Turning Back to Spring this Week

Happy Friday all,

Fall is here and the Western PA area is starting to feel like it a little bit. It hasn't been too bad thus far, but you can definitely feel a slight chill in the air and the leaves are beginning their transition. With that, I decided to focus this weeks blog on a few shots I snapped during the late spring and early summer to get our minds off of the upcoming cold weather.

This first image is a late afternoon shot of a farm landscape near Bedford, PA. My son and I were returning from our annual Red Sox baseball trip from a game in Baltimore on Memorial Day and we stopped off quickly to snap a few photos (he was also captivated by the windmills in the distance so he made me stop there too.) I loved the way that the late day sunlight played off of the silos and surrounding fields in both the foreground and background. The shapes created within the farm buildings and telephone wires, along with the rolling curvature of the distant hillsides all brought a nice touch of visual elements to the photo also. Anyone that knows me should also know that I have an affinity for our disappearing farmlands as well.

The next set of photos I took randomly during the spring and summer. I've always enjoyed Alfred Stieglitzs' Equivalents series from the 1920's and 30's, (if you are unaware of his work, check it out!) and figured I'd take a crack at my own "cloudscapes." The main reason I was attracted to these scenes was not because of the form within the clouds, but more of the deep rich colors and tones of the sky. 

As always comments, questions, suggestions, and critiques are welcome! Thanks for reading, have a great weekend!    

    

A Few Things I've Been Up To

Happy Saturday everyone,

This will be a rather short blog this week, but I'll give readers an idea of a few things I've been up to recently.

It's been a little hectic the past 2 weeks. Last week, and into the beginning of this week, I finalized images for the Heather Habura Studios event for them that I shot a few weeks ago. On Friday of last week I had the pleasure of photographing a Westinghouse and United Way event in Wilkinsburg in which employees helped to beautify a local high school, and also gave a wonderful career panel discussion to students. I also worked feverishly to best present my 10-minute Keynote Presentation to my BNI Circle of Gold chapter this past Wednesday at Rivertowne Pourhouse in Monroeville. Members and guests seemed to thoroughly enjoy it, so I'm guessing it hit its mark. 

Another large chunk of time was dedicated to a special LinkedIn discount that my partner, Eric Pensenstadler of Video Horizons LLC and I are offering to real estate professionals. Eric has just completed his certification training to fly his drone commercially. This can help to give realtors a unique view of their properties for aerial photo or video tours they can offer to potential clientele. We are also offering a 15% photo/video package discount for local realtors willing to try us out for their properties! Realtors that I am connected to via Linkedin can expect a message from me in the next few days. Check my LinkedIn page to learn more. Also, I will be helping Eric out with video in a few short hours for a wedding. This will be my first "video only" wedding gig and I'm looking forward to it. Have a great weekend, all! 

As always comments, questions, suggestions, and critiques are welcome on the Drakulic Photography blogs!     

Toiling Around the House This Week

Happy Friday everyone,

The title for this blog kind of sums up this week for me. If you look at the definition of "Toil," it can mean 1 of 2 things, "1. working extremely hard..." or "2. moving slowly or with difficulty." Admittedly, BOTH have been the summary of my week. 

One of the beautiful things about owning your own business (also one of the downfalls) and being a photographer, is that you spend many, many, hours working from home doing editing and other business duties such as replying to emails, archiving photos, research, paying bills, blog posts, etc. I look at it mostly positively though because I get to spend a lot of time taking care of my son and handling other personal things. However, it IS easy to "take a break" and get sidetracked by the other stuff.

With 3 separate jobs on the table to finish, I've spent a good portion of the week craned against the computer screen editing the jobs that I need to get finalized for my clients. I've also found myself dilly dallying (definition 2) a little too much. No worries though, I'll still have my jobs completed ahead of schedule and as creative as possible! With that being said, I have still managed to shoot a little iPhone photography around the house that I have shared below. The images were taken as I "toiled" around the house but I'll leave it up to you to decide which definition they fall under, ha ha!

As always, comments, questions, and critiques are always welcome!  

This Weeks in My Photography Business

Hi everyone,

Anyone reading this that knows me, even a little, knows that I'm sort of obsessed with photography. It's what I absolutely love to do for a profession, and it doesn't really matter what kind of photography it is, I'm ALWAYS trying to learn more to better myself. Whether its portraiture, wedding, product, food, fashion, documentary, abstract, or landscape photography I want to try and dabble in all of it. This week I also had a chance to try something new...a television commercial. 

In the past week, I had the pleasure of photographing the 2nd Annual Showcase Pageant and Charity Event for Heather Habura Studio, and shooting still portraits and sunrooms for a television commercial for Pro Home & Sunroom! Although both events were a huge amount of work, they were both a blast to shoot! I want to thank Rick Edwards of Pro Home & Sunroom and Heather Habura both for the business and the honor of allowing me to be a part of your important projects.

Both events also allowed me the privilege of working closely with my good friend Eric Pensenstadler of Video Horizons LLC and seeing the magic he creates through his videography and see how a commercial/web videos are created. Parts of the commercial and customer testimonial interviews took us much longer than anticipated but it will all be worth it in the end. Eric's such a perfectionist...I admire that.

Attached to this weeks blog are a few images I shot from the Pro Home & Sunroom commercial and the 2nd Annual Showcase and Charity Event. Have a great week everyone. As always, comments, questions, and/or suggestions are always welcome!