For Sale: 1958 Ford 1/2 Ton Short Bed

Last month, while I was setting up the booth for the Palm Springs Corvette Club Fall Classic Autocross, a gentleman walked up and was admiring the two 18 x 24 posters I had up. One was a blown up photograph of my truck on the autocross track from the last event and the other was a poster I had made up with information about my services. A light bulb when off in his head and he asked if I could do the same for him. He has a 1958 Ford 1/2 Ton Short Bed pick up that he had recently restored and is currently taking it to different car shows in the Southern California area. He wanted to have a poster that he could show in front of the truck with a list of all the specifications and what he had done to the truck. He also wanted to be able to use a smaller version for fliers he could hand out.

When we first met to go over the design, he just wanted me to create the poster and use one of the snap shots he took in front of his garage. I'm no snob but I suggested that for a few dollars more we could take the truck out to a barely driven road in the desert in Whitewater California and get some really good "buy me" photos.

Whitewater, California is about 20 minutes west of Palm Springs and I still consider as part of my Coachella Valley travel limit before I start charging extra. It's a spot that I've taken models and customers to before. He was up for the idea and after we spent about an hour photographing the truck. He was very surprised by the amount of time but I think he was impressed that I tried to cover every detail including underneath the chassis. I did minor touch ups to the photos to remove random telephone poles and to enhance exposure but what you see is what you get, one really nice truck.

I charged my normal fee for a vehicle portrait but instead of getting digital files or photos, I am providing the posters and added a few hours of graphic design. To add value to the package and for no additional cost, I suggested adding the web gallery to the bottom of the poster so that potential clients could easily go to the site and look at detailed photographs I had taken. The entire gallery can be seen at www.imagesbydemeglio.com/1958ford.

Adorable

I recently had the opportunity to take photos of a long time client and friend, Caroldean and her six week year old baby boy, Declan. I admit I was a little nervous, although I shouldn't have been because he's not the first infant I've photographed. It probably had to do more with me worrying that the photos won't be up to par or that Caroldean would be disappointed. It is very important to me that the experience and the photographs exceeds the expectations of my customers.

We did have a good time and as I tend to do, I went a little over time because I wanted Caroldean to have more than one pose and clothing change to choose from. I also attempted to apply some of my theatrical lighting to some of the photographs but unfortunately towards the end of the session, Declan decided he had had enough. That was OK though because he gave us some great poses earlier in the evening.

Thank you Caroldean and Declan.

Happy Halloween!

Halloween isn't usually my cup of tea. After high school, getting dressed up just seemed to be too much work although last year, I managed to pull off what I hope was a decent "Joe the plumber". I know, too easy, but that was the point :-)

This year, I didn't get dressed up but I did go out shooting. I had a blast taking photos and seeing many cool costumes. You can see photos of BB's 25th Annual Halloween Bash on the Palm Springs Metromix website. The party was enormous with several of the main ballrooms at the Rancho Las Palmas Resort hotel packed with costumed party goers.