It was my first time participating in a bridal show, and I wasn’t sure what to expect. With the doors slated to open at 1pm, I couldn’t believe how many excited brides and grooms were lined up as early as 11am. I’m waiting to hear how many brides came to the show, but I would guess over 700!

Our booth got a lot of attention, with many couples looking for 2013 and even 2014 availability. It was so nice talking to all of the brides and grooms about their upcoming weddings. Everyone seemed to have a great time at the show, with the cake tastings and chocolate fountains, being as always, a big hit.

It was also nice to see some vendors who I’ve worked with before. In addition, it was nice to meet some new vendors. Our booth was between Sprinkles Custom Cakes of Winter Park and DJ Live Productions. I have to say, it was hard sticking to New Year’s resolutions with cupcakes staring at me the entire day!

Thanks again to everyone that came out, and please contact us if you have any follow-up questions!

It’s my first bridal show and I’m so excited to participate in such a great event!

The Orlando Museum of Art generally picks a theme to go with other exhibits that they are hosting. This year’s theme was Hip Holiday! which was gave it a early 1960′s feel.

Even though there were hundreds of decorated trees to choose from, I focused more on the amazing tiny ornaments hung from the trees. I hope that you enjoy these collages and check out the Festival of Trees next year at the Orlando Museum of Art!

I’ve been all around town to do these photos. I did a family photo session this past weekend at Cypress Grove Park. Before that, I had a couples portrait session in Winter Garden along the West Orange Trail.

I also did several portrait sessions this year at Walt Disney World. I had two different family portrait sessions at Disney’s Boardwalk resort. I also did a portrait session at Disney’s Hollywood Studios. The Osborne Spectacle of Lights made for an amazing backdrop for some great images!

I also had a home portrait session with my two dogs. Every year, our Christmas cards feature them, and it’s an annual challenge to top the previous year’s card. (I’ll be posting those pictures later).

I’ve attached a collage of some of my recent photos. I hope you enjoy them!

The bride and her bridesmaids got dressed and ready at the DoubleTree Resort in downtown Orlando. As I was taking pictures around the room, I noticed a note with Tierney’s name on it. Ian had given it to her the night before letting her know how happy and excited he was to be getting married that next day.

Ian, as an active member of the United States Marine Corps, wore his dress blues to the ceremony. Tierney wore a beautiful gown from Kleinfeld with blue shoes to coordinate with his uniform.

I love when couples decide to have a destination wedding in Orlando – it’s fun to see all of the guests excited by the many sights and sounds of a city that I often take for granted. And I often learn something new.

The wedding was held downtown at Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaurant, a place I had never been. What a cool and fun place to have a wedding! It is located in a building on Church Street that is over 100 years old. The ambiance of the location was fantastic, complete with great food and live Latin music. The candlelight room was a gorgeous host to both the ceremony and the reception.

We also were also just a few feet from Church Street Station, which is always a fantastic location to photograph. I had a great time with the whole wedding party as we found some great spots for pictures near the restaurant.

Tierney and Ian were an awesome couple and I am so glad I was able to be part of their wedding! Here are some of my favorite images from the day.

VENDORS

Hotel – DoubleTree by Hilton Orlando Downtown (www.hilton.com)
Dress – Kleinfeld (www.kleinfeldbridal.com)
Shoes – Caparros (www.caparrosshoes.com)
Florist – Amy Ruscica
Hair – Steph Caudle
Ceremony / Reception – Ceviche Tapas Bar and Restaraunt (www.ceviche.com)
Officiant – Reverend Steve Swan from Sensational Ceremonies (www.sensational-ceremonies.com)
Cake – Cut the Cake, Inc. (www.cutthecakeinc.com)

I chose to lead a walk at EPCOT because of all of the photo diversity. There’s no where else where you can see so much in just a mile long walk.

We started with a group photo in front of Spaceship Earth, and then headed slowly back through Future World. It was first weekend of the Food and Wine festival, and Ocean Spray had a cranberry bog which was a big hit with the photographers.

We then walked around the countries of World Showcase ending at Nine Dragons at the China pavilion for a great lunch. Lunch also gave everyone a chance to share the photos they took and to talk photography.

After getting home, I was very impressed with all of the participant’s photos. I created a flickr group for everyone to post their photos from the day. I encourage you to check it out here. I was a little disappointed with my own photos. But, it was to be expected as I spent more time talking to the participants and getting to know one another than I did on my personal photos.

