SONOPP on YOUTUBE!

The Society of Northern Ohio Professional Photographers (SONOPP) has been making a full court press (I know, I'm looking forward to the Cav's season) to show the value of professional photography. Recently they posted an awesome slide show on YOUTUBE highlighting the work of SONOPP members in the genre of highschool senior photography. Check it out here.
Special thanks to Dale Kincaid of Somewhere in Time Photography who assembled the images from member photographers and published the slide show to YOUTUBE.

I was privileged to have some of my portraits from Mark Rychel Photographers included.
Thanks Again Dale!!

A Most Important Portrait

It's Senior Portrait time at Rychels Designer Portraits and Shaker Photo Studio ! We consider a young man's or young lady's high school portrait to be the most significant picture taken of an individual. Why ? Because, it is probably the only time in most peoples lives that they are the center of attention in a quality professional portrait environment.

The picture that our moms have on their mantel for years, the picture that defines who you are in high school and the one that every class reunion for the next 50 years will remember you by.

This portrait is yours alone, it is not shared with a bride or groom, on a wedding day. It speaks to who you are alone.

That is why we take such care to capture each and every student on personal level. One mother after looking at our website stated, "Each senior picture looks so different" a compliment we were proud to accept. No cookie cutter factory type portraits here.

We felt sorry for the North Royalton student that could not even view her yearbook picture because the school forced her to go to a contract photographer and his policy was to only let students that bought a multiple pose sitting view their yearbook picture in advance.

She came to us for special portraits, portraits that were her choice for her family and friends.

Choose a professional photographer. One that will take the time to make your most significant portrait one that you can be proud of for a lifetime

New Addition

June first is a big day for Rychel's Designer Portraits !!
We have a new addition, called Shaker Photo Studio. Located in the historic Larchmere district of the city of Cleveland, and specializing in people photography, just as we do at Rychel's Designer Portraits, this awesome location will allow us to serve the needs of more people all across Greater Cleveland

Check out our new website! www.shakerphotostudio.com Stop in and say "Hey" at 12806 Larchmere, Cleveland, OH 44120
or give us a call at 216-795-4529. We open Monday thru Saturday at 11:00 AM.

Recycling Saves Lives

Last Saturday I had the privilege of photographing an event for MedWish International an awsome non-profit organization. Here is their mission statement. "MedWish International is a non-profit organization committed to the recovery and recycling of donated medical supplies area healthcare providers must discard. These life-saving supplies are made available to those providing medical care in developing countries throughout the world. Globally, the MedWish International program improves the quality of medical care available to the underserved around the world; locally, we are effectively reducing the amount of solid waste deposited in landfills. MedWish International also serves as a resource for local health-care professionals and charitable organizations interested in global health."

The event "A Sumner of 1000 Dinners" was a kickoff event for a series of fund raisers for this worthy organization. check them out at www.medwish.org

FACEBOOK

Rychels Designer Portraits is now on FACEBOOK. We've had a number of requests from our clients for images that they can use on their FACEBOOK. So we've started to post some of our clients images on FACEBOOK so that they could link to them to show their friends.
Recently Bonnie Kraus who is always behind the camera at her house taking pics of her beautiful family said she wishes she had some pics with her in them. So at her daughter's Bat Mitzvah, a very special event and awesome party, we made sure Bonnie had some pics for her FACEBOOK account.

If you would like to add us to your facebook account, we are listed as Rychel Portraits and our email is facebook@rychel.com.

We can't wait to add some of our 2010 senior portraits to share with family and friends. We are working on some new special effects that we know will be popular with the class of 2010.

Safe-but not at home

A while back I heard of a photographer's studio burning down, it was in the days of film and all his negatives were lost. I ran into one of his customers and their album could not be completed, how sad.
With the advent of digital imaging we can create multiple back-ups of images and store them off site, in multiple locations.


I use a service called Mozy Home. Every day it synchronizes a back up of the images on my computer to their server in Utah. It does this automatically so I can't forget. In addition we back up our images to DVDs and portable hard drives. Our clients images, many of which are once in a lifetime pics are safe, but not only at home.

NILMDTS

For a few years now I have volunteered for a worthy organization called, Now I Lay Me Down to Sleep, Click on the link to see their website.

I don't publicize it much because I feel it is a service to families and not something to advertise . I thought I would share yesterday's experience because it really touched me.

Yesterday was my birthday and I got a call to go to Metro General Hospital to photograph fraternal twins that were still born. A little boy and girl that were a just over 20 weeks in the womb. I felt very somber that I could observe my birthday, a day that celebrates my birth by being of service to a family that might find it difficult to celebrate little Trevon and Mkyla's birthday every year.

I am blessed that the pictures I take can help people remember significant events in their lives

Who Do You Associate With?

Keeping up with a changing industry, to provide clients with the latest products and imaging technology is darn right difficult in today's marketplace.

If it's hard for me, how do my clients know whats available for their photographic needs?

Try these letters:

• PPA
• WPPI
• NAPP
• SONOPP

These are professional associations that provide me with the latest information about products, techniques,marketplace news, marketing plus a whole range of services that will ultimately benefit my clients,

Check them out: Click on the logo !!

YOUTUBE

Just loaded a video of Phil and Kristin's Album to youtube. One of my favorite albums of 2008. Kristin and Phil were awesome, their album reflects the fun we had together. Click on the picture to see a very athletic bridal party

check it out here: ( make sure you watch it in the high quality mode)

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NxUwbQainlM

20 Years Behind Us and Moving Forward at the Speed of Light

It's hard to believe that Mark Rychel, Photographers is celebrating it's 20th year in business.
What that means to our customers is stability. We've noticed with the advent of affordable digital cameras that a lot of newbies are trying to be photographers. that's cool, competition makes everyone better. We've also heard horror stories of images being lost, images not being delivered in a timely manner, plus other issues.
Knock on wood - we have never failed to deliver our images to our clients over the last 20 years,

Why, we use the finest professional equipment. Our two main cameras the Nikon D3 and Nikon D700 are specifically suited to what we do. The ability to capture images in low light without flash provides an unobtrusive way to provide our clients with spectacular memories.

We also have the majority of lenses available for Nikon cameras, this allows us to create special images, whether it 's isolating our subjects with a telephoto or using extreme wide angles or fisheye lenses to capture an entire room or the fun on the dance floor.

Experience + Innovation + Investment in Equipment+Integrity

makes what we do -RIGHT FOR YOU !!