Alvirne HS Semi

No better time for a dance than a Saturday Night. And of course, if your going to a semi formal dance, ya gotta have pictures. This group dropped by the studio on their way out. Lots of fun & lots of noise! These guys were definitely ready for a great time.

Ryan comes to play!

Ok, so he can't really play yet, but we can certainly enjoy his company! Saturday morning bright & early Ryan and his MomKaitlyn, along with Grandma and Auntie, showed up to have Ryan's first pictures taken. At 13 days old, he was a very agreeable little fellow with nary a peep out of him. Of course, we kept him warm & comfy, and we all took turns holding him. There is just nothing like a new baby to snuggle with. Keep watching, Ryan will be back with us for his 3month photo before you know it!

We Love Babies!

Little Alita had her first visit to the studio yesterday, and she was a delight! Such a good-natured little one! Mom and dad were as impressed by her behavior as we were. Maybe next time we will meet Alita's older brother.

Here are a few shots from our session.

What those letters mean

If you follow photographers for any length of time, you will notice that some of them start to accumulate letters after their name, and you may wonder what that is all about. Basically, it is a way for photographers to distinguish themselves among other photographers.

The Professional Photographers of America (PPA) have a set of degrees that a photographer can earn. In Nashville, I was awarded my Craftsman Photographer degree, entitling me to add Cr. Photog. after my name. The craftsman degree is awarded to photographers who share their knowledge with other photographers to pass on what they have learned from those who came before us as well as what we figured out on our own. Whether it is posing techniques or command of a particular software or whatever, if you pass it onto others you earn speaking merits which you can accumulate to earn a craftsman degree. This is kind of a big deal- you are called up on stage with your sponsor, who puts the ribbon and medallion around your neck, and receive the degree itself from the President of PPA, all the while your image is projected onto a huge screen for the audience to see. It's a big achievement and a big honor, and I am pleased to announce this accomplishment. I chose my wife Betsy for my sponsor, because she more than any other person is responsible for pushing me in this direction, to purse this passion and make it a career.

Mark Levesque, CPP, Cr. Photog., A.C. Ph

CPP: Certified Professional Photographer (written test & image submission)
Cr. Photog.: Craftsman Photographer, bestowed by PPA, explained above
A.C. Ph: Associate Colleague of Photography, bestowed by NHPPA





Images courtesy of Jeff Dachowski

Ready to Rock

Betsy and I just returned from Imaging USA, the largest gathering of photographic professionals in the world, which was held at the Opryland Convention Center in Nashville. Wow! How inspiring!

Aside from the pleasure of reconnecting with friends (and making new friends, of course), we attended seminars to further our ability to create personalized art pieces for our clients, and sought out new products to provide our clients with the best and most interesting tangible manifestations of their portrait experience at Studio Mark Emile.

We are excited by the new products that we will be offering this year and the ways we've learned to make the portrait experience at Studio Mark Emile even better. The techniques we've learned to improve the quality of our image-making is simply the icing on the cake.

The international print exhibit is worth the trip all on its own. Photographers from around the world enter prints in this annual competition of the best of the best, and it is an honor to hang a print in this show. Let me just say that the images are inspirational to say the least.

We have a number of exciting announcements to make here on the blog. Stay tuned!

Studio Graffiti

Prior to last year's senior season, we got in touch with a graffiti artist who agreed to paint one of our interior walls. He is henceforward referred to as Mr No-Show. We got busy with senior season and really couldn't get around to finding anyone else for months. Then, last fall, our youngest told us about some friends of hers that "did graffiti".

They came into chat and show us their ideas, and we settled on some paints and such. We decided to give them a shot to play on a large canvas- our entire studio wall. They were practically giddy at the prospect. We finally got together yesterday for their day to play. Their "couple of hours" turned out to be a full day.

