Red Creative Image from the United Kingdom specializes in portraits, fashion and wedding photography/videography.

Andy from Red Creative Image writes to us:

“Photography has a passion of mine since my early teens. (I am now in my fifties) I left school early to pursue a career in photography. In those days there wasn’t the choice of opportunities in terms photographic qualifications and it meant you had to get out there and do it. I worked with various top companies in photo news, commercial and fashion. Starting off as a runner (basically, a do anything they ask job!). Working hard and long hours I managed to make it as photographer’s assistant in a top London studio, which at the time was quite a prestigious position to have. I was in my absolute element and love every minute of it. In my spare time did as many photographic assignments as I could possibly fit in. However, I got married and needed to get a ‘proper job’ which paid a decent wage as I had a child on the way and mortgage to support. I left the photo business and became an engineer. Now I am in fortunate position to be able continue with my love of taking pictures. Even after all these years I still get that buzz of excitement when I see good picture especially if I’ve taken it. However, I do see lots of great photographers out there with some extraordinary work, this only inspires me to try harder and to get that perfect shot.

I like all photography, but if had to choose I would say firstly, wildlife, especially wild cats, followed by travel, people and fashion photography. I am also very happy to photograph a vase of flowers. I am always on the lookout for interesting shots to take.

I guess my first would be a lesson in making the most of an opportunity when you have it in your hands. I was assigned to a US battleship (USS Bellnap) as communications engineer for CNN. It was during a 1989 Peace Conference being held in Malta. President G W Bush was about to land on the ship and group of selected press photographers were being assembled to record the event. I happened to have a press pass and I had my camera with me. I was standing next to this jostling bunch and I was at the front of them. However, I was deliberating should I or shouldn’t I. What if I got caught! Would they throw me in prison or worse!!. It was agonising, there was a chance in a million and I was there. However, I lost my nerve and decided not to go for it. I do regret that now and I think I should have taken the chance while I had it.

However, it’s not all bad. I was on my way the Falkland Islands when the captain of the ship called out that he could see a whale in the distance. We all rushed to the decks to see a grey spot about a mile away, so far in fact as not to even bother lifting the camera up. Everyone was focused in that direction. Just for moment I looked back in the opposite direction to notice a black shadow very close to the ship. Suddenly, three Orcas leapt from the sea in magnificent formation, a sight I will never forget in my life. Unbelievably, (am I one for fumbling!!) I was ready and took the shots with my trusty Nikon. And as quickly as they appeared, they disappeared. I was the only person to get any photos of them. I think I can say they are the best photos I have ever taken.

I was first attracted to SmugMug as a hosting site because of the way they sold themselves, friendly and inviting with terrific support. Above all, it was the facility they were offering. I’ve seen many photographic template type sites and none match up to SmugMug in terms of flexibility, versatility and incredible quality.

First off, I tried to build my own site but with a lack of talent and website build knowledge was never going to produce anything what I would call worthwhile.

I was looking through the SmugMug Digital Grin forum for help with my efforts, I came across jR Customization. After some initial discussion of what I wanted, and that was a nice simple, effective but above a functional site from I could best display both my photos and video work. I did not want gimmicks or razz (flying graphics all over the place!!). After a agreeing on what I would call a very fair price, I decided to let Jerry of jR Customization build my new site for me.

The site was delivered to me on time and I can’t say enough how I’m so pleased with the finished result. It looks absolutely superb. It was exactly what I asked for, simple, straight forward and without the razz. Jerry has added his own touch to it and to me gives an elegant feel and a touch of class. The photos might not be all that, but the site looks excellent which gives my work a fighting chance.”

I can’t thank Jerry enough and would recommend his website building to skills to anyone looking for an exceptional web presence.

LT recently had the opportunity to work with SPC Creative Photography. SPC Creative Photography from Houston Texas specializes in portraits, sports and event photography.

Shelly writes to us:

I am convinced that given a nice cape and a tiara I could save the world – or at least photograph it for posterity.

As a child, I was the one who always brought home stray dogs and people – and then wouldn’t rest until they were safely fed and cared for. Then when I grew up, I learned that I really could do my part to save the world by working for a variety of nonprofit and health awareness organizations. In 20 plus years I did it all: Public relations, program management, fund raising, event planning, education, volunteer management, grant writing — and naturally photography often fell into my realm of responsibilities.

Just any old snapshots simply wouldn’t do; I wanted mine to be great, so I signed up for a lighting seminar with portrait guru, Dave Newman. Suddenly I saw everything with fresh eyes. It was like falling in love for the very first time, and I couldn’t think of anything but the pictures around me waiting to be captured.

So . . . I added more classes to develop and polish my skills and then launched SPCcreative as a sideline business. Before long, I was blessed enough to take it full time. My nonprofit/PR background gives me a unique perspective for telling my clients’ stories through imagery.

