How exciting! Meg (www.whitepaperevents.com/blog) and I have joked around about getting photos of us and our Shootsacs featured on the Shootsac blog (www.shootsacblog.com) since Donna’s Wedding last September. Whenever we shoot together, we make it a point to get some photos of each other in action. A few weeks back, Meg captured a quick shot of me at Sarah & Eamon’s wedding and I decided to submit it to the Shootsac blog on a whim.
I checked the blog today (as I do most days) and to my surprise, there was the photo that Meg took of me. Very fun! Go check out the post!
If you’re a photographer, you must check out the Shootsac. It’s good-looking, comfortable and convenient, and it allows me to have all of my lenses at my side throughout a shoot.
In other news, today is Leap Day… the one day of the year that only comes around every four years. I’ve been trying to think of a way to celebrate, but I’ve been sick so I think I’ll just get myself caught up on some work. Maybe, I’ll treat myself to a little shooting later this evening. I’ve been wanting to just go out and do some shooting for fun, and since the weather has been so great, I think today will be the day.
    Yesterday, as many know, Starbucks did the unthinkable… it closed it’s 7,100 U.S. stores for three hours. The country went into withdrawal.
Yes, I’m a photographer, and yes, this is predominantly my photo blog. But, I’m also a huge Starbucks fan. Also, I have spent much of my education studying public relations, marketing and brand strategy and am always on the look-out for news stories that involve any or all of those topics. So, I thought it would be fun to write a few thoughts on what I think about this International news since I saw so many people deeply effected by this national event. (I hope you can sense the sarcasm here and sprinkled throughout the rest of this post.)
    As stated in this article of the San Francisco Chronicle, “The corporate memo on the closure noted that 12,600 seconds passed without a Starbucks serving coffee anywhere in the United States of America.”
Comical! Would anyone care how many seconds any other company in America was shut down? Unlikely. But, I still find myself fascinated at this thought. I didn’t even know about the stores being closed until someone in my Tuesday night class (I am adjunct faculty and teach Digital Imaging at a local University) told me that they tried to go to Starbucks before class and it was… closed! The first thought I had– Man. I’m glad I left for class extra early today so I could get my coffee before the place closed. Yes, a sign someone with a coffee problem.
Word on the street is that the stores planned the nationwide closure in order to provide new training to Starbucks employees on new in-store operations. As the Chronicle mentioned, the corporate goal was to provide the opportunity for “a comprehensive educational curriculum to provide a renewed focus on espresso standards that will help ensure the exceptional quality of every beverage.” PR spin.
From a brand perspective, Starbucks has been known to be the top. They’ve cornered the market on $4 coffee and found a huge market for people who will pay that several times a week. However, recently the coffee giant has begun to see trouble [insert lame pun here] brewing. With the economy suffering, and the price of goods like oil and coffee going up quickly, Starbucks has had to get aggressive with the mounting competition from Dunkin Donuts (which I’m not familiar with too much here on the West Coast, but have heard is a giant back East) and McDonald’s, of all places. I’ve heard rumors that McDonald’s coffee has even beat Starbucks in blind taste tests. I’m not positive this is true, but it’s interesting to hear that McDonald’s could be the most dangerous competitor to a place like Starbucks, when for so long the home of the Golden Arches has been known for low prices rather than quality products.
This nationwide store closure is nothing more than part of a larger public relations plan to demonstrate to America and the world that Starbucks is getting back to being serious about coffee. Over the past couple years it has tried to extend its business by offering more and more products like sandwiches, breakfast sandwiches (which will be pulled soon), and other merchandise, taking the focus away from its supposedly superior beverages.
As CEO Howard Schultz recently stated in this article, the company is going to “get back to the roots and the core of our heritage, which is the leading roaster of specialty coffee in the world.”
Like I said, I’m a Starbucks fan. I’ve bought into their brand and am not ashamed to admit it. Though, I also enjoy Coffee Bean and the other coffee shops… so maybe I can’t really call myself a “fan”, but more somebody who enjoys convenient coffee. I also enjoy free Internet access at public places so that I can take breaks from my computer in my home office and go out into the world to get some work done — so, according to this, I may be spending more time at Starbucks in the near future.
Thanks for allowing me to share these thoughts on a topic I find rather fascinating. I’ll get back to my camera now.
