Our New Metro Detroit Photography Studio, "White House Studio" in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan

Jwhitephoto and Octane Photographic Studio have left the building! Well, The Ferndale Center Building that is!

We accomplished many objectives in Ferndale with the help of my late, great and awesome business partner, Jeffrey Matlock. The list includes: 7 years of exhibiting local and national photographers, artists and musicians at our art gallery shows. This includes photographers just starting out — which eventually became our competition. If you made it to our celebrity photographer shows of Lance Mercer (Pearl Jam), FireFish (Iggy Pop) or our infamous “Motor City Rocks and Rolls” shows (photos by Detroit photographers of Detroit-made autos and Detroit musicians) you know that if the walls of our studio could talk, it would be an interesting story indeed!

I also worked with the Ferndale Downtown Development Authority for 9 years capturing images for marketing, social media, and advertising to attract businesses and customers to the city of Ferndale. I personally worked as a volunteer for the “Cityscape Arts Planning Program” and the “Ferndale Preserve America Grant Execution Committee.” The City of Ferndale in conjunction with the DDA was awarded funds from the National Parks Service to implement a wayfinding program city wide. The committee’s role was to develop a RFP (Request For Proposal) for professional services to assess and inventory existing wayfinding elements (historic and non), identify areas of improvement, and develop a cohesive design and “brand” for Ferndale, Michigan.

While in Ferndale I also captured photography for local publications, such as HOUR Magazine, DBusiness, Real Detroit Weekly, Xtreme Magazine, The Detroit News, The Detroit Free Press, Birmingham Magazine, ORBIT…..

I also did quite a bit of pro bono work attempting to get the Michigan Film Incentives and our community of actors, designers, set builders and creatives together to take advantage of the opportunities it created, but our current Governor decided the film incentives were “stupid” — most likely because he is one tough nerd — and well, you know, f— him but I really don’t want to get political.

Ferndale gave me my start and I am forever grateful for that. My DNA can be found throughout the studio and the city. My sweat, blood and tears are long in that space and place.

The cool news is our new studio, “White House Studio” is just a half mile north of our old location at 9 Mile Road and Woodward. We are located at 23647 Woodward Avenue in Pleasant Ridge, Michigan, just south of I-696 on the west side of Woodward.

Pics of our new digs are below. One thing I won’t miss about our old location is the parking and the 4 o’clock Monday war protestors and bearded hipsters. Let’s bring back the 80s, Giddy Up.