I believe that the photography experience should be stress-free and fun for everyone involved. I enjoy portraiture, weddings, action sports , product photography, nature, and travel. Most recently, I have added boudoir photography with a special niche for women who are 40 and older. After all, beauty doesn’t stop at age 25 and 125 lbs. The women who have paid their dues DESERVE to show off their beauty – if only for themselves and their husbands. The other day I had a session with a gorgeous 59 year old. Talk about FUN!

Few things make me happier than sharing a picture with someone and seeing them smile. It doesn’t matter to me if the picture is a portrait or candid snap, a game-winning touchdown, or the intricate stamen of a tiny orchid. I still get downright giddy at my prospects when I see a beautiful child in perfect golden-hour light. I love to watch storms approaching. Teenagers moody expressions light up my engines just as much as their million-dollar smiles. God gave us a beautiful world and I just want to photograph every square inch of it, every special occasion and every day-to-day moment that will become a memory only if it is recorded for the future

One of my funniest photography stories included a big lesson learned. I started shooting high school football for our athletic booster club. At my very first game, I positioned myself on the field after halftime alongside several other more seasoned photographers. We were going to catch the team running onto the field behind a couple of brawny flagmen who carrying huge flags. These banners are at least 8 x 12 feet, no joke. I had a fantastic shot of one of these guys coming straight at me. As he got closer, I decided it was time to get out of the way. BIG MISTAKE. He and I danced left and right all the way to the sideline. That was when I learned to stand still and get as small as I can. If the ball is not in play, these guys will go around me. During play . . . I am pretty strategic about where I stand, and I place a great deal of trust in my guardian angels who protect me every day.

Visit SPC Creative Photography to see more images..

Back in 2008, I had the opportunity to work with Cathy Hartman Photography on the customization of her smugmug site. At the time, her photography business was “Treasured Moments” photography.

Cathy recently contact us for ‘an extreme makeover’ to her site with new colors, banner, logo, slideshow, content and music. LT worked with the Cathy on implementing the modifications. Most importantly, LT did not have to ‘recreate’ the customization of her smugmug site. The customization is design specifically for ‘extreme makeovers’ and enhancements for photographers who change there market brand strategy. This results in both a savings in time and money and expedites the redesign process. LT also work with Cathy to design and develop her wordpress blog which looks exactly like her smugmug web site.

Cathy writes to us “I have loved photography since I was a kid. It was always a great hobby, but not something I had time to pursue professionally. Most of my images were of my six children, 10 grandchildren, and students at my dance studio. Three years ago I sold my dance studio and last year became an empty nester. This gave me the opportunity to take my photography to the next level. I am very passionate about my photography and feel so blessed to spend every day with my camera. Some days I think I only want to be a baby and child photographer because I absolutely love the little ones. Then the next day I change my mind as I have a blast with a senior. Weddings are awesome – who doesn’t love a wedding! It means so much to be able tell the story of the couple’s special day through my images. And, I still have my passion for dance, but now as a dance photographer. There is nothing like capturing the beauty of a dancer whether on stage or leaping through the park. ”

Before – Treasured Moments Photography

After – Cathy Hartman Photography

After – Cathy Hartman Photographys Blog

Congrats to Cathy Hartman Photography on the new implementation of her market brand and “awesome” job LT!
Visit Cath Hartman Photography to see more images..

Steve and Marian Uffman from Louisiana enjoy using smugmug to store and share their family memories.

Steve tells me why he selected smugmug – “Photography is old hobby that I had put on the shelf some years ago – and then along came grandkids – with digital photography and a run rate of about 1000 photos per year per grandchild, printing was no longer feasible or a good method for sharing. Hence, we turned to the web for a solution and found nirvana ( at least so far). Being a retired CEO and founder of a technology business, I took on the project of gathering family photos from near and far that I could put on a website. After auditioning several sites, I found SmugMug to my liking but wanted to put some pop and professionalism into the site. Well as the story goes, handling and organizing over 10,000 photos is a big enough job by itself. I needed to find someone that could help get the site just as I wanted. Along came Jerry and in very short order we have a site that is rocking and rolling something that my family all enjoys whether they are in Louisiana, a hotel on a business trip or doing volunteer work in the remote areas of Mozambique. Not only has having a medium to share photos being wonderful but it also has inspired me to vigorously dust off the old hobby! I am either with my grandkids or in the outdoors 365 days a year, so there is plenty of opportunity to capture magical moments of all matters of wild thing – whether it is a critter or grandchild, it such a joy to capture the moment and then relive them day after day on the website. Thanks Jerry for all the great help and support.”

Visit Steve and Marian Uffman’s Family Galleries to see more images..

During 2009, I had the opportunity to work with Teresa Nora (‘T’) on the customization of her smugmug sites. ‘T’ has two smugmug sites.

