Square Business Cards

A lot of people love our new business cards ... they are cool, square and eco-friendly! If you are looking to do something fun like us and do it in a way gentle to the earth, contact us ... we can help! (the logo at the top of our blog, that is actually the front of our business card)

The Art League of Germantown presents its Annual Fall Fine Arts and Crafts Show.

"WinterGlow 2009"

at the BlackRock Center for the Arts
12901 Town Commons Drive
Germantown, Maryland

Open 10:00 a.m. to 5:00 p.m. on Friday and Saturday, November 6-7, 2009
Open 1:00 - 4:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 8, 2009

Artist's Reception 1:00 - 3:00 p.m. on Sunday, November 8^th

Admission is free.

Midnight Blue won't be able to be there this year :0( , but DC residents ... its a great show, with incredible variety of work ... be sure to check it out!

PPA Print Competition

PPA members, we are looking for advice on the print competitions, as we have never done one. If you can help, we would be very grateful!

Etsy

Hang in there with us, Etsy fans ... the store is a little bare, we know. But we will start reloading it with lots of good stuff soon. There will be a bunch of new photographs, some photo jewelry, and maybe even a few little surprises. In the meantime, if you like a piece that is there, let us know you are coming from the blog, we will give you an extra, good deal ...

March of Dimes Silent Auction Piece

This is the piece that will be offered at the March of Dimes Signature Chef Auction on November 11th at Lodge of the Four Seasons. It will be in the silent auction.

It is an 16"x24" metallic photographic print, matted in a double mat with the main mat in white and the narrow reveal mat in black. The frame is wide black matte metal and is 23.5"x31.5". The image is under glass, not plexi.

The image was created in November 2006 in Yellowstone National Park, in Montana. It is of blown snow on a parking lot pull off ... it was so cold and windy that day, but there was this little piece of nature's magic beauty. The print is really interesting ... full of silver and gold flecks. This piece gets a lot of attention at shows because it is so 3-D ... at first glance, it can appear to be sand. Midnight Blue does not appear in the actual print.

Please come bid on it for a great cause!!

Autumn Photos

Jaree is hoping to get back out on Sunday to get some more autumn fine art photos. Hopefully the rain will not take down all the leaves ... the color in the Ozarks has popped some this week. Not full glory color this year, a lot of brown, but there are some spectacular individual trees about. Just need a nice, sunny day to get those trees against the blue sky.

Dawn at Bennett Springs I

Dawn at Bennett Springs I
Originally uploaded by 12amblue

Been posting some autumn photos at Flickr ... check it out if you have a moment!

Strobes

We use Alien Bees in the studio for our strobes. Jaree's niece, Bethany (who is an extraordinary portraitist, by the way - Bethany Baird Photography) introduced us to them almost ten years ago and they have been going strong in our studio since then. We have four of them, along with a a collection of light defining tools, and they have never failed to deliver. We even take them on location and they are great.

Lately, though, Jaree has been craving using a constant light source when in studio, instead of flash ... but the traditional studio "hot" lights are not the answer ... we have been watching the development of the new LED studio lights - when they get to a reasonable cost, awesome!! There are also some compact florescent light sets out there ... we may try one and see how we like it.

Our advice, photography is all about light, so just like a painter would choose their brushes, take your time and choose your lighting tools with thought and care ...

What Printer Do You Use?

It's funny, we get this question a lot. Our photo printer is an Epson Stylus Pro 4880. It's HUGE compared to our last printer and has to be connected directly to the computer, but its worth it. Beautiful prints. Especially, as we favor printing matte and not glossy in studio. We use the Epson inks and tend to use Epson papers, but not exclusively. It depends on the project.

To be printing at this level, we have learned quite a lot ... especially to be sure we have the latest paper profiles, they are very important and we have had to study color management more thoroughly to ensure WYSIWYG.