WPPI 2009.

Stands for Wedding & Portrait Photographers
International. It's the biggest trade show/party
in the industry and perhaps even on the planet!
Unfortunately, it seems to always comes on either the
heels or the toes of our annual vacation so I always
miss it. Sounds like everyone is there (according to my
facebook page), it's always tauted as the "who's who"
of my industry. There are always a TON of awesome speakers,
classes, location shoots, product releases and deals not to
mention the late night "networking"! ;)
Megan Bearder and I were talking last night and we think
it's high time she and I go...so NEXT year.
(btw, Sawer (aka "the Bear") was finally located and returned!)

The count down is at 4 today so that means that I'd better
find a suit SOON! Guys have it so easy...shorts, done, duh!



This is Nedi's home where we spent a couple of
long afternoons in front of the spanish/english-
english/spanish dictionaries and downed a LOT
of beer! Love these people...this is Nedi's new home.
WE bought them a new oscillating fan as a house
warming present (um yeah, we had to explain that
American tradition to them!)



This,of course, is Hotel Mimi del Mar!
Our room will be one of the two front end
rooms with the big balcony. LOVE it there!
SUPER laid back...if you stay there, please
tell them that Susan and Gary Austin sent you!



If you need a winter warm up, be sure to visit the
PLAYA BEACH CAM to the right under "check these out"!

I've been invited to join in on a wedding shoot on the
28th down in Playa, VERY honored and excited. I guess that
means I have to bring more equipment! oops, sorry Gary!
Here's a few from 2 years ago...





Oh, and my dives are scheduled for Tuesday and Wednesday!

Peace.

Stillwater Shoot 2008

Okay, first of all I must mention that it
was indeed NOT the Mississippi (even tho'
it's fun to spell!), after the shoot we
headed out aboard the Jubilee II on the
St. Croix river. I have NO idea what I was
thinking when I posted the Mississippi
but I just wanted to get that "blonde
moment" out of the way. You know, St. Croix,
Mississipi...220, 221, whatever it takes...
There.

No matter, we had the best day to shoot
around Stillwater. First we worked our
magic on the rooftop of the Public Library
then we moved to a park near by and the Museum
with a pretty cool wall and like this old, round,
gunnery thing with some mighty great lighting.
Thanks to Mark Kiefer for arranging for and
leading this model shoot.
Here are some shots from yesterday...
















It was really fun to go out and just shoot.
I would love to go soon and do it again!
Any takers!? Contact me via e-mail.

Minnesota Twins Baseball.

Today will mark my 4th annual event with
my buddy, Jim Werdin and his Access Insurance
Agency. He puts together a day of Fun, Family,
Baseball, Food, Silent Auction and a Live
Auction to throw out the first pitch to the
highest bidder with the proceeds going to
the Miracles of Mitch Foundation!
Great people, great cause!

Last night I finally got to say hello to
Sandy (Sam) Puc' (pronounced "puch").
Heather Lombardo and I recruited photographers
all evening from all over the country.
It was amazing and I was so proud to be
a part of such a fabulous organization
representing a priceless, selfless gift.

Sam's presentation was flawless (aside from
the sound issue which they corrected).
She and her team worked fast and furious to
set up & deliver some crazy great ideas,
marketing, posing, equipment, props...it
was all perfect! My mind never wandered and
altho' I was in the front row (with Jason
Thon & Heather...I saved us great seats!),
this went until after 11 and with little
breaks. It was easily one of my top 5 photo
lectures I've ever attended. Seriously!









I have a new friend in my life and her
name is Sam Puc'.

Thanks.

Flying out this morning.

Okay, so I'm heading to Chicago this morning.
I haven't packed. Don't know which gear I
want to bring along on this short trip.
And now I'm blogging. Hmmm, is there such a
thing as "B/A"...Bloggers Anonymous? Probably.
Oh, and my tabs, I see, on my car expired the
other day....details, details....

Well, I'll get back in touch with an update
later. Or you can just check my twitter as
that may be easier for me this trip.
Twitter may actually save me in the future.
It's not as involved as blogging and you can
only type like 140 characters per deal.

I'm really bummed that I can't twitter from
my phone...the iphone and at&t aren't working
it for me!

more later.
enjoy the warm up!

Victor Sizemore

I was so impressed with Victor Sizemore.
He flew to town from SoCal to speak at
my TCPPA meeting last night.

As usual, I plopped down in the front row
and listened to him talk about how he
got started and what he's done to get
where he is now...and quite successfully,
I must add.

I won a CD of "Totally Rad" actions for
being the only one in attendance that
uses a Mark III...lucky me! I'm going to
have fun with those! (Victor shoot with
a Canon Mark 3)..Oh, the value on the
actions $149! Altho' I feel it's priceless!

