Yes, I did miss a Monday. Funny how things go by so quickly when you’re busy. No excuse, just telling the facts. It’s great to be busy; but I do want to keep my readers and clients informed of what’s happening at Jacobson Studio.

I’m reprinting a post from my creative coach blog because I think it’s very relevant giving what’s happening around us in todays world. If you want to see more of my coaching blog posts, check them out at my coaching site…

#mce_temp_url#

Here’s my last post there…

CRAZY?

  When a person thinks of crazy, they think of all kinds of things. Mostly things that are not normal, not everyday happenings, and especially something they generally wouldn’t do. That being said, some of the most famous (if not all of the famous), have at one time or another…..been CRAZY!! And mind you, that’s a good thing.

   We’re not talking crazy weird. We’re not talking crazy scary. We’re talking just CRAZY!!

  I was reminded of the importance of CRAZY in our lives when on The Early Show on CBS, Wednesday, September 10th, Benjamin Mee was quoted as saying; “Often it’s good to do the CRAZY thing”. See Benjamin is the author of “We Bought A Zoo”. It’s a real book, about a real story of him and his family purchasing a zoo that was going to have to close. And they purchased it to help keep it open.

   In addition, shortly after they purchased the zoo; his wife passed away from the recurrence of a brain tumor. But he pushed on with the help of his family, and especially his kids jumping in and helping out. (Not an easy task with all the grounds and animals to take care of.)

   So what has this got to do with the word CRAZY? Lots. In fact, most inventors, entrepreneurs and many an artist have been labeled CRAZY at one time in their careers. It’s kind of a nature we all take on and those who survive the barrage of cruelty, humiliation and threats on their craziness seem to come out flying higher than everyone else. So there’s something to be said about CRAZY.

  Speaking from my own experience; most everything that I do is systematically thought out in my brain ahead of time. It doesn’t discount the fact that the idea might be CRAZY; just more calculated than it may appear on the outside. I think that’s where the bubble is expanded. Where the box is thrown away. And where the comfort zone is eliminated all together. But the ‘creative’ planning and thoughts that go on ahead of a certain task, or project; make the CRAZY situations only look crazy to those who can’t see anything beyond the reality that lies before them.

   So for today and all times…..go CRAZY….in a good way!!

Interviewer:  Today I will be asking Ron about some of the tidbits in his business and different topics that maybe he has run into in his 30 years of photographing.

I: We see all the good things that you do with your exceptional photography, can you describe any of the hard or tough things that are involved in your business?

Ron: Yes, we do have fun in our business. And most of the time it is pleasant, fun and exciting. Whether that be a childs portrait, or a wedding, or a high school seniors portraits. But there’s times we end up photographing things that have happened to people for insurance or court cases. These usually aren’t too pleasant; but we do our best to help out our clients in every type of situation they may have.

And getting to know our clients makes them part of our family. So when a person is sick or injured we feel that with them. And there are clients or clients families that have deaths in them. And that is very hard on us. Especially if they may have a family appointment scheduled and one of them passes away. While many people think it’s just a snapshot, we get requests each year to restore and remake family portraits where that’s the only photograph they have of a certain ancestor. You don’t realize how important that Portrait is to you until someone passes away. So if you haven’t had a family or individual portrait taken in awhile, it might not be a bad thing to have done. The psychological effect can help families in ways we don’t even understand.

I: From a standpoint of giving back to the community; is there anything you do in your business that sets you apart?

Ron: We just finished a benefit portrait promotion for Hospice in Jamestown at the Stutsman Harley-Davidson store. Bikers were able to receive a portrait with a donation to the Hospice in Jamestown. I think they raised over $600 this past weekend. 

We also do 2 Humane Society benefits in Fargo and at our Grand Forks Studio location. They are coming up the end of September and in October. With a donation to the Humane Society, clients are given a choice of many backgrounds and we provide them with a session and a FREE 5×7 for their donation. There are many other products available for them to order, but they are under no obligation to buy; and the Humane Societys Benefit from the donations.

At this point we are looking to connect with a couple other needy groups in the future; but because of our schedule, a couple more is probably all we could fit in.

In addition, my wife and I just came back from donating our time and talents to ‘LifeLight’; a ministry based out of Sioux Falls (see previous Blog post), and I also donate my time and talent to “PULSE”, a campus-based ministry out of Fargo.  It is truly a great feeling to help out in anyway possible to worthwhile groups and organizations.

I: Ron, thank you for your time and explaining some of the ‘little’ things you do to make a ‘big’ difference.

Ron: You’re welcome.

First off, we’d like to thank Stutsman Harley-Davidson for letting us be a part of their Open House and offering portraits with a donation to the Jamestown Hospice. And thanks to the ‘wonderful’ ladies from Hospice that were there to keep things lively.

