Bishop Desmond Tutu once said, “You don’t choose your family. They are a gift from God, as you are to them.” Tina Cardoso would agree with Bishop Tutu because her grandfather, Howard McPike, was a gift to her. Cardoso is a photographer and the owner of Howie Mac Photo in Riverview.
“Howie Mac Photo is named after my grandfather, Howard McPike,” Cardoso said. “My father passed when I was one and my mom moved us here to Brandon to live two doors down from my grandparents. My grandfather had a big impact in raising me, including my creative side. He was a retired Navy captain who was painting with Bob Ross and making beautiful artwork for his home. Our motto, ‘See all things with your heart, not just your eyes,’ came from a time when my grandfather taught me that I can paint the sun however I see it.”
In 2005, Cardoso began taking care of her grandfather.
“I stopped working to help him, and during that time I went back to school for photography,” Cardoso said. “I was blessed to be able to spend that special time with him, and also to photograph him during that time. In 2010, shortly after my daughter was born, I decided to open my photo company and name it after my grandfather, using his Navy nicknames—Howie and Mac. It’s a special reminder to me to see all things with my heart and not just my eyes. That’s how I photograph. I left my corporate career in November 2018 to do my full-time photo business and have been so in love with what I’m doing.”
With the recent COVID-19 pandemic, Cardoso wanted to use her photography skills to give back to the community. After much debate, she decided to do porch photo sessions and donate a portion of the proceeds from the sessions to ECHO.
“Honestly, I wasn’t going to do the porch sessions because of the stay-at-home order, but I’ve had so many requests for them,” Cardoso said. “I know that ECHO is working really hard to support families in our community by providing food to them. Their demand has increased dramatically with people losing their jobs and I want to do whatever I can to help. So, I decided to go ahead and move forward with them—taking all of the safety precautions and respecting the social distancing guidelines.”
If you would like to have a porch photo session done by Howie Mac Photo, you can visit its website at https://www.howiemacphoto.com/distancing-sessions to purchase a session.
The cost is $50 for a 10-minute session and three digitals you can choose. Clients can upgrade the session for $100, which will give them all of the final digital images (six+ images) and the extra $50 will be donated to ECHO.
Howie Mac Photo is located at 11292 Sullivan St. in Winthrop Town Centre in Riverview.
