Mission: Everyone Deserves A Outstanding Portrait Precious To Cherish Memories.


I believe precious moments should be cherished with a outstanding portraits worthy of print. That they should be hung in your home, on your walls & shared with friends and family.


In 2010, I took a management job as studio manager of a Picture Me! studio. I took a pay cut so I could combine my business management career with art. Yet, the other reason I took the job was because this was a belief I could get behind. To me having portraits done & taking family photo's is important.


For one, I grew up in a household that demonstrated this belief.


My mother, while not a professional photographer grasp the importance of documenting our lives. I think personally for me anyway, an several of my extended family it's importance rang home when my grandfather passed when I was four. He was not big on having his picture taken I don't think. But my aunt, had managed to get a hold of one of the only ones of him an had it cast in glass paper weight of sorts. They where given out at Christmas. An for me, being four years old not understanding death or his passing of a heart attack it was something I used to comfort myself with. I use to carry it around with me when I was missing him.


It helped with grief & sorrow.
Not just me, but all of us.


No, the portrait didn't replace him being with us: but I'm 50 years old an still can go to it an remember him. The babble (not sure what else to call it), even became a struggle between me & my dad. We would argue over who's it was. Of course it was a precious memory for both of us. So, I inherited it when he passed. I've owned a little & a lot over my life time: but it is my most prized possession.


It reminds me of him of course but of happier times in my childhood.


It reminds me of how much I was loved an he was. It reminds me to enjoy & live my life to it's fullest. My grandfather passed at age, 46 of a heart attack. They had been out square dancing the night before he passed. To me he looks a lot like James Dean: with the same tragic ending of dying too young. His portrait reminds me of him of course: but the lesson of not taking life for granted. We can go at anytime. That we should pack as much life into our lives as possible.


Enjoy the dance.
Or Seize the Day!


As my aunt likes to say: For we don't know how much time we have. An this is why I believe so much in the power of a photo. It not only captures a image of a person but can come to represent much more meaning then you ever thought it would when snapped. Its why I believe portraits are important. I was young when he passed. My image of him in my memory is not as clear as his portrait. An his life had value an meaning to me: That I want to remember crystal clear. Not only did it help with my grief, an others but it has given me strength to carry on in a way not many things could.


It can give you hope.


That things will get better, things have been better an will be again.


I have a portrait of me, my grandmother & my daughter. Three generations together. Proof of hope. That life does go on, an we will smile again. That while he may not be with us, he does live on through me an mine. His life mattered. Mine does an so do you an your loved ones. It's just not a belief to me. It's a fact. I cherish memories of those I love.


An portraits help us do so even more.


If you ever lost someone you loved, it's easy to understand. Not that any of us want to, but its a fact of life. At some point we pass an documenting our lives for those we leave behind is important. It's why it's so easy a belief for me to get behind an want to be a part of of. I enjoy, deep down to my soul helping families capture moments in their lives. Helping them document them in the best looking way as possible is deeply satisfying. Even if they don't even remember my name: I know that I helped them do something that will give them great rewards: Now & later.


Art is about deeply touching others.


Photography has been there for me: An I enjoy being there for others in the same way it has been for me. Sometimes we just don't have a clue just how beautiful we are or life is. As professional photographer I consider it my job—no mission: to remind you, your family & others. Just how very precious you are & life is. So you cherish it.


A good photographer will remind you.
Life is short, embrace it & enjoy it.


An while I think personal home snap shots are important. Documenting life: Having crystal clear, details oriented portraits done by a professional are as well. My father was the most anti camera person I think I've ever meet. An it bothers me, most of what photos we could get of him where usually grumpy get away from me facial expressions. The man actually had a great smile when you could get him to do it. I only have one professional portrait of him. Its clear, an it's his normal facial expression. I wish I had more then one. We should have hog-tied him and make him go more often to a professional. There are a few snap shots of him smiling: but they are blurry. I wish I had more of him that where sharp, clean and crystal clear vision of his life. Instead of one small 5x7 hanging on my wall.


He was important person in my life.
He deserves more space on that wall of life.


But when I look at it, I'm reminded of him in the most successful part of his life. That I too can be a successful, happy and confident. It reminds me of so many life lessons, an hardships over came to get where he was. It speaks volumes to me, even though he isn't here any longer to lecture me. One of the hardships our family faced was our family home burning down when I was around six. It caught fire, an they thought it was out. A few things where grabbed, then it burned down over night. We lost just about everything but the family photos. They where out of everything the most important things in the house, that could not be replaced.


