Thanks for clicking! My name is Mark Haffner, and I am the owner of the coolest photography studio in the Tri-Cities -- ENVPIX. Call me at 509-378-0900, or just leave a comment on this blog, and I will be happy to talk to you about what makes my pictures the envy of every Senior who has their pictures taken somewhere else.
If you want to see some samples of my work, you can just browse through this blog or check out my web site at www.emvpix.com.
ENVPIX. Everybody Wants One.
Tuesday, July 24, 2007
Welcome Facebook Clickers
Hello Facebook neighbor. I am glad that you are interested in having some very cool senior portraits taken at very reasonable prices. Please send me an e-mail at mark@emvpix.com, or call me at 509-378-0900, and I will be happy to answer all your questions and set up an appointment.
Or better yet, just leave me a comment right here.
You are welcome to scan through this blog to see some samples of my work, or visit my website at http://www.emvpix.com/.
ENVPIX. Everybody Wants One.
Or better yet, just leave me a comment right here.
You are welcome to scan through this blog to see some samples of my work, or visit my website at http://www.emvpix.com/.
ENVPIX. Everybody Wants One.
Saturday, July 7, 2007
Tuesday, July 3, 2007
Sean and Neal
Two video versions of the studio portrait session with Sean and Neal. One I kind of did for fun; the other one is more serious. I will let you decide which is which. Except I think the file name gives it away. Except you can't readily see the file name.
You will have to down load some Software to view this. It is quick and harmless.
One
The Other One
You will have to down load some Software to view this. It is quick and harmless.
One
The Other One
Ruse II: Corporate Identity
I might make this a habit. My main audience for this communique is the world famous photographer and Photoshop wizard, Suzette Allen. But if I post this here and direct her to it, another world famous photographer will have visited my site, and those google creepy crawlies will be even more impressed.
To wit: I have long wanted to record the story of my company name. Now another chapter may be developing, and I want Suzette's input -- and anyone else who would like to share an idea or two.
It all starte
d out this way. Two years ago, when the notion of conceiving a photography business was conceived I went back to my photojournalistic roots and thought I would dabble in sports -- event photography. I didn't know then it was called event photography, but I do now.
Anyway, I came up with what I (and others) thought was a very clever name -- MVP, which was short for MostValuablePhoto. It was, of course. also a play on Most Valuable Player. Pun intended. I have attached an image file of my original MVP logo -- the red and black one.
Well, as things developed and I began to see that there were, seemingly, more lucrative and simple opportunities in portraiture, the Most Valuable Photo thing began to lose some of its lustre. So about a year ago I designed a new logo and changed the name to
MostValuablePortraits; still with the emphasis on MVP. The tagline that evolved, which has been justly criticized by some but still retains a modicum of cleverness, is "Our MVP . . . is you!". I have attached a copy of the update logo, the one I am using now most of the time. It is kind of teal and gray.
To wit: I have long wanted to record the story of my company name. Now another chapter may be developing, and I want Suzette's input -- and anyone else who would like to share an idea or two.
It all starte
d out this way. Two years ago, when the notion of conceiving a photography business was conceived I went back to my photojournalistic roots and thought I would dabble in sports -- event photography. I didn't know then it was called event photography, but I do now.Anyway, I came up with what I (and others) thought was a very clever name -- MVP, which was short for MostValuablePhoto. It was, of course. also a play on Most Valuable Player. Pun intended. I have attached an image file of my original MVP logo -- the red and black one.
Well, as things developed and I began to see that there were, seemingly, more lucrative and simple opportunities in portraiture, the Most Valuable Photo thing began to lose some of its lustre. So about a year ago I designed a new logo and changed the name to
MostValuablePortraits; still with the emphasis on MVP. The tagline that evolved, which has been justly criticized by some but still retains a modicum of cleverness, is "Our MVP . . . is you!". I have attached a copy of the update logo, the one I am using now most of the time. It is kind of teal and gray.The next step in this migration began when I started to get serious about a web site and domain names. It was more important to me, as a frequent typer of URLs and e-mail addresses, to be short than it was to be descriptive. So, condensing this narrative somewhat at this point, the domain I reserved was http://www.emvpix.com./ It is kind of a phonetic bastardization of MVP. Pix, of short, is sort of a slang abbreviation for pictures (or, in this case, portraits); and, if you pretend phonemically that the "e" is kind of silent, you can squint and get "MVP" out of my domain name. Not elegant, perhaps, but at least kind of whimsical.
