Showcase of Excellence 2016

Jazz Bands, Jazz Hands, and walking tacos...

Last Saturday was another exciting Showcase of Excellence at Quincy Senior High School, here in Quincy. 

The construction for the new additions to the school made it a little more interesting to find rooms this year, but it was still a wonderful day, as always.

We enjoyed photographing all the groups, and now we have posted them for you to see, and to order prints and downloads for yourself! Hope you like them.

Showcase of Excellence 2015

What a difference! Unlike last year's "polar vortex", Showcase 2015 enjoyed mild weather and a much larger crowd. As always, the talent was phenomenal, and the energy was sky high!

We love being a part of Showcase of Excellence -- partly because we remember when our own kids were a part of it. (And by the way, you can see -- and purchase -- QHS music and theater pictures on our website going all the way back to 2002!)

See ALL of Showcase of Excellence 2015 HERE!

March Madness

March Madness has a whole different meaning for us here at Coonrod Photography!

It seems that whenever I see folks, they ask me, “How’s business?” 

So, since you asked…

February is always our slowest month. Valentine’s Day is in the middle, and we have our annual Soft Touch Valentine Special — but we try to do the actual Sessions in January, so that the finished portraits can be done and delivered before the 14th. Other than that, most people are huddled up at home trying to stay warm, not getting Portraits made.

Then comes March.

Joel and Adina - March 21, 2015

Dance Week with Vancil Performing Arts, Showcase of Excellence at Quincy High School, band pictures with the Parochial Music Organization, a wedding (congratulations Joel and Adina!), and pictures of Quincy Community Theatre’s production of Spamalot (can’t wait to see it!), are just a few of the little projects going on this month here at Coonrod Photography.

A couple of weeks ago, Jill was heard to say, “I’ll be glad when February is over and we have more to do… I like to keep busy.” 

Last night, (Thursday, March 12) as we finished the last of the dance pictures, she said, “Wow, I can’t believe how much work I’m going to have next week!”

In four days, we took 2532 exposures. Now to be fair, we won’t be delivering over 2500 pictures… normally, we take more than one exposure of each girl "just in case" — but it’s still a LOT of pictures.

Digital photography does not mean that we simply “print off” the camera’s memory card — all the images are downloaded to our server, archived against loss to DVDs, and then corrected for perfect color and exposure. Jill looks at every single image and picks the best one of each individual, then does any “touch-ups” that need to be made. As I am writing this, she is at her Photoshop workstation working on a young dancer who seems to have been involved in a Sharpie incident on her arms… (A lot of people assume that re-touching only involves fixing acne on teenagers and wrinkles on people my age… not so!) We also do a fair amount of digitally removing stray sequins and feathers that end up littering the floor by the end of the night. Sometimes, we even create the "perfect group photo" by combining two or three images into one, so that each and every individual is smiling at the camera, all at the same time.

Most of our dancers order “Memory Mates” — a combination image that has both the group, and an individual pose. We choose not to use the same template for all, but rather to customize each one to compliment the costumes in each dance, and of course, that also takes extra time and effort.

It’s probably not necessary to take as much care as we do on simple dance pictures, but we take the same pride (and offer the same guarantee) in all our work, not just the big weddings or large family wall portraits.

Tonight (Friday) we will be setting up lights in the High School library for tomorrow’s Showcase of Excellence. From 8AM, until early evening, we will photograph each Jazz Band and Show Choir for dozens of schools all across Illinois, Missouri, and Iowa, Tuesday will be pictures at the Dress Rehearsal of Spamalot, and then a wonderful wedding next weekend!

The weather’s getting warm, Spring is nearly here, and it’s time to get really busy! Soon we’ll be heading back outside for all kinds of outdoor portraits of children and seniors and families. One of those portraits could be yours… all you have to do is give us a call!

Showcase and Spamalot pictures may be viewed and purchased online — watch for them HERE.

If you are a Vancil Performing Arts parent, your Dance pictures will be done in a few weeks. You will receive notification at dance practice when they are ready, and we will announce it on Facebook. If you “LIKE” and “FOLLOW” our page, you should get the notification on your timeline. Dance pictures are picked up here at our studio.

QHS "Showcase of Excellence - 2014"

Saturday marked the 14th year for our studio to participate in Quincy Senior High School’s Showcase of Excellence. What a lot of memories and fun we have had over the years! The Coonrod sons have not participated for many years now, but every time Showcase rolls around it reminds us of the time when we were Showcase Parents, not just the photographer…

This year, the weather did not cooperate and attendance may have been down somewhat, but the talent on display was as big as ever.

Showcase is an exciting and fun day for everyone who participates as a performer, as a spectator, or as a volunteer — the QHS Music Department never ceases to amaze us with the quality of it’s productions.

As always, we photographed LOTS of Jazz Bands and Show Choirs, and enjoyed every minute of it. If you were a performer, you’ve probably already got your pictures, but some left early because of the impending weather, and didn’t wait around to pick up pictures. If you did not pick yours up at the event, don’t worry, we will mail them to you right away.

AND… if you left before you had a chance to even order your pictures (or if you want some more), FEAR NOT! You can still order pictures online (Just CLICK HERE).

In fact, we are often reminded that not everyone knows this, but you can order ANY picture from ANY Showcase, all the way back to 2002, from our online store. 

Our next scheduled Music/Theater event is the Quincy Community Theatre’s production of “The 25th Annual Putnam County Spelling Bee”, which will be presented March 13-16 and 20-23 at the Oakley Lindsay Center. Subscribe to this Blog, or “Like” and "Follow" our Facebook page to receive notifications when we post the pictures.

After that will be one of our favorite events of the year, QHS New Faces in early April! Watch for it.

Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord

On Friday, we saw the Quincy Community Theatre's production of "Godspell" with a group of friends. Since we photographed the dress rehearsal, and saw the preview show with the church youth group, this makes the third time to see this particular production.

The show is great, and I found myself singing along (in my mind) to most of the songs, and remembering most of the words, since we sang them in high school chorus back in the dawn of time.

Fine performance, great set, and fun costumes all made a very enjoyable evening.​

​John the Baptist sings, "Prepare Ye the Way of the Lord"

​"Turn the other cheek"

"​You are the Light of the World"