The World of Impact Photographic Design http://ipdblog.com The blog of Master Photographer Bruce Allen Hendricks of Impact Photographic Design. Mon, 07 May 2012 02:25:01 +0000 en hourly 1 http://wordpress.org/?v=3.3.2 Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter – Night of Honour http://ipdblog.com/canadian-breast-cancer-foundation-winnipeg-chapter-night-of-honour/ http://ipdblog.com/canadian-breast-cancer-foundation-winnipeg-chapter-night-of-honour/#comments Mon, 07 May 2012 02:22:10 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1971 Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter

Recently the  Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter  held a “Night of Honour” to say “Thank you” to the many volunteers that so graciously help their cause throughout the year….myself being one of them.  It was an evening of fun and fellowship.  After a great  dinner was served a 45 round table discussion panel spoke about their thoughts of where Breast Cancer Research is going and the challenges they face today.  The Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter does this every year as a way of giving back to their generous supporters.   Pink stuffed dogs as well as other give-aways greeted each attendee at their seats, as well as each person had an opportunity to win one of the many great door prizes the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter had arranged.

My involvement with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter:

I’ve aligned Impact Photographic Design with many difference charities over the years as a way of giving back to the community.  The Special Olympics, The Winnipeg Humane Society (as well as other Winnipeg Animal Shelters) are just a couple of examples of charities I’ve worked with the last few years.  However, the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter holds a special place in my heart as my Mom has twice survived Breast Cancer.   The first time she battled it I was living in British Columbia and was a working partner in a studio out there.  The news hit me like a brick wall – especially seeing that she was to be having surgery early the following week.  I had a wedding to photograph that Saturday so I could not fly out until early Sunday.  Those few days until I was able to hug and kiss her were pretty stressful on my part and I can only imagine what it was like for her to go through it.  Thankfully she  beat the disease.  The chemotherapy was difficult on her, but she was able to manage through it.

Unfortunately, the Breast Cancer came back in her other Breast several years later after I had already move back to Winnipeg.  Once again however, my Mom showed her strength and determination by not allowing this disease to best her.  A little older and not as strong, she still was able to fight through the battle and win it…again!  of course she had concerns and major reservations about going through another round of Chemotherapy, but together with my Dad at her side driving her daily she (well they actually) won that battle as well.

I believe Karma played a roll in my Mom winning the battle against Breast Cancer twice in her life.  When I was young the neighbour lady across the street had Breast Cancer.  My Mom was there for her every step of the way, even driving her daily to her Chemotherapy appointments even though my Mom  had her own family to take care of as well as worked part time.  My Mom is that kind of person, selflessly giving of herself when others need help.   In case you don’t already know it I love my Mom dearly…my Dad as well.  I’m very lucky to have them both still alive and relatively healthy.

So anyway, with my Mom’s history of battling Breast Cancer it was an obvious choice for me to align my business Impact Photographic Design with the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter.  It just seemed like something I needed to do.

Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter

Here  are a few photographs of the Canadian Breast Cancer Foundation Winnipeg Chapter Night of Honour:

 

]]> http://ipdblog.com/canadian-breast-cancer-foundation-winnipeg-chapter-night-of-honour/feed/ 0 Kids portraits in Winnipeg – Daddy’s little Girl http://ipdblog.com/daddys-little-girl/ http://ipdblog.com/daddys-little-girl/#comments Fri, 06 Apr 2012 20:00:55 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1879

Kids portraits in Winnipeg are an all time family favourite activity. There is always a special relationship between a parent and their child.  That relationship is even more special when it’s a father and his daughter.  From the very first time he set his eyes on her in the hospital he falls in love and swears to protect her always. A  little girls’ first hero is her father.

kids portraits in winnipeg – a special time

Daddy takes her for ice-cream, suffers through wearing a tiara for “tea time” along with her teddy bear and the family dog and even teaches her to dance with her tiny feet placed onto his shoes as they sway to the music.  Her tiny hand in his, they walk along the water’s edge after supper during family vacations at the lake.  He proudly runs along the bike holding onto the seat as he teacher her to ride for the first time – a bigger and bigger smile taking over his face as she gains confidence and begins to be steady on the pedals. He buys boxes of Girl Guide Cookies…even though he hardly gets to eat any of them himself.

It’s time for kids portraits in winnipeg

Suddenly he find himself having to share her with some boy as she develops her first crush. Then he patiently teaches her how to drive in the family car – a double edged sword.  Dad’s realizing his little girl is getting more and more independent – she’s growing up fast…..where did the time go?  Friends, hobbies, boys, sports and a million other things now take up her time and he watches the little baby girl he held so tenderly in his arms after she was born (it seems just like yesterday) now rather quickly turning into a woman before his very eyes. Then things get serious with a special boy and he finds his little sweetheart looking dreamily at him ….like she used to at you – her dad.  It’s all part of growing up and it’s normal you say to yourself, but you can’t help but long for those special moments with your little girl when it was just the two of you and you were the only one she looked up to and admired.

