Anger issue....

Dustin Gray, model in Minneapolis, has a wonderful personality and has created a work of art on his body.

New Ad Agency model, sign me up....

I’ve followed a blog of the much-respected photography marketing consultant, Carolyn Potts, for years. I recently read one of her posts that touches on what I have for years thought was missing in the present Ad Agency business model.

For past few years, ad agencies have been relying on Stock agency’s, Flickr, and Royalty Free images for their source of images and creative conception of ads. The idea of working with a professional image creator was considered too expensive and sending a stock shot as layout or concept became the norm.

She commented on recent articles posted on both The New York Times and ADWEEK sites about a couple of ad agencies that are turning to "crowd sourcing" for campaign strategies. By adding photographers into the Crowd, along with art directors, copywriters and creative directors, she suggested this could be a business model capable of generating a creative synergy– a synergy that actually that was quite common in the ad business in the 1960s and early-70s; with the right mix of creative participants, it could indeed become the next big idea in the agency world.

I’ve already had a bit of experience in this realm as I've been working with MN Opera on next year's marketing material since October; I was invited in to help with creating the feel and approach to this year's work. I’ve loved the process and I’ll be able to show the results next month when we finish producing the campaign.

I’d love to see if there are any agency guys out there that also might want add a photographer with 20-years of production experience, (and art and photography degrees), to their table during the conceptual phase of creating ads. If you want to read her blog post about this model, I'd love to know what you think. You can call/text me at 612-275-3186 or email me at steve@mchugh.com.

My first video...

I had tons of help with this project:

Actress: Angela Dalton

Hair/Makeup + Wardrobe: Melina Kardell

Wardrobe Assistant: Janice Whittemore

Assistant Director of Photography / Editing : Ryan Brown

Grip + Lighting: Chuck Carver

Director of Photography + Creative Director: Steve McHugh

New image ....

This is a shoot for one of my favorite charities, Wingspan ( http://www.wingspanlife.org ). They help people who are challenged by age, ability or health to realize their own unique gifts, talents and dreams. These two wonderful gentlemen are are part of an Adult day program for individuals from the Hmong community. They both served in the Vietnam war and were decorated by the US government for their service. They both became US citizens this past 4th of July.

Behind the scenes of studio shoot

What happens before and during a shoot to make the product and the models' clothes look good..... We'd like to thank of all crew members and the folks that make a photographer look good....

Irving Penn - RIP

As a People Photographer, Irving Penn has been one of the Photographers I've always studied and loved.  His wealth of iconic imagery, from portraits of cultural leaders to simple obsessively exact still lifes.  Check out his work at:  http://photography-now.net/irving_penn/  He passed away Wednesday, October 7th, 2009, at the age of 92 in Manhattan.

New graphic approach to images....

There  is a constant effort by all artists and photographers to create a new or different look for an image that is the same subject matter day-in-day out.  To try and catch your attention.... Here's my newest approach.