New Biz Stuff & Updates

New wedding photos over at our main site www.craig-photography.com 

Published on Wedding Chicks.com ~ This was a collaboration between Elizabeth and Justine of Beauty Justified.  My part was mainly Sherpa-ing stuff around, setting up lights and clean up.

Private Show ~ November 16^th I will be holding my first private show. The exhibit is titled “Pittsburgh at Night”, a photography project that I have been working on for the past 8yrs. 

The show is private and by invitation for the members of “Encores”.  Encores is a Pittsburgh base membership organization that focuses on networking, self exploration and renewal of both personal and professional life. 

The exhibit will feature 15 to 20 portraits.

Workshops 

My annual weekend-after-the-Super-Bowl photography workshop. 

This class is a “Beginners DSLR Photography”

Date: 2/10/13

Our New Workshop ~ 

Glamour & Boudoir Portraiture Weekend Workshop

Friday evening

Photo 101 Beginners DSLR class

Saturday 

Working with natural light

Posing 

Choosing locations for outdoor shooting 

Getting what you want out of your clients  

Be a part of a live photo shoot (with hair/makeup/wardrobe stylist and model) 

Styling - hair make up and wardrobe 

Sunday

Creating the experience 

Marketing and Biz tips 

Date:TBA ~ Most likely Feb 23 or March 2^nd 

Sacred & Ritual of a Photographed

Tuesdays I volunteer at a local hospice, working as a Chaplin's assistant. The lesson that I am learning about life and photography, for the lack of better words is...life changing.

Every room I walk into has it hanging on the wall.  It's there framed as if it were hung with the only purpose of being seen by a single viewer. It is a montage of the person's life and all of their loved ones in photographs.

Consciousness comes in and out and upon waking back up into this realm, there it is seen in direct view from the bedside of the dying.

Photographs...our sacred ritual for celebrating life.  A photo removes time, it gives us history, present and future, all in a single frame. It suspends time for the viewer.

It is truly the gateway for passing well into the next world. A photo comforts the viewer letting them know that their life mattered and that their life will live on long past their physical dying.

It is what heals those left behind.  It is what holds love and memories for generations to come.

As of late I have been writing on the provenance and legacy that photographs give us and the importance of what is held within the four walls of the framed subject.

As this theme grows in my mind I can not help but see how powerful the images that we create today will last longer than anything else our client will ever own.

The ritual of celebrating life has been with us since we walked out of the Garden of Eden. An understanding what connects us to to the sacred is important and needed for us.  A photograph gives us this connection.

No longer must we give a sacrifice to God, no longer must we walk into temples to touch a piece of the divine, no longer must we feel separated...a photo is the new sacred.

Only in the past 100yrs have we had this gift of holding time/love/family all in a single frame to pass down to generations.

* Inspire * Commit * Photograph 

Photo of The Week ~ Street Art

Moment

Current Reading: The Man Who Quit Money by Mark Sundeen
Current Music: Returning by Will Ackerman 
Sounds: Air conditioner
Mood: Still
Smells: Tomatoes
Temperature: 95 degrees
Thoughts: Give without expectation / Receive without obligation….

Street Photography

Photo of the Week

Moment

Current Reading: Finding Ultra by Rich Roll
Current Music: Dune by Ottmar Liebert 
Sounds:  Kids TV show
Mood: Good
Smells: Waffles and coffee
Temperature:
 85 degrees 
Thoughts: Create a resonance not a revelation.

Provenance & Legacy of a Photographed

Where will your photos end up?

The first thing that the caveman did was to decorate their cave walls (see Lascaux Caves).  Our surroundings have great importance to us. From the first time we walked out of the land into our cave-dwellings-suburbs our walls became the surface for our imagery: to display the things that matters.

When I look at a photo I do not want it to leave me cold.  I want it to have a profound effect on me, to change my attitude. What more could I possibly ask out of a photo?

Many have made claims and theories as to the meaning of art but what more could you ask of an individual response than it created a feeling.

It's my intention to create photos that are a “seeing cure”.  Photographs that may recover the sensation and experience of life.

I think about this a lot. I think about the fact that the photos we take at a wedding today will be displayed at the wedding of their future great-grandchildren.  The photo pictured above is a standard display at the majority of weddings.  I have started to call this table the “Photo-Legacy Table”.  It is a grouping of past generations that has brought us all to the celebration of today.  Families gather around this table and stop and give pause to who came before them.  They go on to tell stories and laugh and cry at the memories.  This is a seeing cure, I think to myself every time.

A photograph gives you “provenance”...a history of your family's journey and a feeling of what is to come.

Art pre-dates the idea of currency as monitory worth. Simply put, art has been much more valuable for a much longer time than the dollar.  Dollars we exchange, art gives us legacy.

A photograph shows us society, beauty, authenticity and when it's done right a photo gives us fruitfulness, joy and it is the essential intrinsic value of life...the provenance of our legacy.

That's value that currency can not buy. We know what things cost but we have no idea what they are worth.

A photograph is a treasure….

Moment

Current Reading: Eat & Run by Scott Jurek
                          The Value of Art by Michael Findlay                            
Current Music: Reflection by Keb Mo
Sounds: Washing machine
Mood: Rip-roaring-ready-to-go
Smells: I wish it was coffee brewing, but its not.
Temperature: 91 degrees 
Thoughts: Injuries are our best teacher