One thing you’ll notice is that many the photos aren’t the typical theme park photos. One of the honors of leading a walk is that I had the responsibility of picking the best photo of the day. I gave the group an assignment of staying away from the “post card” photographs.

Curiously though, the winning picture was of Spaceship Earth, the quintessential post card subject. The image by William Beem is the most beautiful photo I have ever seen of Spaceship Earth. Mostly, because he took something that is so large (18 stories) and overwhelming and made it feel small and delicate to me. The photo looked more like a Christmas ornament than park icon.

You can see William’s photo and all of the other submissions for the contest at my official photo walk page at www.worldwidephotowalk.com.

Overall, it was a great day, and I was so proud to have led my own Photo Walk! There’s already talk about doing another one in the not so distant future. I can’t wait!

Below is the image we took to start the day of the great group of photographers that joined us!

PRESS RELEASE
FOR IMMEDIATE RELEASE

Scott Kelby Announces the Fourth Annual Worldwide Photo Walk
The Largest Global Social Event for Photographers

TAMPA, FL – August 24, 2011 – On Saturday, October 1 and Sunday, October 2, the whole world will be walking again with Scott Kelby, president of the National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) and #1 bestselling computer and technology book author, in his Fourth Annual Worldwide Photo Walk™ — the world’s largest global social photography event in the history of photography.

This year, the Photo Walk will take place over two days in October giving more photographers from around the world a chance to participate. In 2010, more than 30,000 photographers walked in over 1,000 locations taking 6 million images in just one day. We anticipate that this year’s Photo Walk will be one of our biggest events.

DSWfoto is helping Orlando take part in this worldwide event by organizing a Photo Walk at Epcot at Walt Disney World on October 2, 2011 at 10:00 a.m.. For more information, visit http://worldwidephotowalk.com/walk/orlando-fl-united-states-2/, where you can also sign up to participate in the Photo Walk.

The Photo Walk is free and open to anyone who owns a camera. More Photo Walk details are available at: http://worldwidephotowalk.com/ or visit the Scott Kelby Worldwide Photo Walk Facebook page.

The 2011 Photo Walk is co-sponsored by Adobe. Additional sponsors include Wescott, KelbyTraining.com, NAPP, Peachpit, Mpix, Wacom, Manfrotto, onOne Software, Tamron, Tiffen and B&H.

About NAPP

The National Association of Photoshop Professionals (NAPP) is a dynamic trade association and the world’s leading resource for Adobe® Photoshop® and Photoshop® Lightroom® training, news, and education. An award-winning team of Photoshop and photography experts, authors, consultants, and trainers lead the association – keeping its members on the cutting edge of Photoshop, Lightroom, and photography techniques and technology. With 72,000 members in 106 countries, NAPP is the largest digital imaging and graphics association worldwide. Visit http://www.photoshopuser.com for more information.

# # #
Media Contact:
Mary Laurinaitis
NAPP/Media Manager
813-433-5005, ext. 162
MaryL@KelbyMediaGroup.com

When I heard they were coming to Orlando as part of the Pass Premier tour, I signed up. Pass Premier is a new tool that photographers can use to help make it easier to share our photographs with our clients. I’ll be explaining it more in the coming months and I’m looking forward to trying it with upcoming weddings!

Pass Premier is a product by David Jay. Formerly a wedding photographer, David is mostly focused on providing innovative tools to photographers for sharing and promoting their photographs.

The event was held at the Mela Room off of Orange Blossom Trail. I had only known this location for club parties, but they are trying to host more weddings and events.

Promise Tangeman started the night off by talking about how to develop and embrace a brand identity. She has helped many photographers as well as some smaller scale celebrities develop a brand.

She was followed by Kevin Swan, a wedding photographer who has developed a very successful album company. He demonstrated a new tool by his company for album design. Album design is something that is very important, but it is labor intensive. I plan on trying Kevin’s album design software to see if it helps reduce the time that it takes for me to create an album design.

After a short break, Zach and Jody Gray hit the stage. They talked for nearly two hours about building your business. It was a great presentation and much different than the lighting workshop I attended several years prior. After about 8 pages of diligent notes, my head was spinning with ideas to improve the business. It was refreshing that they said that taking great pictures needs to be second nature and that our focus as photographers is to provide great guest satisfaction.

