A while back we had a special on business portraits.  It went well and we were busy for a week photographing lots of Real Estate Agents, Mortgage Brokers and other professionals.  Professionals who understand that poeple make split decision on whether or not they are going to work with you depending on the picture they see in the paper or on your business card and in advertisements.  During that week clients would show us the work they had received in the past that was on their business cards.  One story stood out because I hear it all the time.  ”It’s just a head shot for my business card, I’ll just go to Wallmart. I don’t need to invest much in that.”  WRONG and when they see their collegues and competitors with professional portraits on their cards they realize they made a big mistake.  Here is one for instance.  Sheryl had hers photographed at W*ll***t. ( I have a hard time saying that word with regards to photography)  I have also included our portrait.  Can you tell which ones ours?  Lighting is so important.  Unfortunately at a big box store they are not going to custom light your portrait to be flattering.  They believe that hard, flat lighting is right for every situation.  The result?  …A passport photo for a business portrait.  Is that what you want your business portrait to say about your business?  Probably not.  You consider yourself to be a professional so you should have a professional portrait that represents a professional business.

Below are others from that week and a couple favourites from the little while.

Guess what Will (above) does for a living?  Green, Growth?  He’s a financial planner.  We do get out of the studio to do a concept shot if that is what you want.

Pretty obvious what Jonathan (above) does.  He has been the chef for the Prime Minister of Canada, has cooked for President Obama, the President of Mexico and the

personal chef to the Westons ( You know the guy on TV for Presidents Choice).  Of course we had to photograph him in a kitchen.

Lastly is Heather..  She has a Ph.D. in Water or something like that.  She is going to save the world.  And I’m not kidding.

Do you know how many diseases are related to the quality of the water we drink in Ontario?

Talk to her, she’ll tell you.

First impressions count.

It’s true, it’s not fair, but it’s true.  People judge a book by its cover and they are going to judge whether they will work with you in a split second by your first impression.

So what does your photography say about you or your business?

So many times while leafing through the local papers I see pictures of business people in our community taken at the paper office against a plain wall with very unflattering lighting with terrible shadows behind them.

This type of image tells the public that you settle for sub-standard work which makes the public think that maybe the work you do is not up to par.

The fact is if you call yourself a professional and and you command professional dollars, you should have a professional portrait done by a professional photographer. (that’s a lot of professionals)

So freshen up your look for spring with this great special.

Call the studio now to book your session and talk about how to make it even better.

Spring changes are all around.  At Custom Concept Photography we are changing also to serve you better.  Over the last 12 years we have had regular studio hours.  As the photography industry changes so must we. Trish and I find that we are out of the studio more often and prefer not to put up a sign saying,

“Sorry for the inconvenience.  We are out on a Photo shoot and will be back at 4:00pm.”

No one likes to show up at a business and find they are closed at that time.  For that reason effective April 5th Custom Concept Photography will be by appointment only.  Other than that business still carries on as usual.  We feel this shouldn’t affect photography that much as most of our photography is done by appointment already.   Our framing clients will now have to book in rather than walk in.  Pick ups will be similar too.

We understand that there will be an adjustment period for a short time. We apologize for that, but in the long run it will make business more efficient.

We thank you for your patience and Trish and I look forward to growing personally and as a business.  This adjustment will give us the time needed to get out of the studio to meet with clients and network with other business professionals without disappointing  a pop-in client.

If you have any questions please feel free to call the studio and talk with Trish or I at 519.425.1249.

Best regards,

Trevor and Trish

]]> http://customconcept.ca/blog/2011/03/29/ingersoll-photography-studio/feed/ 0 http://customconcept.ca/blog/2010/12/08/chef-jonathan-collins/ http://customconcept.ca/blog/2010/12/08/chef-jonathan-collins/#comments Wed, 08 Dec 2010 03:34:54 +0000 admin http://customconcept.ca/blog/?p=2320 Charity dinners are a great way to raise money.

