ABOUT ME
You must be really bored if your reading this but here it goes...
HOW IT STARTED
My start in photography goes way back... I mean way back... back to cheap point and shoot film cameras of my youth. I was fascinated that a little piece of film could "freeze" moments in time that would never happen again. Little did I know playing with those crappy cameras as a kid would turn into a career.
Some of us take photography for granted today with digital cameras and cell phones. Digital cameras may have made capturing images easier, but not less important. From my point of view there is great value in each image taken no matter the medium, subject, or reason it's being captured.
PASSION KICKED IN
At age 17, I actually started out as a WEDDING DJ. That's when fell in love with the wedding business. However, in time my interest for DJ'ing weddings faded and my passion for photography took over.
I annoyed my local photographer friends like John Borzik, Gretchen Graham and Jay Hammers with ridiculous questions about film cameras until I knew what every button did and how I could use it creatively. Again, these were film cameras and way before YouTube and google could make anyone feel like a genius.
I bought every book I could find and practiced every day eventually photographing my first wedding on film around . I was hooked and over the next 5 years I would "dabble" in photography shooting only a few weddings each year. It wasn't until I switched to digital in 2003 that my photography business started to expand.
MY STUDIO (McMillen Photography)
I shot my first wedding in the year 2000. This is also the same time I started with a small studio in my home photographing anyone that would let me for very little money if any at all. Just to practice. Truth be told I have to give a little credit to my sister-in-law Bobbi. I had a lot of people that believed in me but she's the one that really kept pushing me to grow my business.
In 2007 I took a chance and opened up my first real studio outside of my home and really started focusing on weddings. Eventually I hired an assistant (my buddy Ed) and things started picking up. Eventually shooting around 45 weddings in 2008. In 2009 I hired my sister Amanda to manage the business side as we were growing fast. In 2010 we moved into a much larger Office & Studio.
Since then we have added several more exclusive photographers, assistants, video crews, photo booth rentals, DJ's and full-time office staff to help manage our current workload of around 400 weddings and 400 portrait sessions a year. I could not be prouder of the people that work at this studio.
WHY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY?
Weddings will always be a true passion for me. Capturing creative images under demanding situations is why I love this job; it's what drives me to keep learning.
On a perfect day, perfect weather, perfect location with perfect lighting, anyone can get lucky with a few good images even with the cheapest equipment. As a wedding photographer you can not control the weather and you usually have very little input on location or time restrictions. Tell me I have 5 minutes in the back alley of a church with crappy light.... I feel confident I will STILL create something special. Most wedding photographers.. the good ones anyway... thrive off of that pressure. They excel in demanding situations.
FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY
Besides weddings we have a very active family portrait studio photographing families, seniors, kids & newborns.
COMMERCIAL WORK
Something else I'm passionate about is growing our commercial photography portion of the business. Head shots, group shots, product shots, anything related to business for marketing and promotion.
PERSONAL ARTWORK
For most people their day job is MUCH different than their hobby. Not for me.... it's the same. They both involve a camera. What inspires my personal projects? It's different every time I walk out the door. But a few elements are consistent in the images I create. Things I look for... beauty, grit, shape & shadow. Love it or hate it... that's the weird combination I'm into. You can see some of that work here www.GreeneCountyPhotos.com
GEAR THAT GOT ME STARTED
I started with a used 35mm Contax RTS and a 50mm 1.4 Ziess lens. Given to me by my then father-in-law when my first child was born. I still have and use that camera today when I want to shoot some film. It's about 45 years old and It still rocks.
HOW IT STARTED
My start in photography goes way back... I mean way back... back to cheap point and shoot film cameras of my youth. I was fascinated that a little piece of film could "freeze" moments in time that would never happen again. Little did I know playing with those crappy cameras as a kid would turn into a career.
Some of us take photography for granted today with digital cameras and cell phones. Digital cameras may have made capturing images easier, but not less important. From my point of view there is great value in each image taken no matter the medium, subject, or reason it's being captured.
PASSION KICKED IN
At age 17, I actually started out as a WEDDING DJ. That's when fell in love with the wedding business. However, in time my interest for DJ'ing weddings faded and my passion for photography took over.
I annoyed my local photographer friends like John Borzik, Gretchen Graham and Jay Hammers with ridiculous questions about film cameras until I knew what every button did and how I could use it creatively. Again, these were film cameras and way before YouTube and google could make anyone feel like a genius.
I bought every book I could find and practiced every day eventually photographing my first wedding on film around . I was hooked and over the next 5 years I would "dabble" in photography shooting only a few weddings each year. It wasn't until I switched to digital in 2003 that my photography business started to expand.
MY STUDIO (McMillen Photography)
I shot my first wedding in the year 2000. This is also the same time I started with a small studio in my home photographing anyone that would let me for very little money if any at all. Just to practice. Truth be told I have to give a little credit to my sister-in-law Bobbi. I had a lot of people that believed in me but she's the one that really kept pushing me to grow my business.
In 2007 I took a chance and opened up my first real studio outside of my home and really started focusing on weddings. Eventually I hired an assistant (my buddy Ed) and things started picking up. Eventually shooting around 45 weddings in 2008. In 2009 I hired my sister Amanda to manage the business side as we were growing fast. In 2010 we moved into a much larger Office & Studio.
Since then we have added several more exclusive photographers, assistants, video crews, photo booth rentals, DJ's and full-time office staff to help manage our current workload of around 400 weddings and 400 portrait sessions a year. I could not be prouder of the people that work at this studio.
WHY WEDDING PHOTOGRAPHY?
Weddings will always be a true passion for me. Capturing creative images under demanding situations is why I love this job; it's what drives me to keep learning.
On a perfect day, perfect weather, perfect location with perfect lighting, anyone can get lucky with a few good images even with the cheapest equipment. As a wedding photographer you can not control the weather and you usually have very little input on location or time restrictions. Tell me I have 5 minutes in the back alley of a church with crappy light.... I feel confident I will STILL create something special. Most wedding photographers.. the good ones anyway... thrive off of that pressure. They excel in demanding situations.
FAMILY PHOTOGRAPHY
Besides weddings we have a very active family portrait studio photographing families, seniors, kids & newborns.
COMMERCIAL WORK
Something else I'm passionate about is growing our commercial photography portion of the business. Head shots, group shots, product shots, anything related to business for marketing and promotion.
PERSONAL ARTWORK
For most people their day job is MUCH different than their hobby. Not for me.... it's the same. They both involve a camera. What inspires my personal projects? It's different every time I walk out the door. But a few elements are consistent in the images I create. Things I look for... beauty, grit, shape & shadow. Love it or hate it... that's the weird combination I'm into. You can see some of that work here www.GreeneCountyPhotos.com
GEAR THAT GOT ME STARTED
I started with a used 35mm Contax RTS and a 50mm 1.4 Ziess lens. Given to me by my then father-in-law when my first child was born. I still have and use that camera today when I want to shoot some film. It's about 45 years old and It still rocks.