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Featured
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In The News
Our Exchange With a Soldier in Iraq Makes The News |
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 As
printed in the High Point Enterprise, May 25, 2005.
By Jimmy Tomlin.
Graphik Dimensions sent about 30 professionally framed photos
and posters to help decorate the new headquarters of Dwayne
Melson's unit in Tikrit, Iraq, and he found a very special way
to show his appreciation.
HIGH POINT - A local company's goodwill gesture for a U.S. soldier
in Iraq has employees flying high after he sent them an American
flag in return. The 3 1/2-by-7-foot flag, which was flown over
Iraq during a combat mission, has been framed and now hangs
in the break room of Graphik Dimensions.
"It's probably the coolest gift I and we have ever gotten,"
says Robyn Feinsod, who handles marketing and communications
for the High Point company. Feinsod received the flag from helicopter
pilot Dwayne Melson of the 36th Medical Evacuation Battalion,
a Fort Hood, Texas unit based in Tikrit, Iraq. Enclosed with
the flag was a letter of authenticity, signed by Melson and
his commanding officer. "I flew this flag myself in a UH-60
Blackhawk MEDEVAC helicopter on a combat mission," Melson
wrote in a thank-you note. "...Your flag has been to all
four corners of Iraq."
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Melson sent the flag after Graphik Dimensions' Web-based company, PictureFrames.com, donated about 30 professionally framed photos and posters to help decorate the new headquarters of Melson's unit. He had e-mailed PictureFrames.com
requesting a few frames. "He said the walls were bare and the place was very depressing-looking, and he was just trying to make it feel more like home," Feinsod recalls. |
Helicopter Pilot Dwayne
Melson of the 36th Medical
Evacuation Battalion
based in Tikrit, Iraq. |
"He said the frames could even be defects - they didn't have to be perfect. It was a very humbling request, and it was absolutely something we wanted to do." PictureFrames.com offered to send self-mounting frame kits for some artwork that had already been donated.
Then Feinsod encouraged Melson to send some digital images of his unit for framing, too. "We have a new 'Print & Frame' service that enables us to enlarge and edit digital imagery, print it on premium paper and then mat and frame it in the products we offer," she says. "This way, we helped personalize the space with images that show them as the heroes they are."
Melson e-mailed dozens of images - of himself, his unit, helicopters, a Mardi Gras celebration his unit held, and photos of Christmas with his family during his most recent visit home. According to Feinsod, PictureFrames.com personnel framed about 30 images. "They were mostly 8-by-10s," she says. "We didn't do huge ones, because we didn't know what kind of wall space they had."
The company shipped most of the framed pictures to Melson's unit in Tikrit, but the framed Christmas images were sent to Melson's wife, Kim, in Killeen, Texas. Feinsod followed up with Melson to make sure the framed images had arrived, and he told her he was delighted with them. "He said they really perked the place up," she says. Feinsod thought that was the end of it, until a few weeks ago, when the flag arrived in the mail. "It was really sweet and generous, and completely unexpected and unwarranted," she says.
"You do things because it's the right thing to do. But when there's a really clear appreciation, you're even more humbled by it."
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Spring Photo Contest Winner
"Fishing Sunrise" by Jeanne Towne of Wadsworth, Ohio! |
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“I’ve got nine grandchildren -- now there’s a source of photos! Of course, you have to be judicious & take photos of them all!” |
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Who:
Jeanne Towne, Medical Technologist, Mother of Four, Grandmother
of Nine and “Avid Hobbyist” Photographer, from Ohio,
who never goes anywhere without her “trusty digital camera.”
How did you capture such an inspiring and serene moment?
I take a lot of pictures to get the ones I like. After shooting
about 300, I come up with maybe 5 or 6 I really like and a few
more that other people like.
In
this instance, it was really a case of the right place at the
right time. I go out at sunrise and that’s usually
when the fishermen are out. I think that’s even
the second time I caught that man on film. I was playing
with the aperture and the framing (you know, one step to the
right… two steps to the left…) and he held still,
so I got lucky.
How did you become such a passionate and skilled photographer?
When my kids got interested in it and started taking classes at school they took my camera, which gave me the perfect excuse to go out and buy a digital for myself.
What really got me into it was my mother, though. She’s supreme ‘Mother Nature’ and gave me a huge appreciation for flowers… sunrises… birds. She has about a hundred acres on a mountain and she just keeps moving things around, from one side of the mountain to the other – she’s constantly rearranging her mountain!
She’s 94 now and still goin’ strong, but about 5 years ago, she developed macular degeneration, which has been making it harder and harder for her to actually see all this nature that she loves so much. So, I became a documenter for my mom and started branching out with my photography and getting really close-up with my macro lens so she could see the flowers all around her again.
What does the photographic future hold for you?
Part of what’s great about [working as a medical technologist], is that I work the second shift, 2-11 p.m., simply because it lets me get out during daylight and take pictures. I don’t get home ‘til midnight, but I can get up at 5 a.m. and still catch a sunrise with my camera, which I love! And if I do that, I’m “up” for the day and it’s a good day all day.
I’ve been compiling a portfolio and just starting printing some of [my photographs] out. And, I’ve begun entering shows. I haven’t managed to be “professional” yet. I have sold a few of my photographs, but mostly they’re gifts. I’d say I’m an avid hobbyist. If I could find something where I could travel and take photos and make a living from it that would be nice. I’m hoping that when I retire in about 10 years I’ll be able to start going to all these craft shows and selling my work. I could probably start doing that now, but it’s really about getting up the nerve to pay for a booth… I’m a little bit chicken. Of course, winning something like this certainly does a lot for your confidence, so who knows?
What’s your next framing project with us?
My son put a 40 gig hard drive on my computer and it’s just full of photos, waiting to be framed. But, I have a dock at sunrise that will probably be next. My son and his wife are into ‘beach things,’ and that’s one I’d like to give them as a gift.
Anything else you’d like to share?
I’ve been a customer since my son was in school and he was entering all his watercolors and images into the art shows. His teacher gave us the info about Graphik Dimensions Ltd.[the parent company of PictureFrames.com] -- way back in ’89-’90, I think. When I got into photography it was a natural progression for me, and then your Personal Frame Shop where I could see my photos with a mat and frame, was incredible.
I know that some people like to match their mat and frame to their décor, but, to me, the mat and frame are an extension of the photo… a nice double-mat that pulls out a color in the photo can really turn it into something special. So, to see how it all looks in Personal Frame Shop, has been an amazing thing!
Finally, what did you think when you found out you’d won our Spring Photo Contest?
I was absolutely thrilled! I had to e-mail all of my kids! I was like, ‘Hey guys -- somebody actually liked my pictures!’ My son, the artist (he’s a black & white photographer), was especially impressed.
I’ve never entered anything digitally before, but I was really hoping people would see the photograph the way I see it. You can look at a picture and see just a guy fishing… or the way the light comes in… and the way the fog comes up around him. I love it when people appreciate what I see.
Thank you, I'm very pleased that you enjoyed my pictures and more than pleased to have won!
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 Photo
Contest runners-up were
Dianne Wilson (left) and Mary Alice Valvoda (right). |
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Thanks to everyone who participated!
Click on the photos to see larger views.
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