About Me

 

 

I’m Mark, and I love to take photographs.  If you’re here on this page, I’m guessing you want to know a little more about ME though, since ‘Mark Hopkins Photography’ pretty much implies I love photography.

I’m a lifelong Pacific Northwesterner, transplanted to the Seattle area when I was about 2.  That was quite a few summers ago.  I’m a father, a husband, an artist.  I have four boys, the youngest two, twins attending High School.  While I stay pretty busy with photography, I still work by day as an Application Engineer for a company based in Ohio, supplying application support for CAD/CAM systems to our local aerospace manufacturer (I’ll give you ONE guess).

When not taking photos… wait, I’m ALWAYS taking photos.  While not taking photos for CLIENTS, I enjoy a pretty wide (but typical) variety of activities.  Like watching my high school boys play football (and taking lots of photos of them).  Skiing with my sons.  Well, they snowboard, I still ski.  I occasionally get the chance to hit that little white ball in the spring and summer, but lately, not so much.  Camping and hiking are also on my list of favorite activities.

Our beautiful dog Georgia especially loves these activities too as she gets to be involved!  I sing, play guitar and piano, but my primary instrument was trumpet, playing lead most of my High School days.  I even had a short stint with the Everett Symphony and Youth Symphony.  My wife and I share a deep passion for music.  We have a few shows we enjoy on Netflix or the DVR, but usually the TV is off and we’re enjoying music.  Most anything from ABC to ZZTop, from Alternative to Zydeco, we love it all.  In fact, our iTunes collection has grown to well over 70,000 tracks.  I often bring music to sessions and can easily accommodate just about ANY taste for my clients.

 

 

 

 

I’ve had a passion for capturing images since my grandmother bought me my first camera:  a Kodak Instamatic X-15 with its bulky 126 film cartridge and big disposable flip flash! As a child, I would spend summers with my grandparents in Southern California, going on all kinds of adventures.  My grandmother would document the entire summer in photos and put them together in a summer album.  She was a scrapbooker WAY ahead of her time.  I always cherished those books and the images we captured together.

My passion grew, but it remained a quiet personal passion for many years.  I went through several 35mm cameras and SLRs, but a growing family and the demands of the same put my desire to create photographic art on the back burner.  But, kids get older and their daily needs diminish (at least in the sense of diapers and the like), becoming more independent.  I decided it was time to bring my passion more to the forefront.

I started “Mark Hopkins Photography” in 2010, and quickly become widely known in the area for my unique photographic art, and my ability to capture moments that often go unnoticed.  My passion is not only portraits and personal events (like weddings), but photographic and photographic/digital art.  My photographic art has been featured at the Edmonds Art Festival the last two years.  In fact, two of my three submissions were accepted my FIRST time submitting.  Something few artists can say they’ve done.  I am also currently a commissioner on the Mountlake Terrace Arts Advisory Commission, which oversees art and shows for the city.  This post has given me connections to many fantastic artists, in not only photography, but all other mediums as well.

 

I look at everything around me as if looking through the lens.  I’m forever framing shots, gauging light, chasing

shadows. Every blink is a snapshot. Every memory a photograph in my mind. I live to show you what I see with my photography.

In our digital world, photographs are everywhere, and anyone with a cell phone has a camera capable of taking great images.  Often times though, there’s more than just pointing your camera and turning light into pixels.  It’s reading the light, it’s sizing up the moment, and capturing the moment at the right time.

 

I like to bring a little bit of both traditional photography and processing styles and digital styles to my clients’ images.  Mixing both usual darkroom techniques (in a digital darkroom) and more advanced Photoshop techniques to give you a unique and personal gallery of memorable images.  I shoot entirely digital nowadays, as do most photographers, but like many, apply basic darkroom techniques to those images.  However, I love to step into the more ‘stylized’ imagery occasionally, giving you that unique touch that only artists can.

I’ve been told I’m easy going and relaxed (and not just by my wife!) which makes me very successful at capturing perfect portraits. My event clients tell me I blend in and move fluidly through even the toughest venues capturing a portfolio of images that are perfect for promotion. I enjoy people and the moments that make up our lives and memories, and I enjoy nothing more than capturing those moments for you.

 

 

If you’d like to know more, ALL consultations are FREE and without obligation.  I’m MORE than happy to talk to you in person over coffee or a glass of wine and learn about you and what YOU want out of your photographic experience.  Contact me to set up an in-person consultation.

 

 

Member of Professional Photographers of America

Commissioner on Mountlake Terrace Arts Advisory Commission
Kirkland, WA