Now it's your turn for senior portraits and we're here to help. Whether you like to color inside the lines, outside the lines, off the page, or onto the wall, we can make it happen. Click at the top on SENIORS to see information and images for all our sessions including road trips. There are lots more images on our website in the galleries labeled "Senior 1", "Senior 2", and "Featured", which features our Class of 2012 ambassadors. To get to the website from here click on MAIN SITE at the top right. To get back to the blog, click on "What's New."
You should also be getting information in the mail in the next few days. If you don't get it, give us a call and make sure you are on our maillist.
If you have any questions or want to make an appointment, call us at 330.339.9838.
Mitchell's Studio Action Shots is the latest addition to Mitchell's Studio. For many, many years, Terry has photographed high school athletic events, music events, and other school activities for area high school yearbooks. We have received many, many requests for prints of his images and, until just recently, fulfilling those requests was just not possible. Now, we are able to make his images available through www.mitchellsstudioactionshots.com.
We are uploading images as quickly as we can. If you don't see the event you want (and you know Terry was there taking pictures), keep checking back.
One of our latest uploads is the Tuscarawas County Cross Country meet that was held recently at Claymont High School. We have just uploaded albums for middle school girls, middle school boys, high school girls, and high school boys.
A portion of every sale will be given to a booster organization for that school, so you can have great action pictures of your event and help support all the great work of the booster organization, too.
Over the years my wife, Patti, has turned me into a lover of art museums and art. But it has only been in the last 10-15 years that I have really gotten into it. Photography can be so much about the buttons. It can be so much about jumping on the latest trend or new piece of equipment. There are many artists from the past whose work I never tire of viewing. There is so much to be learned from looking at their portraits and their landscapes! When it comes to portraits, the French artist, Auguste Renoir, in my opinion, is without equal. Much of what I do is influenced by him. But even though he was a master of classic portraiture he was very innovative in many areas. There is a quote by Renoir that, in my mind, says it all. He was talking about painting but it certainly applies to my craft as well. "PAINTING WAS INTENDED, WAS IT NOT, TO DECORATE WALLS. IT (THE PAINTING) SHOULD BE SOMETHING TO CHERISH, JOYOUS AND PRETTY, YES PRETTY! THERE ARE ENOUGH ANNOYING THINGS IN LIFE WITHOUT OUR ( THE ARTISTS) CREATING NEW ONES! You can substitute the word photography for painting and the photographer for the artist and it is true today!
Portraits need to be things of beauty. They need to stand the test of time. Renoir was born in France in 1841. I haven't seen any of his works that wouldn't look great hanging on any wall today. His work is timeless. Portraits need to be timeless too. I have had the honor of copying many old photographic portraits from the first half of the 20th. century. Almost all of them would still look good on any of our walls today. They have that classic, timeless quality.
In my opinion, photography today has become much like the fashion industry. Photographers are jumping from one new fad to another without taking the time to ponder where that image will be in 50 years. Will it still be gracing the wall of some home or will it be behind a cabinet in a damp basement somewhere or will it be gone altogether? This doesn't mean that photography has to be boring! But it is my job as a master photographer to make timeless images! In the world of "more is better" I still offer the challenge that in many things "less is more"!
These images are examples of what I am talking about. They will all look good in 50 or 100 years! They are timeless, even the basketball image that seems not to fit with the others. Basketball is very important to Zach and this image shows this. There are a variety of things going on in this image. First, we have a traditional treatment of Zach in the foreground and then the image goes to the place where Zach plays the game. In the gym we have created a sequence of action images of Zach doing his thing! Last, to make it more personal we have included his signature and the school mascot. In the years to come this will be a much more meaningful picture than just Zach wearing a basketball uniform holding a basketball. It is timeless in the sense that it tells the story of a very important chapter in his life.
