My Baby Photos!

Eric Doggett

I discovered Eric Doggett while researching baby photography on Google. Eric actually has a few destinations you can check out. Doggett Studios is the home to his photography business and “the dog blog”. His two other sites are Shoot the Baby, dedicated to teaching parents how to take better pictures of their kids, and Box Office Baby where you can have a custom designed movie poster for birth announcements, birthdays, and more. What struck me most about Eric was his enthusiasm for social networking using podcasts and blogging.

MBP: Where did you grow up and goto school? Tell us about your career, background as a photographer and anything else you want to share?

ED: I grew up in the panhandle of Florida. During those teenage years, it was all about hanging out at the beach with friends. After graduation from the University of Tampa, I became a Lieutenant in the Air Force and had my first assignment at the Pentagon. It was a great way to see things happening up close! It was there that I learned about web design and Photoshop. After about 8 years in DC, my wife and I decided to move to Austin. At the time I was starting to do a lot of music composing for independent films and commercials. Austin was the perfect fit for this. In 2005, we had our first son, Brandon. This is when I started taking photography seriously, and have been shooting since then!

MBP: You are very creative with marketing yourself. How did you come up with the idea for Box Office Baby?

ED: When we found out that our second son, Trevor, was on the way, I wanted to do a really cool announcement. I ended up doing 2 different movie poster announcements. One announcing the pregnancy, and another announcing the name. The latter design (a football one) is actually available on BoxOfficeBaby.com. I had about 15 posters printed through my lab and mailed them out as the official announcement, and it was a big hit. Soon after, I was designing posters for other families, and Box Office Baby was born. For the company name, I liked the idea of the 3 words. Plus, the domain name was available, and that pretty much sealed the deal. I figured I had a good name when HBO (Home Box Office) wanted to review my trademark application. :)

Movie Poster Birth Announcement, Space Theme

MBP: Who does the art work for Box Office Baby?

ED: Currently I’ve done all the design work for the posters, although I am definitely open to adding more designers this year (that’s a hint for all of you design people out there!). They fall into two categories - photo shoots and illustrations. Each design tells a story, whether it’s about sports, music, etc. We all secretly have hopes and dreams for our children, and this is a way to share that with the world. I also try to work in some humor. For example, there’s a Vegas-themed design that says ‘What happened in Vegas won’t be staying in Vegas.’ I love adding some humor whenever I can! For each of the designs, parents can change out all of the text. We’ve preloaded each design with some traditional movie-poster-style text, but any or all of it can be changed. The best part for me is that these are all printed through my photo lab. They aren’t the traditional paper posters, but actual photographic prints mounted on a hard material called masonite. There’s a big quality difference there, and I was excited to be able to offer them that way.

Cat's Meow, Movie Poster Birth Announcement

MBP: You also produce some great podcast tips for teaching parents about photography. Tell the readers a little about how you put together the podcast (what software, equipment you use) Do you plan to produce more tips in 2009?

ED: Right before BoxOfficeBaby.com became live, we launched ShootTheBaby.com. This came out of my experience shooting my children and other people’s children over the years. I was starting to realize that there were little things that people could do with their camera, no matter how entry-level it was, to improve their shots. With ShootTheBaby.com, we’ve done video episodes as well as articles explaining ideas and how to apply them. In the beginning, there was a little bit of flack from the pro photographer community that I am part of. Some people thought I was teaching parents that they didn’t need to ever go to a pro again, and that’s not the case. There are certain things you will never be able to do with a pocket digital camera, for instance. But if that’s all you have access to, Shoot The Baby can help you improve your images. The video episodes were all shot with an HD camcorder and edited in Final Cut Pro. Since the launch of the new Canon 5D Mark 2 (with 1080p video support), I might start shooting some episodes with that! I’d like to expand the site in 2009 to have more content and include some articles contributed by other writers as well.

MBP: Can you tell us about one of your recent photography shoots at Doggett studios involving kids?

ED: The thing about shooting kids is that they are incredibly unpredictable. You might go into a shoot with a few ideas of things you want to try, whether they involve lighting, location, or posing. Ten minutes into the shoot things may go completely haywire, and you have to be able to roll with it! Surprisingly, this is where you get the best shots - kids being kids. In fact, I do less planning for these shoots than I used to. I am more interested in capturing them as they are. Here’s a little tip - when I want to get them to look at the camera, I simply point at the word ‘Canon’ on the camera and say ‘what does this say?’ or ‘can you read this?’. I usually get a good shot or two in that split-second that they are looking at it!

MBP: Lastly, if you could take your family on a vacation anywhere, where would you go and why?

ED: For our family, it’s all about Disney! We love going there, and it truly is the only family vacation we’ve been on where we were sad to leave - even after a week! It is indeed a special, magical place, and I am so happy that I’ve been able to take my boys there!

Watch one of Eric Doggett’s original Shoot the Baby podcast episodes- “Don’t Ruin It With Flash”

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