Houston Wedding Photographer / Aric C Hoek

Engagement Session / Tattoos

I had an engagement session in the studio today. This particular couple is actually already married, so I am not sure that you can actually call it an engagement session. They are having their official ceremony and reception later this year.

Because the couple is already married they allowed me some freedom to create some portraiture that was a bit more on the dramatic side, as opposed to the traditional lovey dovey shots you would normally expect from an engagement session. Specifically I had instructions to show the Husbands tattoos.

Now, this is an instruction that I get about once a year. Normally, I would not put up images of tattoos. It just doesn’t say wedding. But these images I really like, so I wanted to share.

You can see that the session started off like a standard engagement sessions, and then I ust went off the deep end.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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A Simple Flower.

John and Carrie booked me to photograph their wedding earlier in September of 06, and their wedding promises to be fabulous! It is my understanding that it is to take place in a Budda Temple.

At any rate, they chose to have their engagement session done in the studio and their appointment was for last Monday. I find that studio sessions are more difficult than session done on location, the reason being is because I hate to use props in my studio sessions. Props to me are like a crutch when taking a portrait. I would much rather just use a simple flower with my subject and rely on my skills as an artist to light the subject dramatically.

While studio sessions are a bit more difficult, when I am in a groove I feel that I can really turn out some excellent artwork, and it seems as of late the work I have been doing in the studio is making me and my clients very happy.

Enjoy.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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Yoga Study.

Every once and a while I get a request for something a bit different. Here are a few images from a session done in the studio of a subject in yoga poses. Enjoy.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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Happily Submitting Myself To Ridicule.

It’s Monday morning at 6am and I am excited to be in the studio already. When I leave my house this early in the morning, I get to the studio so much quicker and I am in a much better mood that if I had been fighting traffic all the way here. The trek only took 21 minutes from door to door today.

This morning I am working on entering four prints into a statewide competition through a professional photographic organization I recently joined, the Texas Professional Photographers Association. While their website is rather lacking, the quality of membership is really nice.

I wanted to share the images that I will be entering into the competition with you, but before I do I need to say something first. I made a promise to myself that I would never enter in two of the images that I am submitting into a competition. They are two of my favorite images, and I don’t want them to score badly. I know that I just wouldn’t take it to well.

Well, I know what you are saying. “Get over it!” I agree. It is time for me to start competing on a national level. I have this crazy idea, a dream, of becoming an educator of photography to other professional photographers, and my first step is to expose other photographers to my work through competitions. After all, some unknown no-name photographer just showing up on the national photographic scene from out of nowhere wanting to speak at national conventions is going to get laughed at. Well, maybe not laughed at, but at the very least will be given a quick no.

I have to start somewhere, so my goal is to enter in these four images in a state wide contest. If they score well, then I will resubmit them into this years national judging for the PPA, of which I am a member as well. If they do not score well on a state level, then I will need to decide if I want to try and improve the images through Photoshop and then resubmit them nationally, or just chose all new images to be submitted instead.

If you know my website, then you already know these images. They are very special to me, and represent different milestones in my professional photographic career.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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Brooke & Mike / Engagement Session

Brooke and her fiancé Mike booked me last July to photograph their wedding while they were living in Tucson. They have since moved to Houston and we finally got around to taking their engagement session outdoors. One problem with having a session outdoors is that there are rain delays. I think we had to reschedule their session four times due to bad weather.

I have been shooting at Herman Park quite a bit lately and I am getting some great results. If you are reading this on Saturday, chances are I am there now as I do not have a wedding this weekend. Any time I do not have a wedding on a Saturday I seemed to get booked up with engagement and bridal sessions. This weekend is packed with sessions, as I will not have another free weekend until the end of August!

Don’t get me wrong. I am not complaining. Not one bit. I don’t take one wedding for granted. 2007 is schedule to be my biggest year yet and I am ready for it!

Here are some images from Brook’s engagement session. Click the link below to see the rest of the images.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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Maternity Session

As you may or may not have noticed, I have made a few basic changes to the Solaris Blog in an effort to clean it up and make it a bit more like the rest of our site. I hope you like the changes.

I wanted to share a few images with you today of a maternity session that took place last week. Click the link below to see the rest of the images.

Enjoy.

Aric C. Hoek – The Master of Shadows
Solaris Studios
713-524-3303

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Working Smarter, Not Harder

As a business owner you need statistics to make sound business decisions, like knowing whether or not current advertising is generating enough business to support the addition of a second full time photographer. Every time the phone rings at Solaris, Beth or myself take the time to record where the lead came from in an effort to calculate our cost per lead based on our current advertising budget. We enter this statistical information into software called Successware.

Successware is a fabulous proprietary software application made for photography studios. It creates my wedding contacts, schedules my sessions, and tracks my leads for starters. I’d be lost without it. One additional feature it offers is the ability to automatically enter in the information entered into our website’s contact page into the Successware data base! Very cool.

If you go to our site, you will notice a link called Contact on every page. If you click that link you will now be taken to our new contact page! It’s not as cool looking as our last contact page, but it’s got teeth! Now when a prospective client fills out our contact form and hits the submit button, the information is automatically entered into the Successware data base for us! I love it. One less thing to do, and way more accurate.

Aric C. Hoek
Houston Wedding Photographer
The Master of Shadows

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Busy, Busy, Busy

Well, something had to give…. And the blog was put on a side burner for a bit. Things got just a bit to busy around here. Let’s review.

The first weekend in January was The Bridal Extravaganza. Over 6000 brides in two days. Wow!

The Two weekends later I went to San Antonio for some continuing education at the annual Professional Photographers of America Convention. At the convention I took an exam to become classified by my peers as a Certified Professional Photographer. I passed. I was scheduled to return to Houston on Monday, but we all remember the ice storm that blew through here. I had the pleasure of staying in Houston one additional evening.

Now, while I was at the PPA Convention, I found something that I really liked, and if I do say so myself, it takes something pretty special these days to peak my interest. Over the past three weeks I have increased my workload in order to bring a new line of wedding albums to the table for my clients! I can tell you that it will be nothing short of spectacular! I have designed the album, printed the prints, and shipped them to the album company for assembly. The finished product should be back in about 3 – 5 weeks.

Now, if this wasn’t enough, as you may or may not know, I have been holding interviews for a job opening here at the studio. According to my records, over the past two years I have referred out over 140 weddings due to the fact that I was already booked. If that isn’t reassurance that it is time to bring on another photographer, I don’t know what is.

After 11 interviews, I have made a selection. Elizabeth will be assisting for me over the next three months and will then become a full time employee in June. Beth and I are both very excited to have her on board.

I will be posting again later this week with a few wedding album designs that I have recently completed for my clients.

Aric C. Hoek
Houston Wedding Photographer
The Master of Shadows

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