Besides us & family memories.


Everything else, even my favorite stuffed donkey I had had since birth could be. Even today, I make back ups of my back ups of family photos: So if anything where to happen I still have the most important things that can't be replaced. I've even lost back ups of my artwork, but not the family photos. An when you ask most people what they would want out of their houses the most. Outside of making sure each family member got out alive: The family photos and portraits is going to be your answer. They just aren't something you can go back in time & redo.


They are valuable. Priceless.


They hold memories of times you can not get back. They show where we are now, an how far we have come. Time goes by in a blink of a eye: but they show our progress. Our determination. Our will. What our lives are about. What we valued. What we hold dear.


They say, what you photograph the most: Is what means the most to you.


Having thought I almost lost a uncle in a fire, I can't tell you how scarey that is. Or that it could have been any one of us, if the fire had not been caught in time to get us all out. It makes you cut out what you can live with & without really quick, an see what is most important.


I learned at a very early age. Life mattered. Family did.


So, getting behind the belief that portraits of those are important was easy. They've been important to my life. My families. I believe they are the most important things in life to be captured: Life itself. It's why I have continued to do children & family portraits so families have their memories captured in the best possible light. So they can cherish one another an remember with each how precious they are: An life is. It's something I know I can do that will be with you and yours in the best an worst of moments. It's an art that will always touch the deepest part of others.


An that's what the best art does.


So while I will always do other types of art, this is the one I do that I know benefits others the most. I consider it a privilege to be the one allowed to share those moments. I try to do my best to make it one of the most enjoyable interactive art moments of people's lives. Something one can participate in, remember fondly an enjoy for decades to come. I don't mind being part clown for others to have what I hold most dear. If I didn't cherish mine so much. I wouldn't expect others to. Yet, I do.


Portraits being important has just always been apart of my belief system.
So, it was easy to get behind them being important to others lives as well.
I just grew up where extreme situations happened that taught me just how important they can be. So I take them seriously. No matter how much I clown around to get that smile out of someone: I never forget the impact they have had in my own life. Or the one they will have in yours. It is a honor.

It's a life.

There is a art to life: It's a creation. Cherished Moments.
I don't know anything more important than life to do art of:

Life is the highest creativity there is.

In a few weeks, I'm turning 50. I think fifty is a natural time to review where you've been an where you'd like to go forward. So, I've been doing that lately. Just to see if I focused on the things I said I would about ten years ago. I narrowed it down to five things: My spirituality, My kids, Art, reaching financial security and good health. In that order, it's what I wanted the just of my life to be about. The first is great, my soul is calmer, kinder and more peaceful then it's ever been. I've really mellowed out. Things where a little out there with the kids, since all of them where going through teenage years an graduating into adulthood. They are pretty well adjusted. Settling into adulthood fine. And I'm even going to be a grandmother in early 2019. My first grand baby an I'm looking forward to him. Financially, I've managed to pay off my house but my income could be better. But my health took a real nose dive about a year ago. I had a breast cancer scare an my thyroid has gone ape shit. But I did manage to move my career into an art field. I'm proud to say I'm apart of. So my focus will remain on those five things. With a emphasis on art, security an health.

I'm getting older so it's a must.

In astrology (cause I'm into that kinda stuff in detail), they are saying look back at 1993 an 1990 to get a idea of what the next few years will be like for yourself. Those where major transformable times for me. In 1993, I was twelve, going on thirteen. I joined the yearbook. Picked up a real camera for the first time. An learned the power it held. It's fitting to came up in my chart: Not that everyone believes in that kinda stuff. But it also fits with the times we are living in: When everyone owns a camera. An can snap shots of their lives. It reminds me of how I was a little before my time. Bring it home to document what was happening in mine. It was by far, one of the hardest time periods in my life. The hardest thing I ever did, in fact. I turned my parents into child protective services for abuse. It took me a while to do it. I was terrified of getting caught telling anyone. I got beat for just being on the telephone with my grandmother, for even giving her a hint that things weren't alright. In retro, my parents where probably going though one of the hardest financial situations in their life. On the verge of splitting if I'm correct. The flying off the handle was a an all time high. Living in our home was like walking on eggshells. An little thing could set one of them off. An you couldn't predict what would land you in a ass beating. Someone had to do something.

