For those of you that follow my pin-up work, you’ll know that my very first pin-up model was the lovely Cherry Dollface – this is the first pin-up we shot together. Not very “pin-uppy” I’ll admit, but we did end up shooting some amazing images together.
She moved to LA a couple of years ago, so we haven’t shot together since. However, I can announce today that she will be modeling for me and the students at my Pinned-Up workshop in Santa Clarita in June!!
This post travels to you from sunny California where I’m teaching one of my Pinned-Up classes. This time it’s a private workshop for an awesome company, XSiGHT USA. Run by the energetic Gail DeMarco, XSiGHT are a great bunch of guys and gals who have a wonderful studio and great business. They wanted to add pin-ups into their mix of portraits and weddings so I flew down to help them get started.
These are a few of the first shots from today’s workshop, of the very talented and lovely Darling Danika (All processed with my Pindora’s Box set)
Another recent pin-up – this time it’s the lovely Amber. She wanted a calendar for her anniversary – here are 3 of my favorites from the 12 shots we created.
Meet the lovely Katrina – she came to me wanting some great pin-ups for her Navy husband…of course!!
So 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….
I’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…..”
Ok – 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 – 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.
So, after proclaiming that my traveling for 2009 was now finished…here I am sitting at Portland airport having breakfast (the Denver scramble of course!) waiting for my flight!
I’m off to Denver again for another shoot with Sam Puc’. This one is for her 2011 tour promo. Yes, it’s a bit early to be promoting a tour a year away, but Sam is taking a guest speaker on the road in ’11, and they are keen to get the buzz started early! No more details yet – all will be revealed in good time! (and no, the guest speaker isn’t me!!)
I’m often asked – how much Photoshop can you / do you do to my pin-up images? When clients see the first round of proofs to choose their selections for final retouching, they sometimes think…”THAT doesn’t look like the images on his website”.
So – here is a before and after. The image on the left is what we leave the studio with. It’s the perfect base point to get started. The one on the right has had my full Photoshop Lovin’. Each pin-up is unique and special…book yours today!
