The Photon Foundry

My photography has evolved from a hobby into a profession.  Thirty years ago, I built a home studio and darkroom and cranked out portraits for family and friends.  I learned the technical side of photography back then.  I drifted away from photography as my kids grew up and the tedium of wet chemistry stopped being fun.  Since I retired from my engineering career last year, photography has become my passion.

Now I run The Photon Foundry.  The name comes from the fact that I capture the photons that reflect off a beautiful person, and use Photoshop to “cast” those photons into a stunning image.

I have a full studio in my home fully outfitted with backgrounds, strobes, props and other accessories.  Weather permitting, I like to work outside.  There are many beautiful outdoor locations near my Naperville home.

My commercial work involves producing head shots, product shots and location shots for web sites.  The fun part of The Photon Foundry is creating images for the models I meet on MM.

This is my seventh year on Model Mayhem.  I have met and worked with some great models.  I look forward to meeting more models and building our portfolios.

This is a collaborative effort.  I pride myself on producing beautiful images and delivering them to the model.  We work together and share ideas.

The models that I work with get their images very quickly and they have control of the process.  They generally have the images to review the same day as the shoot.  My practice is to set up a password-protected web site on my server for each model.  Right after the shoot, I create full resolution jpegs from my camera raw files and upload them to the site.  The model then has an opportunity to review the shots and make selections.  After receiving comments from the model on the site or by e-mail, I edit the selected shots and upload the edits to the site.  This is all done within days, not weeks.  I enjoy working with Photoshop almost as much as I enjoy shooting.  The images that I deliver do not have my logo or watermark on them.  I appreciate getting credit for the images, but that's up to the model.  I don't like to deface a beautiful image with my credit line.

The model will need to sign a release, but she will receive a full, although non-exclusive, license to use all of the images.

I like to think of my style in terms of a magazine's style.  The style that I hope to emulate is not Playboy or FHM or Maxim.  If I had to pick a magazine, it would be Vanity Fair.  I want the images I produce to celebrate a woman's beauty and style.  The women in my images are beautiful and a bit sexy, but not erotic.  I will not shoot anything that is degrading.

If this is a style that interests you, send me a message.  You can message me in MM, or preferably to rich@thephotonfoundry.com.

Rich Cullen