Yesterday night PPGF hosted their first 2010 Print Competition. It was a great event and I was glad to get a lot of good advice from the Judges.

I entered four of my prints on this competition, and I am verry hapy with the results:

- 1st Place in “Pictorial Portrait”

- 1st Place in “Portrait”

- 2nd Place in “Social function”

I’ve loved start the year of 2010 shooting some beautiful Engagement Sessions.

Better yet… beautiful people and gorgeous South Florida weather.

Here is a sample:

I started the family portrait session at 5:00 pm, and shot until their son lost interest helping me. LOL! But, I had more than 90 minutes with Marcelo, Fernanda and their son, Francisco, and we had so many great shots that it was hard to select only few images to post here.

After the session, I stayed there to shoot  Larissa’s birthday party (Jaime and Maria Alice’s daughter). Larissa, Juliano (her husband) and Felipe (her son) are a great example of a beautiful Brazilian family.

It was a very selective party for her family and closest friends, and everybody were very casual and friendly.

I want to enjoy this post to thank Larissa for having me at her wonderful birthday, and also congratulate her on her pregnancy.

Since I couldn’t bring all my gear from USA to Brazil, I did my best to work with as much available light as possible.

Here are few samples of that day…

Here are some reason for that:

1. I love photography
2. I love to photograph beautiful people
3. great food
4. do I need to mention about money??? LOL

But when I said that it was an honor to be the photographer for Zachary’s first birthday, is because a little more than  one year ago, I had the pleasure to photograph one the most beautiful Pregnancy Session that any photographer could wish for, Zachary’s Mom - Ana (Check here her Pregnancy Session)

Back to the birthday party…; it was a party for family and closest friends and even Elmo was there to help entertaining the kids.

Ana asked me to have some Professional Portrait done at the party with her family and guests, so I brought two of my studio lights + a 12′ x 25′ backdrop to have everybody looking their best.

I am still editing the images and in one or two days all the images will be posted on this link - CLICK HERE (PAGE ALREADY ONLINE) -, but since I promised everybody that I would post a Blog with the link, so they could look all the images, I wanted at least show one of the images that I shot there:

Once again, I want to thank everybody form Zachary’s birthday party for for the great time.

Sincerely,

Paulo Jordao (http://www.paulopics.com)

“Spend 5 hours learning and shooting with one of South Florida
foremost pet and wedding photographers, Paulo Jordao”.

Professional Photographer - Are You Kidding Me? 

Would you agree with the statement that no matter what profession you look as an example, some professionals are better than others and that for some reason, they produce better results, better quality, better services and etc?

That is how most of people decide to hire their accountants, doctors, lawyers and etc - Somehow, in their mind, such professional’s expertise or the services that he or she provides justify the investment that their clients will make.

If you only needed a doctor to prescribe some headache medicine, you wouldn’t spend your time and money going to an expensive specialist. You would probably go to the closest doctor’s office in your neighbor or the cheapest doctor in town to prescribe that for you. But if you need a more complex diagnostic or a specialist to treat a serious illness, for sure you would drive or invest whatever was necessary to have the best doctors and tests that you could afford. Wouldn’t you?

That is a real fact that you might have to deal on a daily basis for whatever services you might need - You would go as far as necessary or invest as much money as you could possible afford depending on the importance or the urgency of your specific situation or necessity.

That is also true with Photography…

If you need few cute pictures of a family vacation or your kids little birthday party that you only bought some sodas and a cake - no special decorations, clowns, balloons and etc - you could probably have anybody with a descent digital camera shooting them for you (yourself, a cousin, a stranger passing by, etc).

But, if you need someone to capture the images of some unique and special moment of your life - a Wedding, Bar Mitzvah, Sweet Sixteen, Pregnancy, New Born, Special Family Portrait and etc - You might consider hiring the best Photographer that you can afford.

With the digital era (where you can find some good semi-professional digital camera for under $800) and so many people without a job, it is very common to find so many “amateurs photographers” trying to offer you a good deal.

Here are some tips to help you finding a Real Professional Photographer:

1) Website- The photographer has to have a nice website with samples of the event that you need him or her for (few different weddings, birthdays, portraits, etc).

2) Equipment- I am not kidding,… you would be surprised to know how many “photographers” only have their camera and a flash. Nothing else!

3) Studio- It doesn’t mean that all Professional Photographers have to have a Commercial Studio, but no matter if the Photographer has a Home-Studio or a Commercial Studio, you need to set up an appointment to check the photographers work (prints, albums, collections, etc).

4) Appearance- Does he or she look and act professionally? As I said before, “As soon as you decide that you need a photographer for your personal project or special event, you should hire the best Photographer that you can afford”.

“Don’t trust your lifetime memories to an amateur!”

You have planed carefully for months and months all the details of this special day that is your Wedding. You booked the church and the reception place; you found your perfect dress and the most gorgeous flowers, you selected the food and drink list, hired a DJ and a Photographer.

The stress of something going wrong at the last minute is not small, but on this article I want to teach you how to avoid at least one of them: The wedding Photography Fiasco.

