Meritage House of Photography

Leslie Does it Again!

2009-06-20T23:11:00.000-07:00

At the recent Professional Photographers of America International Print Competition, Leslie got all four of her entries accepted to be exhibited in Nashville this January! Here are her 4 images! The First image was chosen as "Best of the Best" in what is called the Loan Collection". This image will be published in a book. Also, because all four images were accepted Leslie will receive a Photographer of the Year Silver Award.

Be A Friend

2009-06-04T09:52:00.000-07:00

With all this social networking biz, it sure is hard to keep up with all of this, including blog entries. We are very active on Facebook , so look up our Fan Page under "Meritage House of Photography". If you become a fan, we will wave the session fee for you, a $400 value! This will be good for either local outdoor sessions or in the studio.

Oh! Here are some recent Senior portraits we took of Jeremy. We photographed his sister, Nikki, some 3 years ago and we'll probably do Zack's in about 3 years (guess I'm not allowed to retire!)

How to Find Us

2009-03-14T21:12:00.000-07:00

So, as most of you know, we spend a lion's share of our time at the retreat on Dillon Beach. We do, however, have a place to meet with all of you in Livermore! We are sharing a space with Ultra-Spective and typically, we ae there on Thursdays and Fridays. The staff at Ultra-Spective are wonderful people, so as we get more settled with them, they will be very helpful on the days we are not there. Stay tuned!

One Dream Fulfilled

2009-03-03T15:17:00.000-08:00

One of my dreams have been fulfilled as of the first of this month. For years in this profession, I never thought I'd be ever asked to serve on the national level of my professional photography association. I was elected last January as a director to the Professional Photographers of America. It is an honor to serve the more than 22,000 members of the worlds largest professional photography association. I've always wanted to help fellow professionals become the best they can be, both photography and business wise. It will be exciting to serve!

Spirit and the Soul Registration is Online!

2009-02-08T12:20:00.000-08:00

The Spirit and the Soul series of workshops at the Dillon Beach Retreat is approaching with the first class "Transformations" in March. You can now register online at our website here. Transformations is very popular, so sign up now. There are only 6 spaces available for each session (we booked up all of the sessions last year). Also, book Transformations at the special rate of $450 which includes 2 nights stay! After March 1, it goes up to $650. Spirit and the Soul in July already has students signed up. If you are interested at all in recapturing your "artistic mojo", sign up for this course. This course has a prerequisite of either a PPA advanced degree, CPP credentials, or completion of our "Zen of Photography" workshop. Come on out to the Retreat and experience a learning environment that is second to none!

When Art is Art

2009-01-06T11:38:00.000-08:00

In our Spirit and the Soul lectures, we teach our students the difference between Photography and Art. "What? Are you saying photography is not an art?" you would query. No! What we are saying is that you have to look at photography as a medium, very much like a paint brush/painting is a medium. The Art is what you create from that medium. It is the process that comes out of your heart that is the art. The sooner we can all understand this simple concept, the more we can call ourselves artists, without having to place a medium tag with it. i.e. Photographic Artist.

Whoa, Looks like I've been away a while

2008-08-27T11:09:00.000-07:00

October! It's booking up for both the beach portraits and the early fall portraits (fall comes late in these neck of the woods with early November being the prime time. The best time for the portraits are starting at about 20 minutes before sunset, so, I can only do only one session a day. Why is October the prime time? Two things, the weather is perfect with low wind, and the quality of light. The light is a lot warmer than in the spring. Also, the time of day is ideal for families with small children because the session times are around 6-6:30, instead of the 8-8:30 times in the summer.

Charity Project Update

2008-05-07T20:31:00.000-07:00

Last Friday, we attended the Valley Christian School Auction and it looks like they did very well. We had donated to the live auction event this year and are pleased to report that our donation of 13 portrait sessions with an 8x10 raised $5200! WTG Valley Christian!

We also attended the Bollinger Canyon School Charity Event about 3 weeks ago. We did not get an actual total that was raised, but it looked like somewhere around $3500 for our contributions. Results from the Carden West Auction have not come in yet, either, so we will report these as they the info trickles in to us.

We are on a mission this year, our 30th year to raise $100,000 for various schools and charities! So far, we have raised about $20,000 with the results of our first "Simply M" project not reporting in yet.

We hope to raise as much money for the schools. As you know, it looks like California is going to cut a lot of money out of the schools, and we hope to help in any way we can!