One site, Imaging by T, is branded for her family portraits and art. Within Imaging by T, ‘T’ caters towards her Teen/Senior market with an unique market brand (Imaging by T – Teens). Ok you smuggers, basically that means it is the same Smugmug site but with an unique theme applied to all of her ‘Teen’ related galleries.

Her other site, Teresa Nora, is her ’sensual’ site. This smugmug site is branded towards her boudoir photography. The goal was to keep the ‘family’ related photography on one site and the ’sensual’ related photography on another site.

Her combintion of attention to detail, poses and unique locations result in very unique and breathtaking art for her clients

Recently Redbook magazine featured an article about ‘T’ and her ’sesual’ photography titled “I Posed for (Very) Sexy Photos” by Kimberly Ford. Congratulations to ‘T’ for her photography and her techniques apprearing in a national publication!

What an honor it has been to work with such a wonderful artist. ‘T’ – I am looking forward to working with you on future projects!

Teresa Noras ‘Senual’ Site (note: Adult related content)

Imaging by T – Family Site

Imaging by T – Teens Section

Richard “Dixie” Atkinson frokm Alabama travels around the United States specializing in Nature, Wildlife and National Park photography.

“Dixie” comments “Basically, I am an artist at heart. My major in college and my degree was in Fine Art earning a Baccalaureate Degree in Fine Art (BFA) with a minor in photography. My bio on the site sort of says it all – in that I was a good technical photographer having learned the ropes at Rochester Institute of Technology. At the time I was in the Army and was transferred to a location where I couldn’t pursue a BFA in photography, but I did find a school that would let me apply my photography education to that point towards a degree in Fine Art. Best thing that happened to me, because, as stated in my bio, that is when I developed my “eye” for photography. I have never been a person to say that the camera should show what the eye sees. As a fine art photographer, I envision the final result before I even ’snap’ the shutter and do my exposures accordingly. To me that is where the real art lies.”

“My favorite (photography) is pretty self-evident and that is landscapes and wildlife.”

“I don’t know about funny or interesting photography stories. I travel 49 of 50 states and specialize in the US national parks. I do 95% of my travel alone and much of the time I am “roughing” it in that I camp out or sleep in the back of my F-250 truck which has a simple camper cap on the back with a small cot. Since I am in remote locations and traveling alone (which includes day long hikes with my gear, etc.) I always have ten days worth of food and water with me and travel with a Spot locator for emergency situations. So far, I’ve been lucky in that I’ve never gotten lost (aren’t GPSs great) or totally stranded. However, I have hung my truck up on rocks and in streams while crossing them. Luckily, I’ve always been able to wench myself off or out of any situation I’ve placed myself (or the truck) in. The spot locator also has a blog site where fans can track me and this year will be first year that I’ve used that feature. After I get use to it, I may get you to add it as my blog site.”

“Dixies” comments on his web site : “It was a pleasure working with you on the site. You were very responsive to my requests and had the site up in no time. I am extremely please with the final results and highly recommend your services to anyone needing smugmug customization.”

Visit Visit Photographs by Dixie to see more images…

Also be sure to check on “Dixies” Find page google map – very impressive!

j Rost Photography (Julie) specializes in Sports, Events, Music, Weddings and Portrait photography in Sacramento California.

Julie comments “Photography is a very personal expression of the world around us. For me, it is a natural extension of my art background. Having spent many years creating art the old fashioned way with pen and paper, I was quickly enamored with the visual thrill of Photoshop! Discovering the magic of photoshop drove me to create my own images and hence the photography was born. The combination of taking great photos and then taking them a step further in photoshop is a thrill that will never tire with me. I don’t rely on Photoshop as a post-production band-aid, you HAVE to get it right when you shoot the image, but rather a way to make photographic art. There is something very special about capturing just the right moment with the camera and taking it to a breath-taking image. It is what thrills me and keeps me shooting and creating. For me, the art and science of photography and photoshop go hand in hand seamlessly from one to another…like the circle of life if you will.

Julie comments about her smugmug site and jR Customization “Working with Jerry has been a dream come true! I have been struggling for years to make my website do all the things that I wanted it to do — while LOOKING great! As a photographer, I am very visually driven and have never been able to find a way to showcase my work on a functional platform that does both beautifully. For all you photographers out there…stop what you are doing and hire Jerry to work on your site. It will be the best thing you have ever done and I guarantee you will love it. Jerry has found the magic combination of building the behind the scenes functionality in a way that will make your site stand out and look amazing! Thanks Jerry…you ROCK.”

Visit Visit j Rost Photography to see more images…

Deb and Keith of Franklin Photography specializes in Sports, Events, Music and Nature photography in New Jersey and Florida..