One final thought. I said that I believe that photography today is a lot like the fashion industry. I know anyone reading this can easily remember purchasing something - an article of clothing, shoes, jewelry, or something else - that, when you ran across it a year or more later, you thought...Why did I every waste my money on THAT! My job as a master photographer is to make sure I don't create any LEISURE SUITS, STIRRUP PANTS, BELL BOTTOMS, OR PET ROCKS! I want the images that I create to be timeless! The greatest compliment I could get is that, in 100 years or so, some great-grandchild will take one of my images somewhere and want reproductions made to give to other members of the family. The compliment is that generations of the family liked the image so much that it had been kept and was available to be reproduced.
I first met Alice and Tony 10 years ago when I took their 40th anniversary portraits. A few weeks ago we renewed our acquaintance when they came in to have fiftieth anniversary portraits taken. Alice had to help Tony a bit with his walking but they looked great. I make it a point when I photograph a wedding anniversary or engagement to find out their story. We talked about a lot of things that day. I got off topic and had to finish my conversation a couple weeks later when they came in to pick up their finished portraits.
Alice came to Dover from Ft. Recovery, Ohio which is on the far western side of the state. On her way here she stopped off at Denison University for four years to get her degree. She arrived here in 1958 with a teaching job at Dover High School. She taught speech, English and drama. As the drama teacher she also directed the high school plays. It was through this part of her job that she would meet Tony. It seems that a couple of her "matchmaking" students who knew Tony decided they would be a great match, so they got him to come to a dress rehearsal so the two could meet.
Tony had been in the U.S. Navy in World War II and was later called back as a reservist for Korea. He would later work in the Dover post office for 27 years. After he retired from the post office he sold real estate for Pissocra Realty. After that he worked as a tour guide at Warther's Tony is definitely a people person!
Alice and Tony got married fifty years ago in the St. John's United Church of Christ in Dover. The organist who played at their wedding, Margery Burkhart, still plays the organ there today. They honeymooned in the Pocono Mountains of Pennsylvania. From the 50's through the 70's the Pocono Mountains were "the" place to go on your honeymoon.
Alice taught at DHS for ten years and then took twenty years off to stay home and raise their four children. Alice and Tony now have fourteen grandchildren. Back in teaching, Alice continued working with drama. As a matter of fact, the current DHS drama teacher, Tom Morris, was one of her students! I talked to Tom and got a few more interesting facts. Tom said that Alice had directed his mother in a musical during her senior year in 1961. Tom described Alice as an unbelievably creative director who was also a very talented seamstress. Tom said, "She was just a wonderful person!"
So if you run into Alice and Tony say hello and wish them a wonderful fiftieth wedding anniversary.
Alice and Tony, thank you so much for letting me tell your story.
Today Patti and I are celebrating our 39th wedding anniversary. It was a beautiful, sunny, not too hot day on July 17, 1971 when we were married in Hudson, Ohio. At the time we were both living in Athens, Ohio. In case 39 years don't compute, we still have the paperwork from the hotel we stayed at on our honeymoon. At the time it was an expensive room. The cost, just under $25. Imagine what you could get for $25 today! I remember filling my car up with gas the morning of the wedding. There was a gas war going on at the time between these two stations located on opposite sides of the highway. I don't remember exactly what my gas cost but I do remember that it was under 30 cents a gallon.
We have lived in New Philadelphia since 1981 when we purchased Mitchell's Studio. It has been a great 39 years but its incredible just how quickly that time has passed. If you talk to anyone who has been married for more than 10 years they will tell you the same thing. You know that you have been married a long time when you are attending a photography seminar with over 200 other people when you win a prize for being the longest married couple in the room!
We have a daughter that lives in Cleveland and is an attorney there. She also knows how to use a camera. I can take a little credit but she has an incredibly creative eye.
Tuscarawas County has been good to us. We have enjoyed touching the lives of so many people through our photography. There are not many homes that have or have had high school age children in them in the area that don't have a wedding, sports, dance, family, senior or children's picture in them that we have taken. I can't tell you how much I have enjoyed that.
