Maine Professional Photographers Association Convention and Exhibition

Last weekend found me at the Maine PPA Convention in Brunswick, Maine. It was my first, and I might say, well worth every moment. For those of us unsure of whether we really wanted to spend the money to join, a buddy pass was offered by the members. Through the kindness of fellow photographer, Alana Ranney, I found my way to the Inn at Brunswick Station at 8:00 Friday morning. Now those of you who know me, I am not usually awake at that time of the A.M. An inspirational seminar by Blair Phillips began the day at 9:00  and was followed up, in the evening by Mark Levesque sharing his knowledge of Workflow in LightRoom. Blair showed us his unique Outdoor Lighting setup, and shared his methods with some models, inside and outside in the bitter cold.

Saturday was spent observing the judging of the print, or should I say, image competition. 2014 is the first year that the competition was done by submitting digital images, rather than prints. That was very informative and gave me some great information on preparing my photos for next year. It will be tough to decide what to enter. There are so many really great photographers in the state of Maine.

Tim Cameron shared his techniques in photographing Pets, People and making a Profit in a business you love, on Sunday. Tim's lighting and handling of the dog models was great to watch.  He was followed by Bruce Berg, who spoke on "Building Success". The two young girls that Bruce had modeling for him were fantastic, and some great images were captured.

Thanks goes out to Blair, Tim, and Bruce for sharing their techniques and lighting methods with all of us, while using live models. Jane Conner-Ziser and Nicole Chan finished up the Conference on Monday with some great instruction and insight. All in all, a very busy and productive 4 days.

I took advantage of a Conference special, and am now a member of the Maine Professional Photographers Association, as well at the national organization, the Professional Photographers Association. It was refreshing to be around so many professionals, Novice and Veterans. Everyone was so helpful and forthcoming, and it was great meeting so many people that had previously only been a name on FaceBook or a web site.

A week from Sunday, and I will be in Saco photographing the Maine Sweetheart Pageant. Look for Pageant photos on my next blog entry. Thanks for reading, I hope you didn't mind sharing my enthusiasm.