Welcome to the world, Tyler!

My new friend, Tyler Matthew, came into this world on February 20, 2010 at 12:37 PM. Welcome, Tyler! We all have been waiting for you! :) See, Tyler's mommy is a dear friend of mine who works at my favorite reception site, the Wadsworth Mansion! We have been waiting for Tyler a long time! And he made it worth the wait!

How absolutely cute is this little one?

I was so excited to photograph this little 2 week old...and had so many ideas! Just about every idea went straight out the window because this was literally the only five minutes he slept! I was amazed with how alert this little one is!

We're putting him to work - he's calling up all of the Wadsworth brides that have morning weddings (not sure if he's allowed to stay up late for an evening wedding)! :)

Congratulations to proud parents, Kristy and Jared!

Changes are a-coming!

Going along with my overflowing inspiration from WPPI - I made a few purchases from the trade show! (I'm a sucker for a great deal...especially one that will help make my day run smoother!) I'd like to share some of the new fun items and programs!!

first off, I am so very excited to be a GREENER photographer! We now have all of our contracts, checklists, and correspondence is online with ShootQ! All of our clients (current and future!) will be able to access their payment schedules, contracts (new clients only), correspondence, and more online! each couple will get a unique code for their wedding and they can access that at any time. I'm also pleased that it will streamline my workflow! We're hoping to have ShootQ completely live tomorrow to offer to potential and new couples!

Now, on to the goodies!

I am now a retailer of SnapTotes -- where you can turn your photos into super cute bags, pillows, wallets, etc! I'll post some pics soon when I get in my samples!

I am also a retailer of Celebrations 3D - I think this is the coolest in the world!! As a child of the 80's, I used to love my Viewmaster! How cool is it that it's available for your own photos? wow!! Samples are coming really soon for these (and I think I need to hide them from my kids too...)!

I am also patiently waiting for Fed Ex to bring me my new ShootSac! FINALLY, I found a bag that can hold my stuff without killing my back and making me bend like I'm pregnant!! Anyone want to guess which one I ordered? ;) I'll post pics when it comes in!!

And finally, for my camera friends...I am doing it...I am getting the 70-200 2.8L lens...this is a debate I have been having with myself for the past year...I spoke with MANY photographers and the time has come to get it! It's insulting, but B&H has it for $50 off (I still think they forgot a zero)...I think that's going to be my best deal! But I will have it by the end of the month (still taking deep breaths...)!!

I am very excited with the new additions and I'm looking forward to helping streamline our workflow! Please let us know your thoughts on any of the above!

WPPI In Vegas

As most of you know (ok, everyone on Facebook...some of you here...), I was in Las Vegas last week for WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International). I was honored to be one of almost 15,000 photographers in attendance...yes, I said 15 THOUSAND! This was my first WPPI conference, but not my first wedding event conference, so I sort of knew what to expect.

What I didn't expect was waiting for classes! First day, I waited twenty minutes for the wrong class...just to find out that class was full. So I got in the right line and was cut off...6th in line. UGH! OK, lesson learned!
Can anyone guess how long I had to wait for classes? ONE HOUR! Sounds bad? Not really! I had a chance to meet some wonderful new photographer friends! I met some Vegas photographers (oddly enough, none of which were wedding photographers!), a woman from Utah, a woman from NJ. We all had some great conversations to make the wait go by quicker!

Was it worth it? ABSOLUTELY! I saw some fantastic speakers! My Platform favorites were:
Kevin Kubota - so unbelievably inspirational and motivating. His platform class really gave me a lot of "duh" moments and helped me get organized. You may recognize his name from my Alphabet Challenge - he posed the challenge to our class.

Then Kevin hosted Photographer's Ignite - a wonderful blend of 21 top photographers who had 5 minutes to speak on something inspirational, fun or helpful. It was the most fun 2 hours - I laughed and enjoyed myself!
The funniest speaker was Khara Plicanic with "Lessons from Uncle Bob" - what a riot!!!

Another enjoyable Platform class was CT's very own Justin & Mary Marantz - Mary was uber cute by starting her emotional talk with "holy crap! We're speaking at WPPI!" :) Even though I have hear her through PUG meetings, and I am an avid reader of their blog, I was still moved to tears with her story. Fantastic and inspirational! Thank you!

Other fantastic speakers were Doug Gordon (posing), Kay Eskridge (boudoir), Jim DiVitale (Photoshop tips). I have so many pages of notes that I am looking forward to applying to the business!

My Masters classes were fantastic too - I learned how not to burn out with Dennis Orchard and to keep my focus, refocus on albums and lighting with Nick Ghionis, and an intensive class on using and manipulating natural light with Claude Jodoin.

And, I photographed! :) More teasers to come on my walks around the strip, and the shoots I participated! I definitely recommend WPPI to all photographers at every level! Hope to see you next year!

Trash the Dress Session in Vegas

Most brides cringe when a photographer mentions the phrase "trash the dress" because the have visions of "trashing" their dress...who wants to do that? I still keep my dress pristine in the box, straight from the cleaners! :)

So then we tried calling it fun names like "wear it again" or "wear the dress"...

I decided to just show what we interpret "Trash the Dress"! :) (please note that no dresses were harmed or trashed in photographing this session)

Mary & Jessica were awesome! We had so much fun in Vegas!

Kevin Kubota's Vegas Challenge

Probably one of the most influential speakers I saw while at WPPI was Kevin Kubota. He showed us a slide show of an alphabet found in someone's surroundings. As a random thought, Kevin challenged the 900 photographers in the room to do that here in Vegas.

I took his challenge head on. It was hard! :) But I enjoyed it!!

Kevin is going to post the photos on his website, be sure to check it out and vote for my series! here's a sneak peek!!

My favorite is "U"...I'm still laughing at how I got the shot...

Now, if you're a photographer...I challenge YOU to do the same! :)

I'll post the links to Kevin's website when he posts the pics!