Couple of videos of us messing around in Humboldt, where it’s…erm…rather cold! Videos from Toronto coming soon, including one with James Hodgins at the top of the CN Tower!
Archive for January, 2010
2010 No Limits: Canadian tour…video…
January 30, 2010
Canadian beds triple boing…
January 26, 2010As you can see – still hard at work here in the great frozen North!! We are now in Toronto for a few days relaxing before heading off for Humboldt…where it’s -17 degrees right now! I have a pretty bad sinus infection going on and am totally deaf in one ear and now can’t speak either!! But we are having fun, and the first workshops were a blast. Thanks to all who came!
More shots and videos from the road later…
Here is James Hodgins, Andy Armstrong and myself mid-flight…and yes, my bed did take a pounding from this!
Hard at work…
January 25, 2010So here’s a quick inside glance of me hard at work in Canada!! This is James Hodgins, co-owner of NoBS Photosuccess, and an awesome photographer, testing the springs on the beds at our hotel.
Our conclusion was that they were rather springy….
Live, from Canada!
January 24, 2010I’m sitting in Tina Weltz’s fantastic Elmira, Ontario studio watching my partner in crime, Andy Armstrong, work his day of the workshop. I’m up tomorrow!!
It’s been a while since I posted a cool pin-up, so here’s one of the lovely Mandy Apple, shot last week while we recorded a video…more of that later!
“Late For Dinner…..”
Sandy Puc’ and Jerry Ghionis 2011 tour images
January 11, 2010Ok – so the cat is now out of the bag and Sandy has announced that she will be touring with the amazing Jerry Ghionis in 2011…and I was lucky enough to produce the tour artwork for them recently! While the tour isn’t for another year, they wanted to announce it early so we shot these images a couple of weeks after we wrapped the 2010 tour images. Enjoy!
2009 year in review
January 11, 20102009 – review…
So – here we are in a new decade! I planned to write a nice end-of-year wrap up to post just before New Year’s Eve, but I’ve been so busy that it got put off till now! I’m writing from my hotel room in Nashville, where I’m showing Pindora’s Box at the PPA Imaging USA trade show.
2009 was a great year for Katchlight and Portland Pin-Ups, and 2010 is going to be even better!
Here’s a brief rundown of my the last 12 months of my life – both professionally and personally.
The biggest thing to impact me in the last year was the arrival of my son, George! Alison and I are over the moon with the little chap, and his brother Henry is a very proud sibling! It’s challenging for sure having a 3 year old and 3 month old, but I’m sure once they are older it’ll all be worth it. I have to send a massive cyber kiss and hug to my wife, Alison, here – as she is a stay at home Mummy, and works harder than anyone I know. I couldn’t ask for a better Mother for my kids, and thank my lucky stars every day that I found her!
I shot more weddings last year than any year for many – and ended up with 20 on the calendar…and each and every one of them was not only great fun, but also allowed me to meet fantastic, romantic and wonderful people. I honestly haven’t had a year like that in my wedding photography career – I love shooting weddings anyway, but each one just got better and better – so to each of my couples from last year – thankyou for being awesome! I’ve helped create some memories for them, and made some great lifelong friends too.
Portland Pin-Ups has been my baby for a few years now. It started out as a creative outlet for me to relax after long wedding days, or retouching the latest Adidas campaign, but during the last 12 months it’s taken a life of it’s own and is now starting to gain National attention. It’s taken me on journeys around the country to meet amazing people, it’s helped create a stunning product for photographers to help them with their pin-up work, it’s spawned a new career for me speaking and presenting workshops, and it’s going to send me off on new journeys this coming year too. After I return from Nashville I’m off to present a few workshops in Canada, then it’s off to Chicago to speak at the NoBS Inferno and back to Canada in May to speak at the PPOC Nationals. This is a huge honor for me, and I’m equal parts excited and petrified in equal measure!
The pin-up side of my business has also led to some great commercial work, most recently producing an Animoto ad and tour images for Sandy Puc’. This really came home to me here in Nashville when I walked in and saw my images of her on many of the stands in the trade show. When her tour starts later in the month, the pirate images will grace the tour bus too!
2010 plans are now behind schedule due to my traveling, but I already have some wonderful couples lined up for weddings, and plenty of travel and touring on the horizon too! Pindora’s Box is only just beginning, and Mama Shan and I are planning our next products in the line.
In the next few days I’ll be posting my favorite images from last year!
Here’s the 2010 – should be a cracking year!
Cheers
Mike.
FREE! Webinar – Pinned up by Mike Long
January 5, 2010Brought to you by the awesome Photography School House – I’m presenting a FREE webinar on pin-up photography on Feb 15th.
Pinned-Up, with Mike Long / Portland Pin-Ups
Join Mike Long as he walks you through his pin-up process from lighting, posing to post production and finishing touches of his unique portraits.
Shooting – Mike will show lighting diagrams and discuss his set up.
Posing – a brief talk about how to relax your clients and how to get the best from them during the session.
Post-production – using a mix of actions and old fashioned hand retouching, Mike will show how he creates his unique artworks.
During the Webinar and for two weeks after, members can buy Pindora’s Box – a set of tools to help pin-up photographers create stunning artworks – for the very special price of $239 (retail price is $329). A pin-up pose guide will also be available during the same time frame, for $69 (retail $99).
Feb 15, 2010 6 PM Pacific Time
Registration is limited to Photography Schoolhouse members only
Not a member yet? Join here – it’s FREE too
Sandy Puc’ Animoto ad – final image
January 4, 2010Regular readers will know that I recently flew to Denver to shoot Sandy Puc’. I’ve already shown you the tour images we created, but I also shot her for an ad campaign for Animoto…and here is the final image! It’s been ready for a while, but we’ve been waiting for Animoto to release the first ad, which they have now done. This image will spearhead their January campaign, and also star at tradeshows coming up. All the kids were shot on their own, and I then spent 15 hours solid retouching it all together to make the deadline!
I used my Pindora’s Box retouching bundle during the retouching.
