In case this photo doesn't immediately fill you with confidence about what this site has to offer, let me provide a few more details...
My name is Robert, and I am the owner of Custom Photographic Expressions, a professional photography studio in the Chicago-land area, where I was born and grew up.
If you are reading this, I can only assume you found this site because you were looking for something related to free photography tips on the internet. If you are at all like me, you probably have a few questions, the answers to which will help you decide to continue or not. Allow me to answer these questions for you:
Why should I care about what you have to say?
What about your site is of value to me?
How can I send you lots of money and put you in my will?
I will do my best to answer your questions, especially #3. It all began with my own personal "Life's Most Embarrassing Moment" about 30 years ago. My parents put me in charge of organizing and photographing their Silver Anniversary Party.
The organizing part was easy for me, since I had been a project manager for several companies, and was therefore used to dealing with details and contingency plans in case of problems. The photography matter was a different story.
Not being interested in photography back then, I had an old Point and Shoot with which I used to average a whopping 30 photographs per year. So, here I am, an hour into the anniversary party, having snapped off a bunch of soon-to-be "classics" and I decided to check how many shots I had left on my roll of 24 exposures.
Being rather puzzled at the fact that my camera indicated I had already taken 26 shots, I casually assumed that I must have used a roll of 36 rather than 24 (in spite of the fact that I had never purchased a roll of 36 in my entire life). This was a time I could have definitely used some free photography tips (or even expensive photography tips).
Continuing to merrily snap priceless photos of this once-in-a-lifetime event, 20 minutes later I checked the camera's exposure counter again. 39!! What do you mean, 39?! At this point, I started feeling a little queasy and very nervous. (This was the beginning of full blown PANIC.)
What should I do? (I couldn't check the internet for any free photography tips, since the internet wasn't invented yet.) If I opened the camera to look for the problem, the film would be ruined because of exposure to the light. I couldn't go to my backup camera, because there wasn't any backup camera.
I remembered that I had once had a problem with my camera and brought it to a retail outlet to be examined. The manager opened it inside a black velvet bag, thus preventing the film from being damaged by any light. Brilliant!
I immediately put the camera under the tablecloth (I know, I know...but it was the best I could do at the time) and opened it. I quickly discovered the minor problem... THERE WAS NO FILM IN THE CAMERA!
I just stared in disbelief, while I proceeded to get physically ill. To make matters worse, the party was ending, most of the guests had already left, and the only remaining task on my "newly revised" agenda was to sheepishly tell my parents how I had ruined the night.
It's interesting how we never know what the future impact will be from today's events. The next week I went out to buy a new camera which eventually lead me to where I am now (mysteriously, my old camera met with a "little accident" on the way home from the party).
I purchased a Canon SLR, began taking photographs of everything, started doing family events for my family as well as for others, and yada, yada, yada. A mere 15 years later, after countless seminars, courses, and books on photography tips; in addition to constant practicing, I decided to do what I loved, and turned to photography full time.
The purpose for this site is that I never... ever... want anyone to experience what I did at my parent's anniversary party. I want to provide everything possible to help you achieve the best possible photographic results for all your priceless pictures.
"If it's important enough to celebrate... It's important enough to remember with pictures"
True Fact!
As an interesting side note, in 1993 a survey was taken of over 1,000 families. They were asked one question:
"If your home was on fire, and you had time to save only one non-living thing, what would it be?"
Over 90% of the respondents replied: "The family photographs."
There's plenty of different manufacturers selling digital cameras. There's numerous sites rating the different cameras. And, there are zillions of places that will print your photographs.
But, up until now, there has not been one conveniently located resource where you could go to find out how to TAKE better pictures. It is our sincere hope that these free photography tips will increase your enjoyment of your family photographs.
Please feel free to contact us to tell us what you like, what you would like more of, and what you don't like on this site. Contact us electronically by using this form.
About This Site
I get questions all the time about this site and why I give away so much information for free.
I use a web hosting company called Site Build It (SBI). It's not your ordinary host where you pay your money and they leave you on your own, scratching your head trying to decipher what to do next.
To learn more about how SBI takes the fear out of the unknown, watch the above video. If you are serious about creating a profitable website, just sit back, relax, and watch for 3 minutes!
You probably found this site by using a search engine. That's one of the areas that SBI excels at. They showed me how to build pages that rank high in the major engines so I can get as much free traffic as possible (as of 1/1/07, this site is receiving over 100,000 page views/month).
I'm not the only SBI success story out here. There are literally thousands of other information sites like mine that are doing exceptionally well.... many, far better than I am. Here is the story of just one of these sites...
Information and Problem-solving sites like this one make the best kinds of sites because people often bookmark them and tell others about it.
If you now feel the least bit excited, here is how you can give SBI a try - risk-free.
SiteSell.com will give you a FULL refund if it's not for you, and there's no "trial period" or any sneaky catches.
Don't believe anything I said! Heck, I could be a politician for heaven's sake. If I were you, I'd want proof... so, investigate away. And, if you're interested,
here's my personal story
on how I did it.
