High School Seniors: Open Casting Call

STP Images is conducting a search for two high school Senior Spokespersons, one male and one female, to represent the studio for the remainder of the 2010 Spring Semester.  The contest is open to any high school senior regardless of school (public or private), but you’ll need to enter quickly as the winner will be selected in March.  The two selected winners will receive a complete ‘Senior Package B’ from our packages posted online.    This awarded prize includes a full studio or outdoor session of up to two hours of shooting time, one 20” mounted print, two 10” prints, three 7” prints, eight 6” prints, forty eight wallet photos, ten web resolution images for your Facebook page or other online social networking site and personal cards to show off your new images and to give to friends.  This package retails for $850.00.

Additionally, the Senior Spokespersons may be requested to attend up to 3 functions that STP Images participates in to help promote the studio.  These functions would occur prior to graduation date.  Winners will be selected March 15 and will be announced right here on the STP Images blog.

The contest is easy!  Simply complete the following steps to enter:

1. Send us in 100 words or less, why you believe that YOU would be the best Senior Spokesperson for STP Images studio.  Be creative in your reasons and you might even include your extracurricular activities.
2. Send us complete info for yourself – name, age, gender, mailing address, email address and Facebook.
3. Attach one or two sample photos of yourself.  These do not have to be studio quality, but need to be clear enough to show us who you are.  They can be images from a point and shoot camera, a cell phone camera or professional shots.  Just attach them to the email you send.
4. Simply email the 100 word essay (item #1 above), your contact information (items #2 above) and your jpg images (item #3 above) to seniors2010@stpimages.com.

To see some of the work that STP Images does with our high school seniors, check out our full portfolios of our work at www.stpimages.com.  You can also find pricing for prints and some of our unique products on both the website and the “Investment” tab at the top of this blog page.

We wish each entrant success and look forward to picking the winners in March.  Stay “tuned” to the blog for updates.

Artopia!

Unless you’ve been solely focusing your attention on John Edwards story, it was impossible to miss the media campaign advertising Artopia 2010.  Underwritten by the Houston Press and sponsored by Houston’s PBS Channel 8, Page Parkes, Fresh Arts, Houston Arts Alliance and Momentum Audi, the event was as big as I’ve ever seen it.  Hosted by Winter Street Studios, this was my third trip there in a month shooting events for STP Images.  There was a huge turnout – I found it difficult to walk through the event by 9:00pm and it seemed that most people enjoyed that part of it.  

LOTS of artists upstairs and downstairs in the two story building converted from a railway shipping dock into one of the nerve centers for the Houston art scene just off lower Washington Avenue.  Not limiting the event to only visual arts, there were several performing artists as well including the Dominc Walsh Dance Theater, Cuadro La Tempestad Flamenco and the Houston Metropolitan Dance Company.  The list of the participating visual artists was a “Who’s Who” of the Houston art scene.  Among those displaying their work were David Brown, Carlos Hernandez (all the Day of the Dead art at Cactus Records belongs to Carlos),  GONZO247 of Aeresol Warfare fame, Rahul Mitra and Micah Simmons, whose work is simply amazing – even moreso given his degenerative eye disorder.

There was plenty of food and adult beverages to keep everyone warm and toasty during a cold night at Winter Street.  If Artopia continues to improve each year as it has in the past, the 2011 show will have to be enormous to match last night’s evet.  Take a glance at a few of the images below to see a few of the artists and partyers.

TO SEE ALL THE IMAGES FROM THIS EVENT, OR TO PURCHASE PRINTS OR JPG FILES, CLICK HERE.

 

Alley Theater’s Wonderland Bash

When composer Frank Wildhorn (Jekyll and Hyde) is involved with a project, it’s huge.  The Alley Theater is staging the World Premier of the new musical Wonderland based on Alice’s adventures through an updated pop score.  The Alley Theater promoted the opening of this new musical Thursday night, January 28th at the Winter Street Studios with a huge bash and STP Images was there to capture it.

Guests were immersed in a psychedelic world of nonsense where the bizarre and absurd became the norm.  They danced to trippy tunes spun by DJ John Sims and enjoyed unique cocktails created by Beaver’s mixologist, Claire Sprouse.  Also on the playlist were fanciful platings from T’afia that will left guests grinning like the Cheshire Cat.  There was also a modern take on the old “Photo Booth” and there were silent auction items to top it all off.  Complimentary valet parking was provided by Momentum Audi.

