Harper Studios Blog

2009 was a doozy. It made me a little woozy.
I’m not sad it’s gone. I’m ready to move on.
Heck, everything ‘happens for a reason’. Here’s hoping for a better season.
A brand new year. I’ll celebrate and cheer.
Focus on dreams. It’s as good as it seems.
High aspirations. It takes perspiration.
Goals-Use your intuition. Bring them to fruition.
Achieve happiness. Ignore the crappiness.
Live to love. Love to live. Life is good. Don’t forget to give.

Best wishes to you.

http://www.harperstudios.com/newyear2010/

I don’t really know where October went. We had some fun projects and a few interesting studio rentals. Some of Earl’s family headed off to Ireland on a well-deserved vacation for three weeks. We’re wrapping up a three week catalog and looking forward to the next project. Other than that, October was productive but uneventful.

November is already off to a good start. We have a couple new referral clients that we’re excited about. Both involve working on brand imagery, so the projects are more about style and execution than documentation. We thoroughly enjoy the responsibility assigned to us when we help build a brand. One of the projects is shooting a mixed martial arts fighter. We’re looking forward to the creative possibilities on that one.

We also received a call from a past client whom we loved to work with. Unfortunately they haven’t needed us much since they brought a lot of their work in-house. I’m glad we can help them out when they need our expertise. The loyalty is still there, so that means a lot to us.

My GNO group had another successful sharity event this past Tuesday. We collected a truck load of pet food, toys, beds & supplies for the Seattle Humane Society. We’ll make the big drop next week and help them stock the shelves. The SHS has an adoption event coming up on 12/11-13 so we’ll be making baked goods for them and donating some gift baskets.

There seems to be a lot of different things filling up the calendar this month including a fly-fishing industry party at the studio. I’m looking forward to catching up with some friends on that one.

I can’t believe Thanksgiving is just around the corner. I’m not sure why the Seattle Marathon is planned for that weekend. Seems kinda crazy to go running after days of gluttony. There’s been some talk amongst a small group of friends about participating. I just look away and don’t make eye contact… maybe they won’t notice me.

Earl heads back to China sometime in December. Dates TBD. Hopefully he’ll be here for our Toys for Tots drive party on the 8th. As long as he’s back before the holidays, then I’ll manage without him… temporarily.

Cheers,
Doreen

If you’re in the bike industry, you can feel the excitement, the anticipation… the competition. What has taken a year or longer to create, innovate and develop is at last going to be seen by the best in the industry. It’s all going down this week in Vegas.

It’s the see and be seen of the pedal power industry. Buyers, vendors & suppliers get the sneak peak of the 2010 models. No average Joe can step through the doors. You have to know someone or you ain’t no one when it comes to Interbike.

Well, we’ve witnessed the blood, sweat and fears of the bike industry throughout the past ten plus years, and each year it comes down to this show. It’s exciting to see some of our own hard work and investment come to fruition. Raleigh & Diamondback are way ahead of the game this year. Lots of new stuff, colors, graphics, trends. And just like it’s been said by the experts… when times are tough, that’s when you push hard on the branding and marketing. You want to be the one showing strong and in your face. That’s what’s happening and it’s paying off. We’re super stoked to be a part of it.

Let’s just say that 2009 has been a trying and turbulent year. I know we aren’t alone in that feeling and everyone has their own story. Ours isn’t much different than the norm. I’ve learned that staying positive will get you through the challenging times, but keeping up that state of being is very difficult when you lose someone. It’s taking awhile to peel back the layers and get back to the reality of what has happened.

We started the year off working on the China studio plans and excited about our new endeavors. Business was slow at home, but then it usually is that time of year. So, it was the perfect time to focus on growing it instead of worrying about the future. I would continuously tap into Earl’s positive energy and use it as my own fuel so we could be productive and stay on track. Generally, I’m more conservative and restrained. I like to play it safe and secure. Earl is the adventurous one and is willing to take risks. He’s been right in the past, so I’ve learned to follow his lead… usually… but not without being heard.

As the months progressed, there was a looming dark cloud hanging over us that was whittling away at every attempt to remain positive. For every good thing that happened, a bad thing followed. It was testing us at every step of the way. It was like we were fishing in a pond of emotions and didn’t know what would end up on the end of the line. It was a sign that life was about to get really difficult…

At this point in the blog, I decided to edit what I originally wrote. It was an account of our struggle with the sadness and loss of Earl’s Dad, Arthur Elon Harper, back in April. I guess it just got too personal to feel comfortable about sharing the unfortunate events. I do feel compelled to share how important he was in our life.

Art & Meche have supported us every step of the way in building our business and we owe our success to the opportunities they presented to us. Art helped us build out our first studio on Lucile Street and our second one on Airport Way. If we needed a set built, he did it. If we needed to travel for a shoot, he’d stay at the house and babysat his grand-animals. He even sat for some test shots that Earl used to pitch a new concept to a client. Never a complaint or a request too big or too small. I feel the loss every day because of all of the reminders of him every where I look. Working on the farm I’m constantly encountering things that I need to fix. Everyday I find an opportunity to ask myself… “What would Art do?”. Eventually I figure it out because he taught me well. He was the master of improvising, recycling, and reusing resources at home. I used to follow him around so I could learn what he was doing and how he was going to fix what was broken. I don’t think he liked me being his intern. I asked too many questions. I could tell because he’d stop and take a really long break. He knew I’d get bored and wander off to do something more productive than watching him think. His patience was always outwardly in tact though. Eventually, he would just come over to the house and fix random things while we were at work. He knew we took on a lot and were working hard to keep on top of everything.