The final presentation of the night was by David Jay and it showcased Pass. It’s a very interesting and innovative way of sharing images. I’m very interested to start using it and seeing how my couples respond. It definitely makes it easier to get the photos in to the hands of everyone.

My favorite part about the whole experience was the networking opportunities. I met many great people from all over Florida, and it was nice to meet some new friends in this industry.

There are only a few more dates to this bus tour. From the vibe in the room, I could tell a lot of people left inspired. I know I did!

Pass Premier - David Jay (L) and Promise Tangeman (R)

Pass Premier - Zach and Jody Gray Photography

I saw Doug as one of the presenters at last year’s WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Road Show that came through Orlando. While there were many great speakers that day, I felt that one hour was not enough time for all of the content that Doug was trying to cover. So, I was so glad to hear that he was coming back to Orlando.

Since then, Doug was honored with the United Nations (Yes, THAT United Nations) International Council of Photographs Leadership Award, an amazing and well deserved honor. Having been a wedding photographer for over 20 years, he has definitely made a name for himself, running a business that photographs over 900 weddings every year.

His energy and humor from WPPI came through today as well. Doug Gordon has a great wit that keeps the students very entertained as he goes through a great deal of information.

The four hour wedding workshop was held at the Hilton Lake Buena Vista across the street from Downtown Disney. After a brief introduction and some awfully coordinated “YMCA” dance steps, Doug launched in to a very powerful motivational speech.

We had two models for our class who filled the role of bride and groom. Doug started the class by briefly going over some lighting concepts, demonstrating them on our bride.

After that, we all headed outside for about two hours of shooting. I have to thank Wendy Gunderson who posted a review of the May 24th workshop in Chicago. That blog post gave me a heads up that we may be doing some photography outside. And, yes, it was in the 90s today.

Doug went through his flow posing with the bride and groom on the lawn of the Hilton Lake Buena Vista. Great posing is extremely important to great photography. It’s amazing how Doug goes from pose to pose. That is where the 20+ years of wedding photography experience shows.

Even though I brought my camera for the wedding photography workshop, I knew that there were going to be over 50 people in the class. So, I mostly used my camera for note taking and grabbing pictures to share with everyone on this blog. I’ve always been apprehensive about using workshop photos as part of a portfolio, and all of my portfolio photos are from actual weddings and portrait sessions.

Just like the WPPI road show, I walked away seeing so much great stuff, but out of the over hundred poses he demonstrated, only 5 – 10 will I remember. So, I opted this time to pick up some of his instructional DVDs.

His next workshop will be in Los Angeles on June 26th and I strongly recommend it to anyone in the Southern California area. Doug is a great educator and an extremely nice (and funny!) guy. Visit his site at: Doug Gordon Workshops for more information.

Giving back to the community has always been very important to me. Throughout the year, I try to offer my services and support to many different initiatives.

In the past I have mentioned Operation Love Reunited, an AMAZING charity that I’m privlidged to support. I still get overcome with emotion everytime I think back to being part of when our military depart or come back home to their families from a tour of duty.

I have also volunteered for several races in the past, such as the IOA 5K in downtown Orlando. Later this year, I will announce more details about my involvement in a fantastic worldwide charity called Help Portrait.

So, when I got a call a few weeks back from the East Orlando Kiwanis asking for my assistance, I was very happy to participate. They are having an inaugural Family 5k for The Kids, on Sunday May 22, 2011 at 8 a.m. with the proceeds benefitting the East Orlando Kiwanis charitable operations.

I will be the official event photographer for this event at Waterford Lakes which consist of both a 5K Run/Walk as well as a Kids Fun Run. It’s for a great charity and the weather is supposed to be beautiful on Sunday morning. So, I encourage you to support this cause and come out to this event!

For more details or to register online, visit eockiwanis.blogspot.com.

Some of the areas that the East Orlando Kiwanis support include:

Elementary Schools
• 8 K-Kids Clubs at Andover, Arbor Ridge, Cypress Springs, Riverdale, Sunrise, Union Park, Waterford, and Cub Scout Pack 59
• Terrific Kids programs at 8 schools
• Teacher of the month Programs at 14 schools

Middle Schools
• 5 Builders Clubs at Corner Lake, Discovery, Legacy, Odyssey, and Union Park

High Schools
• 2 Key Clubs at East River and University

College
• 1 CKI at the University of Central Florida

Adults with Disabilities
• 2 Aktion Clubs in Apopka & Winter Park