If you’re reading this post, then chances are you’ve noticed the new front page for Katchlight.com?! I’ve spent the last week having a spring clean and refresh of this site, hope you like it!
Since this is brand new – please let me know of any bugs that you find (or spelling mistakes too!)
Have a look round using the links at the top and enjoy!
2009 – 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.
My last wedding for the year – Alicia and Tim! They had an amazing wedding, with a really cool bunch of family and guests. We started at The Nines in downtown Portland for some classy portraits, then we all headed to The Secret Society for the ceremony and party. It’s days like this that I truly love my job – weddings are a passion for me and I enjoy being part of a couple’s happy day, and this one was full of fun, emotion and romance…perfect!
My 2nd photographer for the day was the great Joel Bock – a fantastic photographer and cool to hang with too!
Alicia had her make-up expertly finished by Nicole Wagner – I’ve worked with her on several weddings and she’s always wonderful!
Here are a few of my faves as they came off the cards.
Mike Long (co-creator of Pindora’s Box) and Andy Armstrong (creator of Design House) are teaming up for an invasion of Canada this January. No Limits: North (the canadian invasion) is two-stop tour of workshops in Canada.
Stop one:
Where: Kitchener/Waterloo, Ontario at Tina Weltz’ Calla Studio (about an hour from Toronto)
When: Sunday, January 24th and Monday, January 25th
Price per Participant: $299 (USD)
Stop Two:
Where: Humboldt, SK at Alison Berk’sImagin Photography Studio (about an hour from Saskatoon)
When: Saturday, January 30th and Sunday, January 31st
Price per Participant: $299 (USD)
In 2009, Armstrong and Long teamed up for a workshop called “No Limits” in Portland, Oregon. In 2010, the duo is taking the show on the the road to the North. The first two-day workshop is being held in Greater Toronto on January 24 & 25, 2010. The second two-day workshop is being held in Humboldt, SK on January 30 & 31.
This two-day, intensive photography and photoshop workshop will feature:
At “No Limits” you’ll learn how to break the rules and create images that blow your clients away! You will not want to miss this opportunity. Sign up today.
Mike Long is a professional retoucher and photographer. He is co-creator of Pindora’s Box (an amazing set of tools for post-production and pin-up work) and the owner of Katchlight Studio in Portland,Oregon. His pin-up work has taken the Portland area by storm, and his photoshop skills are unreal. Mike is originally from Great Britain and can show you exactly how to create images that wow your clients.
Andy Armstrong is a three-time international award-winning photographer who makes his home in Knoxville, Tennessee. He has covered weddings in the Southeastern United States, the Greater Boston area, Denver, Colorado, Kingston, Ontario, Canada and even St. Croix. He works with models on a local, national, and international level. He specializes in fashion/glamour work, but does not limit himself to a single genre.
In 2008, Armstrong released his Design House software for photographers and designers, and he his second release (Design House Library Vol. 2) to the public. With more than 15 years of graphic design experience and a growing photography business, Andy Armstrong understands the needs of and teaches concepts for the modern digital photographer.
Please Note:
The rate of $299 is an early-bird special rate and is only good thru 12/15/2009. The rate will go up to $325(USD) on 12/16/2009. Get registered now and save!
This workshop is limited to the first 30 people who register through this site. No additional seats will be added. Hotel Accommodations must be booked separately and are not the responsibility of Design House, Andy Armstrong or Mike Long. Andy Armstrong, Mike Long and Design House reserve the right to refuse registration for any reason at any time. After booking, this registration may not be cancelled and will not be refunded. You may transfer your space to another participant if needed, but the transaction for transfer is not the responsibility or Design House, Mike Long or Andy Armstrong. In the unlikely event that this workshop must be cancelled, you will receive a complete refund. After registration, you will receive a confirmation email and receipt. As we move closer to the workshop, you will receive more No Limits: North information via email.
Here is the first image that I’ve retouched from my recent trip to Nashville to teach an international group of photographers. This is Kourteney, and she’d never done pin-up before! She was great fun, and good sport and everyone loved her. She stayed for the rest of the day, and agreed to model for us later on when we had our ’shoot-out’ in the evening!
More to come from both Kourteney and our star model too!
I had a great time in Nashville, and teaching photographers is going to form a large part of my future plans for Portland Pin-Ups…especially combined with Pindora’s Box, which photographers can use to make their pin-ups look awesome too. I’m in the final stages of planning my first 2010 workshops, and am planning on heading out of Portland again. First destinations will be released soon. If you want to host me in your city, get in touch!
For immediate release: Mama Shan and Mike Long introduce Pindora’s Box Glamouring Edition for photographers
Complete set of tools and training for masterfully creating beautiful pin-up photographs and illustrations
Nashville, TN November 1, 2009 — From digital artist Mama Shan, and photographer and retoucher Mike Long, comes a unique set of tools, training videos and a one of a kind Virtual Room to help pin-up photographers create works of art.
