My Name is Ogalthorpe Montoya. You Killed My Father. Prepare to Die!

As I tell people about my transition from engineer to photographer I always try to make it clear that I am going to be a small business person who makes a living from photography. And that I'm not approaching the transition as someone who likes to take photos so I figured I'd try to make a living at it.

Identity has been a nagging subject for me to figure out. Part of the problem is that I feel a duplicity between the equal division between me and the Ogalthorpe persona. I've never really liked the idea of a "Jeremy Center Photography". It just doesn't ring true in my ears. It's something I've never felt comfortable with for reasons not completely clear. On the other hand, assuming a completely fictitious identity has also been uncomfortable. To some degree it feels phony or insincere and outside of my nature.

But I've decided to be brave.

Or foolish.

Don't Ignore the Obvious

It's going to break. It's about to come through. I can feel it. Down deep next to all the secrets I never share with even the most loved in my life. It's there. Waiting for me to discover it. I think I'll know it when I see it. But right now I'm not quite sure what it looks like.

What is it you ask?

And We're Live

Well after some considerable work, the new identity is finally here.  The website for Studio Ogalthorpe is up and running.

For those interested the website is a flash template I bought from bludomain.com.  I know some people are averse to flash and that there are SEO issue with flash sites.  But for people like me who are not capable of coding sites from scratch or can't afford a designer just yet it's a good way to go.

The next step is to get some kind of HTML version up and operational.  Ideally the HTML version would have two optimizations:  one for people surfing over on the web who don't have or like flash, and the second for iPhone users.

Well if you happen to stop over, hit the contact page and drop me an email or leave a comment here.

Studio Ogalthorpe is Almost (A)Live

I've struggled almost endlessly over what to use as a professional identity in the photography world.  Am I Ogalthorpe?  Am I Jeremy Center.  Sometimes I can't decided.  Sometimes I think I'm neither (take that one to you shrinks!). Sometimes I think I'm both.  And this is what I've decided upon for the time being.

I've decided to brand my professional identity as Studio Ogalthorpe.  I may choose to drop the Studio at some point down the line.  But for the time being it lets be both of my selves: me and Ogalthorpe.

Click the pic to check out the (beta) website. Fair warning: it's flash.  So don't bitch cause I told ya it was flash.  I plan to have an HTML version up sometime in the near future.  But for now this is what I have and this what I'm going with.

Wait for the Flush

Last Saturday I delivered an introductory lecture on the topic of off-camera flash -- appropriately titled Lighting 101 (well I stole the title from David Hobby over at Strobist.com.

Brand My BMW - The Front End

Just a quick update to the last post about the BrandMyBMW post with another photo from the shoot.

If you're interested in Allen's project, check out his website BrandMyBMW.com or follow him on Twitter at @brandmybmw.

If you have a Social Media Project you'd like me to photograph, please feel free to email me to discuss the details.

Brand My BMW - A Social Media Experiment

Ok, you've got yourself a pristine BMW 745i -- a pretty sweet ride -- and it's your baby and pride and joy.  You're young and you work for a progressive digital media company. You want to show off your ride so what do you do?

You cover the damn thing in bumper stickers.

WTF?? You say?