We did have a nice memorial for him. A lot of people came to show their respect and share wonderful stories. We roasted a pig and partied like he would have wanted us to. It was a great celebration of his life. He is missed dearly. We are so fortunate to have such wonderful family and friends extending their support to us and Earl’s mom. I can’t thank everyone enough.

Earl’s take away message from the experience has been to get healthy, train for every marathon & triathlon he reads about and don’t miss out on all the things he wants to do. Life is short. Work hard, play harder. That’s always been his mantra.

For me, I guess I’ve just been too sad to realize the lessons and the message. I’ve been burying myself in farm work and studio work. I’m taking for granted that I’ll get to the right place at the right time.

On a more cheerful note, business has picked up. We have some new clients that we are super excited about working with. The branding efforts are starting off strong and we’re looking to build it up big for longevity and impact. One of the clients has been a long time goal of ours to get. Another is a brand new surprise. And yet another is a huge worldwide established company with far reaching opportunities. The Raleigh and Diamondback catalogs are complete and they are really happy with how the China shoots went including all of the money we saved them. Earl is getting ready to go to Interbike again to see what sort of interest he can spark up. We have some projects that will keep us busy and a big catalog scheduled in October. Things are turning around and I think Art would be proud of our hard work.

February 1, 1940 - April 7, 2009

First and maybe most importantly, maybe, is that we have finally started to shoot some product over here. Actually started a day later than I had wanted because I somehow managed to go to the wrong part of Downtown Guangzhou in search of some fabric that I could use as a giant scrim. Taxi dropped me off and I knew it was going to be an interesting day, couldn’t see a fabric store in sight, even thought there was supposed to be a mall with nothing but fabric stores inside. After miles of walking, probably almost as much as the Highline girls did on their walk a few weeks ago, I finally gave up and took a cab back to the hotel. First though my driver took me to a ghetto area with trash everywhere and people just hanging around, I was Ok with it until he opens the door, gets out and just leaves, door open and car running. I’ve heard of stories like this, and yes the thought of jumping into the drivers seat and taking off did cross my mind. Instead I sat and waited, after about 5 minutes a totally different cabbie jumps out of one of the parked vehicles walks over jumps in the cab and says,” OK, we go”, not sure exactly what that was all about, but he did take me directly to the Hotel. Luckily Gavin felt sorry for me and thought I could probably use a few drinks that evening. Gavin can be a very smart man sometimes! Next morning I looked on the internet and found a different address to try…… It was crazy, I have never seen so much fabric. I don’t mean hundreds of stores, it was more like thousands of stores. For blocks and blocks it went on, anything you could imagine, not to mention the different malls with 5 or 6 stories of stores. People were everywhere. Have never been on the floor of the NYSE but that is what it felt like to me, everybody buying and selling like crazy. Finally found what I needed, with all the stores selling fabric I could not find one that sold any fabric scissors. Must find out where the scissor section of town is…..

Early the next morning I went to the studio to set everything up. Shortly after lunch, we got our first shot done. We talked about Champagne, but we were all too tired for that anyway. It was at the end of the day that all the craziness started. We had been inside all day and didn’t really notice the change in the weather that was happening out side. We heard some thunder as we walked out and noticed the skies were pretty dark. Before we had gone very far, bolts of lightning started going off all over the place. Some of them felt as if they hit super close as you could hear and feel a sizzling in the air. All of us were like “holy crap’, well maybe not exactly those words but you get the point. Scared the crap out of us. Shortly after the winds came and then the sheets of rain. The Hotel staff had four people pushing against the swinging doors because the wind kept blowing them open. On our way to dinner we had to turn around several times because we would come to a low spot in the road where the water could be 3 feet deep or so. Luckily Simon knows his way around because eventually we ended up near the place we wanted to eat. Chinese BBQ, really just grilled outside on a giant grill, but one of my favorite places to eat. Before we were able to park though we had to cross through one more lake in the parking lot that nobody was willing to drive through. For some reason they asked if I thought we could make it, even though I was sitting in the very back of the van and didn’t have all that great of a view. It wasn’t until later that I figured that if we had gotten stuck they would have made me get out and push, because it was my idea. Luckily we made it through, but it wasn’t over yet. Everybody thought we were going to make until we began walking, we ran into another “lake” and were going to have to make a decision. We could go back a bit to another place that was not flooded out, or we could take off our shoes and walk out into the pouring rain. It is an awesome place to eat, so we decided to take off the shoes and see if we could make it. It was well worth it……..

The last hurdle before food....

My new carts that Kinesis made..

Another shot of the cart...

