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Here’s a quick update on February’s pet portrait project.  I finally got a chance to visit NWVS yesterday and was honestly blown away.  They had 53 of the images I shot enlarged – many of them 24″x 36″ – and mounted on hardboard and they are now hanging all over the hospital.  In fact, when I walked in the door yesterday, the always friendly reception team shouted, “There she is!  Welcome to your gallery!”

It is actually pretty rare that once the images/prints have made it into clients’ hands that I get to see what becomes of them.  And even when I do get to see a print hanging on the wall, it’s typically only one or two images.  So to walk into a public space and be greeted by more than a dozen larger than life images I made was rather arresting.  Although I have had a couple of solo shows, each was only 10-12 pieces and because I did all of the selection, matting and framing, I was kind of “over it” by the time the show opened.  In NWVS’s case, they did the selection (though they did ask me for input and for my favorite images, which was lovely), ordered the enlargements from a local lab and then had the mounting done at another local shop.  It has been nearly 2 months since I’ve worked with the images themselves, so there was enough separation that I actually had to remind myself that I had shot them!

My favorite part about the display itself is that they made a point of hanging the staffers’ pet’s portrait in the area where that person worked most often…  The receptionists’ pets are right behind the reception desk.  The doctors’ images are right outside and/or inside their exam rooms, etc.  What a wonderful thing to do for a wonderful staff!

If you have a pet emergency, need a vet, need a veterinary specialist, or just want to see the images in person, get yourself to NWVS Animal Hospital, 16756 Southeast 82nd Drive, Clackamas, OR 97015  (503) 656-3999.  They are open 24 hours a day, 7 days a week and will take great care of you and your beloved pet.

I am so excited about my latest client testimonial that I want to shout it from the rooftop.  Of course, the neighborhood crows could care less, so I’ll post it here, instead.

Craig Nielsen, owner of Shasta Trout sent this along this morning.  We did a complete redesign of their website porting everything to WordPress, adding a lot of new content, and got Craig up and blogging with a couple hours of training.  We also took a few photos to add to the site (one of which was picked up by Klean Kanteen for their new site thanks to our friends at Stickeen), and have been working on several smaller promo design projects as needed.

“It is impossible to recommend H2Meyer more highly.  Their photography, graphic design work and website development have exceeded all our expectations.  Not only were the final products exceptional but the process at each step was a joy, fostering the creativity of all those involved.  H2Meyer is an exceptional value, there may be no better designer at any price!”

Wow! Now that’s a testimonial!!  Thanks again, Craig.  We love working with you!

If you’re looking for the finest Fly Fishing Guide Service on the West Coast, check out Shasta Trout!

photo by Hanmi Hubbard Meyer

I found out via Facebook that I have a photo published in this week’s Portland Mercury…. (Ahh… takes me back to my days of being published in the local weekly music rags.)  Sadly there is no photo credit.   The photo, of Sunset Valley frontman Herman Jolly, was taken ages ago with a Canon S40 point and shoot. I was at the height of my “let’s push the bounds of what this little camera can do” experimentation. That was also about this time I decided I really needed to step up to a DSLR. While I was becoming frustrated with shutter lag and the very limited control, I think the time I spent really digging into and exhausting all the features available BEFORE upgrading, really made me appreciate the DSLR when I finally switched.

This discovery brings up many topics in my mind.  Chief among them: ensuring proper credit and protecting images that are shared online.  Upon searching for images of Sunset Valley, I found several blogs using a version of the photo above or one of several other shows I shot and naively uploaded to my old Mac.com page.  The reality is I was not a pro shooter at the time, and didn’t really expect to become one again.  Of course, now that I am, I regret that I have missed out on several opportunities for some free advertising.  And moreover, having now had my eyes opened, what will I change going forward?  I already watermark everything and take full advantage of exif data…  I know there are a lot of opinions out there, and countless products designed to protect copyright holders.  But how helpful are they, really?

On a side note, I am VERY excited to see Sunset Valley tonight.  As the article mentions they had a prior “last” show, which happened to be my wedding day, so I missed it.  Now I just need to decide what to toss into the camera bag…

Well, in my effort to think up new ways to make my business effort greener, it occurred to me today to look into finding a green web host. Much to my delight there were several to choose from, each offering various incentives like free software, access to sustainable marketing guides/libraries, planting trees for new customers, multiple/unlimited domains, etc. My favorite after reading through all the options is ThinkHost and I will now be referring anyone who asks to them. I will likewise be moving my own sites to ThinkHost as they come up for renewal. And better still, I can put them all on the same hosting account. Yay!