ToledoPhotoGuy LLC.

Just recently my daughter Denae decided she wanted to take dance.  Thanks to Inspire Dance and Dena,  she now skips, hops, twirls her way to every destination we go!   She loves it and I think will continue to love it.  I look forward to watching her perform and improve her skills as a dancer (whatever keeps her away from the boys!)  Yeah, yeah, wishful thinking I know.  She was excited to join her dance group in the Fall Festival parade in Sylvania.  I didn’t realize until I actually got there how big this was going to be.  I look forward to recording more events for Dena’s dance company INSPIRE DANCE, please check them out!

       Happy Halloween!! It’s the most wonderful time of the year isn’t it?  The air cools, the leaves change colors and somehow, every year, October turns into a “good vs evil” bout between the ones that scare and the ones that BE scared! haha  I personally love to be scared and in my mind have always thought a good scare is just as good if not better than a good laugh.  I’ve always thought it was just as difficult to scare someone as it was to make them laugh.  To physically take someone watching something on screen and alter their state of well-being and make them feel the anxiety of being in danger or fright or panic?  It’s not easy and of course the film industry has learned that a mask isn’t going to “cut” it (sorry for the pun)  but with careful movement of the camera, different angles, the lighting, sound effects, music, then finally the mask may bring it all together to give that one scare.  It’s an art and extremely difficult to do well.  I had the fortunate opportunity to present my short film at the museum my senior year of college.  I had an audience of maybe 30 people and at the end of it I got to talk about it.  I spent weeks making this 10min film with some friends that shared my passion.  They loved the idea of creating as did I and we looked forward to seeing the end result on the big screen, or with me, the DVD player!   The film was about children and negative influences in their life and what would make a child want to kill.  A very dark thought I know, but the process in making it was in so many pieces that the only time it felt dark or morbid was when you watched it in its entirety.  I did my best at 21 and no money to incorporate all the hollywood tricks of getting my audience to buy in to my creation.  The music, the dialogue, the effects and finally my big finish.  It did help to put people in a big dark room with the film on the big screen.  I waited for it, and waited… it was at the end that I would get to the feel the satisfaction of my audience buying in to my work… even if it was for a split second!  I loved every split second of it!  

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO MY CLASS PROJECT, 10min.  my professor knew I was short on time and couldn’t complete the film so he said for me to come up with movie trailers instead,  I got an A.

CLICK HERE FOR LINK TO VIDEO SHORT 2:  I signed up to help deliver a spooky message for a gentlemen that wanted to rattle the youtube community about the practice of  Satanism,  he wanted it vague, creepy and to cause some buzz.  I tried to incorporate music and sound with little sound effects to create an eerie feeling that left you…. curious at the end.  that was the idea anyway.  The sounds I used and manipulated were drum beats and children playing at a playground.

     Next time you get a chance,  watch some old horror movies from the 50s and 60s like Hammer Horror films, listen to the sound track and how amazing a job they do pulling you in to the film.  It’s great watching Peter Cushing as Van Helsing fighting Christopher Lee as Dracula.  The effects are minimal, they convince the audience with quick camera cuts and lighting effects, no computers.  You can start in the 50s and work your way up through the present and from 2000 on, you might get a couple good horror films but they are few and far between.  I’m not sure when we lost interest in the CGI monster or ghost?? oh wait,  I think it’s because we were never interested in what a computer could do.   Here is a list of “must see” horror films, I like the list mostly… it’s obviously opinion but if you like to be scared and can appreciate a good horror film, then check it out! (by the way, if you can find the original version of “Cannibal Holocaust” out there, let me know! it’s outlawed just about everywhere in the world now)  Make sure you turn off the lights,  turn it up a little more and get lost in the film.

        People are always telling me that my older daughter should get into modeling.  “she’s beautiful, have you thought about modeling?”  and although, the compliments are sincere and I appreciate every one of them 100%,  the simple fact that people say it because they assume all “beautiful” people have a shot at modeling moreso than the…. not-so beautiful?? I guess people don’t really know what it all involves.  I have seen many “not so” beautiful people be very successful in modeling, so what’s the trick?  Well,  ugly is a word just like beautiful so what makes a female or male model beautiful?  There are qualities that every model needs to have.  What kind of models are we talking about?  Oh, right!  There are all types of models.  SIGH, let me give it a shot here on naming a few model categories:  glamour, fashion, fitness, lingerie, runway, editorial, catalog, bathing suit, plus-size, don’t forget body part modeling, commercial, corporate, trade show, and sport.  There are more sub categories of pretty much the same stuff but if you are wearing, showing off, presenting or smiling around a product or advertisement… you are modeling.  I can’t pretend to know anymore about it than you as far as what makes a model successful but I’ve been around it and worked in it a little so a have formed more opinions on the subject.  What little I have done and what little I have photographed, one thing remains constant 100% of the time,  the model’s #1 goal is they need to look their best and be more competitive than the next person because there are 100 more ready to step in and take that spot. 

