PPABC Interior Guest Speaker In Kamloops

Ian Bull and Brenda Hala,photographers in Vernon mentioned they were looking for a speaker

for their Oct.seminar and wondered if I would be interested. YOU BET.

I wrote a new Program just for them!

About 25 people came out for the day.My program was for both established professionals and those just starting out.We covered a few subjects: how to light in studio and on location,digital workflow, advertising & marketing ideas,travel photography and finished up with some time focusing on how salon images emerge. Bon Match was there with their wonderful products and sponsored the lunch! Thank you Rachel and Linda.

This seminar had an additional bonus with all the wonderful giveaways gathered up from Trades people. I even won one of the draws.

Thank you to Photo Expert for the Spyder Express 2 Moniter Kit!!

The drive to and from Kamloops was beautiful and the warmth & appreciation of those there was sincere,so thanks very much for the invitation.I'd come down again any time.

Summer Studies & Holidays Too!!

Pictured is Crooked Lake Resort and
my friends in Sherbrooke.Marc & Diane Bailey.

Well it has been a busy summer right from June.

I flew to Montreal and rented a car to drive 2 hours out to

spend a couple of days with new friends Marc and Diane Bailey in Sherbrooke.Thanks so much for

your lovely hospitality and knowledge.Hope your injuries

are healing quickly!!

I then drove to Hudson,just outside Montreal, to spend the next few days studying

with 2 of my idols in Canadian photography Louise and Joseph

Simone.Our days were spent learning so much about lighting,

posing and the physiognomy of the body.They are true masters

and I was honoured to have had this opportunity to learn from

them. When I returned I put into practice some of what I learned.

I will be adding more and more each month as there is so much to think about.

After the course was over I then met an old friend I had not seen for

26 years! Rene flew up from Newark to Montreal where we ate, drank,

talked and shopped for three days.It was marvelous..but we plan not to

make it so long till we meet again.

In July I joined many others enjoying a bit of a holiday.I was at a reunion in

North Vancouver and drove around the island visiting & staying with friends including Wayne

Kaulbach and Michelle Flemming. I was asked to photograph some friends new resort at

Crooked Lake (outside of 100 Milehouse) what a beautiful location but get ready for the dusty

road there.Well worth it though!

Now for August, another enjoyable month to come!!

KODAK EXCELLENCE IN PHOTOGRAPHY AWARD

PPABC President David Szabo

presenting me my Kodak Award.

Well, the 63rd PPABC Print Seminar and Convention was held here in Prince George May 25 - 28th

for the first time in 40 years. It was quite the accomplishment for the local photographers who worked so hard before during and after the event.Around 100 people gathered for 4 days of print competition and to listen to speakers on a variety of subjects.

The event was held

between the 4 Points Sheraton and Treasure Cove Casino.Both gave excellent service to all.

Several of my students from the Photography Class I teach at the University came out to work at the Print show.Many thanks in particular to Bobbi Carpino, Susie Crichton, Kelly Harris and Wayne Carlton. Other students came to the Tradeshow to see the vendors as well as the Print Salon Show which hung there Sunday night - Tuesday night.

There was a 50s "sockup",and a group photo with a vintage vehicle on the Monday night with one of our Northern Members playing with his life band.

During the awards night I prepared a tribute to PPABC members who have died (using ProProducer Slideshow) and not a dry eye was in the house. There were 10 finalists for the Photographer of the Year including Me !!!The winner was Tracey Harper of Victoria. 4 of us from the North did pick up trophies and awards though including myself.I got honourable mentions for both the Pictorial and Press Categories but received the Kodak Award of Excellence for the Digital/Electronic Category for "To Each His Own" an image I photographed in Beijing China in the Forbidden City of people sitting on a bench.

All the hard work paid off.Now back to real work!!

Celebrating Midwifes

Maternity and newborns are one of the main focuses of our studio.

So when a local registered midwife called and asked if I would be interested in hanging my work in her new clinic I was delighted. Jane Hedges and Judy DeFrietas

opened the Northern Midwifery Care here in Prince George together and are more than busy with their practice.

I went through to see if some of their clients had their maternity or newborn session with our studio in the past and then included my work of my previous clients.With their each of their

permission to display their images, Jane and I next looked at what would work for their for space. I wanted it clean and simple. I kept most of them 16x20 and b&w, with the exception of a couple.

Now, here in May the Midwifes celebrate International Midwife Day (May 5th)

and I am so glad that I got to be apart of their world as they do amazing work enpowering

women. Congratulations on your new Clinic Jane and Judy ! Thanks for the opportunity you gave me to show how wonderful maternity and newborn imagery is.

HOMESHOW 2008

Well, I have skipped a little to a couple weeks later..as it has been a busy time!