For those of you reading this that are married this will probably hit home with you, especially if you have been married for quite a while. On my first week of owning Mitchell's Studio in mid June of 1981 my first portrait session here was a 25th wedding anniversary. At this time, June,1981 I had been married just 10 years. Again, I can remember this session very clearly. As I am taking their portraits I am thinking to myself, "Boy, these guys are old!" About three weeks ago I just photographed a couple who were celebrating 50 years of marriage. You will hear more about them a little later. As I am taking their portraits and talking to them I am thinking and saying, "You really look great! I would never guess that you are old enough to have been married 50 years." They did look great! But they thing that both they and I agreed on was that the older you get, your perception of what is old moves up too.
The only advice that I can give you about marriage is this, get married to your best friend and make sure you love them. Because you will never do anything to hurt your best friend or someone you truly love. LIfe is a wonderful adventure...enjoy it!
SURPRISE...PHOTOGRAPHY ISN'T WHAT IT USED TO BE!
Most people under the age of 50, especially teenagers and women have the ability to take pictures 24/7, with either their cell phone or digital camera. I firmly believe that a digital camera is included in every purse purchased today! To use the words of Carl Sagan (this really dates me so don't feel bad if you have never head of him) "billions and billions" of images are taken world wide each year. We are drowning in a sea of picures! Now rather than taking 12, 24 or 36 images at Mary's first birthday, hundreds will be taken. (12,24,or 36 the number of frames on a roll of 35mm film....remember film!) From those 24-36 pictures probably 15 or so made it into an album. A two minute edit job. But today...hundreds of images will be taken. Now the fun of taking all those pictures becomes the daunting task of editing, final disposition of the image and eventual storage. Since none of this is fun or simple, frequently it never gets done. The images, after a few are posted on facebook, probably live somewhere on your hard drive and within a few weeks are forgotten because hundreds and hundreds of more images have been taken. This very special event (Mary's first birthday) is forgotten. Now lets fast forward 17 years. Mary is having a graduation party! Its time to get those pictures and other things together for her party that tell her story. "I wonder where all of those pictures are from Mary growing up?" First birthday, first day of school, that silly cat outfit for halloween...the list is long. Without hard copies....."Houston I think we have a problem here!" (check out Apollo 13).
It's very sad, than in the world of photography, where taking good pictures has never been easier, that more and more people are finding to their dismay that they no longer have, can't find or easily see their photos of milestone events in their lives. Hundreds of pictures are taken but never edited and made into hard copies and are lost forever.
As a person who deals with photography every day I find this very sad.
Special Note: A final thing for you to think about. The two images above have several things in common but perhaps the most important thing they share is that the parents of both of these children saw the importance of having hard copies made. Even though these two children are separated by over 80 years in time their current and future relatives will be able to enjoy there first year images. The old photograph because a hard copy was made and framed by a professional photographer is still around today. Copies of it can still be made and shared today. Where will your important pictures be in 80 years? Do what it takes to keep this from happening to you.
4OTh Annual Benefit Auction for Starlight School & Workshop
PLEASE come out and support this event! 100% of the proceeds remain in Tuscarawas County to benefit children and adults with intellectual and developmental disabilities. The money helps support special projects and activities for the Starlight School and Workshop, Special Olympics Programs and much more!
The auction will be held Saturday, July 17, 2010 at 9:00 a.m. at Winklepleck Grove Park in Sugarcreek, Ohio. There will be a lunch stand. For additional information you can contact Gene Bolek 330-827-7459 or Monna Garver 330-339-7125. Donations may also be dropped off at Jim's Sunoco Service at 522 Dover Rd. NE (Route 39) in Sugarcreek. Phone:330-852-2341.
For those of you out there who are looking to purchase one of my fine art prints I am donating two for sale. Donate something or go out and support the auction.
A final note: We are so lucky to have Starlight here in Tuscarawas County. Over the years I have know many of the parents and children involved with and in Starlight. They are simply the best! Please consider helping this very worthy cause.
