• Excellence is a Family Affair

    October 21, 2022 | PTC News

    Commercial Photography program graduate and SkillsUSA gold medalist Michael Cason is a second-generation photographer.  His father, Don Cason, recently shared the family's success story with program instructor Michael Landes.  Please enjoy this look into a legacy of photographic success for this family.

    All photos accompanying this article are of or by Michael Cason.  

    I’ll be 70 years old this year.  I guess you could say my career started in college.  I was a staff photographer for the school newspaper, year book and literary magazine.   Like many, I entered college not really knowing what I would be doing as a career.  

    Photography and art was a passion beginning at a young age.  My mother always had a painting started on an easel or a pottery piece ready to be fired in the kiln.  Art books were everywhere in the house..  My brother gifted me as a teenager with a Olympus 35mm split frame camera.  This, of course, led to the need to have a darkroom, allowing me to process and print my own work.  I was hooked.  

    My English professor, Nancy White, also the advisor for the college publications who I had the honor of knowing and working with, arranged my introduction to William Stoeltzing, who owned Bryan Alan studios in Tampa. Bryn Alan was one of the largest studios in the south east.  The studio was known for photographing the elite of Tampa society, business leaders and had most of the high school contracts for photographing senior portraits in the state.  A 13-year-apprenticeship by a classically trained portrait photographer and brilliant business person,  Bill Stoeltzing.  I was eventually absorbed into management, being responsible for training new photographers, equipment procurement for the other studios in the state and, of course, my photographic responsibilities.  Seems exhausting thinking back, but what a training ground.

    The glamour photography craze began about the time I felt I needed to leave Bryn Alan.  Amy Cason and I saw an opportunity working with Mary Kay cosmetics doing glamour portraits of their clients. Eventually, working with over 30 Mary Kay directors throughout the state, we had a staff of 4 photographers, including myself, doing glamour portraits.  This launched Cason Photography. Amy and I ran the business out of a small two-bedroom apartment doing all the glamour photography at the Mary Kay meeting rooms.  

    We wanted to build our family portrait business.  We started doing baby portraits at Babies R Us in Tampa.  We ended up having business in multiple Babies R Us stores in Florida.  This helped fuel the family portrait business.

    My first studio was at Tampa Bay Mall, which I shared with another photographer, Robert Sargent of Sargent Photography, which generated a lifelong friendship.  After a couple of years at the mall, Bob and I moved into separate studios.  

    Cason Photography evolved into doing about 300 sessions a year of family and children’s portraits.  We had a mini gallery in Citrus Park mall and International Plaza for marketing.  We also did marketing at local art shows, all of which Amy was responsible for.

    We were then introduced to charity events as a marketing tool and simply a good way of supporting the community that supported us.

    We were contacted by Make a Wish asking for a donation to their upcoming gala.  Having my work on display at the silent auction led to other charities contacting us to participate in their events.

    Finding another niche, we evolved again, now specializing in environmental family portraits. Having created a desire on the part of the client to go outdoors, the studio work dwindled and we found the need for the studio was no longer necessary to do business. That continues to today.

    I’ll probably continue doing portraits as long as I physically can.  However, my son Michael has inspired me to explore the world of landscape photography. Michael finally decided to make photography his career.  He spent two great years at Pinellas Technical College in the Commercial Photography program, under the tutelage of Michael Landes.

    This was a wonderful decision on the part of my son.  He obviously has been exposed to my work over the years, but PTC and Mr. Landes gave him a broader view of the world of photography and allowed him to stretch his wings.  

    Michael and I have spent many hours exploring the coastlines and rivers of Florida photographically.  We are now marketing our landscape art.

    Michael has started his own business, Chasing The Light Fine Art Photography.  We also intend to start a YouTube channel chronicling our adventures by land and boat here in Florida and hopefully throughout the US.

    How many people at 70 would be exploring a new career, plus having the pleasure of working with your child, seeing him grow everyday as a person, a photographer and business owner?  I guess I have my cake and can eat it too.