Another Facelift!
It hit me once again.... time to change my website. I've given it a new facelift and renamed it to be easier to remember! Just type in paulashowen.com.Let me know what you think!
2012 Illinois SWAT Challenge
The very first event I want to talk about was so exciting for me! My son, Deputy Chief of Police in Illinois, invited me up to do a photo shoot of the 2012 Illinois SWAT Challenge. This challenge is closed to the public for safety reasons, so I felt even more privileged to be able to provide this service for them. It's not often that a mother can witness her son on the job and even work with him, like I did.
This event challenged not only the endurance, accuracy and strength of the individual members, but it also tests the groups ability to function as a team. I was so impressed with each member of each team! My son planned and led the events with many members of various departments. They wore red shirts so that the teams could easily identify who the judges were for the events. There were 6 teams, each from different counties or group of counties. Among them was my son's former SWAT team, FIAT SWAT.
There were 5 events, of which 4 tested shooting accuracy from various distances. The final event tested strength and endurance. I shot (with my camera, not a gun) about 1,000 pictures over the two days.
What a fantastic learning experience this was for me! Thanks, Jason!
My Favorite Clients!
The next few photo shoots are of a family that I have had as clients for a very long time. I was there when all of these children were born, except the oldest boy, who I met at age 2 weeks. The kids are all cousins and I feel almost like part of the family!The oldest, Dylan, was never one to smile much. He was always so serious during all of his shoots. I used to try so hard to get a smile, but that just wasn't Dylan..... not until this last shoot! You can imagine how excited I was to see him laugh and have such a good time! He made my day!
Only a few weeks later, their cousins, Triton and Brooklynn came for their shoot. This shoot was celebrating Brooklynn's 3rd birthday. It's so hard to believe that 3 years have passed since I captured Brooklynn's birth and now look at her! Growing up so fast!
The theme for her birthday party was Mermaids and it was held at Weeki Wachee Springs, Home of the Mermaids!
Her Mom bought her this adorable little mermaid costume and off to the beach we went. I absolutely love it when parents color coordinate their children's outfits, like these Mom's do! I told Brooklynn's Mom that I wanted to pick up some balloons to
match her outfit her mom wanted to make sure the colors were perfect and wanted to pick up the balloons. She matcher the outfit EXACTLY! I was so pleased.
Little Brooklynn knew exactly what Mom meant when she said..."Remember, Brooklynn.... Mermaid hands". Brooklynn positioned her hands just like her mermaid model (above)!
I think Brooklynn had the best birthday ever!
And the winner is.....
Remember in my June Newsletter when I told you all about my Fantastic Sams shoot for their National Hair competition? Well, they had some winners again this year!!! Congratulations Lynda and to all of your winning staff!
Great work!!! Great Hair!!!
Next year, we're expecting even more winners!
New Clients from Illinois!
Purely a coincidence! No, I didn't meet her through my son or on my trip to do the SWAT event.
Ashley found me on the internet and contacted me to do some beach portraits during their summer vacation in Tampa. We met in Clearwater at Sand Key beach, where the shoot took place. What a wonderful family! I really enjoyed meeting them and working with them. The children are really adorable and her son is quite a little model!
It's so unfortunate that they live so far away, but I really hope to see them again during a future vacation.
So nice to meet you all!!
Photo Tip of the Month
During July, one of my clients sent me a photo of a used camera and asked what I thought. Judging by the very warn condition of the body and the year it was released, I thought it had been a well used camera. I cautioned him on the life of a camera and thanked him for giving me the idea for my my tip of the month article.
If you ever consider buying a used camera, always ask how many pictures have been taken with it. This will be the number of "actuations" for that camera. If you are not familiar with that term, it is the shutter count or the number of pictures taken. The average EOS DSLR camera can only has an actuation of 100, 000. That can vary, depending on the quality of camera. The Canon 5D, according to Canon, can be good for about 150,000 and the 1D for 200,000.
This means, every camera has a life expectancy. If you are buying the camera from a photographer, you better find out how many actuations the camera has had! A professional or photo enthusiast can easily hit this number within a few years. Ask the following questions:
1. How long have you owned the camera. This is important, because Canon still sells cameras that were released in 2008. The year released only tells you the maximum time the person could have owned it.
2. Did you buy the camera new?
3. Are you a professional?
4. About how often per week do you shoot?
5. Have you kept track of how many times your counter has turned over? Canon cameras go up to 9,999. Keeping track of the number of times the camera has turned over will help you estimate when to expect your camera to die. When buying a used camera, it will help you determine how much longer you'll have it. Make sure to keep this under consideration when determining if the prices is reasonable.
This reminds me... It's time for me to start looking into a new camera! I like to leave my cameras with half the life left!
YES! Photography is VERY expensive!
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