An I figured that someone was going to have to be me. So, after my sister was beaten for forgetting to bring in the garbage cans, an my year an half old sister beat for playing to loudly at her play table I decided I was going to do something about it. Specially when the 8 year old was beat again the next day. The bruises where from the very bottom of her legs to the mid of her back. An I was very protective of both of them. In some ways they where like my own children. I took care of them so much. I cried my eyes out every time the belt hit one of them. So the following day, I went to a guidance councilor an asked questions. I checked out the schools camera: brought it home an started taking pictures of all the bruises.

They where bad.

To make a long story short. We where taken form our parents that Thanksgiving weekend I turned 13. An the photos I had taken where seen. That's when I learned the true power of the camera to right a wrong. Life got immediately better. The beatings stopped.


No if, ands or butts. I went through years of being rode hard emotionally an work wise but it was worth it to me. It ended something that needed to stop. Years later, I was told by most of my family members I did the right thing. An was vindicated of doing anything wrong. My grandmother an I remained close because of it. An it's one of the best relationships I've had in my life. But doing that wasn't easy: being a journalist of your own life. An the years following were much better for my siblings then they where for me. They had much more normal lives. The relationships with our parents improved.

In fact they have gotten better ever since.

A little better each year. At least in my eyes. The youngest doesn't even remember any of the turmoil having never been treated that way from then on. So the camera can be powerful. An it actually means a lot to me. It changed my life. More then once.

It's not much of a surprise I'd end up on photography later.


I think it saved my family. An to me it is one of the most important things a family could & should do together. Portraits of your family. Of each other. Happily together. Making beautiful memories together. An in the times we are living in there is no excuse not to have pictures of your loved ones. I can't stress how important they are. An how valuable they will become to you. So I do recommend having them done professionally an getting them printed up. I have a whole wall dedicated to family portraits in my home.

There are years upon years of happy faces an smiling eyes now looking back at me verses what was once scared shy withdrawn eyes. It's priceless. An it's a honor to me to be able to help loved ones capture that. The camera has always been about family to me. I cant begin to express what it's like to do a job where people giggle an smile at you every day. I get so much joy out it. My camera is one of my best friends.

I've seen it's power at work.

I had an older women come in, who's husband was dying of cancer. She at first was putting off having portraits done because getting out an about was so hard on him. He didn't have very many good days left. He had one an they came in. Both knowing this was probably the last time they would ever stand in front of a camera together. They had been married all their lives. The love in the room was over whelming when I took their photos. They didn't have the money for them at that time. But that ways okay. They be there when she needed them.

He passed on Christmas Eve.

I was the second person she told. She came in an shared it with me in tears. Picked up the portraits an thanked me so much for being presistant about doing them. I can not begin to convey how much a professional session can mean to you. Your family. Or how much photography can change your life. Just how much portraits of loved one can mean to someone. How devastating it can be to loose them. An how grateful you can be that you had professional ones done. In our digital age, we seem to take the camera for granted. That we will get around to going to have them done. Or how we put it off saying: I'll just use my phone. How easily they are lost if something happens to your phone. Or the regret that sets in that you didn't get prints.

People need to remember (an will) that it's just like a instant camera.

It's not the same as having them professionally done. The quality is different. The prints are not as good. The lighting or backgrounds off. Studio's are declining in the US. The millennial generation is surrounded by so much photography they take it for granted professionals are gonna be around. Do it for nothing or they can always get a free print. Well those days are over. Quality prints cost money. Make the investment. It's about your family.

An that's kinda what me reviewing my life, turning 50 has been about. It's what came into my life around 13 an hasn't left. It changed my life back then for the better, an renewed my soul about ten years ago. Giving me some of the best years I ever could have imagined. Running the studio, doing photography put me back on the right path: In Art. Stabilized my finances. Was good for my health. An enabled me to focus on what mattered most: Family. So I'm looking forward to next decade. My hope is to do more of it. It's been good for me. Them. An the people around me.

Where have you been? Busy. Around. LOL Seriously, I have been doing art just really not able to post it on social media. In 2011ish I went to work for CPI corp as a manager of a portrait studio: Picture Me! I did any where form 2-30 photo shoots a day an just didn't have a lot of time for anything else art wise. The company had a policy of they owned my work so I couldn't really share my portfolio. I shared a tad of it when the company laid us all off. Since then I've filled in for The Picture People in Chicago for a season in the second busiest malls in America. Sold $1100 in one sit even! Not liking the two hour drive back an forth I looked for something else in photography. I ended up traveling working for Lifetouch who recently got bought out by Shutterfly. Then I settled into Mom365 doing new born photography.

What I've found is I miss managing my own studio.