One last shot of the cart

Bikes are looking good...

rain was coming down in sheets..

rain pounding off the pavement

More rain

The gang before making the crossing.

On the hunt for food

Almost there...

finally, dry, beer, and food...

Gavin, pouring the drink....

These snails were so tasty...

How's that for a table of food???

You will never go hungry in this country...

Not sure how this got on my camera, must have been an accident. I do vaguely remember a table of girls at the next table, I think.....

Storm

Earl is in Guangzhou getting ready to shoot bikes at the new studio. I’m keeping the business in check while Dennis is shooting away on two sets. We’re wrapping up “Tent Week” and getting ready for the next project. Jennie, Jeremy & Matthew are tightening up the files and getting ready for hand off. There is quite a buzz about the China studio and we’re excited about the latest adventure. It’s going to be such a streamlined, dollar saving solution to so many of our clients. Just think of all the extra time and money they’ll have to put towards more photography!

Check back soon. Earl should be posting some photos of the new digs any day now.

-Doreen

Check out the new studio at our Guangzhou, China location. There is still work to be done, but it’s coming along. It will be up and ready to go for the first bike shoot this Spring!

This is our ‘mantra’ for 2009…

Yeah, that’s right… “evolutions”. It’s the first of many for us in 2009 and we are starting off with a bang! By definition, Evolution is a gradual process in which something changes into a different and usually more complex or better form. Harper Studios has been 12 years in the making and has grown to make another entrepreneurial move. As I update this blog, Earl is on his way to China to start the next chapter of Harper Studios. If all goes as planned, we’ll have two locations; one in Guangzhou, China and the original Seattle headquarters. Both will be feeding each other’s success. Our standards will remain the same… high quality imagery, exceptional service and expediency for fast turnover times. Everyone knows, time is money, so you can figure that into the equation too.

We’ve been asked so many times… “What about the economy? And isn’t it risky?” Yeah, it is, but these are the times to be proactive about change and anchoring your future. Companies are cutting back in order to survive and they need to save dollars somewhere. In order for them to stay strong in their industry, they still have to advertise. We are finding a way for our clients to still be able to advertise, promote, save money & time while growing our business and client base. It’s a win-win situation based on service and forward thinking.

We’ll keep the blog updated on our progress!

Earl and I want to thank everyone for their kind thoughts and words regarding our sweet Chica passing. It’s taking time getting used to her not greeting us with a toy and her tail wagging weapon. I guess that’s why people say “time heals all wounds”. She was the best and we’ll miss her. Thanks again, friends.

On a more cheerful note… boy, these long weekends are hard to recover from. Wednesday we prepped for the big Thanksgiving meal at our house. Thursday was full of last minute things to do and time just won’t slow down to give you a break. On Thanksgiving Day, our family and friends started arriving around 4pm. The fire was roaring and the drinks started pouring and the food made it’s way to our plates. Earl planned about 14 different dishes for 13 guests. I begged him to pair it down a bit. He dropped the pumpkin gnocchi and the turnip dish. We all ate ourselves into a food coma and had to struggle with the idea of choosing between seven desserts. Some of us didn’t make it to the dessert table. Instead they headed straight to the Sambuca to gentle the stomach. I needed two glasses just to make sure it worked effectively.

Friday was recovery. Saturday we did farm work and then braved the mall mobs to make the iPhone purchase. Love it! Not sure what I did without it before. Earl is quick to remind me that I was against the idea all along. Just maybe I fight him on such things so that he has the opportunity to point out when he’s right because it makes him feel so good to do so. See, I actually argue with him to make him happy!

On Sunday, Earl shot on location with Gene. They worked up some really cool shots of a Diamondback bike out in the woods. I saw some of the outtakes and they look sick! Yeah. I don’t really talk like that, but couldn’t think of a better adjective. After he finished, we headed down to Jim & Jen’s in Puyallup to pre-func for the AC/DC concert. They live a few blocks from the train station so we walked over there and caught the Rock-n-Roll train with all the other AC/DC fans and it dropped us off right by the Tacoma Dome. The bars were packed. It was a crazy scene but really fun. The concert was awesome, although our seats were pretty high up. You can tell by the photos that I had to zoom in a lot. Thank goodness they had the big screens to see what was going on.

Needless to say, Earl & I were pretty tired the next day. I don’t know how Angus Young can run around like he does and have so much energy.

We had our Mandarin lessons on Tuesday. OMG! It’s a really difficult language. I can finally say the time in Chinese, but by the time I’m done saying it, the time has already changed. Thank goodness Wendy, our teacher, is really patient. We have another lesson Friday and we need to practice greetings.

This week has been pretty good. Getting a lot of stuff done at the studio. Earl was on location today with Karen shooting some dry bags. We left the dogs home today because Vinnie got into something and he stinks really bad. Looks like part of my weekend is dog washing, then disinfecting the bathroom after the dog washing, and then getting ready for our friend Nikki to come up from Portland for a visit. Earl’s planning a big meal for the special occasion!

Well, that’s it until next week. Oh, we’re doing a Toys for Tots drive Tuesday night. Should have a good turnout!