It was really great to meet him and when
he asked if anyone had any questions,
I raised my hand and said.."I'm wondering
if you will need another person with a
Mark 3 to go along with you in August to
shoot the wedding in Tokyo?! ;)
Victor said..."Ya never know!"
hmmmmm..I say, "kanpai!"
I HAD to ask!!

Thanks Victor, for coming out and
enlightening our group of local photographers!
And for the record, I'll pay my way to LA
for the August Tokyo wedding! :)

DAVISimpact

So here's the poop...I wrote this yesterday...


.....(Hey, Bob Davis sent me a valentine yesterday!
Okay, not really. BUT I did receive his DVD that
I ordered a short time ago. Haven't sat down to
view it yet...I know, TOTALLY not me...it's just
that my vacation deadline is drawing near and I
want my desktop clean when I leave.
It'll be like coming home to a clean house! :)

I'll report on it when I get the opportunity to
take a look at it. I'm really excited to sit
down and be inspired! Maybe I'll reformat it and
load it on my iPhone and watch it on the plane!

Have I mentioned lately how much I love my iPhone?).....

*****************************************************
Now on to some fresh material...

Big day yesterday.
**Finished Amanda & Marks images....YAY!
**Went to the Hilton to photograph 2 Minnesota Miracle
cancer families checking in.
**On my way home from that my iPhone (that I love!)
froze up on me and got all hot from being on so
I stopped at the Apple store at the MOA and the
Genius Bar wait was like TWO HOURS! So I kept on
my way and went to Southdale's Apple store and they
fixed it in a nano second!



**Lastly, on my way home from Southdale I got a call
from Heather. I was her last and only hope to take
a session up at North Memorial Hospital in Robinsdale.
So I whipped around and met the most wonderful family.
I met them in the Chapel where they were having a
visitation with friends and family. They lost twin
boys at about 24 weeks. There was an awful lot of
love in that tiny hospital chapel.
Then I followed the mom & dad to their room where I
photographed the sweet twins....



need I ask for you to
take a moment and pray for this family and their
devastating loss??? Thank you!


I'll be heading to Mike & Kindra's to photograph
Reese in a minute and then back to the Hilton to
take some MOMF board member family photos then
it out for a night on the town with Gary, my brother,
Tim and his wife Laurie..dinner & comedy.
I think I need that! ;)

Love to all far and near,
Come tomorrow morning, I'll meet 'cha back here!
(hu, I just made that up. I'm a poet and I.....
naaaa, I wont' go there.

See ya!

Happy Valentine's Day!

(the jib jab I added at about 3:45pm!)

Don't send a lame Valentine's Day eCard. Try JibJab Sendables!

Today I woke up to the sound of plows.
First from one direction, then the other.
Not my favorite way to wake up, I must say.
However, once I got to the kitchen there were
2 Valentines and a big Ghiradelli Chocolate bar
(72%..my favorite!) on the counter!
It's not just for breakfast anymore! ;)

Not wanting to brush the cards aside,
I opened them first!

Here's the one from Gary....



Nice sentiment...NOT our anniversary tho'.
Gary said, "WHAT!?? I even had my glasses on!"
I love you any way honey!

And here's one from the Cats!



The inside reads "...and we might even come
when you call us next time...love, the cats"

Thanks Hobie & Katie for thinking of me! :)

So I decided rather last minute to attend
a lecture/seminar by a fella named
Bruce Hudson from C@L (that's Seattle!).
It was entitled New Directions/Reality Check Tour.
Anyway, it was a packed room and much was covered.
From marketing, finding the right clients and
how to make certain that all the consumers with
the new technology don't take anything away
from us. The new technology is great, don't
get me wrong. But what you do with it sets
us apart. It's about relationships and rapport.
It's about composition and light. It's about
understanding the needs of the client and
delivering.

So many new photographers offer CDs to their clients.
Bruce tells us that those are NOT our clients.
These are OUR images and we should protect them.

I tell people that this is my profession, not
my hobby. I want to provide quality, long lasting,
heirloom images that people are proud to display.

I resolve to welcome those looking for family
portraits every 5 years, I want to capture a
precious babies entire 1st year, I want to show
the world how important even Kindergarten
Graduation is and how beautiful our teens are
as they prepare to head off to college.
Weddings, oh my God, Weddings...I hate to even
get started with Wedding Photography.
I think I'll post an entry another day about that.

These are all perfect times for us to be sure
that our clients recognize that these images
are priceless...even before someone dies.

Bottom line here, folks, is...Do I want people
to seek me out because I'm a good deal? No.
I pray that I can develop relationships with people.
I want to be the person that they think of first
when something special is about to happen.
I've been doing it for more that a quarter century
with hair, so I know a little bit about rapport.
(Thanks to all the generous people that have stuck
by me all these years!).

