Lara Casey's Social Media Workshop

Editor-in-chief, Lara Casey, for Southern Weddings Magazine offered a fun and educational workshop on Social Media last Friday.  I learned a lot of new things on blogging, Twitter and Facebook that are essential for my business.  Met and networked with new photographers in Florida.  I was stoked to find out a couple of girls have heard of me and seen my work before we even got to meet.  Social media is really working!

Glad I went even though it was an 11-hour road trip to Pensacola and back to Jacksonville.  I had a great time connecting with Gwen and Ginger during the trip.  We even did a mini fun session just to kill time right before the workshop started.  Thank you, ladies, for a great time!

P.S. - The first three pictures just show that I am a jumping-shot addict :)




































Me with Paul Johnson (awesome photog) and his wife. 


New photogs I got to meet, Wendi & Ashley.


Us with Lara Casey and the other SW mag editors, Laura Eastes & Kirstin Hawley.


Lastly, the goodies they gave away were delicious!  I was in heaven when I ate the brownie pop!

Strobist Practice Shooting

I'm definitely a natural daylight photographer, but I also like to step out of my comfort zone and play with my pocket wizards.  I still have tons of things to learn with flash and lighting, and I got the chance to hang out with Laurie and her friend, Shawn, for some strobist action :)  I'm amazed with how lighting/flash can really dramatize a picture.  I can't wait for my next practice session, and I may need some models for that soon!

Enjoy!

Thoughtful Blogging

I love life and want to live it to the fullest.  Bobby and I recently attended our friend's dad's funeral and celebrated life.  Then just yesterday, Bobby and I got to celebrate life all over again with our Baby neice's birth.  This is one of those moments that just makes me sit, slow down, take a breather from my busy life and enjoy life.   

Here's a picture that a dear good friend of mine since college years, Lyndsay, took at Scarlett's dad's funeral.  It was strange smiling for pictures at a funeral, but it sure was a great celebration of her dad's life :) 

Here's a picture with Lyndsay and Ginger from my point-n-shoot. Bobby took this picture of us:

Speaking of Lyndsay, here's a group picture of the Jacksonville's Pictage User Group at her house last month.  Lyndsay's hubby took this picture of us from my point-n-shoot camera:

Mini Love Affair Session :)

Pictage is a wonderful professional vendor that prints my albums and photos for my clients, as well as hosts my images in an online gallery. To help connect with other photographers in town, and mainly with other Pictage members, a group called PUG (Pictage User Group) was recently formed. I got to network with other photographers during dinner at Cafe Carmon in San Marco, and then we went out for a night shooting. Beautiful Cassie of Flaire Weddings & Events, who trashed her wedding dress with me at the Jacksonville Fair a couple of months ago, graciously modeled for the group along with her hubby, "Big Ian." (inside joke!). :)

>>CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MINI SLIDESHOW
>>CLICK HERE TO WATCH THE MINI SLIDESHOW

Enjoy!


























We had the local firemen watching our group session during their break :)




Hanging out with my other photographer friends :)

GNO @ GON

GNO @ GON = "Girls Night Out @ Grand Opening Night"...cheesy, I know :) Bobby and I just got back about an hour ago from checking out Stacy and Jamie's Photography Studio Grand Opening Night party :) Hot photographers like Christina, Susan, Star, Kara, Erin and my Bobby (who's the only husband from the gang that went out there tonight!) got together to help celebrate Stacy and Jaime with their new adventure :) I got to meet new other cool photogs in town, and thanks for the business cards :)

I'm sooo sleepy, but before I hit the sack, enjoy the pictures from tonight's event :) I'm leaving in 5 hours for Destin for a wedding destination photo shoot, and I'll get back with you guys on Monday :) Stay tuned for Kristeena & Todd's hot wedding in Destin :)

xoxo

Thank You for the Love!

I treated myself with a key lime pie today because I was getting stressed out with my stats in Scarlett's contest. Haha! I'm not gonna worry about it anymore, and I'm just thankful for all the love everyone has been giving me by letting me know that they've voted for me and have posted bulletins in MySpace and in Facebook to "urge" everyone to vote for me. Thanks for the calls, texts and MySpace & Facebook messages!

The contest ends tonight, and it would be great if I make it to the final round and get a trendy camera strap...better yet, a new blog design for my photo journal. But we will see--I'm leaving it to all of you guys! Please continue to vote if you haven't done so at Scarlett's blog and vote for #6 (Corinna). I'm way behind, but I've learn to humble myself with a key lime pie--so I'm happy :)

Please let me know if you voted for me, so I can personally thank you! I just wanna give a BIG shout out to Team Mel & Brad, Gwen, Erica, Lori, Ali, Tracy, Lyndsay, Kaitlyn (my Boston amiga!), Tommy and Eddie for rallying for me through emails, MySpace and Facebook. If I missed anyone, please let me know so you get the credit you deserve ;-D

Lastly, Cassie from Flaire Weddings--thank you! Thanks for your post in your blog! You're my favorite wedding planner--guys, hire her--she's the sweetest and most organized planner I know!

Need Your Help-Vote for Me!

Alright guys, I just checked Scarlett's blog, and there are tons of entries for her contest...so therefore..I'm gonna do a little plug for everyone to vote for our picture in my blog. Mine is not there yet, but she'll post three different batches in her blog.. guess mine didn't make it in the heels and tie... definitely won't be in the "Pooches" batch... Hmmn.. on the 3rd day, maybe?

Please vote for this picture when you see it. Wonderful Team Mel and Brad from La Dolce Vita Studio took it..and yeah, Bobby and I were doing bunch of kissing scenes right on the church steps..so I'm not sure how weird that looked to people driving by..one even honked at us and made some smooching sound as they drove away (I don't know if that's a compliment or a bad thing).

PLEASE VOTE FOR ME!! I need a new blog look, but that's fine.. I rather much have the trendy strap as a consolation prize for getting Bobby to dress up for pictures on the same night as the Jaguars Football was playing (and we had to give away our season tickets for the game)!