Life happens so quickly.  Before you know it those special moments are distant memories.  Help remember those special times with family portraits that capture that special relationship you have with your children.  Imagine coming home after your daughter’s wedding sitting down in your easy chair at 3 o’clock in the morning,  totally exhausted….. but still too wound up to get to sleep. You’re filled with pride, but also a little sad as your “little girl” is now all grown-up and doesn’t need you any more like she did when she was little.  Looking up you smile as the tear rolls gentle down your cheek.  Your looking at wall portraits of you and your little girl taken years ago when you were still her hero and the only man in he life. Those portraits will mean the world to you then and you would never trade them for all the gold in the world.

Don’t wait another day to create those amazing portraits that you cherish for the rest of your life. This is the true value of family portraits, and why only a Master Photographer can create these special types of portraits for you. Today’s it’s not too late, but tomorrow may be….kids portraits in winnipeg

]]> http://ipdblog.com/daddys-little-girl/feed/ 0 PLEASE READ – You’ll thank me later! http://ipdblog.com/please-read-youll-thank-me-later/ http://ipdblog.com/please-read-youll-thank-me-later/#comments Sun, 18 Mar 2012 01:34:36 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1872 Last fall I photographed a family portrait session.  That’s not surprising, I photograph lots of families every year, especially before Christmas.  This one was different however.  During the Portrait Consultation where we discuss and design the entire session, I learned that the father was dying.  It might take 3 months, it might take a year…maybe even a year and a half if he was lucky, but he was dying and there wasn’t anything the doctors could do about it.  They were giving him blood transfusions to prolong his life, but eventually even that wouldn’t work. Talking through tears the daughter told me of her father’s health issues.
That portrait was going to be the last one ever taken of the complete family. The entire family new why they had chosen to do the portrait at that time…..there simply was no more time left to procrastinate.  Like many people, life was busy for them an they just kept putting off having their family photographed.  ”We’ll do it next summer, or in the fall, etc, etc”.  Now I did my best to get them laughing and joking and to make the entire session fun and to make them all forget the fact that their time with dad was running out quickly.  They thanked me after the session and again after they had placed their order and one more time when they picked up their completed wall portraits and gift images.   I was really happy that they were pleased with what I did for them, but I was also pleased that we were able to create those precious portrait memories before it was too late.
When I was working at a studio in BC I was told of a family that had their portraits taken the year before.  The week after the portrait session that father had passed away suddenly.  The family was very happy that they had the chance to create this portraits while their father was still with them.   In between the time they placed their order and the portraits were ready one of the son in-laws was killed in a car crash.  In a matter of a few weeks their entire family was devastated by the lost of not one but two family members.  How valuable do you thing those portraits are to that family?  I bet I could offer to buy them back for 10 times what they paid for them and they would refuse.  Those portraits were not expensive…they turned out to be priceless!  The memories that those portraits give the rest of that family are far more precious than money.
What I’m trying to say here is that you never know what life will bring you.  It’s easy too procrastinate and push having your families portraits created to sometime down the road…..but what if there is no down the road?  What happens if something happened and you were not able to ever create amazing portraits of your family that you can cherish forever?  I talked to a woman today to plan her portraits and it put this blog topic into my mind when she said ” It’s the perfect time…. Grandma is still healthy and the dog s still alive.”  She was joking of course, but the sad reality is that for a lot of families that can not be said.  So don’t put off until tomorrow creating cherished memories of outstanding family portraits as you never know what the future may bring.
]]> http://ipdblog.com/please-read-youll-thank-me-later/feed/ 1 A toast to the unofficial end of summer…. http://ipdblog.com/a-toast-to-the-unofficial-end-of-summer/ http://ipdblog.com/a-toast-to-the-unofficial-end-of-summer/#comments Sat, 03 Sep 2011 00:54:37 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1847 Ah yes…the Labour Day weekend.  Fall doesn’t officially start for a while yet, but with kids back to school this weekend marks the real end of the summer of 2011. What an awesome summer it was for Manitoba!  We had incredible weather, pretty much no mosquitoes, the Bombers are tops in the CFL and of course THE JETS ARE BACK!!  I’ve been super busy this summer as well (as you might have guessed from the lack of blog entires over the summer).  ”Impact Seminars” is going strong,  I’ve been photographing lots of portraits and rented a new studio space downtown.  It’s been a hectic summer to say the least.

