Trade show

Well, now that the trade show is complete, I can settle down and get some rest. I spent the last couple of weeks scrambling to design my booth, get handouts made, do a banner, cut some mats, figure out what materials to bring, etc. Hence my absence from the board. I really enjoyed the Bridal Fantasy show. It is the largest wedding show in Edmonton, and there were plenty of people there. During a lull in the show, I had Chris take some shots of the booth so yo ucould see what it looked like. For a first time exhibitor, I was pleasently surprised. I think the booth looked great, and Chris and Krista did an excellent job helping me out there. So far I have been in touch with a bunch of people and I suspect that I will be able to gauge the success of the show in another month or so once all of the bookings start to peter out for this year. I am looking forward to the next show already!

Jeff

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Blog break

Well, after taking a couple of weeks off from the blog, I guess it is time to get back on track. While I was away, I managed to redo an entire bathroom in my basement from the studs to finished, Make an ice rink in the back yard, meet with several couples about upcoming weddings, and get my trade show booth organized. That last one is not really done yet. The Bridal Fantasy (Edmonton's largest wedding show) is next weekend. I still have so much work to do in prparation, that I am not sure I'll finish in time. I may have to do some things a little different than I originally planned. I am really looking forward to it. This is my first trade show so I will be curious to see how everything goes. Maybe we'll see you there! Booth 183 & 184

Jeff

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80 years and still going strong

I had the pleasure of photographing William and Edith today, along with the entire extended family, 38 in all. I went on location, as I usually do, packing my lightweight lighting kit. This kit consists of 4 small strobes, 4 Pocket Wizards, a large 3' x 4' softbox, a medium softbox, and some umbrellas and stands. For this group I needed only to use the 2 boxes (one from either side) and occasionally I would put a Lighttools grid on the large softbox as the group size changed. The best part of shooting on location like this is the ease for the client. There were 13 kids aged 5 and under there. Imagine having to go to the studio! Anyways, many thanks to the family, and best wishes for 2008.

Jeff

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Merry Christmas indeed!

I have taken the last week off from posting due to the holidays and being out of town and all, but now it is time to get back in the saddle. So a big thank you goes out to my wife who got me a set of 4 Pocket Wizards for Christmas. To those of you who don't know, PW's are about the best radio trigger devices out there for off camera flashes. As a result, I have had to modify my existing 550EX strobes to take a mini plug trigger for the PW's to work with them. I am happy to say that was a successful operation, although time consuming, considering you only have to make 4 solder connections. If you are considering doing the mods to your own flash, drop me a line, I'll spell it out for you on what to do. Perhaps I will have some examples of the PW's at work to post soon.
Jeff
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Framing order

Whew! I had a rather large print and framing order (my largest to date actually), along with some other print and framing orders that I have been rushing to get finished for Christmas. I am Glad to say that I am finally finished. I have been working on it all week, trying to pull off last minute jobs from all my vendors, who did come through for me in the craziest time of year for them as well. For that I am very thankful. I don't know how many people have the patience to have me calling them twice or even 3 times a day for 3 days without killing me when I finally come to pick up my order, but for that I am also grateful. Now it is time for some Christmas shopping!

Jeff

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Museum Glass

I don't know what they coat this stuff with, but it is amazing. I am working on a large custom framing order for a client that has museum glass instead of the regular glass or the matte finish glass in it. Aside from the fact that it is really expensive to make cutting errors on, (1 botched cut is costing me a small fortune) it blows me away. I will have to post some photos of the museum glass vs regular glass for you to see. If you really want to be able to enjoy what is on the other side of the glass, then this is the product for you. Once mounted, from most angles you can't even tell it is there. I highly recommend it for the discerning customer.

Jeff
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Another busy weekend

Well, as usual, this weekend was busier than I anticipated. I attended 3 Christmas parties, 2 as a guest, and 1 as the photographer. So I had a pretty good time this weekend. I also had plenty of things to try to wrap up. I am re-doing my website and getting new business cards printed, so I did some work on that too. I also managed to shore up the single largest print and framing order I have ever received on Friday, and make some family portraits for a super nice fellow from Russia. Since they all showed up for the portrait session in white, (contrary to what I suggested on the phone when consulting them about wardrobe mind you) I decided to make the image of them on a white background. This keeps their faces as the primary subject, otherwise a white shirt on a darker background will always draw the attention away from the face.

Jeff

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