As I played with the "EMVPIX" thing, I liked it more and more almost as a made-up brand (I know there is a name for those in the marketing world). When you give it a drop shadow and some other layer styles in Photoshop, it looks almost romanesque and noble. I have attached a prototype business card that reflects this.
Well, then I was thinking, what if I now changed the name by one more letter -- to http://www.envpix.com/ (I have purchased that domain name which was, thankfully, available). It takes things in a whole new direction, or at least almost a new direction. I still retain the roman grandeur of the visual graphic -- "EMVPIX" and "ENVPIX" look almost like Roman Numerals. But now I have a name that makes kind of a pithy statement. Competitors -- and students and brides who have their pictures taken elsewhere -- look on my pictures with envy. My pictures are envied throughout the known world, including Walla Walla (take that, ye crawlers!).
So, I guess the long and short of it is -- whaddya think of ENVPIX for a name?
As I played with the "EMVPIX" thing, I liked it more and more almost as a made-up brand (I know there is a name for those in the marketing world). When you give it a drop shadow and some other layer styles in Photoshop, it looks almost romanesque and noble. I have attached a prototype business card that reflects this.
Well, then I was thinking, what if I now changed the name by one more letter -- to http://www.envpix.com/ (I have purchased that domain name which was, thankfully, available). It takes things in a whole new direction, or at least almost a new direction. I still retain the roman grandeur of the visual graphic -- "EMVPIX" and "ENVPIX" look almost like Roman Numerals. But now I have a name that makes kind of a pithy statement. Competitors -- and students and brides who have their pictures taken elsewhere -- look on my pictures with envy. My pictures are envied throughout the known world, including Walla Walla (take that, ye crawlers!).
So, I guess the long and short of it is -- whaddya think of ENVPIX for a name?
The Legend of John Hartman and the Outdoor Flash
This is actually a clever ruse to drive a little photographic traffic to my blog. I could be sending this to John Hartman as an e-mail, but I am going to e-mail John with a link to this blog so the Google creepy crawlers will see that a world famous photographer has visited my humble site. Thanks, John.
I am almost reluctant to talk about John's miracle outdoor flash solution in public. It is so simple and so good it is almost like a secret weapon. Actually, I am just using this blog to ask John some questions about his technique, not to describe it -- so if you want to find out how it works you'll either have to ask John or pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
So John -- I am (somehow) going to attach three zipped files that contain small copies of a dozen or so images I have recently taken. In kind of a Clint-Eastwoodish style, I have called them The Good, The Bad, and the Huh? The titles are self explanatory -- I like the good ones (although I like some better than others), I don't like the bad ones, and I wonder what in the world happened in the Huh? ones.
I am guessing you could spend less than 46 seconds looking at all these files (not each of them) and come up with seven pointers for me as to how I can improve on your miraculous outdoor flash technique.
A couple specific questions: I don't remember reading this anywhere, but I have assumed that you are shooting in Aperture Priority mode. That is what I have done whenever I am using this technique. Another: Although this will likely come out if you are kind enough to review the sample images I sent, I would like some general guidance on shooting in open sunlight. Do you want to try and overpower it with the flash, or just use it as your main light and the flash as fill?
The Good
The Bad
The Huh?
I am almost reluctant to talk about John's miracle outdoor flash solution in public. It is so simple and so good it is almost like a secret weapon. Actually, I am just using this blog to ask John some questions about his technique, not to describe it -- so if you want to find out how it works you'll either have to ask John or pry it from my cold, dead fingers.
So John -- I am (somehow) going to attach three zipped files that contain small copies of a dozen or so images I have recently taken. In kind of a Clint-Eastwoodish style, I have called them The Good, The Bad, and the Huh? The titles are self explanatory -- I like the good ones (although I like some better than others), I don't like the bad ones, and I wonder what in the world happened in the Huh? ones.
I am guessing you could spend less than 46 seconds looking at all these files (not each of them) and come up with seven pointers for me as to how I can improve on your miraculous outdoor flash technique.
A couple specific questions: I don't remember reading this anywhere, but I have assumed that you are shooting in Aperture Priority mode. That is what I have done whenever I am using this technique. Another: Although this will likely come out if you are kind enough to review the sample images I sent, I would like some general guidance on shooting in open sunlight. Do you want to try and overpower it with the flash, or just use it as your main light and the flash as fill?
The Good
The Bad
The Huh?
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