So in a fond farewell to the summer of 2011 I thought I’d share a recent beach/water shoot I did last week.

Enjoy!

]]> http://ipdblog.com/a-toast-to-the-unofficial-end-of-summer/feed/ 0 THE NHL IS BACK! http://ipdblog.com/the-nhl-is-back/ http://ipdblog.com/the-nhl-is-back/#comments Thu, 02 Jun 2011 03:42:24 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1778 Back in 1995 I was waiting at the corner of Portage & Main with my brother and thousands of others …waiting for the powers that be from the City of Winnipeg, The Province of Manitoba and local business leaders to come down from the Richardson Building where they were meeting to announce that the “Save the Jets” campaign was successful and Winnipeg was keeping their hockey team.  We waited, and waited and waited.  Slowly the crowd left over the next few hours – still not a peep out of the loudspeakers set up for the announcement. That announcement never came, and we all know what happened and what it did to the city of Winnipeg’s self worth.  So THIS time I said I needed to be at that Press Conference – as I’ve waited 16 years for it.  So I got myself into the MTS Centre with the Media and though there was no more room in the small official press conference room, I was granted permission to be part of the media scrum when the key players were being interview directly after the official announcement.  So myself and several other of the overflow media watched the press conference right next door, in the Visitors Dressing room at the MTS Centre.  After the official announcement was complete, all the media went to the official scrum area where each of the key players (minus the private Mr. David Thomson) each answered questions from the media for 20-30 minutes per.  Afterwards I went down to the Forks to catch a little of the celebrations going on there. 

This was something I did for me.  Growing up I was a Diehard Winnipeg Jets fan!  Only making it to a few games a year….but I remember religiously watching every Jet game on TV and listening to non-televised games on the radio. Putting on my Jets Jersey (of course worn to school on Game days!), bringing out my Jets pucks….getting already for the game.  I remember one January when I was about 9 or 10 years old.  It was super cold outside and the windows were all frosted and I remember lying down on my parents bed so I could listen to a game with the Minnesota North Stars on my Dad’s radio alarm clock.  Let’s just some thing up by saying the Winnipeg Jets were a huge part of my youth and I did what I could to support (both emotionally AND financially!) the “Save the Jets” campaign back in 1995. The one public figure who describes best what Winnipeg felt when the Jets left is Mayor Sam Katz.  His description of someone reaching into your ribs and pulling out your heart is right on the money. It was exactly like being dumped by someone you love.  Being “jilted” by the NHL was one heartache that didn’t really go away that much with time.   Because of all this, I personally needed to be at the press conference to hear the words  that the NHL (hopefully the Jets) are back. Being maybe 6 feet from Gary Bettman (ESPECIALLY him!), Mark Chipman, Greg Selinger & Sam Katz  when they spoke about Winnipeg getting back into the NHL was what was needed for me to start to get over the loss I felt when the Jets left….and being left at Portage and Main to widdle in the wind because nobody had the guts to come down and face a crowd of thousands to say “we failed”.
Thank you Mr. Chipman, Mr. Thomson and (I’m having a hard time believing I’m actually saying this…) Mr. BETTMAN for bringing back NHL hockey to Winnipeg and righting a wrong that should never have happened in the first place!
Here’s what I photographed.
PS:  GO-JETS-GO!
]]> http://ipdblog.com/the-nhl-is-back/feed/ 0 Saying “I do….” http://ipdblog.com/saying-i-do/ http://ipdblog.com/saying-i-do/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 20:26:34 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1722 I thought I’d share some images from last Saturday’s wedding.  I had Marlene Fast HLM, MPA, SPA F.Ph. of Marlene’s Designer Portraits help my for the day.  That’s kinda standard.  Too many photographers just hire someone off the street to assist them and be a second photographer for a wedding.  I take a different approach.  I prefer to always hire fellow photographers that I have known for years to work with me.  Someone who is just as knowledgable and professional. That way, my clients end up with two quality photographers not just one.  As well, it is also a measure of insurance to the day as well.  For instance if something was to ever happen to me (hit by a meteor….abducted by aliens during the day, etc) I know my clients would be left in great hands because of the quality of photographer I hired to work with me for their day.  As sad as it is, I even know of a studio who promotes that they have a backup photographer on standby in case something were to ever happened to one of their photographers photographing a wedding. Unfortunately, what they don’t tell their clients is that their “back up photographer” is the owners wife who has no more photography skill and ability then any other soccer mom!  To me that’s unethical…..but hey, maybe if she stayed in a Holiday Inn Express the night before the wedding……

Here’s some of the images Marlene and I photographed for Mike & Melissa’s wedding on May 14th, 2011…….

