Back from WPPI

Well I'm back home safely which is amazing after the heavy winds we landed in last night.  I have to hand it to the crew on the SouthWest Airlines flight for such amazing flying skills.  Nancy called to tell me that the weather service was predicting 45 mph wind gusts and they weren't kidding. To my surprise, my lovely bride met me at the airport at midnight even though I told her that Peter was going to drive me home so she wouldn't be out so late at night. It was a very nice surprise to see her there waiting for me at the terminal..

I didn't have anything planned for the five hours before my flight home so I met up with Regina, Elly and Regina's mom for lunch and then headed out to Red Rock National Park. What a slice of heaven on earth - gorgeous rock formation and mountain ranges.


Regina's boyfriend Nick apparently has always wanted photos of Regina on his bike but none of the photographers they knew were interested in shooting it. So they asked me and a figured what the heck! So off to Red Rock we went for a little shooting... I photographed Regina and Elly with the bike and then Regina and Nick with the bike - lots of fun! It was amazing to see the effect our shoot had on the traffic as it slowed to crawl with two models in wild outfits in the middle of this scenic route.



It was a little dicey doing a couple of the shots as Regina wanted to do an implied nude with Nick covering her "top" with his motorcycle gloves. The traffic really came to a halt then - nothing to see mind you, but a lot of slow traffic ;-) I had a great time with the gang there and the funniest part was having Regina's mom there taking pictures as well. I looked over when I heard the whir of a film camera to see Regina's mom taking a snapshot of her daughter doing an implied nude photo! Wow!


Anyway I hope that you've enjoyed the photos from my WPPI adventure - it's been a learning experience and I've made new friends along the way!
Jeff

WPPI - the last day...

Today (Wednesday the 19th) is the last day for the official WPPI events, so things are winding down and everyone is packing up for home. This morning I didn't see any speakers that tickled my fancy, so I made arrangements to do a shoot with Kaylea. She is a model/photographer from Denver who was working here at the trade expo that I'd conversed with a couple months ago. At the time she wasn't able to work with me because she had already booked some jobs. Apparently one of her jobs cancelled and so she called...

The day started early at 6:00 AM and we decided to shoot at the Tropicana Hotel - what an amazing experience shooting just after sunrise in an east facing room! We had a blast shooting as you can see from the images below. I must say that I've put my Nikon D3 through it's paces this week and am very happy with it's performance.

Below are some photos from our shoot!






WPPI has been a fantastic experience with all of the talented and inspirational speakers, but just being surrounded by literally thousands of other people that share your passion has been humbling. I've met some new friends and rekindled some older ones that will surely will be revisited once I return home.
Enjoy!
Jeff

And the beat goes on...

Well day two of WPPI was not as exciting and action packed as the first. I attended two seminars and to be honest only one delivered what was advertised. In the morning I had attended a presentation by Jerry Ghionis who is an award winning Master Photographer from Australia. This guy is a fireball! full of excitement and personality with every word. His style is energetic and he gets the clients trust by being himself. His techniques are simple but effective. I cannot recommend this presentation enough to people - you WILL WALK OUT INSPIRED!

The second seminar was a complete waste and let down. The seminar was on DAM (Digital Asset Management) and it was so boring I nodded off. The presenter was more interested in getting you consider joining a "society" than in getting to the workflow end of things. This was after thirty minutes of speaking into a two hour seminar. A woman sitting next to me leaned over and asked me what time it was - I responded "time to leave". She was grateful that she wasn't the only one bored to tears as we were in the first row! So we both got up and walked out while the presenter looked on in disbelief...

The day was not a total loss as I had the pleasure of working with Regina Anne and Elly, two local models from Las Vegas that were interested in working with me to enhance their portfolios. I think we had a very productive shoot as they are both interested in shooting with me again. It's great when photographers, models and MUA (Make Up Artists) can get together and collaborate to bolster each other's career.

Here are a few shots from the session...





Only one more day left at WPPI and then back to New York - I hear that jet lag is not a lot of fun, so I can't wait ;-)
Jeff

WPPI Day 2

So today I did some exploring and some seminars at WPPI. This convention is HUGE! I had the pleasure of attending a fantastic seminar on Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop given by Julieanne Kost and a lighting seminar by Doug Box. The variety and scope of information available here is simply mind blowing. Here are some photos of Bally's and Paris.





Here is a view from just a very small portion of the trade show at WPPI - there are literally hundreds of companies here showing off everything from albums, asset management software, gadgets, gizmos and educational products.


As I was coming back from the trade show I decided to stop and take a couple photos in "Paris" and who stops to strike a pose but Cliff Mautner and Susan Stripling. I had the pleasure of attending Cliff's workshop in November of last year. He is a very inspirational instructor and friend. Susan is an amazing photographer and people person who has just made the switch to Nikon after the D3 came out.



More to come tomorrow with some great seminars and another model shoot scheduled for the afternoon...
Jeff

WPPI - I'm in Vegas Baby!

I traveled to Las Vegas on Sunday with my friend Peter Finger (http://www.peterfingerweddings.com) to attend WPPI - the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Convention. We've already run into so many other photographers that we know. Within 5 minutes of arrival at Bally's I ran into Joe Buissink who came over and said hello - I had such a fantastic time at his workshop. Later on I saw Cliff Mautner and Susan Stripling at the welcome reception - It was so nice to see them...

One of my goals while here was to work on my lingerie/glamour/budoir photography since there were so many willing models that wanted to enhance their own portfolios. Yesterday afternoon I had the pleasure of working with Marisa (MM# 292950) and her MUA Darcie. Darcie had no plans to do any modeling, but apparently after she saw some of the photos I was capturing she opted in...

Here are a few images from yesterday's shoot... The first two images are of Darcie.









Today is the start of the trade expo where we can see all the things that we should spend our money on ;-) I'll be looking at new album companies like Finao' which I had the pleasure to see last night at one of the suite parties. I realize that it sound like this is all fun and play but I'm seriously here for the seminars, the trade show and to work on my shooting style and technique - all for my clients... I know it sounds like hard work :-)

More to come...
Jeff

Photoshoot in Syracuse

This past Sunday I had the pleasure of shooting with 14 other Digital Wedding Photographers from New York state and 17 wonderful men and women who were willing to model for us. Even though these volunteers were not professional models, they did an excellent job!



We started shooting at the Hotel Syracuse and then moved off to the Cathedral for some "church shooting". It was cold out but we all weathered it and hopefully we were able to capture some intimate momemts for everyone to enjoy.

This was my first real shoot with my new Nikon D3 and what a sweet camera it is! These young ladies were simply stunning - all of them were students at Syracuse University and were friends of one of the DWF members. What a fun group we had that day!

All of these shots were made with my Nikon D3 using available light...

A lot of these folks were either very good friends or couples, so I just asked them to be themselves - just like at a wedding or casual photo shoot.
Enjoy!
Jeff