Road Trip #1... NO STORM

Brad and I arrived at the Hilton Garden Inn in Freeport, Maine on Saturday.













I made it to our first New England convention without a snow storm. Maybe a little cold but it was blue skies all the way!! Congratulations to Maine on their 60th convention!








Every one was glad to see me BECAUSE I brought the scoring machine with me.





Alan was VERY happy to see me!















Lots of behind the scenes work going on to be ready. Here is Felice ironing the drapes for the turn table.







Team work getting all set up!!

Maine Print Competition

The Maine panel of judges. It was exciting news that Maine had 11 first time entries and their print cases were up. I hope this sets the tone for the rest of New England. We saw some amazing images. Wait until you see the awards.







We have all seen this set up before!












Print crew working hard!












Rickey behind the scenes.












Bernie are you SURE about that??












The leader of the pack, Alan!

Teaching, sharing and having FUN

Incomming President Tim handing out the merits and certificate to David and Linda Murray for their program "From Wars to Weddings"

















Don Chick enlightening a student with his very informative program on portrait lighting.














Jeff Dachowski shares some insight from the judges point of view at the print critique.

New Friends, Old friends... the fun I had!

Our first night we ran out for a beer before the president's party and ended up having a great dinner!










President Akers was almost late for his president's welcome party.




















Hands off Bernie, he's MINE!!




















Mark! you scared us enough coming to the hospitality suite in your PJ's you don't have to CHASE us out!




















Laughs were shared by all.












I know we learn just as much sharing here as we do learning in programs.












The ladies were hanging on every word Bob was sharing!











My first NEIPP/PPANE trade show booth set up. All those years doing bridal shows helped!! It was exciting to help to students pick classes for NEIPP and I signed up two new PPANE members

Time for the awards!

Leader of the pack! Bob you did such an amazing job talking up your convention and getting people excited about going. It worked because membership numbers are up, print cases and attendance was up. Great job Bob!!!






These 6 photographers were eligible for the Photographer of the year award!









Print chair, Alan giving the Photographer of the year award to Thomas Fallon. Thomas is a new member to Maine from Texas.





What an HONOR! Paul and Mary Lou Chretien were given a life membership award! All were on their feet applauding for this one!






State speech #1! I got a little distracted, hopefully by #6 I will have it down!!
The winner of the PPANE President $250 NEIPP scholarship is.
LeeAnn LaFleur
Renea Gage, 1st runner up
Paul Chretien, 2nd runner up




The 2009-2010 Maine board of directors that I installed.












The incoming and outgoing presidents passing the merits!

The Maine winners are...