Inside Commonwealth

Fall Limited Edition Events Updated!!!

James Cook — Tue, 20 Sep 2011 21:15:34 +0000

We’ve updated the information for our Fall Limited Edition portrait events to include dates, times and more. Please see the following pages for all the latest on Portrait sessions for your Family and/or Children.

School Dayz!

The Best School Portraits you’ll ever get at regular School portrait prices!

Halloween Spook-tacular Limited Edition Event

Bring your child by for portraits in their Halloween Costume and Help your PTA in the process!

Holiday Families – Limited Edition Portrait Event

Special Limited edition Holiday Sets perfect for Portraits with your Family and timed especially for Holiday Card giving.

If you’d like more information about any of these Limited Edition Events or about Portraits in general, please call the Studio at (804) 748-5861.

Learning can be AMAZING!!!

James Cook — Fri, 15 Apr 2011 21:52:27 +0000

While this can be a generally truthful statement, it takes on particular meaning considering the 3 days we spent in Norfolk earlier this week.

The event is called PSD Experience and it is a 3 day intensive, hands-on photographic learning experience. Combining instruction from some of the most Incredible photographers in the country and directed hands-on photography with a number of amazing and beautiful models (along with truly talented hair and make-up artists), PSD Experience is probably the best 3 days of learning I’ve seen in many years in the business.

Our very own Jeff Bowman is one of the organizers of the event and planning is already in the works for the next PSD Experience event, likely to take place in October.

Jeff captured a number of images himself during his time teaching at the event and we’ll be sure to post a few very soon. Meantime, check out images created by many of the attendees and instructors during the 3 day event.

PSD Experience on Facebook

SEPPA Judging nets Commonwealth another Award

James Cook — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 22:22:11 +0000

The competition season continues as the Southeastern Professional Photographers Association (SEPPA) wrapped up its annual print judging a couple weeks ago in Athens, GA. Jeff and James both entered 4 prints into the competition and came away with accolades. Each image is looked at by an expert panel of judges who evaluate the print according to the PPA’s 12 elements of a Merit Print. Each image is given a numerical score which while technically scored on a 1-100 scale, in practical application is scored from 60-100. Prints scoring an 80 or better are deemed as being worthy of a Merit and will be automatically accepted for display at the forthcoming judging at the International Judging for the PPA (Professional Photographers of America) coming up in late June. Judging at the regional level is generally more stringent than it is at the state level.

The final tally saw James receiving a Merit on one of his 4 entries, with Jeff receiving Merits on 3 of his 4. Even better yet, Jeff was also awarded a “Distinguished Award” for “Hoping for Better Days” in the category, Portrait of a Child. The Distinguished award is effectively a “2nd place” from all entries in that category. Congratulations Jeff! You can see the Award and merit images in this gallery…

Hoping for Better Days - Distinguished Award, Portrait of a Child (Jeff Bowman)

Backstage Pass (Jeff Bowman)

The Prospects (Jeff Bowman)

The Morning After (James Cook)

Next up, as mentioned above, is the judging that will take place at the International Print Competition of the PPA. This is scheduled to happen later this summer. You can be sure that as the results come in from that competition that we’ll let you know how we all did.

Bunnies, Bunnies, Everywhere!

James Cook — Wed, 30 Mar 2011 18:25:58 +0000

The Bunnies are HERE and they’re available for adorable portraits with your child! Sessions are Limited, but we still have some remaining. The bunnies will be returning home after the end of next week, ending Friday, April 8th, so you need to Call Now to schedule your session before the bunnies are gone.

748-5861

Here are a couple of our favorite images from the first couple days with the bunnies…imagine portraits like these with your children in them instead!

The bunnies are back….

James Cook — Tue, 22 Mar 2011 15:32:01 +0000

and they’re ready for their close-up! Springtime is upon us, and this means its time for our Annual Spring Portrait Event.

The Bunnies will only be here for a limited time, so you must call Now to schedule!

$49 session fee

View your portraits right after your session

Special Limited Edition Pricing (over half off our regular rates)

Finished portraits will be ready in time for Easter

Call Today to Set up your Session

(804) 748-5861

And the Oscar goes to…

James Cook — Mon, 07 Mar 2011 20:35:11 +0000

Award season for the movies is just wrapping up…but its just getting started in the world of professional portrait photography. The annual convention of the Virginia Professional Photographers Association just wrapped up last week and with the close of the convention came the Awards dinner for the Print Competition that opened the convention. Judging was tough this year and the number of images awarded Blue Ribbons was significantly down from previous years, but through it all, Jeff Bowman still brought home 3 Blue Ribbons…from which one was also awarded a Court of Honor and two others gained Best in Category awards. Jeff also narrowly missed out on winning the coveted Photographer of the Year award…soooo close!

Here are Jeff’s 3 Blue Ribbon prints, with their awards listed below each one…to see the rest of the Commonwealth Team’s competition entries, hop on over to the Commonwealth Photography Page on Facebook.

The Next step is to prepare for regional competition at the end of March in Atlanta…we’ll keep you posted on how the Commonwealth Team fares at SEPPA!

Commonwealth in San Antonio

James Cook — Sat, 15 Jan 2011 23:52:42 +0000

Staying on top of any industry is a constant process, and photography is no different. So, here we are in San Antonio, TX for the annual Imaging USA convention (the National convention of the Professional Photographers of America, of which we are all members). Today began 4 days of learning from some of the best Photographers in the nation (and a few parties too). I’ll post more throughout the next few days…

Dates for Limited Edition Sessions are set!!

James Cook — Wed, 05 Jan 2011 18:38:30 +0000

We’ve completed the calendar for this years slate of Limited Edition sessions and sets and we’ve posted them for you to view. We have several more to choose from this year, including the ever popular “Portraits with Santa” and “Bunny Invasion”. Take a look, and if you’d like to schedule your children or family for any of them, give us a call and we’ll help you get your photographic calendar set for this year too.

Below are the first 3 Limited Edition sessions, taking place during the 1st Quarter…if you’d like to see the rest of the year’s calendar, you can click on the graphic below or you can select the link for “Limited edition session calendar 2011″ at the top of the page.

It’s been a _______ year!!!

James Cook — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 22:37:20 +0000

There are tons of superlatives that describe what 2010 has been like here at Commonwealth Photography…crazy, interesting, and fantastic are but a few. One thing that is absolutely certain is that none of that would be true with out all of our Amazing Clients and Friends. And so, as this first decade of the new millenium draws to a close, we want to express a deep and heartfelt…

Thank You!!!

We very much hope that we can see each and every one of you again this coming year to create more artistic memories for your families!!!

A last bit of housekeeping though…we’ll all be taking a week of vacation time between Christmas and New Year’s. This means that Commonwealth Photography will be closed starting on Christmas Eve and will reopen on Monday, January 3rd, 2011.

Have a Magnificent, Joyous Holiday Season and a Happy and Prosperous New Year!!!

Santa has left the building…

James Cook — Tue, 14 Dec 2010 22:22:19 +0000

Well, Santa has returned to the North Pole to prepare for his Big Night and here are a few of our favorite images from the week and a half he was with us. We still have a few openings remaining for Quicktakes Holiday portrait sessions before the week ends, so if you’re interested in having some Amazing Holiday images created before it’s absolutely too late, call the studio to schedule a session.

We also would like to thank everyone for joining us for a fun and fantastic Portraits with Santa event. It was wonderful to see so many of our previous Portraits with Santa friends as well as several brand new ones. Stay tuned for more information on all the fabulous events we have planned for 2011 and for next year’s Portraits with Santa event!