Our new Website

2008-04-22T08:18:00.000-07:00

Gosh, with all the hub bub of our move, I forgot to tell you that our website is completely redesigned (although, if you came to this blog via the website, you probably already know this by now! :) So here's the link: www.meritageonmain.com. Write us and tell us what you think! We are still working on the boutique and I hope to get that started in May. Also, keep an eye out for the Simply M site which I also hope to get the drafts ready in May.

We're Moved In!

2008-04-18T17:22:00.000-07:00

Our goal after 30 years of business was to move into a home studio. That became a reality on the first of April. So, it is a bit crazy in our home right now with an entire studio moved in, but we are actually up and running pretty well. Some things that we need are buried in some of the boxes, but they seem to miraculously appear eventually.

So now we have our nice garden to take some "Plein air Portraits" as well as studio portraits. We are also a lot closer to our famous "Italian Wall" and "Vineyard" location (just a short 1.5 miles away).

Charity Season!

2008-03-21T12:53:00.000-07:00

Wow, it's amazing how many different charities are having their fund raising. We, at Meritage are proud to be a major participant in many of these. As our commitment for 30 years of service in this Tri-Valley area, we are helping as many charities as never before.

We hope that you can attend a charity event of your choice, and please, give generously. We will be, or will have a presence at the following upcoming events: Carden West School, Valley Christian School, Bollenger Canyon School, Tri-Valley YMCA Golf Tournament, and Concert for a Cure.

So far we are proud to have participated in these events and helped raise the following amounts with our in-kind donations: Pleasanton Arts Council -$9,500.00, Amador Valley H.S. Athletic Boosters - $5,700.00. We are certainly happy that we can help your causes!

If your charity needs help please call us at 925-462-9364. We'd be happy to help!

Spring Has Sprung!

2008-02-16T15:29:00.000-08:00

You might not know this, especially if you're not a native of California, but Spring starts early around here. The First Mustards are in bloom and get to around four feet tall by the end of March. All of the other spring blossoms start coming on strong around Mid-March and start to fall off by mid-May. Call us today at 925-462-9364. We have a special going on. Make your consultation appointment before March 5th!

It's Official!

2008-02-02T14:55:00.000-08:00

Simply M has officially launched. Some call it Meritage Lite, that is, you get the same experience of Meritage House of Photography at a fraction of the cost. Call us for the new details. For our previous customers, a free session offer was e-mailed to you. We have some session slots available for Valentines day, so call us right away to reserve your space! 925-462-9364. Keep an eye out for the Simply M website, which will be announced very soo along with the new Meritage House of Photography Website!

2008-01-23T12:09:00.000-08:00

Well! We're finally back from Florida. We first went to Tampa to the Professional Photographers of America Imaging USA. We got to see eight of our images displayed at the International exhibit. On the final night, Leslie received her Master of Photography degree and her Photographic Craftsman degree! Most photographers take at least 7-10 years to get these degrees and Leslie did this in 3 1/2 years. It is more rare to get both degrees in one year.

The degrees (which both of us now have) are this: Masters degree is for photographic excellence and education. There are only some 200 Master Photographers in California. Michael and Leslie are the second and third to earn this degree in the Tri-Valley's history. The Craftsman degree is for teaching within our professional community. The both of us have been touring throughout the state of California giving lectures and workshops of what we do.

Here's some pictures of us with our displayed images

Then, we went to Disney World! As creatives we have a natural tendency to get in touch with our child-like nature. So this was a perfect fit. Here's a real big hint about Disney world: If you can possible do this, go there in early January. Weather is quite good (it ranged from the mid 60's to the 80's) and the beautiful part about this time of year is that there are no lines! "Soaring" had one of the longest wait times at 40 minutes with fast pass at less than 5 minutes. All of the other attractions such as Mission Space, all of the 3-D shows (Don't miss A Bugs Life 3D), Everest Expitdition and Tower of Terror wer all less than 10 minutes wait at all hours. We stayed at the Wilderness Lodge and we have to say that it was surprisingly nice (we wanted the Grand Floridian, but couldn't get it in time). It is a nice retreat and very comfortable. Look how sparse the crowds were at the Magic Kingdom, just before the fireworks at 8:00pm!

Welcome to Our Blog!

2007-12-24T13:14:00.000-08:00

Well, we've finally jumped into the new millennium. As soon as we get the new website running, we'll have some regularly featured fun stuff on these "pages". Oh yeah, so watch for our brand new website featuring more of our "Museo line of portraits and some new surprises as well! Stay tuned.