ASID CA Peninsula 2010/2011 Board Installation Ceremony

ASID CA Peninsula Board Installation Ceremony

Last night we held the Installation Ceremony for the 2010/2011 Board members of ASID CA Peninsula at Chimere in San Carlos, CA.

It was very fun seeing everyone and the new board has big plans for the upcoming year. I know because I’m on the board as the Industry Partner Affairs Chair and privy to all the inside information.

My industry partners should look forward to increased opportunities to meet the designer members and interact with them and the other industry partners.

You can see more of the photographs from last nights event in my portfolio gallery by following this link.

Project Daedalus The Day The Universe Changed

Today is the big day. Today is the roll-out of Project Daedalus, the next evolutionary step in how interior designers present their work on-line. Using conventional interior design photography in video format with musical accompaniment, title slides and voice overs I create a vehicle to display my clients talents, theories and accomplishments.

The goal is to increase my clients ROI from social networking, improve search engine rankings and help get their phone ringing while making it easy to do.

Here you can see two videos I created for my clients: Joseph Hittinger Designs and Viscusi Elson Interior Design.

A few of the many benefits of my Daedalus Videos are:

• Videos are an elegant and powerful sales tool allowing you to personally make your best “pitch” to the client regardless of time of day or their location.
• Cost effective and fast – there is no need for a web designer, and no additional charges for web design or site hosting, upon completion the video is uploaded to youtube and immediately ready for you to use in blogs, forums, social networking and e-mail.
• “Gee Whiz” factor – clients and prospects are motivated to share the video with family, friends and social networks because it makes such a great impression.

Please call 866-499-8083 or send me an e-mail to learn how I can help you… “Helping you is why I am here”

Pre Roll-Out Announcement of Project Daedalus

What lies beyond?

Today I am announcing Project Daedalus, named after the master artificer of Greek legend who is attributed with many great works and inventions (such as lifelike imagery and sculpture, building the Labyrinth at Knossos, and who is most famous for crafting wings for himself and his son Icarus to escape their captivity in said labyrinth).

For two months I have been working on Project Daedalus to help my clients increase their ROI from social networking, improve their search engine rankings and help get their phone ringing, while making it easy to do.

The official roll-out is coming soon; keep your eyes and ears open.

August 2010 Photograph of the Month Twilight on the Sea of Souls

Twilight at the Sea of Souls

Twilight at the Sea of Souls

This months photograph is titled “Twilight on the Sea of Souls”

This image is another in a series I did of the Pigeon Point Lighthouse near Pescadero, CA back in 2006. I really love this particular lighthouse because of it’s archetypal architecture. It is the only classically styled lighthouse on the west coast because this is the only point that does not have cliffs of sufficient height on which to build the structure above the fog.

This is a pseudo high dynamic range image. Normally to shoot HDRI you need several different exposures of the same scene, however if you only have a single exposure you can still get unique and very dramatic results.

I hope you like it.

You can download this month’s screen saver by clicking the images above. A new window will open with a larger version that you can save to your hard drive.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Dean

Attended Maximizing Industry Partner Membership in ASID Webinar

I just attended a webinar presented by Ni Cherry, Industry Partner Associate Director titled “Maximizing Industry Partner Membership in ASID”

There was a lot of valuable information presented and quite a few questions by the attending IP’s. I will be acquiring this research and offering it to our IP’s. I also will be looking onto obtaining a copy of this presentation and presenting it to a future meeting of the ASID CA Peninsula IP’s.

ASID CA Peninsula Board Meeting and Dunn Edwards CEU

Rise Krag of RKI Interior Design, ASID CA Peninsula Membership Director for 2010/2011

Last night I attended a joint board meeting with both the incoming and outgoing board of ASID CA Peninsula. We met at the Dunn Edwards store in San Jose it was a bright open space and a really enjoyable place to hold the meeting.

There was also a CEU being presented that evening: Designing for Healthy and Productive Interiors: Light and Sound for Optimal Human Performance CEU AND Decorative Lighting, Accessories and Art Spotlight.

You can see all the photographs from last nights meeting and the CEU by following this link to my portfolio gallery.

Windows and Beyond & Hunter Douglas Minding Your Business CEU #3

I attended the final Minding Your Business CEU presented by Hunter Douglas and hosted by Windows & Beyond last week. This seminar was on the selling process. Lot’s of valuable information.
You can see the photos by following this link.

Digital photography provides some amazing benefits.

Alta Mesa Memorial Lunchroom - High Dynamic Range Image

On Tuesday June 1st I shot a job for Shirley Lo and Loretta Spence. I delivered first draft proofs on Wednesday June 3rd via internet, by Monday the 7th we had gone through six generations of proofs until Shirley and Loretta declared the color of the images and the retouching to be “perfect.” And I delivered their images via electronic download.

This is amazing because now we can complete a job in the amount of time it took to get first run proofs when shooting 4×5 film.

High Dynamic Range Photography of Interior Design

I was speaking with Meera Chawla after the ASID CA Peninsula board meeting yesterday and she told me that she was impressed with the crisp liveliness of my photographs when viewing my portfolio. I told her this was the result of my use of high dynamic range imaging.

High Dynamic Range Image of Residential Kitchen

The high dynamic range imaging allows me to create images of spaces as humans perceive them, with rich colors and a wealth of detail in both highlight and shadows that capture the delicate interplay of color and texture. This technique allows me to go beyond showing the furnishings and accouterments to communicating the mood and emotion of a space with unparalleled fidelity to the designer’s vision.

As I say in my seminar on photography for interior designers high dynamic range imaging will soon become the standard for interior design photography. I recognized it’s utility and value the first time I had the opportunity to work with it, this is why I have worked to master the technique. and now my clients can benefit by having photographs of their designs that contain a life and sparkle that was never before possible.

You can view more high dynamic range images of interior design in my portfolio galleries.

June 2010 Photograph of the Month “Red Clover”

Red Clover in Sunol Regional Wilderness Area

Red Clover in Sunol Regional Wilderness Area

This months photograph is titled “Red Clover”

I shot this image in the Sunol Regional Wilderness Area last year. I love the soft forms and gently colors of the flowers. Upon getting good close look I was surprised a the abundance of nectar produced by the flower, these little beads of nectar really give this image a level of interest that is absolutely delightful.

I always enjoy shooting nature photographs. It gives me the chance to get away from the computer, phone and e-mail, reconnect with my inner being and remember what I love about being a photographer, because in the day to day madness of proposals, appointments and accounting it’s far too easy to forget that I chose this career because I like taking pretty pictures.

All images in my “Photograph of the Month” series are sized and formatted as a screen saver or computer desktop wallpaper. Please, share it with your family and friends, with my compliments.

Please call me if you have any need for photographs and I will do all I can to help you.

Thanks,

Dean