They had a blast. I have had enough Ironlak vapors to last me awhile. ;)

A blank canvas:


Making progress





The artists


The finished work


Thank you Shawn and Justin! We think it looks great.

A lovely family

We get a fair number of families in for portraits here at the studio, and sometimes one or more of the family members are in from out of town. Well, this family redefines "out of town". Mom flew in from the Philippines! How cool is that? It's hard to be from much farther away than that!

This was one of the easiest sessions we've ever had. It was one of those times when everything goes right, and I literally could have picked the images with my eyes closed because they were virtually all good ones. And they are all such nice people, it is a thrill to be able to create such images for them.

We are putting up a few here so that people back in the Philippines can enjoy them before Yvette returns. I won't ruin the whole surprise, but here's a glimpse:

Getting a jump on things

Well, the Class of 2010 may not yet be graduated, but by now the vast majority of the the senior portraits have long been done, given the early yearbook deadlines. We may get the occasional late bird or dissatisfied customer from somewhere else, but the senior market is very quiet this time of year. So I was a bit surprised to get a call from a mom inquiring into senior portraits for her daughter who is in the Class of '11.

Seems her daughter was getting braces put back on and wanted her yearbook picture to be braces-free. No problemo. Bring her down and have her bring clothes and things that are meaningful to her, and we'll have some fun and create some cool images. And we did.

Shoshana turned out to be a great subject- cute, brimming with personality, and just plain a delight to be around. We had a very successful session, and everyone has been pleased with the results, some of which I share here. This is the earliest of early-birds that we've ever had, and we are delighted to start off next year's senior season with such a great senior. Enjoy.

Announcing our Bonus Bucks Program

This is our ad which ran in the Hudson-Litchfield News.



Here's the skinny: any gift certificate you buy qualifies you for Studio Mark Emile Bonus Bucks at 25% of the value of your gift certificate. Bonus Bucks are studio credit which can be used up to March 31, 2010. So if you give someone a $100 gift certificate, you have $25 in studio credit you can use yourself (or give to someone else). There is no limit. So spend $1000, and get a $1000 gift certificate AND $250 of studio credit.

Portraiture is a great gift. Maybe you know a real estate agent or other professional that needs a new business card headshot. That's only $150, and you'd get $37.50 in bonus bucks for yourself.

This special offer is for a limited time only. Purchases must be made by Christmas Eve to qualify!

Fun with Santa

Having Santa in the studio has been a blast. Whether it was Girls Night Out or our daytime sessions, we've had plenty of frivolity- and not a few tears. Some of our younger clients apparently do not yet appreciate the generous nature of the jolly old elf. Honestly, some of those images are my favorites.

Here's a sampling of our pics with Santa.

One of the doggies who joined us:



A family:



Girls Night Out hijinx:



Nik and Mike



For this little one, the magic question was "do you like pizza?" :)



Honestly, I AM smiling. Really.

Winter Holiday Stroll

Saturday night was the annual Nashua Winter Holiday Stroll. This eagerly anticipated event happens every year on the Saturday after Thanksgiving, and is always well attended. This year was no exception. Sadly, howling winds made the candle-lit procession to the tree-lighting all but impossible. I saw only a handful of candles in the throng. I was atop the Hunt building to get some images of this very procession, and the wind up there was brutal. Even with a tripod it was very difficult to prevent movement of the camera. I salvaged a few shots.

Here they come:






And the tree is lit.

Thanksgiving brings families together

And while Black Friday means shop 'til you drop for some, for others it means taking advantage of family being in town for family portraits. Take the Retter family, for instance. Mrs Retter came into the studio one hot summer day looking to get some color copies made. While this is not exactly what we do, it's something we can do, and so I did at a really good price just to be nice. While she was in I suggested that she get a family portrait done, and suggested that Thanksgiving weekend might be good since her son is away at school. A few weeks ago she called, and scheduled an appointment for today. They came in this morning and we had a nice, easy session. Here are a few of the previews they will be viewing: