Welcome to the PPANE Prez Blog

A lot happens between one convention to the next. I hope this blog will share with the members all the STUFF in between. Enjoy and please contact me at ppaneprez@ppane.com if you have something you would like to share for the blog.



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Sunday, November 23, 2008

We are off and running!!

So here I am 19 days into being the PPANE Prez and doing my first blog entry. I remember telling Bernie last year how he should do this and how much fun it would be to keep the members informed of the presidents travels. There is so much that happens from one convention year to the next, and I feel for the most part the members don't get to hear about much of it. I hope this blog will solve this. I hope you will enjoying learning about my travels and the hard work of the board!!

Many of you might have caught above where I said 19 days, you may remember Bernie getting his President plaque and me being installed as president. You weren't dreaming that all did happen in September. You see we actually don't transfer power until our board meeting the first Monday in November, which is when our fiscal year starts. This is when we pass the gavel. My dear friend Bob Lizzari made me an extra large gavel, as you can see compared to Bernie's, the outgoing president. I think it was his hint for me to "speak softly and carry a big stick and you will go far" which is from our 26th president, Theodore Roosevelt. The humor was needed after a long 2 day meeting.

My heart was very sad over the fact that our budget and finance committee had to except the resignation of our Executive Director, Roland Laramie. The thought of being the first president in over 25 years to do this job without him made tears run down my face for 3 days. I finally turned it around telling myself that I would be the 1st president to have a whole year to honor him and dedicate this year's convention to him.

Saturday, November 22, 2008

Oh the FUN we had!!




If you enjoy all the awesome images on the blog from the convention, you should thank this man Wayne Tarr. Wayne and his team of photographers covered the convention like I have never seen it done before!! GREAT job Wayne!!!


Friday, November 21, 2008

Top notch Education

Of course, one of the most, if not the most, important reason to come to the convention is to be educated and inspired by some of the best talent in our industry. We couldn’t bring them without help from our sponsors, and are grateful for their support. Please take notice and give them special consideration when deciding who to turn to for your business’ needs. I would like to thank the following sponsors and speakers for our excellent
programs: Burrell Lab sponsored Glen Gray who’s classes gave an opportunity to get a leg up on digital cameras, workflow and business management. Kingdom Color helped out with Don Whipple and Bob Jenk’s early bird program on lighting and posing. Virtual Backgrounds and Marathon Press brought us Greg Stangl and his program, “The Power of Persuasion”. American Color Imaging sponsored Thom Rouse and his artistic program on “Visual Literacy”. Kodak, Whitehouse Custom Color and Larson Enterprises co-sponsored Carl Caylor’s informative program, “TheArtistic Elements of Portraiture”. Fujifilm helped bring us a seniors program by Ellie Vayo (who will be teaching at NEIPP). Tina and Michael Timmons’ program, “How to Make More Money” utilizing artistic techniques to set one’s work apart from the rest, was sponsored by Miller’s Professional Imaging. I am also grateful for sponsorship and help from others who helped make our convention the best it could be. Canon helped out with their equipment and technicians at the Photographers Shootout/”The One”. Natural Color helped sponsor the PPANE party, and Brides.com gave out free drink tickets . Lenzart made the terrific signage for the convention.

Thursday, November 20, 2008

Sold out Trade Show!!!

Trade Show Vendors 2008!


Without the support of the vendors at our trade show there is no way PPANE could provide the education and support to the New England Professional Photographers. This year in our new location we were able to sell out the space and even had a few more vendors then last year. We are looking forward to being able to add 15 more spaces next year to the show with a new floor plan.





Please support the vendors below, click on a link and visit their sites!

Albums Inc.

Art Leather

B&H








B&S Frames

Burrell Colour Imaging


Calumet

Canon

Capri Album

Century Color






David Katz


Digital Silver Imaging


EP Levine

Excel Frames



Flash Palette web design

GW Molding


H&H Color Lab








Hallmark Imaging

The Image Place

Leather Craftsman


Lenzart

Levin Frames







Lustre Color


Mac Group

Madcamp Backgrounds

Marathon Press


Midwest Photo

Millers

Natural Color Imaging

Printmakers

Pro Photo Gear


RPG Keys

Senior Pictures.com

Ultra Color

Virtual Backgrounds

WHCC

Wicker by Design

Wednesday, November 19, 2008

Let's Party!!

If you missed the PPANE party this year, you certainly missed one of the most unique parties we have ever had. Tom really out did himself on this one!! We were certainly entertained with the Joan Rivers impersonator. She or is it HE greeted everyone at the door.

















I am still not sure if Sal knows if Joan was male or female!!!











Ann and Jeff were celebrating their anniversary. Joan had some words of advice for them too!!






















I think Joan was trying to take Alan home with her!!















Keith and Jen are surprised by their
welcome as they walk into the room!














Here Joan and Rene get a little marrital advice
from Joan and all her experience!



















I just think maybe Nancy stole the show from Joan for just a minute!!









Here Mark poses with Joan!!





















Don't think you were going to be safe in the
corner, no one was safe from Joan's humor!














Here are our hosts Rick and Tom, I think they were the only ones that knew what we were in for!!!















Even I wasn't safe from her!! She insisted I looked like Rosie O'Donnell and of course I was a lesbian!! Well then EVERYONE was either gay or a lesbian according to her.













Joan did a great job working the room and turning over every rock to find someone hiding from her!
























After all the hard work of the print committee, it was time to have a drink and a few laughs!!













You can see the laughs didn't stop all night!!

Tuesday, November 18, 2008

Affiliate Judging


One of the member benefits of PPANE is that we host an affiliate judging. If you have ever served on a state print committee, multiply that 3 times and that is what you have at PPANE. A lot of the stress is keeping everything in accordance with PPA standards and rules.

This committee is the first to arrive and the last to leave. For as much hard work it is, the fun and team camaraderie is worth every minute.
The committee arrives and the work begins. Here you can see we use two computers to do the data entry. This information is VERY important to be able to print out all the reports that PPA requires from us.

Each print has to be checked in and the backs highlighted to identify what awards it will be eligible for.

Don't let Nancy fool you, she is a pro when it comes to print competition. Many many years she has lead the troops in Massachusetts.



WOW Look at the print cases!!!





One of the many benefits of print committee is that you get to see ALL the images and the makers case all at once. Here Jennifer and Bob are loving one of the images they opened up!!

The prints start adding up, Peggy making sure they stay in the right order.





After a complete day of prep work. We are ready to go. Let the competition begin!! This year we had almost 100 print cases and about 400 entries including albums and folio's.

The good news is our numbers were up from last year.









This is the jury chairman, J. Michael McBride making sure that the print is clean for the judges to view.




As you can see all of this can be exhausting. This being Rick's first year on the committee, I think it caught up with him!!





We can not thank these judges enough for the hard work and dedication to our profession and to print competition. They travel half way across the country to be with us and work long hours in a short amount of time to complete the task.


I wish I had a few images to show you the print display room being set up. Kristine and Ed are the power houses back there. The whole time print cases are being opened, logged in and being judged, these two are in the back room getting the print room ready to display all the amazing images. We all had the challenge of a new location this year but I think the one that had the MOST challenge was Kristine and making sure the space would work and flow well.

As you can see and if you were there, it was the BEST display we have EVER had. The room was bigger and had a much better flow!!