So here’s a tribute to Stutsman Harley-Davidson with some photos from their Open House and a couple of the portraits we did. We’re looking forward to doing ‘future’ promotions with the great staff and helpers!!

No excuse for missing a post last week….either regular or ‘meeting’ with the Professional. But my wife and I were exhausted.

We were giving back. Both of us volunteered at the ‘LifeLight’ Festival in Sioux Falls over the Labor Day Weekend. I was asked to help photograph for the Lifelight Ministries and my wife helped out in the ‘volunteer and performer’ kitchen. In addition, our youngest son and his wife came to help as well. He covered the ‘Souled Out’ stage which was some of the harder Christian Rock Groups (I got over there for one of my favorite groups, ‘Day of Fire’), but missed some of the other artists I’d of like to seen. And our daughter-in-law also helped in the kitchen.

I know it’s not a lot; but we like to give back. I’m also the head photographer for PULSE, a college and youth Ministry based out of Fargo/Moorhead. And we just finished a benefit photo shoot for Hospice in Jamestown at Stutsman Harley-Davidson this past Saturday. (I’ll post some shots here). And we’ll be doing our Humane Society Santa Paws in both Grand Forks and Fargo in the coming months. Through these efforts, we probably raise over $10,000 for these organizations in a single year. Just one of the ways we like to ‘give back’. If you have any questions on these, give us a call at 1-800-344-7667.

So here’s some of the shots from LifeLight. And thanks to the JUMBOTRON operator from Atlanta who put me on the top of his truck to photograph Sunday nights crowd of app. 125,000 watching and worshipping with Casting Crowns.

If you’re not familiar with some of these names, Google them and check out their songs. Some of these are just the ‘lead’ singers and not the whole groups, and others are the main names (acts).

This week we will be asking Ron about some of his Fine Art Photography and images.

I: Many people don’t know of your Fine Art Photography. Can you explain a little bit about your past and what you do with your fine art?

Ron:  Well, I guess my fine art photography started many, many years ago. It would be the photos I started learning photography with. They would be still lifes of flowers, landscapes and then evolved into animals and as time has passed; more intricate black and whites and painting these images.

I: How did that help you with photography?

Ron: When I was learning all the camera controls such as depth-of-field and using the shutter to blur or stop the action; it was easier to do it with an inanimate object. Of course that was film, so to save on expenses, I did a lot of it with black and white film. On my 35mm cameras, I was able to buy bulk film and reload my own cassettes. Plus I developed my own film so that kept the costs down as well. Now people can pay a higher price for a digital camera and keep experimenting with these controls and just reusing the flash cards. Another factor was to experiment with different lenses and filters. Obviously lenses are still a big part of shooting with digital. But filters have somewhat gone by the wayside. Most of those effects can be done in the post production on a computer. It probably isn’t as efficient as the filters on the camera used to be; but it allows you to do any effect with any photo. When you used a filter on a film camera before; what you got was it. There was no changing it after the fact.

I: You mentioned the painting of your images. Can you elaborate more on that?

Ron: Quite a few years ago, after Photoshop had become the ‘norm’ for digital manipulation and production, a program called “Painter” was introduced. I had been teaching Photoshop since its’ beginning and it was kind of hitting a plateau in my opinion. And I was looking for more of a challenge. Unfortunately, the first number of releases were very complicated and hard to understand. And the company knew that. They made some adjustments and when an easier to understand version was introduced, I picked up my stylus and wacom tablet (used to paint and draw with) and starting working on the program. It wasn’t long until I had mastered certain features of the program which allowed me to use my photographs as a base and paint them in the computer. Painter is able to replicate almost any medium there is. Acrylic, watercolor, oil, pen, pencil and much more. It is the experimenting and practicing in this program that gives me the results I want. Plus we have a large format printer that gives me access to producing images as large as 40×60 inches on archival art material for this art. I love it.

I: So is there any one type of subject that intriques you more?

Ron: I’m very eclectic. I still like nature. Flowers, trees, landscapes and wildlife. But I’m getting more and more involved with painting my portraits and I’m looking for everyday life situations to paint. Excitement of sporting events. Wedding images. Farming scenes. Architecture and so much more. The possibilities are endless. Especially with all the different techniques I have available in Painter. Plus it’s not just a button to push. You actually have to make the strokes and the lines and adjust the color just like using oils or acrylics. Studying art has become a big time issue for me. There’s so much to learn and so little time.

I: Where are these images available to view and purchase?

Ron: Right now we have a number of them at each of our studios in Mayville and Grand Forks. I’ve been working on a web site just for my art and it’s not quite ready for launch yet. Hopefully within a couple months it will be up and running.

I: Thanks for sharing with us about your art.

Ron: You’re welcome. I’m posting a few of my ‘art’ images to give readers some idea of what’s available.