Wow! Sorry for the rambling soap box....that was
not my intension. But, now you know how I really feel!

Here's Bruce (left) and his son, NOT drawing my name!



Dave Johnson of National Camera...Hi Dave!
Thanks for all the great deals!!



Here's Chad, the bartender at the new Hilton
in Bloomington off France & 494.
Bruce came in the bar, I was there really early
(traffic did NOT suck for once) and he insisted
on picking up the tab for my Cabernet! Thanks Bruce,
GREAT show! A fabulous way to spend5 hours!! :)
And congrats on the new house, enjoy your week off!



Happy Valentine's Day everyone!
Eat just a tiny bit of chocolate today.

Or go HERE for some fun!

Blogger is limiting

I have just been made aware that the images that
I post (and it's been the same for almost 2 years),
are too large and that's why they keep disappearing~
much to my dismay and surprise as you can imagine.
So in the future I will size them more appropriately
so that they don't keep leaving those lovely little
boxes, lines, "?" and such. Noted.

Okay, so last night I joined a bunch of my PUG folk
in a little "shoot & share", if you will.
We met at Excelsior's Mount Calvary Church on 19 in
the sanctuary and flopped into the pews and began
discussing our approaches to shooting ceremonies.
Everything from settings to where we like to position
ourselves and what light modifiers we prefer.



Then Stacey & Jason posed as Bride & Groom and
we made a few test runs...



And then shared our shots with one another.
It was great fun...REALLY!



Then we headed down Water St. to Jake O'Connor's
for a little late bite & some libations and more
discussion. It was really nice to get out of the studio
and have that field trip feeling we had when we were
kids..only no bus, and instead of cookies & milk we
got to have wine, beer, mini filet mignon sandwiches
and really good chicken tenders!! ;)

I posted a similar entry on my PUG blog this morning.

Here's more images from my trip to Mexico with my
sister's family last March...

Ben's version for Bed Jump



This became a nightly ritual (Thanks Pete!)






Ben leading the way down 5th Ave...



Ben, Emily & Amanda..Can't wait for all the
new fun we're gonna have this year!!!
Let the fan games begin!!

top jobs...

i saw this article yesterday and i thought
i'd pass it on in case you are thinking about
a job change....here are the 12 jobs and why
they are indestructible. interesting.

well, now that i know some of my income is safe...
i was at a lecture last night that from
the looks of the attendance, many people missed!
too bad. bruce dorn and his wife maura dutra, who
own iDC photography, spoke about their
lives as photographers now and how it has
changed over the last 6 years as the influx of
people coming into the photography market with
digital cameras, calling themselves photographers.

how do you set yourself apart? do you study other
people's works? do you create your own works and
push yourself? i feel as though i am a blend, really.

bruce and maura are both incredibly established,
accomplished, award winning artists that held my
attention for 4, nearly straight, hours.
these are real people with real talent and again,
like most of the folks i run into in this industry,
are willing to share their experiences, ideas and
equipment designs with other professionals.

the lighting techniques that bruce shared were such
that i could begin to implement them right away with
little or no investment. i did order, from him, a
muslin reflector that i should have in a day or two.
it just bounces a softer, a tad warmer light. i'm
going to love that thing! i'll shoot some samples
when it arrives.

bruce's wife, maura dutra, is a corell painter expert!
MAN! this is crazy, fun stuff. i could really get
into that! i am an artist at heart and could really
see taking an image and transforming it into a work
of art...literally! however, gary already thinks i spend
too much time at my computer!

i've got to go and prepare 5~8x10's for print competition
critique (tonight's tcppa event). next month i will
prepare the images in 16x20 form for the actual competition.

thanks for sitting with me last night, david jones
& bjorn miesner. i'll take good notes at the liz banfield
PUG meeting on tuesday evening.

change is good!

black was bringing me down and to
be frank this is the time of year,
it seems, that i make changes in my
life (except my divorce in may of
'92 which just simply couldn't wait!)
besides, i wanted this to resemble
my new website that i am currently
working on changing as well.
hope you like it.

i attended the most aMAzing seminar
last night. i don't even know where
to start. this was a jam~packed
3 1/2 hour program! all about light
creatively demonstrated by clay blackmore
and some incredible photoshop wizardry
by a woman by the name of jane conner-ziser.
if you could not attend last night i
strongly recommend that you find another
city so that you not miss this opportunity!
click here and go. don't miss it!

okay, i have to share that i got
an e-mail from a bride whose wedding
i shot in august for bella. she found
me and sent me a really lovely thank you.
she discovered that i was local and
intends on sending everyone my way directly.
pretty cool! thanks nikki, you are
sincerely welcome!!