

1. Houston Strobist Meetup – January 2010
2. Strobist 101 at the Houston MugtoMug

As this post completes my series of introductory posts about my site, I thought I would introduce the Pictures section with images from a recent photo shoot with Nicole. Enjoy!

What sort of additional images would you like to see here?

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For me, my camera changes how I see the world.  Just by picking it up, I am reminded that beauty surrounds me and I only have to look for it to see it.

This is the second of five introductory posts to start the process of building a relationship with you through this site. While my primary interest is in giving to you, and seeing what skills I have that may help you, I am starting by telling you some of what I have done and how I see things, to help lay the foundation for the discussion on how I can give to you as others have given to me.

Taste, Part of an ongoing series of photographing the senses

Photography and I

I still remember the thunk of the little camera I won as a child in a crane game at City Park in New Orleans.  I spent all the quarters I had trying to win that camera because I could see it was a real camera with film just like the one my dad used.

I wish I could say that I still have the camera or images, but I was young and as soon as I had shot the roll of film, I opened the camera and pulled the film out to see my photographs - so began my journey into photography.

I finally got my first film camera in the form of a 110 Kodak, and then later, my first 35mm SLR camera when I turned 18.  Those photos I do still have.  I carried that 35mm, a Pentax ME Super, everywhere I went for the next several years until in my twenties it was stolen.  But it was enough to get me started and my father and I would discuss photography from time to time.

I remember when I learned the Sunny 16 Rule I finally understood how my father could shoot a manual camera without a light meter and get good photographs.  I remember, too, the time I told him I needed a better camera, and he told me about pinhole photography and brownie box cameras and how it’s the eye of the photographer that makes the difference – a great photograph could be made with an oatmeal box, aluminum foil, film and a pinhole.

Since then I’ve seen just such photographs in museums and on-line, again underscoring the lessons he taught me.

Years without a Camera

My 35mm SLR cameras were stolen in my twenties, even as I dreamed of someday becoming a professional photographer.  I could not afford to replace the equipment, so the dream was shelved for some time.

I still loved photography, and reminded myself of what my father told me about the eye being more important than the camera with every disposable camera I shot with on vacation, or still image of my children shot with an automatic 35mm camera from the department store.

Photography stayed faded in my life except for those rare and priceless moments when I would capture a deer in the mountain mist in Colorado while hiking, or the majesty of Nigara Falls on a disposable panoramic camera, or capturing a priceless moments as my children grew.  And so time passed….

Breaking into a Bank Returns Me to Photography

A number of years ago, I had an interesting job.  I would break into companies, banks, and such – all at their request – to help improve their physical and information security.  My rules of engagement prevented me from taking anything I found, so it was not quite like the movie Sneakers with Robert Redford. Instead, I was given a small digital camera that I used to document where I was in the client building and what critical systems (check printers, financial information, bank vault, etc) to which I had gained access.

I was carrying a small Canon Elph camera, and it was ideal for my needs.  It fit easily in any pocket and the photos were large enough to provide good analysis after I left the target company.  One unexpected benefit of the camera was that it was the size of a cell phone – I found this feature handy when people would walk in as I was photographing files open on a desk and didn’t want to be seen shoving something into my pocket.  That Elph and I had some interesting conversations as I would explain that I was in there because I needed a quiet place to take a call.

At one point things changed just a little.  I remember being in the area where the ATM machines were programmed within a bank and trying to catch a shot of the play money used in testing the systems as it fell from the ATM. While the photograph would become a part of my final report, I was spending too much time on the shot and I realized that I needed to start shooting more away from work.  I started carrying the Elph more places apart from work, and then decided to buy my own.

Photography Today

Now, I am back into photography once again.  My primary camera is now a Digital SLR (DSLR), and it is often nearby just in case something catches my eye.  I started shooting nature at first, volunteering and taking classes in different parks, and started having my work published in local magazines. I have gotten to know many other Houston photographers as I continue to grow and learn and even teach at times.

A year or so ago, I started turning back to that most interesting animal – the human.  I started learning how to manage and modify light and express myself not just in the subject, but also in how the subject was wrapped in light.  I have been photographing people, their children, senior portraits and other key moments in the lives of the most interesting people you can imagine. It’s a wonderful time.

I have several ideas for this portion of James Crossman dot com, and I know there are many incredible places that can help improve your photography.  I don’t want to duplicate the work of others, but I may have a few unique tings to teach.  In the meantime, have a seat and let me know about you and your photography in the comments below.

Let me leave you with something about Ansel Adams:

Ansel Adams in 1930 had been training to become a concert pianist while considering a career as a photographer. He decided, after seeing photographs by Paul Strand, that “the camera, not the piano, would shape [his] destiny.” His mother and aunt both pleaded, “Do not give up the piano! The camera cannot express the human soul!” To which Adams replied, “The camera cannot, but the photographer can.”
–”Black & White Magazine for Collector of Fine Photography” October 2000, Page: 76

How did you get started in photography?  What are you looking for in photos of yourself and your family?

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