I've been in management my whole life, an it combined with an actual art form kept me happy. The kinda happy you wake up bouncing out of bed thrilled to start a new day. I'd like to manage a studio again for someone else or start my own in the right location. The problem with that I'm running into is there just aren't studios around my area anymore hiring managers. I think their might be two portait studios left around the Rockford area: Portrait Innovations & JcPenny. I'm not even sure Pennies is actively in the area anymore. So I've kinda hit a brick wall in my field of work. I'm actually being left with the only option being open my own studio.

An I have been doing photo sessions “on the side” to keep me in practice but with it comes a slew of headaches. One of them being a proper location for a studio. I work out of my home now but a little uncomfy with people coming an going from my home. In 2016 someone broke into it an stole both my camera an other stuff an wreck the place. I wasn't too happy about having to replace those items. Or the mess an it really but my guard up. My former studio was in a high traffic location: the entrance of Walmart in Beloit. I dealt with all kinds of people, but no one could break in an steal things. I had Walmart security team there to back me up if someone tried to steal some thing or bully me. So security has been an issue on my mind from all this.

In studio, since there was security if someone got aggressive: An they do just about every Christmas Eve all you had to do was ask them to leave. If they wouldn't security would get involved. There was some sort of protection from the part of the public that doesn't understand boundaries. Or thinks it's okay to try to start a fist fight with the photographer. Not so out on your own. And during 2015-2016ish I had some online stalker freak bothering me an it even went so far as deleting all my 800 or so Facebook contacts. So I'm completely starting over networking wise, with the exception this page. I opened a new page just for the photography: If you'd like and follow it: https://www.facebook.com/mrpdstudio/

So anyway, the situation got me thinking about my own security out on photo shoots. It kinda scared me off from doing them outdoors or in my own home studio. I took some leads, did them an you just never know what kinda person your going to be dealing with. So it's kinda why I stuck with Moms365. LOL You can't get a more secure setting then a hospital setting of newborns. Plus I love the babies an the photography from it. I just can't share it online: patient confidentality. But I'm fixen to take a stab at running my own studio despite the security issue. I think I've found a solution of just taking someone with me. An hire an assistant if I have to just to keep it safe. But here is the other problem I'm running into: The Internet LOL
Or should I say photographer hacks. I hate to call them that cause they are just people who want to learn and be better photographers. But the problem is they don't understand the industry. They don't price the product correctly and underbid those that are good who do. It makes me want to bang my head on the desk every time I see a “newbie” ad stating they will do a photography session for $60. The true rate is around a $150 for an hour. You have to include assistant, your pay, the time it takes to edit, travel time, studio overhead ect. They are wrecking the industry! Consumers see that kinda pricing an think professionals are going to do it that cheap: An we just aren't going to. An you add prints into the equation an your looking at at least $250-$350 to get portraits worthy of hanging on your wall.

Don't get me wrong, I love the internet. I just don't like some of the effects it's having on established professions. Namely mine lol Photography. Major studios in the industry are caving in because of it. People are so use to seeing so much photography online they are taking it for granted. I'm getting a lot of: No, I don't need the professional's photo: I'll just take one with my phone camera. This millianal generation is very much I'll get around to printing it later too. Which they don't or finally figure out: It's expensive to print. Let alone own a full wall of family prints. The family photo wall at my house probably ran about $5000 over the coarse of time. Ironically though, printings doing better then it's done in a long time. How do I explain this: It's like when the instant camera came out.

Suddenly everyone was a photographer and had to have one. Which was great for printers. Saved their industry probably. But it about killed the photography industry briefly in the seventies. Until........until people started figuring out the difference between home photos and professional photography. People started to get they still needed to go to a professional once in a while. Thank god, my mom got that or all we'd have is badly lighted Birthday & Christmas photos to look at. An I appreciate those home photos but I highly value the portraits on my wall too.

An I'd like others to as well. Cause they are precious memories. An well that's what I've been up to the last decade: Photography

I have been working on other art, just not as much. That's fixing to change as I go into the fractal acrylic pouring more. I'm just learning it. I also have mural I'm fixing to start that I think will be perfect hanging over at one of the bars (Whiskey's Roadhouse or Rockton Pub & Grub). Plus I intend to get way more into the Photoshopping art. (There has got to be a better name for that) So, you should be hearing more from me as I start a book, getting back into blogging. Lot's of plans in the mix. You know, gotta leave that legacy for the kiddos. If you have a certain question you'd like to ask the artist or topic you'd like to hear more about. Inbox me! Plus don't forget I have several paintings still up for sell on the page.