Great Post

Mark Hancock has a very interesting perspective on pricing. Check it out. Makes perfect sense. It is so true that once you are known as the "cheap" photographer, you will never be able to raise your prices. Do not think for one second that doing something cheap once will "get you in the door" and that you can raise the rate later. It just does not work that way. Trust me. Been there, done that. It is so very important to price your work correctly to begin with.

My Only Brother

Ok, so my only brother Kevin has a blog now too. I highly recommend reading it. I'm sure it will be full of stories about drunk Marines and German women. You see, my only brother is a Sgt. in the USMC and is stationed in Germany right now. If you know Kevin, you know he has some good stories, now there will be pictures as well. Check it out!

Contests

I do not enter many contests....in fact, really, never. I never think my stuff is good enough to win anything. But I do enter the quarterly WPJA (Wedding Photojournalist Association) contest. Mostly to see how I stack up in the wedding industry and because the more photos you enter and win, the higher they rank you on thier site....anyway, the results are in for the Winter 2004 contest and I got an eighth place in the "Action" category. Not bad considering this is an international competition. This is the photo that placed for me. To see all the results visit the WPJA web site.

Big Time Hoops

I do not get to shoot college hoops much, maybe once or twice a year. I just do not have the clients for it, that may change in the future, but right now, I mainly shoot preps. Tonight I shot the #12 team in the country, Gonzaga, for the Spokesman-Review in Spokane, WA when they came to Portland to play the UP. I shoot in the Chiles Center quite a bit, but always preps and always on lights. Since tonight's game was on ESPN, ESPN would not let me use strobes, so I had to shoot available light, which I HATE doing. But, I still got some good shots for the paper, including this one of Zags star Ronny Turiaf. I hope the Zags do good in this years tourney, I like to root for the NW schools.

Wrestling yet again

Remember the Portrait of the wrestler with 26 stiches in his face? Click here to refresh your memory. Anyway, turns out he was even better than I thought! He had his stiches taken out just in time for districts, won that, then went onto state and won the 4A 275lb title. The most impressive thing is that he won every single match at state by pin in the first round! He never wrestled in round 2 in the entire tourney! An amazing wrestler to watch. He is very, very good. This is his reaction after winning in the championship match.

Wrestling Finals

Saturday was a long, but fun day. I shot the wrestling finals for 4 different daily newspapers, all on deadline. i was running around like a headless chicken, but it was fun. Thanks to the wireless network in the arena, I was able to shoot a match, then transmit the image to the correct paper within 2-3 minutes after the match. This is my favorite photo I think. After he won the title he did a backflip. Sweet! I think the Bend Bulletin ran this photo, or at least I hope.

More Wrestling

I am currently spending the week in Salem shooting the State Wrestling Championships. One of my favorite events of the year, I cover the championships for 3-4 different papers and shoot a LOT of wrestling. This photo is nothing special, but the person in it is. It is amazing how someone can wrestle without legs. Just amazing.

Softball 2005

Yeah, that's right. Mitchelldyer Photography has a softball team in the Men's league. Just sent in the registration today. Basically, I'm forking over the money for the uniforms, balls, book, etc, etc, etc and myself and a bunch of my buddies will be playing every Wed. night from May-July. I'm going to get some sweet jerseys too, with the Mitchelldyer Photography logo on the front. I can't wait! This is a solid advertising write off.....

Finally, a good snow day

Finally, a good snow day. I've was starting to get depressed over the lack of snow and the lack of times I have gone up this year. Mt Hood Meadows got 18 inches over the weekend and when I saw the forecast for today, I knew it would be a good day to go up, and boy was it! My sister and I (I'm the top photo, she is the bottom) left Baylee and Jordyn with Jenn's mom and headed for the Mountain. Perfect clear sunny skies, perfect soft powder, a perfect day.

Jordyn......yet again

Ok, so just in case you are not sick of seeing new photos of Jordyn...here's a new one from today. Jenn says I don't do enough nice pictures of her, so today I had to shoot a couple of head shots in the studio......since I had to setup all the lights and backdrops, I figured I would shoot something of Jordyn too. This weeks update: She can roll over onto her back with ease and is starting to eat rice ceral...boy is that messy!