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February 2010
We have moved. Our studio can now be found at 37. Windmill Hill.Colley Gate Halesowen. B63 2BZ. This is us doing our part for the environment, cutting down on the travelling - well, it saves nearly 80 miles per day of car travell.
November 2009
Cat World Magazine have published yet another image of ours in their November issue.
Pheobe hiding in a basket from Zeus. Taken by Alex.
Good news, we are extending our 'Credit Crunch Portraits 'till the end of November. Free Framed Enlargement. Pay for your sitting £35.00 and you will be able to select an image from those taken at the sitting to be enlarged to 8 x 6 and framed saving you nearly £20.00.
October 2009
Cat World Magazine have published one of our images again in their October issue.
This is Zeus just 8 weeks old and proving to be very curios - as cats do. Taken by Mark.
Free Framed Enlargement all this month this month. Book your portrait sitting during October 2009 and you will qualify for a free 8 X 6 framed enlargement, saving you £19.49. Sitting fee £35.00. You can select any of the images taken during the sitting.
Saturday 17th: Keep watching this space for news of our wedding fair - coming soon.
September 2009
Friday 18th: Here are the winning portraits from our Summer 2009 Baby Competition. Congratulations to you and thank you to everyone who took part. We will be running another baby competition nextt year so keep watching.
Wednesday 7th: Judging of our "Summer 20009 Baby Competition" will be completed the end of this week, and what a difficult task. I'm glad we just take the photographs! The winners will be announced next week, and everyone who took part can receive their free print.
New for September and October is our special promotion of a Free Framed Enlargement. That's right, book your sitting which costs £35 and you will select from the shoot a free framed 8 X 6 enlargement. This is a saving of £19.49.
I'm glad to say that one of my attackers has been picked up by the Police. It wont be long before the other two have their collars felt, they would have been picked up by the CCTV entering and leaving the studio, and then one of them returning shortly afterwards.
August 2009
Thursday 27th: Just today and tomorrow left for the Baby Competition to run. The response has been great and I'm glad that I'm not judging because we have some great shots - this is going to be very difficult to judge. What we are looking forward to doing is telling the proud parents that their baby has won.
Saturday 22nd: Can't give to many details here for what will be obvious reasons, but I was attacked by three low lifes. The funny part is that not only is there CCTV just outside of the studio, but one have them had been in during June for a family portrait so we were able to provide the Police with his picture. How dumb! After steeling a print from the studio I caught up with the thief who viciously turned on me and was joined by his two mates within seconds. Because I stood my ground the three low lifes decided to run. Hopefully the Police will be able to deal with them in an appropriate way. More to follow.
July 2009
HALLMARK PHOTOGRAPHY SUMMER 2009 BABY COMPETITION: Everyone loves babies, so we are having a baby competition. Judged by local business people this is a good opportunity for businesses in the area and with some great prizes on offer even better for the 3 winners. Everyone is a winner though as it is free to enter - free sitting and a free print for all qualifying entries. The competition closes 28th August.
June 2009
Up and running. We are open and taking bookings. The response has been very good. On the open day there were a number of other services that we trust and recommend; florist, hair and beauty, cars, and catering. It was a busy day and a good kick start to our opening.
May 2009
A little behind schedule, but we are getting there
. From left to right: 1. Alex is hard at work painting the door. 2. Carpet tiles are down. 3. The studio area is painted. 4. And one of the signs is up.
April 2009
Saturday 25th April: Have you any idea how expensive black paint is, if you can get hold of it? 10Lts is almost £50 and most places don't stock it, it has to be ordered. We managed to find 2*5 Ltr tins locally so were able to make a start painting after we stripped the area. Themain problem is that there is only one power point in the whole place - this will have to be remedied asap.
As you can see from the following images, this used to be a curtain shop. We have ordered the new sign which is gold on black. Inside, work is underway cleaning and decorating.
Friday 24th April: Great news. we now have the keys to what will be our studio. As this would give us just one week to ready the premises, we are having to postpone the opening a week to the 9th May.
Week Ending the 10th: We are now waiting for the contacts to be sent through from the Landlord's Solicitor. All being well this should happen this weekso that next week we can start the hard work of turning an old tired shop in to a studio and gallery.
Besides having the studio area where we can have a permanent lighting setup, we will be offering camera clubs the opportunity to hire the studio. From the gallery we will be selling fine art. This will be themed each month with a full selection available from a catalogue for clients to choose from.
We are also looking to provide a digital printing service to the local area. Customers will be able to make use of a photo kiosk producing their own prints. There will also be a selection of folders and frames on sale.
When will we open? The planned date for our opening is the Friday the 1st May.
March 2009
Friday the 13th March: A charity event - Sparrathon at the Fighting Fit City Gym. In aid of the Macmillan Cancer Support.
The 12 hour sparrathon was supported by a number of local celebrities helping to raise as much as possible for the Macmillan charity. As the money is still coming in, we don't yet know how much was raised on the day.
Far left: the Assistant Chief of Police Stewart Hyde with Councilor Mike Olley.
Centre: Neil Perkins (Managing Director Fighting Fit City Gym) with Celebrity chef Glyn Purnell.
Right: Comedian Paul Jennings
Here is Dancer, Alex' pet Bengal cat. Like most cats he sleeps not just in the most unusual places, but also in strange positions. This is one of the images that Alex had published in 'Cat World'.
As you can imagine being a photographer Alex takes a huge amount of photographs of Dancer. This was just funny as he lay there propping up his head against some clothing as if it was a pillow, and his fore-legs tucked between his rear legs as he snoozed away.
Lisa of Exhale, Colesill have offered to provide the makeovers for our clients. This is great news as we can now offer a complete package to any of our clients interested in Weddings, Portraits and Boudoir shots. The services available from Exhale are:
- Make-up
- Hair
- Manicure
- Spray Tanning
- Inch loss wrap
- Pedicure
Look your best for your portraits, give us a call on 0789 4949 468
February 2009
Amongst other things we have been entering images into competitions. You have to admit the worst part is waiting to see if you ave been accepted - maybe not, maybe it's the waiting to see if you have won. Either way competitions are fun and it is nice to see that your work has been appreciated by a wider audience.
I was informed that the image I submitted to the Photography Laureates has been short listed. This means it will be published in their book "Best of 2009". Even if I don't win the grand first prize, you still get a thrill seeing your work published. This is the black & white image that was submitted.
January 2009
It was cold so we decided to take the kids to the local park and feed the birds. Alex wasn't quite expecting to be mugged for the bread by a swan though. I'm sure that these birds are well fed during the winter months.
It has been quite a busy month. The main thing was getting together and organising everything for Valentine's Day. We decided to promote the 'Boudoir Portraits' and needed to organise who was going to do the makeovers. I'm pleased to say that Exhale of Coleshill have agreed to do this for us. We are now looking forward to the shoots - well, Alex will be doing these. I just get to set up the lights.