The Best of Both Worlds

In this picture our prolific friend Jan Lundberg blends a couple of different technologies - the three-dimensional composition of 3D28 (Atlantis) and an on-site printer with digital overlay capabilities. The result is a multi-layered image that can be created in moments in a comparatively small area. We suspect that perhaps the technology of fermenting grain and/or fruit may have also contributed something to this photograph.

Senior Portrait Artists - Las Vegas

Dad (a.k.a. "David") and I spent the first Saturday of 2009 driving nine hours from the Dozens of Muslins headquarters in northern California to the westernmost fringes of Las Vegas, where the Red Rock Resort lies, for this year's Senior Portrait Artists conference. It was to be a historical event - DoM's first-ever trade show, and neither of us knew what to expect. The resort was the size of a small town, and after several trips up and down the wrong escalator, and back and forth through the hotel's hallways, which were about a half-mile long, we got settled in. We checked out our booth, which was at the end of a central aisle, next to the folks from DNL Photo Packaging. That's their 8x10 Signature Color Box in the bottom left, with the Reversible Aqua/Chocolate Ribbon. The show was great - we don't talk to many people beyond our UPS driver so it was great to get out into the world and make some friends. And we actually got to see what several of our clients look like!
We also managed a couple of trips into Red Rock Canyon to hike, explore, and for Dad to shoot. These pictures are from the Calico Hills area of the park - rusted iron in the rocks gives everything its red color.

Special thanks to everybody who made it a great trip. In no particular order the folks from: DNL Photo Packaging, Madcamp Backgrounds, Burrell Colour Imaging, Denny Manufacturing, BWC Photo Imaging, H&H Color Labs, the Maheus, Back to Back Design Works, Read Photography, Cripe Photography, SunWest Studios, On Broadway Photography, Dunlap Photography, and Inter-State Studios.

Booth photo: F4, 1/60, ISO 1600. Red rocks: F8, 1/200, ISO 500. B&W shot of me: F7.1, 1/200, ISO 500.

May Induce Euphoria

This is the staff of Mossbarger Photography, in Scappoose, Oregon, setting up 3D24 (Dock of the Bay) for a winter ball last weekend! Considering it was about zero degrees up there and they're out working on a Saturday night, these women look like they're having way too much fun. As much as I'd like to credit the amazing-ness of our backgrounds for the levity (levity...get it? ha!), it probably has more to do with the folks at Mossbarger than with us. Thanks for sending the picture, Mary!

Lab Recommendations

Tell us about your lab! We want to hear your recommendations and your stories about your photo labs. Hit the comment link below, take a second, and give your deserving photofinishers some deserved publicity.

Marketing Tips - Background Menus

This one comes from our friend Jan, of Jan Lundberg Photography in San Francisco. We provided her with some high-res jpegs of our jazz-themed backgrounds and she put this collage together, added some photos of some props, and passed the menu along to the event planner who was organizing the party. We considered this one a particularly successful marketing idea - the planner not only found a photo background she liked but also rented a second one just to add to the party's decor. Other photographers have incorporated our backgrounds images into their websites, or simply included a link to our site.

The 3D Effect Continued (ad nauseum)

Here's a photo of our background 3D10 (Space), stretched out. The top half looks normal; the bottom half looks funky. But once it's set up with the fold in the right place, and the subjects in the right place, and the camera in the right place, it magically transforms to this:



Sorry to blow your mind. That's just what we do.

The 3D Effect

What began in Italy in the middle of the 15th century with Piero della Francesca's painting "The Flagellation of Christ" culminates in our line of 3D backgrounds, as demonstrated here with 3D49 (Papa Razzi). We harness the same tricks of perspective, depth, and foreshortening to create three-dimensional scenes that place art not only behind the subjects, but beneath them and in front of them as well. We're fairly certain Francesca would have been duly wowed. Also, our backgrounds are much less expensive than his work.