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Two senior sessions done. Engagement tomorrow. Wedding Saturday! Busy week... # 2010/08/31
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Archive for the ‘News’ Category

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Alicia and Tim – Portland wedding photography

November 22, 2009

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.

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Contact Me Wedding Portfolio Stuff for photographers
k

Tags: bridal, photographer, Portland Wedding Photography
Posted in News, Photography, Wedding | 2 Comments »

Announcing two workshops in the great white North!

November 15, 2009

No Limits: North (The Canadian Invasion)

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)

Click here to register

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)

Click here to register

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.

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This two-day, intensive photography and photoshop workshop will feature:

  • Live Model Shoots (both days)
  • Posing Instruction
  • Lighting Instruction
  • How to Promote Fashion/Glamour/Boudoir Work
  • How to Create that “Pin-up” look and feel.
  • Hands-on Coaching, and
  • Unbelievably intensive Photoshop Demonstration and Training

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

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

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.

k

Tags: Canada, photoshop, workshop
Posted in Featured, Misc, News, Photography, Pin-Up | 1 Comment »

Nashville Workshop…first image

November 13, 2009

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!

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k

Tags: photographer, Retouching, World's Best Pin up photographer
Posted in News, Photography, Pin-Up | 1 Comment »

Pindora’s Box Glamouring Edition

November 12, 2009

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.

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k

Posted in Featured, News, Photography | 1 Comment »

Live from Nashville!

November 4, 2009

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.

k

Tags: Inferno, James Hodgins, NoBS Photo Success, Rob Provencher, workshop, World's Best Pin up photographer
Posted in Misc, News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

Happy Halloween part 2!

October 29, 2009

More from my Halloween shoot with Mandy Apple:

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k

Tags: Carnival of Sins, Halloween, portrait
Posted in News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

James Vs Reality

October 27, 2009

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:

James Vs Reality

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!

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k

Tags: awesome pinup, North West, photographer, portrait, Retouching
Posted in Featured, Misc, News, Photography | 2 Comments »

Big things for Katchlight

October 23, 2009

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!

k

Tags: awesome pinup, bridal, Inferno, North West, Portland Wedding Photography, Retouching
Posted in News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

Pindora’s Box – coming soon!

October 11, 2009

More info on the new Pindora’s Box that’s launching November 1st! I’ve been working hard on this with Mama Shan and we’re really excited to get this out there for our fellow photographers!
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Mike Long and Mama Shan have teamed up to create Pindora’s Box – the very best training
and tools for masterfully crafting beautiful pin-up photographs and illustrations.

Pindora’s Box (Glamouring Edition) includes:
Pindora Flow Actions (130 actions)*
Pindora Bonus Pak (11 actions)*
Pindora’s Virtual Room Template
Custome Brushes, Wallpapers, Flooring
Over 10 hours of Video Training
Lighting Schematic
Camera Settings
….and more!

*Actions in this set were designed for Photoshop® CS2 through CS4 (Mac and Windows) only!
They will not work with Photoshop Elements®
Videos produced using Photoshop® CS4 interface

Requirements:
Photoshop® CS2-CS4. To view videos, Quicktime® Player or Windows Media Player® is recommended. Videos can be viewed only on computers with DVD drives.

k

Tags: photoshop, pin-ups, Pindora's Box, portrait, Retouching
Posted in Misc, News, Photography | No Comments »

Pindora’s Box teaser

October 6, 2009

Regular readers will know that I’m working on a set of Photoshop actions and tools for pin-up photographers with my friend Mama Shan, from Nashville. We are ready for a November 1st release and are tying up the final details with our beta testers right now!
Here is a teaser using the Flow actions and Virtual Room:
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Tags: North West, photographer, pin-ups, Pindora, portrait, Retouching
Posted in News, Photography, Pin-Up | No Comments »

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