Houston Wedding Photographer / Aric C Hoek

A Nice Day at The Park

Even if we are alredy booked for your wedding date, that doesn't mean you can't have me photograph your engagment or bridal portraits. Continue reading to see images from an engagement shoot done just this morning.

A Bridal Session

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer
Houston Family photographer

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Do you appreciate this BLOG on any level? Want to support Solaris? Help us spread the word and add a link from your site to the Solaris BLOG.

Raul Brindis 102.9

It’s Sunday, November 12th, and I am at the studio getting ready for tonight’s wedding.
I just got off the phone with my bride for tonight’s wedding to giver her some added assurance that her photographer will be at the church on time. My equipment is packed, and I have about 30 minutes before I have to be on the road, so I thought I would share a story of a radio personality we photographed at the end of last week. His name is Raul Brindis and he hosts a talk show on 102.9.

Who is that in my studio?

OK. It was last Friday and I was doing my thing in the studio photographing a family. I was in a zone. Moving from my camera to my clients to arrange the composition of the image I noticed some people standing in my studio.

I didn’t pay them any mind because I had worked so hard to get this family positioned just so, and a young child will only hold still for so long. I needed to get the shot, then I would address the visitors.

I take the shot, explain to my clients that I need a moment, and I introduce my self to the mystery couple. They proceed to explain that they are patients of the dentist next door to my studio, that they are engaged, and they wanted me to take their Engagement Portrait. I ask them to wait for a few minutes while I finish up my session. I made then each an espresso, sat them down at the conference table, and handed them some wedding albums to look at.

Once I finished with my family, I rejoined the couple. It was then I noticed the garment bag. Had Beth, my production manager, made an appointment for a session and failed to put it on the books? No. It turns out that the couple had forgotten the name of my studio, so they could not call me, and the dentist office was already closed so they couldn't ask them, so they just showed up, ready for a portrait session in hopes that I would be available.

I didn’t have another family to shoot for about three hours, so I took the assignment.

Can you call upon your talent at will? Can you deliver on a deadline? For me, these are two trademarks of a professional.

They went on to explain that the theme of their wedding was royalty, and as parting gifts for all of their guest they were having money made with their image on it! Way cool idea! So I immediately started thinking, when I think of a portrait on money, I see the faces in profile. So I had to come up with an image that screams love, engagement, and it needed to be in profile so they would look good on the coins that they were having made. I still can’t get over it. Their own money. Evidenttly there is a company out there that will take a digital photograph and transfer the image to a coin. At any rate…

So, here is the image that I came up with. Notice that I made sure to include her engagement ring. I turned the ring a bit sideways so it would be a bit more defined when the coin was struck. You will need to imagine a circular crop tight around their faces.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding / Family Photographer

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

The McGee Engagement

I took these in the studio a few days ago now. I have since learned that she is a pilot and he is in law enforcement. Way cool.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Far Out!

A magazine contacted me, and said that they needed some headshots for an upcoming article. Turns out, my sitters are both astronauts! The shoot happend today at about 8:30 am in the studio.

Both mission specialists, Christer Fuglesang and Danny Olivas will launch this December and February respectively. Christer will be docking with The International Space Station in December where he will conduct testing which he has been training for intensively.

Danny’s mission in February will depend on the success of Christer’s experiments in December. Danny will also be docking with The International Space Station during his journey into space.

I asked them both to bring me back pictures. Look for the follow-up blog.

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer

An Engagement Session.

I had a very fun couple come into the studio today. They were a bit nervous when we started the session, but by the end, we had created some fabulous imagery.

"Nothing is so powerful as an insight into human nature, what compulsions drive a man, what instincts dominate his action, even though his language so often camouflages what really motivates him. For if you know these things about a man you can touch him at the core of his being." – Bill Bernbach

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer

Well, today is the last day of June, and yes I am off to shoot a wedding in a few minutes at Butlers Courtyard. This makes a total of 8 weddings this month! I will have an assistant today, Kirsta Kaulfus from K4 Photography. She’ll be tagging along to see how I do things. She also sits on the board of directors with me for the PPGH.

Before I leave though, I wanted to share some images from an engagement shoot that I just finished. This couple booked my services last January for a wedding late this November.

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer

Coffee

You may not know this unless you have been reading my blog, but my studio space is only a few months old now. My wife and I sold our house and used part of the equity to build out the space. So much was riding on the sale of our house that we made sure to have a real estate attorney with us at the closing. She was invaluable.

Last week out attorney called us up and asked if I would be interested in doing a commercial shot of a product she sells. It turns out that she has a line of coffee that is about to hit the shelves of Fiesta here in Houston very soon.

In the front room of the studio there is a black glass conference table. I got some burlap to use as something to frame the coffee bags and poured some beans all around the bags and burlap. I was actually pleased with the results, so I thought I would share the image. I shot this last week.

Want to receive notification of updates to my blog? Look to the right of this post and subscribe.

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer

Outside The Box

I spent all day Friday shooting in the studio, and it felt great! I really only try to schedule one shoot in the morning, and one shoot in the afternoon. Before I opened my doors and began shooting for myself, I had years and years of experience working with other photographers and studios in one way or another. Most of those studios would book their appointments back to back so they could pack in as many sessions as possible in a day.

For me though, that does not allow any time to think outside of the box. As an artist and a photographer, I feel that I do myself a great dis-service if I do not allow myself the opportunity to try new things. Things would become very boring really fast if I never gave myself time to try out new ideas.

When I try new things, I like to try them in an actual session. I allow my clients to become part of the creative process. Of course I make sure that I have captured some fantastic work first before I start playing, as I do not want to waste anyone’s time. However, there are no guarantees that when I am exploring new visions that they will be pleasing to look at. But at the very least, we all have a good time trying.

Yesterday, I had a bridal session that definitely drinks my brand of cool-aide, which always makes me feel more comfortable trying new things. From day one this particular customer has had nothing but excitement for my services. So yesterday, I gave it my all!

I wanted to try going way outside the box. But what does that even mean? To me, at any one give time, it means trying to create an image that shows my particular style of doing things, but in a very different way. Normally I will use shadows to draw a viewer’s attention to a particular point in the image, which is normally the clients face. The face would always be the brightest thing in the image. This time I was going to do the exact opposite. The point of interest would be the darkest thing in the image, specifically the subjects eyes.

After about 30 minutes of trial and error, I think we came up with something that is really fantastic. I liked it so much I added it to my site this morning.. I also wanted to share a much more traditional shot that was taken before we started experimenting. Can you see how I have used the shadows in each image to draw attention to a specific spot?

Aric C. Hoek
The Master of Shadows
Houston Wedding Photographer
Book Solaris Studios today.