Chaired by Elizabeth Abraham, Isabel David, Shannon Hall, Ursaline Hamilton and Marcus Sloan the host committee included such Houston notables as Beth Bryant, Laura Casey, Kristen Cannon, Debbie Festari, Sharin Gaille, Molly Johnson, Kristy Junco, Jarrod Klawinsky, Don Mafrige, Jr., Christopher Mendel, Valerie Palmquist, Nic Phillips, Heather Pray, Linsay Radcliffe, Kristi Schiller, Jeff Shell, Fred Smith, Megan Sutton-Reed, Rob Rutherford, Monsour Taghdisi, Maria Vilchez and Holly Waltrip.

It was a great event and helped everyone knock the winter doldrums off.  Take a peek at a few of the shots below of some of the revelry!

TO SEE ALL THE IMAGES FROM THIS EVENT, CLICK HERE.

 

 

 

George’s Pastaria

When we opened our studio in the Museum District, one of the most difficult things we had to do was leave the great neighbors and local eateries on the west side of Houston.  While we knew that some sacrifices had to be made to move our studio inside the loop, we didn’t realize how much we’d miss some of our regular haunts.  In a great twist of fate, we were given the opportunity to shoot some executive portraits and interior shots of George’s Pastaria at 1722 S. Dairy Ashford in West Houston as one of our first assignments for 2010.  The images we captured will go on the new version of their website that is launching soon, but while we were there we got to see the business from a different perspective.  Watching everything being made from scratch and working among their great kitchen staff was eye opening.  George’s has been around since 1987 and they have quite a faithful following.  We’ve posted a few shots from the session below.  If you have the opportunity, stop by George’s and try the Linquini with clams (and tell them STP Images sent you)! 

Owner George Reed

Owner Rene Reed

Catering Manager Dave Devine

Packed House Friday Night

Fresh handmade pasta

Efficient kitchen staff

Seniors 2010 – time to get busy!

January 2010 just snuck up on us, didn’t it?  Well, if you’re a high school senior this year, it’s time to start thinking about your high school senior photos.  Remember, these photos will be with you FOREVER!  Just take a look at your parents Facebook friends and their 70’s and 80’s style senior portraits.  Is that REALLY the way you want to be remembered – a bad senior portrait of you posted to your Facebook profile in 2021 with a caption you wrote stating ”I don’t know WHAT I was thinking”?  Don’t be that person!  Do yourself a favor and say ‘NO’ to boring high school senior photos TODAY.  You’ll thank yourself when you’re 30.

New at STP Images this year, EVERY high school senior package comes with a Proofing Party absolutely FREE!  These Proofing Parties make YOU the center of attention.  After each STP Images Senior completes a fun, creative and interactive shoot, a Proofing Party is scheduled about two weeks later.  Seniors then invite their favorite friends to come to the STP Images studio for a full blown party with food and drinks.  Then, everyon gathers in the Proofing Room to see a music video of the shoot with every cool shot set to music.  After watching this video (usually several times), each senior gets to choose the shots they wish to have printed – and of course the video is available for purchase to each Senior as well.  There are tons of unique and cool products beyond standard prints for our Seniors including iPod Nanos with all your images on them as well as web formatted images for your Facebook page.

Take a look at the sample video below to see just how completely awesome these shoots can be!  More information is available on the “Proofing Party” tab at the top of this blog page.  We’d love to help make you the center of attention and give you some seriously hot images too!  Call or email for calendar availability.  We can’t wait to work with you.

Rodeo Bowl 2009 – Navy vs Missouri

Bowl season seems to get bigger and longer each year and the Texas Bowl has been part of that growth.  Each year, as part of the Texas Bowl preliminary activities, the Houston Livestock Show and Rodeo chips in to hold the Rodeo Bowl for the participating teams at the George Ranch Historical Park and STP Images was there to capture the event as a member of the Speakers Committee.  The Rodeo Bowl is essentially a fun way for the players to interact with one another and to prepare for the gridiron competition on New Year’s Eve through pseudo-rodeo events such as stick horse races, hay bale tossing, calf penning, mascot roping, chalk branding and the always popular lineman touchdown dance.  This year’s participants, the Navy Midshipmen and the Missouri Tigers, had a blast and the competition was as tight as it’s been in the four year history of the Rodeo Bowl.

Following the rodeo arena competition, each team was treated to a great meal catered by Demeris Barbeque.  During the dinner, team members could also get a memento of a brand of their team’s logo to take with them.  There was a band and a few brave Midshipmen and Tigers made their way to the dance floor for a little two stepping.  It was a great night of competition and fun and if the Rodeo Bowl is any indication of how the Texas Bowl will shape up, this should be a great game!  Take a look at a few of the shots from the Rodeo Bowl below.

TO SEE ALL THE IMAGES FROM THE RODEO BOWL, CLICK HERE.

