Project Announcement

Blog
August 6, 2018

When I decided to redo this website, I had also decided to start a new personal project. I like personal projects because when you set a project goal for yourself, you’re never left wondering, what am I going to shoot today or this weekend or whenever you have a free moment to shoot. You’ll have an idea already, you just need to find the subject matter to make it happen.

For me, this website has been so time-consuming, since I’m doing it all myself (the joys of also being a graphic designer) so finding the free time, with work, with family and everything else in my life, it was difficult to find the time to kick off my project … but I finally did and I’m so excited.

So here’s a little backstory, for the past year I’ve had this idea of what I wanted to do, I just didn’t know if I would have the time to pull it off. However, my father was a crucial part of this plan and he was coming to visit and I said, dang it, this is it, either you’re doing it or you’re not. So I did it.

My father is a Vietnam Veteran, he’s my hero, he’s been a guiding light for me for years and I wanted to do something to honor him. Then I thought, why not honor him and the other Veterans out there. So I reached out to my local Vietnam Veterans of America (VVA) Chapter and told them of my idea … I want to shoot intimate, close up and personal portraits of about 20 of them. All in my own, unique style and then print them out, somewhere in the size range of 16×20 or 16×24 (horizontal or verticle) and display them in a gallery, with a small cover charge with proceeds going to the VVA chapter. If I sell the prints, then 25% of the profit goes to the VVA. Basically, for them, it’s a win-win, all they needed to do is pose for a picture for 15-30 mins each and then sit back and have the best damn portrait of them they’ve ever had taken (I hope). The rest of the show is up to me to deliver, but hopefully it brings awareness to their chapter, raises a little money and when it’s all over, I give each participant a high-res digital photo for participating.

The project is still up in the air, the VVA hasn’t yet committed, as I’ve only spoken to the President, but he has been gracious enough to give me the time to speak with the Veterans of the chapter at their next meeting on August 16th. This was another reason it was so important for me to photograph my father and give his images edited so that they could see examples of the work I’m looking to produce. My style is unique and moody, it’s not your typical, bright smiley portraits with smooth skin and a tad of a haze. My portraits are highly detailed, I like to bring out the flaws, cracks, and wrinkles, I like to heighten the intensity of the colors and add a little painterly like effect as well. I also use custom, self-made LUTs to match the colors of the images to a specific time or era, obviously, in this case, the Vietnam War’s background, the 1960’s.

Below is another example of my father, like the one above. These are not the full resolution images, as I have kept those off the web in order to protect the images. But I think you’ll get a good sense of what I’m trying to achieve.

In any event, I’ll be sure to update this page with news on their decision and if positive, I’ll update my schedule of completion, the exhibit space location, date and time and fee to enter. If you’re local or near Tallahassee, FL, I’d love for you stop by, assuming this all happens of course.

Till next time.

Mike.