Starting Package Fee: $1,000*
Home State: OR, Oregon
Additional States Coverage: California, District of Columbia, Idaho, Nevada, Washington
Additional Traveling: World Wide
Photographic Equipment: Digital Shooter
Negative Availability: Yes
Video Capability: No
Phone: 503-816-4944
Web Site: www.michaelhacker.com Additional: Photography Blog
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About Michael Hacker
My primary service activity is wedding photography, although I also provide family and senior portraits, as well as some commercial and small product photography. I love landscape and scenic photography, as I love traveling and exploring new places. I am a native Oregonian and have spent a good deal of time exploring our wonderful state, and I am still amazed at the beauty and diversity of our landscape.
My experience with photography started when I was about ten years old, with my Dad’s 35mm Mamiya Sekor SLR, a very old, all manual camera, which I still have. He taught me about f stops and shutter speeds and their relationship to one another and the outcome of the many variables they present. As the years went by, I devoured everything photographic that I could, and dove head long into the art. At about fifteen I got my first darkroom materials and made a small place in our basement my darkroom. I will never forget the feeling when watching that first black and white image begin to appear in the little tray that held the developer solution. To me it was pure magic, and I experimented for many years with black and white photography. When I got my first drivers license, I would go downtown at night with my camera and a rickety little tripod and create awesome cityscapes with the moving lights of the cars becoming long streaks of velvety white light. Alas, I discovered the incredible beauty of the time exposure. Photography has inhabited my entire life, but eventually, I became a professional musician and played the night club circuit for years, traveling all over the country, but always with my camera gear at the ready. Incidentally, that’s why my wedding packages have musical names. When I began my professional photographic career thirteen years ago, I looked at other photographer’s packages and saw names like the eternal love story, or the love story etc. etc. and thought them a bit on the corny side, so I came up with the musical names. After all, I see the camera and music similar in that they tell a story, require good composition and become a life long part of our lives.
I have come a long way since those early days with my 35mm Mamiya and black and white film. Several years ago I began assisting and being a second photographer for a then very prominent wedding photographer. That experience led me to begin my own career. When I began photographing weddings professionally, I moved up to medium format film cameras (bigger film, better images). I used them for many years and resisted the change to digital. When I did make the switch, I was again amazed, almost as much as I was when seeing that first black and white image appear in the developer. Now we, (Brenda and I) shoot top of the line Canon cameras and create beautiful flush mount, panoramic wedding books from Italian leather and library book binding.
In closing I will say that I am a creative and skilled wedding photographer that continually strives generate emotion and excitement in my bridal images. After all, wedding and bridal images can only captured once, don’t they deserve to be true fine art images?
Proud member of the following professional associations:
- Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
- Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI)
- Professional Photographers of Oregon (PPO)
- Portland Metropolitan Photographers Association (PMPA)