The Pindora’s Box Bundle contains over 230 Photoshop® actions encompassing workflow, retouching, color enhancement, artistic and illustrative. A unique approach to skin smoothing is included, using the MADIMS system to accurately smooth any size of image.
The Virtual Room enables photographers to shoot against a white or gray background, then using the Virtual Room create a limitless number of versions with wallpapers, floors and walls all fully customizable.
The included training videos, all HD quality, show lighting, background and camera settings for a pinup shoot, and also cover every action in the bundle as well as advanced retouching methods.
Membership to a support site is included with purchase, giving buyers a direct connection to the creators and access to the resources created for Pindora.
For additional information on Pindora’s Box, contact:
Mike Long or visit www.portlandpinups.com / Mama Shan www.photoshopmama.net
About Mama Shan and Mike Long:
Mama Shan Canfield has been an artist and teacher for over 10 years, and creates Photoshop® actions and tools to help photographers.
Mike Long has been a retoucher and photographer for over 15 years, and created the Portland Pin-Ups studio brand.
I feel that I haven’t been posting much – it’s been a busy couple of weeks here! I’m currently in Nashville at the NoBS Photo Success Inferno Bootcamp workshop. NoBS is the BEST photo forum on the web, and I’m lucky enough to be a part of it. Run by Rob Provencher and James Hodgins you won’t find a better place on the net to learn, connect and grow your photography business.
This year, Rob and James invited me to speak, and yesterday I spent a couple of hours talking about my pin-up photography and then performed a live photo shoot with two models. The first model was Kourteney, a local girl who was amazing…her first time as a pin-up and she rocked it. The second model was a surprise one, and more details of that later on!!! 
Speaking and teaching to other photographers is something that I love to do, and will be doing much more of in the future.
Nashville is also where Mama Shan and I debuted Pindora’s Box – a wonderful set of tools for photographers. If you shoot pin-ups, boudoir, kids, seniors, weddings….anything! then Pindora’s Box will take your images to the next level, and beyond.
More from Inferno soon, including some behind the scenes videos from my pin-up presentation.
More from my Halloween shoot with Mandy Apple:
My make-up artist, the fabulous Hollie Olsen (available for any make-up services including bridal: Celebrity Spa Services ) is also an actress. She’s staring in a terrific new short due next year, about a guy convinced he’s a super hero and can save the World.
Trailer here:
She asked if I could come to the set (an old abandoned hospital) and take a shot of the cast in character….I’d love to!! After we did the main group shot, I had each of them pose as singles again in character.
Here is the group, Hollie and ‘Rufus’ – the mad janitor! More to come, and this isn’t the final processing yet – just testing. The final DVD cover will probably be more fun!
So – I’ve been a bad blogger again. Good reason though, I’ve been in bed sick for over a week with flu. Urgh. Rough.
No more complaining though! On with the good news…
As readers will know – (see post right below this one!) Pindora’s Box is ready for the public, and I’m as giddy as a schoolboy. It’s AWESOME. Mama Shan and I are really happy with the final product, and we think that pin-up photographers will love it. In fact, it’s suitable for other portrait photographers too. Our launch date is November 1st, and we’re ready!
In a week I’ll be heading to Nashville for the NoBS Inferno, where I’ll be speaking to over 100 photographers from around the country. My presentation this year will be a live pin-up shoot! The day before and the day after the Inferno I’ll also be presenting my own ‘Retouching Junction’ workshops with high end retouching on offer.
Next year I’m planning more workshops for photographers, stay tuned for news on that in the New Year.
I’m also deep into rebranding Katchlight here. People often ask ‘why Katchlight’? Well, when I first started out on my photographic adventure I did use my name, Mike Long, but it seems I wasn’t the first Mike Long in the world to take up photography, and someone already nabbed the domain name, so I searched for something that brought to mind photography…they were all taken. Katchlight – (the photographic term is catchlight) came to mind, and I’ve had it ever since. I often think of just being ‘Mike Long Photography’ but I don’t want to get clients confused with the other Mike Long, who also shoots weddings.
So until I can get that domain name, my brand will be Katchlight, and I’m going to be altering the branding over the winter, with new packaging products and maybe a new logo too.
Weddings for next year are booking at a furious pace – so if you, or someone you know, is getting hitched…don’t delay. I have a few select dates still open, but once booked…that’s it!
This week I had a web designer compliment me on my Portland Pin-Ups website, which is high praise indeed. It’s worth mentioning that I am available to design any website you need…with a focus on photographers of course!
That’s it for now – have a great weekend!
