The Evil RED EYE

I seem to get asked at almost every photo shoot or wedding I do..."Do you fix the Red Eye in the pictures"? Well....no, I do not have to fix Red Eye as it has never been in a picture I've taken. Few people understand what Red Eye is and how to avoid it. Red Eye is the end result of amateur equipment being used in a low lit room. In a darkened room, your pupils are dilated (wide open) to let in more light. When the flash goes off the light is reflected off the retina in the eye and that reflection is recorded by the lens. The retina just happens to be red. Hence, Red Eye. The best way to avoid red eye is to raise you flash about a foot or more above the camera lens. In doing this the angle of the flash reflection off the retina does not go directly back into the lens. Flash brackets are available that will raise your flash above the lens. If your flash is built into your camera then you can set your flash to a Red Eye Reduction mode. In this mode the flash fires a few short burst of light to cause your eye pupil to close down. This allows less light in to your retina. The biggest problem with this mode is that the pre-flash usually causes your subject to react and can ruin the image. Today, many of the photo editing programs have a Red Eye fix. I prefer to avoid having to fix every image and just put my flash on a bracket.

Way To Go

Just want to send out a big congrats to my son Seth for being named an ALL AMERICAN in Indoor Track & Field. His Sprint Medley Relay team from Shen HS finished 4th at the National Indoor Track Championships in NYC last week. They shattered the school record and recorded the fastest time in NYS for the year. Outdoor track starts soon with a team trip to the Arcadia Meet in Los Angeles in April and the Penn Relays in late April. Seth has been accepted at RIT in Rochester for Computer Science and hopefully will run track for RIT next Fall.
UPDATE: In June 2007 Seth's 4x400 meter relay team won the NYS championship in a school record time of 3:18.50. He was named a TIMES UNION Track & Field ALL-STAR and featured in a special edition of the newspaper. Unfortunately, he fell during his last High School race at the National Championships in North Carolina and was injured. In 2007 and 2008 he competed for RIT's Track team setting a school record in the 300 meter dash. A nagging knee problem has ended his track career in 2009.

Studio on Wheels

Five years ago when I started my photo business I wanted to create something unique. Having worked as a studio photographer and as a District Supervisor for almost 100 studios I decided I did not want the headaches involved with opening and operating a traditional studio. I hit on the idea of a studio on wheels, where everything is portable and could be setup on location quickly. I had a feeling that there were people who would love the service of the studio coming to them. My concept has evolved over the past five years to where I can set up a professional studio in my client's home in 15 minutes and produce professional portrait exactly like a traditional studio. Plus I have the flexibility to go outside for sessions. It has been very popular with my clients judging by the number of repeat and regular clients I have. This year I have added the ability to show the images at the end of the session on my laptop computer. My clients can now place their orders immediately and view a high quality image of what their enlargements will look like. I also have new software that allows me to drag and drop images into over 300 frames so you can see what your portraits would look like in different frames. Very Cool!
So, if you are looking for a different portrait experience where you can have top quality portraiture created in the privacy and comfort of your own home, give me a call at 461-7881 and we can chat about your portrait needs.