]]> http://ipdblog.com/saying-i-do/feed/ 1 A new family of Four… http://ipdblog.com/a-new-family-of-four/ http://ipdblog.com/a-new-family-of-four/#comments Mon, 23 May 2011 19:35:39 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1698 Recently I photographed small wedding ceremony for a couple at Sydney’s at the Forks.   The entire invite list consisted of 15 people included the two of them – a small but cozy affair at a great restaurant.  After the family photographs were completed at Sydney’s  the couple, their children and myself headed out to a heritage building for an hour worth of portraits…

 

]]> http://ipdblog.com/a-new-family-of-four/feed/ 0 The START of the Jets Party! http://ipdblog.com/the-start-of-the-jets-party/ http://ipdblog.com/the-start-of-the-jets-party/#comments Fri, 20 May 2011 06:26:14 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1645 I was leaving the Fairmont Hotel after taking photographs at the Woman Business Owners of the Year Awards when I heard a commotion coming from Portage and Main.   I saw lots of Winnipeg Jets jerseys, signs, hats, as well as everybody was celebrating.  I asked the first person who I ran into if the deal has been signed (to buy the Atlanta Thrashers and move them to Winnipeg).  I was told the Globe and Mail reported it had been and was sticking by their story.  Remember the G&M is owned by Thomson, the big money  behind the True North.  It would be a perfect scoop for your OWN newspaper to break the biggest news in Canadian sports.  So I spent the next hour + celebrating with them and photographing the goings on.  People screaming, horns a honkin’…police not there to stop them, but even complying to the chants of “FLASH – YOUR – LIGHTS! FLASH – YOUR – LIGHTS!
The crowd was getting bigger and bigger as the time went on.  There were several hundred people there when I left around 11:30PM, and people were still coming down.
Welcome BACK Winnipeg Jets….you were missed very, very, VERY MUCH!  Please remember, this simple display of outpouring emotion is NOTHING compared to when The OFFICIAL announcement is made!  Expect the entire city to go CRAZY and at LEAST 50K (I personally feel it’ll be closer to 100K) at Portage and Main!  Winnipeg has been waiting for this party for a long, long time.  This city DESERVES IT!  Enjoy Winnipeg…..ENJOY!

]]> http://ipdblog.com/the-start-of-the-jets-party/feed/ 1 Let There Be Light….er at least after the RAIN! http://ipdblog.com/let-there-be-light-er-at-least-after-the-rain/ http://ipdblog.com/let-there-be-light-er-at-least-after-the-rain/#comments Wed, 11 May 2011 22:24:20 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1610 As you may or may not know, Steve Hiebert (of Personal Expressions Photography) and myself are the instructors at Impact Seminars.  As we have two upcoming programs on lighting with speedlights we went out on Saturday and did some “After Images”.  By that I mean that some of these images will be printed and will be made available for the attendees of the two lighting seminars to see.  It’s difficult for everyone in a large class to see the back of a digital camera, so by creating images ahead of time and printing them those in the class can see what the final results will look like while we are demonstrating the techniques right in front of them.
Of course we had “intended” to demonstrate the use of Speedlights outdoors in conjunction with available light – controlling the available light, over powering natural sunlight, etc…but just as we finished setting up and were “just about” to start photographing this couple the heavens opened up and down came the rain.  Keep in mind I said rain, not “showers” or “sprinkles”….RAIN!  Thank you Mother Nature (maybe she was peeved because she knew we didn’t get her anything for Mothers Day the next day).  Ok, so after a quick race to get all our gear out of the monsoon… we decided that we would change locations (good plan me thinks!).
This site being an indoor covered parking area allowed us to use speedlights full on just as if they were studio strobes…which is also part of both seminars.  So, here are a bunch of sample images for the seminars you may find interesting.  Keep in mind they were all created with handheld flash units (Nikon), even when in conjunction with a studio softbox.
If you are interested in taking the Speedlight  Seminar or any other photography classes form rank amateur to pro level check out the “Seminars” section of my main website.
]]> http://ipdblog.com/let-there-be-light-er-at-least-after-the-rain/feed/ 1 IMPACT Seminars http://ipdblog.com/impact-seminars/ http://ipdblog.com/impact-seminars/#comments Wed, 04 May 2011 03:06:56 +0000 Bruce Allen Hendricks MPA, F.Ph. F/PPOC-BC, CPP http://ipdblog.com/?p=1603 Impact Seminars is a series of 10 educational photographic seminars designed to teach photography to a wide variety of skill levels. From a total newbie to an aspiring pro attending these seminars will go a long way to allow you to master lighting, control composition, start your business off right or simply take better pictures of your child’s birthday party!   Currently course levels 2-6  are scheduled and registration is open.  See www.IMPACTseminars.ca for full details.

 

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