Translate

CONTACT US...


Phone
1-918-760-1575

email mspeermorgan@netscape.net



Sunday, October 12, 2014

16,000 VIEWS !!!!!

It has happened ........ 16,000 views since starting the blog. The number isn't just a number, it's an incentive for me. I started the Blog for no real reason several years ago....it just seemed like it was something I had to do. No real reason....just had to. I have no idea where the idea came from other than I have had the amazing good luck to be at the right place at the right time and lucky enough to figure it out. I hope that shows a bit in the Blog....Many of the adventures, opportunities, and associations I have had with individuals came through chance encounters. With a bit of nurturing, many have developed into lifetime memories and chances. In many cases one would build upon another.

Had I not gone to Southwest Missouri State, I would have not had the life changing educational association with Alan Brown who lit the fire of photography in my soul and showed me how to "see".
From the opportunity that gave me, I worked with Don Sothern, owner of Sothern Studio and learned the "business" of photography and learned to "see" studio lighting.

Had I not gotten my Masters Degree, I would not have separated myself from the other photographers in the area of my first studio, and given my first big commercial shoot by Jack Manning, owner of Joplin Printing. Nor would have I started my business in 1972 as I was "over-educated" and unemployable in a down economy.

Had I not entered and won two years in a row in the 70's the Kodak "Decorating with Photography" competition I would have never met Paul Ness from Kodak, whom I spent July of 1987 in China with as a member of a team of Professional Photographers sent over as Ambassadors from Kodak to talk with our Chinese counterparts.

I would have never become friends with Byron Morgan a writer and film maker from NASA that asked me to go to Baghdad before the Desert Storm and document our retrieval of Japanese Hostages which in turn led to the Japanese getting the American Hostages out as we were landing in Los Angeles. Had I not gone on that trip I would have never met the most wonderful women in the world, my wife Karen, as a result of of a multi image slide show of the trip.

Had it not been for Karen I would have probably never left Carthage, and would have missed all of the opportunities I've experienced in Tulsa. And it just keeps getting better. My commercial photography business is growing and I am seeing the inside of manufacturing and sales. It is just getting better and better.

I am a firm believer that opportunity is continually knocking, we just have to recognize the sound and not be afraid to take the leap. 


Saturday, October 4, 2014

Forty Two....

As of last Monday, Morgan Studio was 42 years old. I opened the studio in Carthage Missouri in 1972 at Third and Lyon in a three room rented office. I was there three years and considered buying the building but I couldn't get a favorable price from the owner, at least not from my perspective.  As fate would have it a building became available down the street at 340 Lyon and it was perfect. I bought it and my Dad and remodeled it. It was built in 1883 and there was not a square corner in the building and the walls weren't plumb. We fir stripped the walls and got it in shape, paneled the reception area, painted and laid a flat floor in the studio area and the business really took off. At this time I had the largest studio area in the immediate area and it increased my commercial business.

The studio was open for thirty years and saw some great images from "Prom Portraits", Commercial Images, Dance Groups, Families, Seniors, Babies, Pets, and a multitude of other different assignments. From this location I based all of my photographic efforts which led to assignments throughout North America and the World.  I'll follow this note up soon with some images of the building transformation and more images from it. I love my job.....