About a year ago Trish and I were at a charity event for Big Brothers and Sister of Ingersoll and Tillsonburg.  Being foodies we were excited that the theme of the night was Battle of the Hors d’oeuvres and I was sure to acquaint myself with the judges, Chefs Jonathan and Cynthia Collins.  At that point all I knew of them was that they had cooked for PM Harper, President Obama the President of Mexico, Prince Charles, various other dignitaries and had gone to a great culinary school.   What we didn’t know was that some time after we would start on a personal and professional journey with the Collins family that has been exciting and is still growing.

That night I listened to Jonathan talk about going after what you want and getting out of your comfort zone to achieve greatness.  Jonathan, we have listened and are getting ready for an interesting year.  We look forward to seeing what our journey together brings us.

This was our first project with the Collins family.  Jonathan contacted us and needed portraits for his new website before he guest appeared on the Stephen and Chris Show.  He wanted to involve the whole family along with some individual portraits.  The results are below.

A week later we did Maternity Photos of Cynthia, photographed the birth of their fifth child, Blake, and then soon after, Blake’s newborn in studio session.  Those blog posts to follow soon.

Eight days after Blake was born we were at work again together.  Jonathan had donated a dinner for eight, to and auction, to be prepared in the lucky bidder’s home.  It was to raise funds for the Port Stanley Festival Theatre.  Below is a fusion video of the night and how it unfolded.  Between Trish shooting photographs and I shooting video and stills with my 5dMkll we managed to try a sampling of some of the courses.  It started off with scallops, cauliflower soup, risotto, beef tenderloin main course, cheese tray and then Creme Brulee for dessert.  Of course I’m not describing it as amazing as it was and Jonathan is probably rolling his eyes as he reads this with my poor description so I will let the video talk for itself.  BUT, the dinner was incredible and if you ever get a chance to hire in a chef for a dinner party, I highly recommend it.  It’s decadent!

What do you think of this fusion video?  It’s one of the first we have done.  I LOVE the glide track shots.

In the future you will be able to see the whole Collins family on Food Network USA after they film their new cooking show around the world.

Check it out!  Here is a trailer for their show.

Your foodie photographers,

Trish and Trevor

A short time ago I went to a Wedding Professionals get together at Nicole Sagert’s lovely home in Corunna (right beside Sarnia).  As it turned out only a bunch of crazy photographers attended, to Nicole’s delight.  (She loves photographers and admits to stalking them and that they are the coolest people)

Along with wanting to meet some new friends in the industry I was mainly there to see her latest business adventure in action. LETTERPRESS.

Nicole owns Verity Ink.   Here is a little bit about Nicole from her blog…

I asked Nicole a few questions about what her letterpress machine (they named her FREEDOM) meant to her.  In her words, here is what she said…

“I fell in love with letterpress when I was first creating wedding invitations last March. I knew how to create cards, I wasn’t sure I knew how to create an invitation. So I looked online for inspiration, and over and over the ones that I loved were letterpressed. I knew that once I had established myself in the industry, doing letterpress was the direction I wanted to go.
Letterpress is a tactile experience. With cotton papers that weigh more than your average cardstock, and text and images that are pushed into the paper, there is a depth to the invitation that cannot be repeated by any other method.

Presses are hard to come by. There has been a renewed interest in them lately, but because of their bulk, and displacement due to offset printing in the last few decades, many presses were scraped.

We found our press due to a very serendipitous and blessed set of circumstances. I wasn’t sure I was ready to be looking this soon in my business venture, but I had a lot of encouragement from a couple of photographers, who had looked for letterpress business cards locally with no success. For something so hard to come by, we actually found ours in the Port Huron museum, only 20 mins away.

Our press is an Chandler and Price, 12 by 18, and was made in 1910. This 100 year old piece of machinery weighs about 2400lbs, and Brad and I named her Freedom. With the amount of interest in letterpress being renewed, and the lack of letterpress printers in South Western Ontario, our goal is for us to be busy enough in the next couple of years for Brad to be able to retire from his day job, and the two of us to work together at home running Verity Ink.

I love the wedding industry. I love being a part of a bride’s special day. I love being able to bring her vision to life. And I love the hands-on experience of running the press.”

~Nicole

If you need any letterpress work done for Wedding Invitations or Business cards, give Nicole a call.  519.481.0738 or email at verityink@gmail.com