          A lot of people want to be a model because it’s glamorous, sexy and pays well.  My thoughts are that it’s an extremely competitive and unforgiving business that will more likely break you than make you.   As far as making a life from it or a glamourous life?  Well, wouldn’t that be a “supermodel” life?  Did you know the odds of becoming a supermodel are 88,000 to 1?  Coincidentally, the odds of dating a super model are the same, hmmm so you are saying their’s a chance?   anyway…  you have a better chance of  winning an academy award, or how about this, you are 4x more likely to become a pro athlete than to become a super model!  (funny odds)

         Common sense will tell you if you are 5ft 1 then you probably won’t be a model of any kind,  but don’t take it personally, it’s only the entire world of marketing moguls who have burned these standards into our heads for generations one commercial or magazine at a time.  I mean, what came first the chicken or the egg?  Who decided what was “pretty” or what a catwalk model should look like.  Who made the original Barbie girl the standard?  Probably the same people who said if you are tall (5’7 to 5’9) and skinny with a small breast size, you can be a catwalk model or if you have large breasts you could be a swimsuit model or underware model.  You only have so many options with what you were born with, but no matter what you do, you better be healthy with great skin!  That’s a great foundation, and don’t do too much tanning or makeup, because natural beauty is essential in the business.  Unless you are on Jersey Shore, go easy on the tanning please!  Well, that’s all I feel like discussing on this subject, and if you are serious about doing ANY type of modeling, the great news is, it’s so much more affordable today than it was 10 or 15 years ago.  The days of paying $50.00 to $150.00 a roll to get 2 or 3 good shots are all but over.  It’s really not that hard to get yourself started now and there are several websites that help you get your photos out there like www.modelmayhem.com.  I do suggest speaking with a reputable modeling agency also if you are serious, make an appointment and get some pictures done professionally.  Your agent will work for you to get work and make you more marketable than you could on your own.   Remember though,  these appointments are like job interviews,  so be prepared to maybe do a polaroid right on the spot.  You may be asked to make certain faces or expressions like happy or sad while taking pictures.  Modeling is a job interview x100 if you are just starting out,  pictures are only part of it so dazzle them with your personality, your confidence, then seal the deal with a great portfolio.  Go on, your catwalk is waiting for you!

Probably the most successful local model agency in the Toledo Area is John Casablancas, check it out!

      We were thinking it would rain, but we had to try… cause with rain, brings a nice overcast which is great for lighting.  The park downtown on the water is great for pictures, but the downfall can be the amount of people there so you are constantly waiting for someone to move out of the way of your shot.  Still we managed to get many great shots in.  The girls were great and very cooperative with the pictures, they were having a blast which makes it much easier for me.  We got our hour in and just as I was closing my door to drive away, the first rain drop hit my windshieldd…. perfect timing!

        Yes, my inner movie-geek is showing and I’m not ashamed of it!  Don’t worry,  I haven’t seen Dirty Dancing since Jennifer Gray bought herself a new nose and dropped off the face of the Earth.  Moving on people!  In a blog I did a couple….um…blogs ago, I explained about some special people from Detroit, well, Ferndale/Farmington Hills area.  The Burke / Makins family.  Great people, good times right?  So Kristen asks if I would do some baby pictures and I of course was happy to accommodate her and baby Landon.  After many emails and scheduling conflicts, we finally confirmed the date and I headed up to Ferndale.  My planning was monumental, I printed mapquest like a champ and put gas in my car.  I figured everything else should fall into place, well somehow I didn’t make it to Ferndale….immediately, no no, I wanted to hit a detour that involved driving down Gratiot which I noticed the area’s excessive use of plywood and iron bars to “decorate” their homes and businesses.  Kristen greets me at the door and I get all the equipment in the house.  One thing I’ve learned about parents and babies while trying to take pictures… there is the way you WANT it to go and the way it’s actually going to happen.  I try to explain this as best as I can during our time but it never fails,  the parents start to get nervous and worry that the pictures won’t turn out.  I’m not going to lie,  it’s not easy taking pictures of a baby that doesn’t want anything to do with you or your entertaining faces and noises.  Parents are huge participants with this in helping make the baby smile or at least look in a certain direction.   I think Kristen and Andy both sprayed me a few times while trying to make noises that involved sticking their tongue out! haha I did tell them to get right behind me so Landon would look up, so it’s my fault Kristen! ;D  Over all,  we tried many different tactics during the shoot to be entertaining and had a great time but he was unimpressed with 3 adults making noises and faces… well, you win some and you lose some! I do hope Mommy and Daddy enjoy the pictures but I also wish I would have gotten shots of Andy and Kristen making all those faces!

To go to photo store for Landon CLICK HERE.