 

 

Cabo Wobblin’ (or MIA in Mexico)

It’s been a dozen days or so since our last post.  The first two weeks of December were crazy busy for the photography business, but we left Houston a little over a week ago to head to Cabo San Lucas.  Having been down to the beautiful desert tip of the Baja Peninsula before, we were ready to try some new things there.  We took our Ole Miss sophomore son and his roommate and we spent 8 days exploring.  Due to the Swine Flu threat, the border drug gang wars and the sagging economy, we were some of the only Gringos down there – it was pretty devoid of tourists.  This was great for getting tables at restaurants and other activities, but it also made us HUGE targets for all the folks trying to sell us something.  We rented a condo in Pedregal that normally goes for $2,000 per day during high season that we negotiated down to $150 per day.  Of the 50 or so rental units in our condo, only 6 or 8 were occupied with tourists.  This was a incredible deal considering the views – and we even saw whales breaching the Pacific from the patio!

We rented a Jeep Wrangler and headed up the Pacific Coast to Todos Santos and ran some of the Baja Trails along the coast (some day we will race in the SCORE Baja 1000, but that’s a different story altogether).  We took the public bus (Subercaobos $25 pesos) from Cabo San Lucas to San Jose del Cabo and hit a dozen or so taco stands and beer joints.  The remainder of the time, we walked around Cabo San Lucas and found some great places we had never tried before.  We literally hit 15 local ‘taco huts’ during our stay.  We loved it and can’t wait to get back.

Some of our favorite places from this visit were Las Fuentes in Todos Santos, Los Deseos on the marina in Cabo San Lucas, Costazul Restaurant in San Jose del Cabo, Zipper’s on the Costa Azul beach and oddly enough, a little French Bakery called le Cafe Francais at the foot of the hill in Pedregal where we rented our condo.  If you get a chance to visit Los Cabos, now is the perfect time to really get great deals and enjoy the beautiful weather and sun.  Take a peek at a few of our favoriate shots from the trip below.

Kim and Remy

We got a call at the studio late Friday afternoon from our friends at the West Alabama Animal Clinic for a last minute shoot on Saturday morning.  This was especially important as Remy had just been diagnosed with some grim medical news.  So, early Saturday morning, Kim and her Retriever Remy and partner Chris and her Mom Vicky came to the studio ready to go.  We wanted to capture these precious moments as best we could since our time with our deeply loved pets is so fleeting, no matter how long that time may be.  All four ladies were beautiful and the images were very fun to capture.  We can’t wait to show Kim the images sometime over the holidays, but we’ve posted a few sneak peek shots below.  We feel priveleged to get to spend time with our neighbors and their pets.  We hope you enjoy the images of Kim, Chris, Vicky and Remy.

Les Provinciales Design for a Cause

On Thursday night, December 10, Roche Bobois opened their showroom for a unique event.  Three extremely talented artists were asked to create their own custom chair that was displayed on the showroom floor in advance of the event to help promote it.  Each unique artistic seat was created to be auctioned off to benefit Texas Special Olympics.  The chairs were on display and the artists were there to answer questions about their work and to meet the public bidding on their items.  The event was sponsored in party by Momentum Audi and the guests enjoyed hors d’orveres, drinks, a dj and the beautiful furnishings prior to the commencement of ceremonies.  The highlight of the presentation was a speech given by a local Special Olympian relaying the impact of the organized games on her and her ‘teammates’, who number in the thousands.  Awards were given to those deserving souls who help further the Special Olympics cause and then the bidding began.  The three chairs and artists had lines waiting to talk and to bid well into the evening.  STP Images captured the event and a few of the shots are below.  Let us know if you need coverage for any of your holiday events before time runs out!

TO SEE ALL THE PHOTOS FROM THIS EVENT, OR TO PURCHASE PRINTS OR JPGs, CLICK HERE.

 

JulieBeth Handbag Trunk Show

JulieBeth Handbags was formed from a friendship of two Houstonians who wanted to create unusual, unique and noteworthy handbags.  A recent “Thelma and Louise” trip through Yellowstone that covered 4,000 miles in an old Ford F-150 became the inspiration for many of their designs.  On Wednesday night at Hotel Zaza in the Black Label Suite, JulieBeth handbags held a trunk show for the public just in time for the holiday season.  Notables in attendance were Sharron Melton, Miya Shay and Jared Lang.  With plenty of libations flowing, a fantastic view and awesome live music in the suite, the atmosphere couldn’t have been better for no-stress, custom holiday shopping – a creative way to shop from SpotOn Public Relations.  Take a look at some of the images from the event below from STP Images.  Give JulieBeth a ring for a fantastic, unique gift idea and STP Images to capture your next event.