I had a great time in Ontario and will talk about the speakers in another blog..

but I came back to Prince George and started the final semster for the University

of Northern British Columbia in Photography.This section is the "Business of Photography"

and we have 13 people in the class.9 are returning students who have been studying since

Sept.There is some great up and coming talent in Prince George and area.To find out more

about the classes contact Kim at the Continuing Education Program so unbc.ca>Information About>Contining Education>Photography.Rumor has it there is a waitlist already for the

Sept.course already.Limited to a class of 12 only.If you are a student at the university it is

also a credit course!! So that began on April 23 and goes for 10 weeks.

Then the Prince George Homeshow came along a couple days later! I did say busy!

3 days of meeting old and new clients was also of fun as we were also raising money for the

Pediatric Wing at the hospital for the playroom they are trying to enclose for the children's

floor. We had a 60" framed canvas up for grabs..at $20 ticket with a percentage going to the

hospital.It is the landscape of the Boyne Valley in Ireland - full of the greens of Ireland!

The winner was drawn by Hanna my daughter at 5pm and she and I drove to their home a few minutes later and presented it to "Nick Veeken". He was the last person to enter the draw..and sure was surprised to win!We really did stir those tickets up and around so thanks to all of you who supported us and the hospital.All of you are winners.

PPOC London Ontario

I've been away in Ontario for the first half of April visiting my brother and his 2 daughters in

North Bay for a few days (spent alot of time starting a cold). Took a quick break from the airport for lunch with my nieces aunt and her partner when I flew through Toronto.Thanks

Diane and Carrie.

It was spring in North Bay but the lake was

frozen solid and the streets had loads of sand on them.It is a very windy place as I found most

of Ontario to be.Pretty flat country. I so enjoyed getting to spend time with them in their

home and seeing their schools and meeting some of the people in their lives.I miss you all Chris,Ashten and Megan.

From there I flew down to London Ontario to attend the PPOC Professional Photographers of Canada Print Salon and Convention.Had a seat mate that invited me to come for dinner some time while in London.I did end up having dinner with Paul and his wife Nancy a few days later which was a welcome break from the convention centre.Great wine and homemade pizza & caesar salad! Thanks so much.Nancy is a member of the Purple Ladies and was heading out bowling with them.Now that I would of loved to watched!!! Thanks again for the warm invite.

I arrived early into London for the Convention by a day and was greeted at the airport by Nelson Simard and taken to his home in Woodstock, where he and Tanya Thompson (our PPOC Secretary) live in a beautiful home that Nelson has redone himself . Woodstock is a beautiful community that I would love to see in the summer as it was charming in the spring. Other people arrived throughout the day and at the end of the day 6 of us headed out for a great dinner at a Thai Restaurant in a small town between Woodstock and London.Fabulous food! The next day I wondered the streets of London,down Dundas and then the famous Richmond St full of shops to wonder in and out of .Tanya had told me about a little Middle Eastern restaurant that I did find for a lovely lunch and break from the walking.

I was one of the judges at the Nationals

for the Print Salon so after meeting other judges from across Canada in the evening it was up early each morning for the next 2 days for me to have breakfast and spend the days judging the portrait images that had been submitted.There were over 840 images submitted for the Print Salon either in print or digital format and albums as well.It was divided into 2 panels: Portrait and Commerical.I was on the first.That meant I could only enter images into the Commerical side NOT on the Portrait side as I was a judge on that panel. I entered 4 and had 3 accepted.

2 were actually "accepted" and one went "merit".Translated this means that a print can be judged and receive a Not accepted,accepted,merit or excellent status.I learned about my own prints 3 days later as I was very busy with what I was doing on the Panel.I was abit nervous to tell you the truth as it was my first time judging at Nationals (having done Provincials/other zones) and being on the same panel with Nelson Simard,Marc Bailey,Marlene Fast and Michael Ayers .Andrea Martin and I were the two newbies on the panel. Charles Vand Den Ouden was the Chair Person who kept us on track whether judging 16x20 prints or digitals entries on a Mac Moniter horizontal images first then the verticals.But honestly after 5 or 10 minutes I was having no problems doing what I came to do.I learned from my peers and appreciated their insights into controversial images but when I felt strongly about an image I did

try to help it by sharing my thoughts about it as well.It was exhausting but by the time we finished at 7:15 pm on the second day and choosing the winning images etc I felt that I had contributed to the panel and learned more about the talent that Canada has in her photographers.I was asked to judge the following day on the Accreditation Panel so that meant getting up early again which I love doing as I am a morning person. Nelson Simard was the Jury

Foreperson and on the panel were 4 of us: John Beesley,Chris Stambaugh (Our new PPOC President 2009) Mark Knight and myself. Accreditation is when people want to specialize in a particular category that they are able to do above average work in .They submitt 10 images digitally mostly but 8x10 prints had been entered in the past. Out of the 60 or so submissions we accepted 36.Seeing a body of work gave us a feeling of whether a photographer could do work under a variety of lighting situations or styles depending on the category.

After nearly 8 hours we finished and now the learning part began for us with the Great line up of speakers.And of course the Socializing aspect too with the parties that were organized for us.

More about that next time.