Let start from the beginning…

1- Before you hire a Wedding Photographer, be sure that he/she is a specialist in Wedding Photography, and not just another photographer that shoots everything, including some weddings.

2- Start doing an Internet search on Google or Yahoo to find few Wedding Photographers not to far from where you live.

3- Look for samples, and testimonials on the Photographer’s Webpage to be sure that you like his/her work and that few other clients also liked him/her.

4- Before you meet the Photographer, it is a good idea to call him/her to be sure that the date is still available and to talk about your budget and what would be included in your Photography Package.

5- When signing the contract, check all the little details and don’t be afraid of asking for further explanations. On your contract, should say all the information about your wedding like; location, date, what time the photographer should be there and what time he/she would end his work time, what kind of album (pages, quality, size, etc) and when you would get it.

No matter how good written the contract is, you just have to trust that you did your best and that nothing wrong is going to happen.

Peggy Chase Jordao (http://www.stylebychase.net) is one of the top photo stylists in America. 

Her work has been published in several nationwide catalogs and prestigious magazines, and she is being represented by one of the most important agency in the country (Team),  with her list of clients including names like Macy’s, Frontgate, Office Depot, Nike, McDonald’s, and many others.

Here are some of her links for commercial Photography and different area of styling:

- Fashion Laydown -

- Soft Goods -

- Furniture -

- Outdoor -

- Tabletop -

Peggy also work with Kids, Fashion and Holidays. Since I can’t show the images that we just shot, until she actually publish them, here are some other beautiful images created by her and published all over the world.

READ MORE

 Canon EOS 7D Specifications

But for the rest of you that would like to check more about that, I would recommend you to get the newly released book “THE NATIONAL PARKS: OUR AMERICAN LANDSCAPE”- by photographer Ian Shive.

The National Parks: Our American Landscape(Earth Aware Editions, August 2009) presents a wonderfully updated photographic survey of the nation’s greatest treasures. Seen through the eyes of the National Parks magazine photographer and International League of Conservation Photographers member Ian Shive, America’s National Park System comes to life through a collection of more than 200 new photographs.

Sponsored by the National Parks Conservation Association and the International League of Conservation Photographers, Shive’s first book of photography is a journey to the places that have long inspired him. “Since my youth,” Shive writes, “I’ve seen the national parks as the last authentic vestiges of America’s wildest places — symbols of its one-of-a-kind spirit.”

Thomas C. Kiernan, President of the National Parks Conservation Association (NPCA), has contributed a foreword to the book.

A portion of the proceeds from book sales will go to the NPCA.

CHECK THE LINKS BELOW… 
http://abclocal.go.com/kabc/video?id=6970164 (ABC L.A piece)

http://www.waterandsky.com/  (Ian’s official website)
http://current.com/items/90662576_photos-across-america-the-northern-rocky-mountains.htm
http://current.com/items/90650611_photos-across-america-the-southwest.htm

Check it out and leave me a comment. OK?

Here, is what my selected clients can expect from me…

This is a technique where I paint over the photo, using Photoshop, and at the end your Photo will look like an Oil or Acrylic Portrait, and is perfect for clients that want a large Print or Canvas to hang at their house.

Here in the computer, with this small sample in low resolution, it is very hard to notice all the strokes details of the oil portrait style as well as you can see in a Photo Paper or Canvas, but I can assure you… It is gorgeous!

If you want your next Portrait Experience to be something more unique, Call me:

Paulo Jordao

954-270-0751

http://www.paulopics.com

They are getting married in November, and we thought that now would be a great time to have their Engagement Session done.

They are a fun couple and were very excited with not only the Photo Shoot, but with the Video Love Story that I am creating to them.

First, we stopped at the Train Tracks -Fort Lauderdale Riverfront - than, we came to fort Lauderdale beach (a little south of Las Olas blvd.)

As usual, here in Florida, it was a very hot and humid day. The weather was not perfect, but I got some great shots of them. And the most important… We had a great time together!!!

If you want to check other Engagement-Photography posts - Here are some more samples of Engagement Photography (CLICK HERE)

Josh, is a ten years old young man with a very promising career into the modeling and acting industry. Handsome and with a great smile, Josh made my work a lot easier and with some increadible results.

I also need to thank Josh’s dad and mom to be there supporting and motivating him all the time.

I am also blessed to have a great wife (one the best Photo Stylist of USA Esat Coast) that was there helping me with the lighting, props and styling (It doesn’t hurt to have a great Photo Stylist helping you once a while - LOL). If you need to contact her, here is her Photo Stylist Website

If you need a Professional Photographer in Fort lauderdale or Miami area, CLICK HERE

Here are some of Josh’s images from our Photo Shoot yesterday.

Here are more samples of pregnancy photography:

http://paulopics.com/blog/2009/07/28/pregnancy-photography-video-slide-show/

http://paulopics.com/blog/2009/07/23/pregnancy-photography-photographer-miami-ft-lauderdale/

http://paulopics.com/blog/2008/07/24/pregancy-photography-miami-fort-lauderdale/

To check more samples of my work and Package Prices: Paulo Jordao Photography and Video