Paterson Photography

Started in 1985 Paterson Photography has grown year after year. Offering photography services such as family, commercial, advertising, graduation and more.  Mike started teaching photography classes over 20 years ago and was the first photographer in southern Alberta to offer courses. With courses available at his studio in Lethbridge as well as at locations throughout the province and country. Many have tried to copy his lighthearted fun teaching style but they have not succeeded! Paterson Photography is also the leader in photo restorations, able to digitize all size prints from mini wallet to life size.  Also leading the way in photo printing Paterson  Photography can print your digital files on a variety of media up to 44×100″

Morning Frost

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Morning Frost

I love frost on just about anything. When I went out for my late night walk last night the fog was slowly rolling into town. I figured that the next day would bring some morning frost and I was right. On my morning walk it was amazing. As soon as I got home I grabbed a camera and headed out to my front yard.

Just as I was starting to shoot the winds started to come up and the frost was starting to blow off the trees and plants. It stayed around long enough fr me to get my pictures. Four hundred pictures later and I am happy 🙂 Here are a few of the pictures. Has been a while since the weather and my schedule worked out.

Camera – Canon 5D MkIV, 100 2.8 Macro, 400 ISO – various shutter speeds and aperture

The morning frost was accenting these Wild Rose plants
The morning frost was accenting these Wild Rose plants
Dry leaves and morning frost
Dry leaves and morning frost

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Paterson Photography Changes

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People have been asking why the changes here at Paterson Photography? Well it is simple, I am trying to stay organized and that is a HUGE project in itself. Over the past years several of my businesses and hobbies have merged into one HUGE mess.

People that are looking for my nature prints find my woodworking or my teaching information but cannot find my nature prints. People that want to follow the happenings with my van find my nature prints, etc, etc.

So I have been slowly separating things to make it easier for me and for my friends and clients. Well to be blunt it is like separating an omelette, it has not been easy. I am glad that I am doing it but it will take a lot of work to clean things up.

So be patient and someday I may have things all organized. You may see posts overlapping for a while but slowly things will split completely, or at least that is how I plan it 🙂

So some of my sites if you are interested are below…

Read morePaterson Photography Changes

Fall Trip

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I love fall camping, exploring and photography. This fall it went from summer to winter and I had to wait till fall came back. Even then it was not a big deal around here as there is snow and cold to deal with way too early this year. I decided that a trip to Banff and Yoho was in order. The weekend I choose was nice but cool, in fact during the night it got really cold!! I heard a number of RV’s heading out around 3 am as I don’t think they were prepared for the cold temperatures in the mountains.

This time of the year I love heading to Banff through Kananaskis. The drive is nice and the colors are amazing!!!

Fall drive through Kananaskis
Kananaskis Alberta

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Forget about the Joneses

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I have seen many times a business or a person gets off track by trying to keep up with the Joneses. You are your own person / business and unless there is a real reason to change don’t keep changing. If making a change has a purpose like improving your product or life then that is one thing.

If you are changing because someone else did then DON’T!!!

Who are the Joneses?

Some students come in for classes and they tell me they are interested in changing gear. Either to a different camera manufacturer, model, type, etc. When I ask why they cannot answer. They are doing so because someone else did or someone said they should. If you need the new technology then make the switch, if not then don’t!

Keeping up with the Joneses

A great lesson!

Read moreForget about the Joneses

Ready for new home

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Another print ready for its trip to a new home.

I love this shot and happy to see it become so popular!

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Back to business

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Over the summer I have heard from a number of people with business questions and concerns about their businesses. So this fall I will be doing some posts on getting back to building your business. Summer is over, kids are back in school so now lets get our businesses in shape.

Business

One of the first things I would like to address is time management. Specifically social media time wasters. It seems that everyone is pressed for time. In actual fact we all have the same amount of time we just need to use it better. Get off your smart phone, stay away from social media and limit your other time wasters on-line. You will get a lot more done at work and your personal life will be better for it.

Posting

As a Pastor said at a church training meeting this summer “Nobody is waiting for your next social media post. Nobody cares if you post today or tomorrow. Your church, or your personal life, is not going to change for the better or worse by not posting for a few days”. In business it is the same. Check your social media accounts once a day. Do your posts, answer inquiries, make comments. THEN get on with your life.

I have had weeks that I have posted 7 amazing posts each week. My sales for those weeks are no better, and sometimes worse, than weeks that I do not post. Many weeks when I have zero posts on social media I have done the best sales. One week this past summer when other people were up late shooting sunsets, stars, etc and posting on-line I was in bed by 9pm. Up at 6:30am. At work by 8am. My sales for that week were close to four times as much as a standard week. Not one post on social media.

Comments

Also limit the time you comment on others posts. You may think you know how to solve a problem for someone, but most people on-line are not looking for help. They are looking for sympathy or someone to do it for them. I spent hours helping someone with a issue this past summer. Myself and a couple other people used our knowledge to help them get out of a bad situation. In the end they did nothing we recommended and are now paying the price as their business struggles.

Set aside a set amount of time each day and when that time is used, STAY AWAY from any more social media. Edit images, market your business, clean up, do paperwork. You will find you will get a lot more done!