Deb tells me “Keith and I don’t just love photography – we are passionate about it, and in different ways. For Keith, it’s capturing “the shot” two-fold – the image, and the action within in such a way as to capture the intangible energy, the tension, the moment so that anyone viewing the image feels that they are right there too. For me, it’s capturing “artistic emotion” – you all know what I mean – in that simple click of the shutter that serendipitous event of stopping time and capturing visual emotion within the 4 squares of your frame. It’s like your first kiss, your first hole in one, your first anything – you can’t wait to feel that rush again and so you keep on capturing images.”

Deb and Keiths favorite type of photography – “I don’t think we have a favorite, although we most often are drawn to sports/action, photojournalism, family and stock.”

“I think our most recent “interesting” story was shooting for Bob Baldwin, a phenomenally talented jazz pianist, at the Hartford Jazz Festival in CT this year. We were so caught up in taking our shots while on stage we didn’t realize how large the crowd was – until we looked up and saw a virtual sea of 50,000 faces looking back – I think my mental response was a cobination of “Holy Sh@#-!!” followed by “oh, this is soooo cool”!”

Deb comments about her Smugmug site “We LOVE our web design. It effectively captures the timeless essence of what we do. We were blessed to work with a dynamic team – Bold Print Design out of NC, and jR Customization, design/programmer extraordinaire! Both groups tactfully kept us on schedule and were particularly helpful in taking my sometimes incomplete vision and pointing out better ideas so that we optimized our site in a way we had not anticipated.”

Visit Visit Franklin Photography to see more images…

“I just wanted to stop by and say hello and tell you how much I love your customer support and quality – Smugmug is the best!”

I heard that quote so many times from so many Smuggers while I was with Smugmug and Bay Photo at Imaging USA 2010.

Larry (LT) and I had the pleasure of joining the Smugmug team in the Smugmug/Bay Photo exhibit. To say the exhibit was busy is an understatement!

I spoke – and listened – to so many Smuggers – I lost count after 200 (and that was only Sunday!). We answered questions regarding Smugmug Pro, Smugmug customization (“WOW!!! – that is a Smugmug site? – awesome”), Bay Photo, order fulfillment and general techi stuff!

So many smuggers and ‘fans’ stopped by to say hello and to meet us. Amanda and Alisa Lynn from Alabama, Candace from Tennessee, Cindy from Alabama, Alisha from Georgia, the Time Smart Images team from Pennsylvania, Jeanelle and her friends from Mississippi – the list goes on and on. A few photogs even referred to my writings on the internet. I thought to myself – “people actually do read my blog, forum answers, articles and newsletters.” David Jay stopped by and I had the opportunity to demonstrate some of the cool Smugmug Customizations/Wordpress Customizations we have completed.

I also had a few conversations with some sport photographers on how I used Smugmug for my youth sports photography (which is my fav photography!).

Honestly though, the conversations I appreciated the most centered around the non-Smuggers who were just starting off and “don’t have an internet site” or “I only use Blogger”. Smugmug has so much to offer them…functionality and flexibility for any photogs business!!

A few other photogs bowed their heads in shame when they shared their nightmare stories of using a competitor’s site. “I cannot sell my art to my customers with my boring site” some photogs cried! It was not a hard sale explaining all of the features that Smugmug Pro offers.

“Oh my gosh – I know that web site – I love it and her photography is breathtaking!” “I’ve seen her photography before – I want to photograph like her!” “Your jR?? I love that web site – the photography is the best!!”

Here’s a secret I am happy to share… a few of the photogs I have worked with to customize their web sites are more popular than they think they are. And yes… Jaki Good Photography (Jaki) from Ohio, Moments Photography (Alicia) from Louisiana and Studio KYK (Monica) from California I am talking about you!!! Your customers love you and so do your peers!

We had our fun as well – Markham and LT “skooled” me on some iPhone apps I did not even know about (Bump, Lego Photo, etc). At the end of the day LT ask if I noticed how light the traffic was in other exhibits in the area as compared to Smugmug/Bay Photo. LT said “That exhibit had so many team members just standing around doing nothing all day!”.

A big thank you again to the Smugmug team (Markham, Jeff, Frederique, Candice) – they were great hosts! This was such an eye opening experience – I enjoyed and appreciated every moment.

Oh, and Smuggers, you must check out the Metal Prints from Bay Photo – they rock!

Still not a ‘Smugger’ ?? Visit Smugmug to learn more…

ShutterBy Me specializes in Portrait and Nature photography in Oklahoma.

Lana Trussell, owner of ShutterBy Me has really no favorite photography subject. “I’m not really sure I have a favorite subject. To me there is nothing like catching that certain smile that certain expression or special time in someone’s life on camera. Portraits are so rewarding when you catch that special moment and you know you got it right. I do so love shooting landscapes. My favorite place is Yellowstone. There is nothing like capturing the beauty of Parkadise! I could spend every day there for the rest of my life and never capture it all and never get bored trying.”