Last week I spent some time shooting a portrait session with my good friend Lenny. Lenny and I went to high school together and have known each other for about 8 years, so, when we saw each other on New Year’s Eve at a friend’s party and he told me he has decided to get into acting, I was more than happy to offer that I shoot some headshots for him.
We finally found time for the shoot last Thursday. I asked my friend Steph to come along to help out and the three of us had a lot of fun walking around, shooting and trying to capture Lenny’s “perfect smile,” which, oddly enough, took quite a few shots! By the end of the day, I shot so many images… and pretty much every other shot was Lenny making a goofy face– intentionally of course! So, I’ll have to create a slideshow of all of the “outtakes” pretty soon, but until then, here are some of my favorite non-headshot photos of the day.
Standard headshots are not too inspiring to me, so I took some time to do some fun post stuff to a few of the images. I love this closeup.
I really love this one, too.
And this one…
Finally, here’s a shot I took of the three of us in a reflection on a giant window. It was just a bit windy…
I’ll try to post more of this shoot soon… but like I said, I shot A LOT so it’s taking a while to edit.
For all of you who care, I shot all of these with my 70-200 2.8. It’s one of my favorites for portraits… but super heavy!
As I posted yesterday, I had an AMAZING time photographing my friends Amanda & Viet yesterday. Amanda and I met through our mutual friend Hillary a while back while we were all still students at Long Beach State. When Viet proposed to Amanda last summer, they immediately asked me to be their photographer. Though they aren’t getting married for a couple years they decided that they wanted to do their engagement session sooner than later so that they have plenty of time to enjoy their photos before the wedding. Amanda even has her dress already, and it sounds absolutely amazing! I cannot wait to see it.
Amanda is a 2nd grade teacher and Viet is a toy designer for Mattel (how cool is that??), and they are both incredibly creative people. When they asked me if we could do their engagement shoot in a junkyard, I was so excited! I love shooting in places like that. While we didn’t actually end up shooting there, we did go to Downtown Fullerton (a place Amanda & Viet frequent) and found some really cool locations. They were so great and were down to do anything I asked… Thanks so much for your faith in me, guys!
As a side note, Thuy, Viet’s sister, just booked me for her and Marc’s wedding this August… I’m really looking forward to that!
Thanks again to my good friend Johanna for coming along with me– keeping me company on the drive to the OC and giving me her creative input throughout the day. You rock!
Some great portraits of the happy couple…
I love these.
Stubrick’s is a place in Downtown Fullerton that Amanda & Viet go to see their friends play music. It’s a great little place! I think it’s great when I get to shoot engagement sessions in locations that mean something to the couple. Keep that in mind when planning your own session.
I had a lot of fun with all of the colors of the day.
Right near Stubrick’s was this old school arcade that features some great classic games and some awesome colors! I was so happy that they told me about this place! Johanna and I had some fun with off-camera flash.
This shot is so “them.” Viet loves video games.
More great, fun colors and some “alone” time in the photo booth.
We ended up going inside Stubrick’s and asked to shoot a few shots. They let us do whatever we wanted! So great! I love this moment– so sweet and serene.
Finally, I’ve been having so much fun with textures lately. I feel like adding textures to specific images really allows me to visually express what I meant to capture in that certain shot. This was one of the last shots of the day, so I just wanted something simple and intimate.
And here’s the slideshow with more images from our day. Enjoy!
Love,
Heather
UPDATE: I went through some of Johanna’s shots from the day and wanted to post a few that she was able to capture.
I LOVE this shot. Such a great expression. Great job, Johanna!
Here’s one of me in action. All up in there with my 28mm 1.8.
Here’s the shot I was shooting in the photo above. I was trying to get myself in the reflection.
Finally, a little group shot I asked Johanna to capture really quickly before we officially ended the day.
Today I shot an amazing engagement session with my friends Amanda & Viet. I’ve just spent a while doing a first-round edit — we shot soooo much! Thanks so much to my good friend Johanna for coming along with me to help me with lighting and other inspirational tasks!
Until I can process the rest of the images, here’s one shot that immediately jumped out at me.
Hope you all are enjoying the holiday weekend! I’ll be posting more soon.
Very fun! Go check out the post!
