A Couple of Good Months

Wow, time flies when you're having fun!
It's been way too long since my last entry. But I have an excuse: I've been busy with planning for this next year and getting ready for the "Competition Season!"

The first part of every year, we sequester ourselves to plan our promotions and products for the nest 12 months. It's a time of brain-storming and working out the details for what we want to do for our clients. It's time consuming but very rewarding.

The first part of the year is also a time for Wisconsin photographers, who are members of the Wisconsin Professional Photographers Assoc. to begin the process of selecting and then refining their best images for entry in the annual print award judging. This process usually begins on a more local level with judgings at regional associations. We are members of the Indianhead Professional Photographers Assoc. that has members from across the northern half of the state. At the January meeting of the IPPA my print "Heaven and Hell" won the highest honor of the day, of which I'm kind of proud. It was taken in Arizona as the full moon hung over the Grand Canyon and a forest fire blazed in the distance. We were at the right place at the right time and prepared.

The Following month my print "The Landmark" came very close (two points) to having a similar honor. The "Landmark" is actually a view of the Milwaukee art museum from the Lake Michigan side of the building. It was designed to look like a sailing ship. It is without a doubt one of the most remarkable buildings in the U.S., maybe the world.

So these are a couple of my entries for the WPPA convention that opens at the end of this week. Wish me luck!

Then, last but not least, we received word that I have been re-certified by the professional photography standards committee. That means that I can list the initials CPP after my name. CPP stands for Certified Professional Photographer and it also means that my daily work as a professional is above average and that I can be trusted to perform a job for which I'm hired at or above the industry standard. Less than 3% of all professional photographers are Certified and less than 50 photographers in Wisconsin are certified, so I am honored to be among them.