WPPI, here we come!

Each year one of our highlights is the WPPI convention in Las Vegas. Unfortunately I will be attending alone this year due to the arrival of baby Campbell, but we're still excited as it's a chance to reconnect with some great friends and fellow photographers, as well as be inspired by some of the best speakers/photographers in the business.

I will be arriving on Sunday morning and leaving on Tuesday around lunchtime to get back to my family. I'm excited that, unlike last year, this year I have a relatively light schedule. I'll only be speaking at a couple booths, which will give me a chance to spend time on the tradeshow floor and also check out some of the speakers.

Sunday
6:30-8:30 pm Burrell Colour Imaging Mentors reception
8-??? Super Swanky Soiree (invite only)

Monday
12:30-1:30 pm SPEAKING at the Burrell Colour Imaging booth
2:30-3:30 pm SPEAKING at the GraphiStudio lounge
7:00 GraphiStudio speakers dinner
8-??? Becker's party (invite only)

Tuesday
8-12 Tradeshow perusing

Here's the line-up at the Burrell and Graphi booths.




And here are a couple of our other favorites that you MUST CHECK OUT: ShootQ and liveBooks!




Safe travels to everyone and I look forward to seeing you there!

Magazines Galore #3, Rangefinder

Each year the amazing folks at GraphiStudio select 3-4 photographers for a exclusive project called "A day in the life of WPPI." Last March I was thrilled to be invited to participate, along with superstar photographers Terrell Lloyd and Brook & Alisha Todd. It was quite an experience.

I was exciting last month to see Rangefinder publish a multi-page spread featuring our work. And GraphiStudio also published a special book, which will be on display at the GraphiStudio booth at ImagingUSA in Phoenix in January and at their booth at WPPI in Vegas in February.

Mag. Galore #2: Destination Weddings & Honeymoon Magazine

Tracey and Pete were married in beautiful Interlaken, Switzerland on June 9, 2008. We were so honored to be a part of their intimate wedding and we just love them! We are so excited to see their wedding featured in the Winter Issue of Destination Weddings and Honeymoon Magazine





You can find the magazine in stores nationwide, read their story and Tracey's helpful destination wedding tips. She is also a wedding photographer based in NY so check out her fabulous work: www.traceybuyce.com

Congratulations Tracey and Pete and can't wait to see you again!

Magazines galore #1

Occasionally Joy and I disagree. I love magazines. She loves books. I think magazines rock because they are new and fresh and always evolving/changing. I was a magazine editor for three years, and when I moved on, I think I left a little piece of my heart with the magazine.

Books are cool (shout-out, Lauren W!), that's for sure. And I've read plenty of them. But that's more Joy's thing. And fortunately for us, Graycen seems to have followed her mother's footsteps. She always has a book in her hand.

Anyhow, one thing we do agree on is that whenever we have the chance, we enjoy submitting our work to magazines. After one arrived in the mail the other day, I realized that we've been fortunate to land in quite a few lately, so we're trying to keep that going.

We were thrilled to be included in another article in Professional Photographer that focused on the significance of photographers sending out holiday greetings. The article featured three studios, and our portion talked about how for the past three years we've done the foot-shots, cutting off our upper bodies and leaving only our feet and Graycen's whole body. It's a fun theme that we've enjoyed continuing ever since she was born.







Photo credit for our holiday card pictured above: Paul Martin...the one in Orlando, not the Paul Martin who is Prime Minister of Canada.

Stay tuned for this year's holiday card....coming soon!

elevate4:chattanooga

We were excited to have a fantastic group of photographers join us for elevate4:chattanooga last week. The two-day workshop was hosted at the new Cobblestone Rue studio downtown.

In the afternoon on day one, we did a shoot with one of our all-time favorite subjects, our bride Annette Chaviano Thurmon. Annette was kind enough to drive up from Atlanta for the afternoon. She wore a vintage dress that she purchased and reconstructed. Here are a handful of my favorites...








One of our guest speakers was Sean McLellan. I didn't realize it when we invited them, but he's quite the MacGyver with all his gear!


After the session we went to dinner at the delectable North Shore Grill. Someone commented as we were leaving, that Joy and I had three of our brides present. Annette was married to Jared in 06 in Atlanta; Brandy was married to Sticky in 07 in Savannah; and Tracey was married to Pete in 08 in Switzerland. It was great having them all together.


The next day, Sean and Melanie kicked off the morning.


Group shot.


Joy and I wrapped up the afternoon lecture, followed by some great Q&A time and then we all headed out for dinner again. It was a fantastic week and we were blessed to create many new relationships and renew old ones. A special thanks to everyone for entrusting us with your friendship and challenging us to continue to grow.

coBBlestone rue, photographers' open house

We had a fantastic time and an amazing group of photographers for elevate4:chattanooga this week. Kicking off the workshop, we had a special cobblestone rue grand opening for photographers only.





The event was sponsored by our lab, Burrell Colour Imaging, the best lab in the world!












Lots of local photographers as well as several from Atlanta, Knoxville and the surrounding areas came to celebrate with us. And of course the workshop attendees were here as well.


In the photo-booth room, making outfit selections...


Here we go...




















Openhouse photobooth slideshow to come.... As well as a post with pics from elevate4:chattanooga and a really cool bridal session from Thursday and a fantastic portrait session from Friday!!! Stay tuned.

Just Create...

Last winter, Joy and I made one of our rare visits to the movie theater to see the romantic comedy, PS, I Love You. I'm not sure if "comedy" is the right classification for the move, as those who have seen it will attest. But between the incessant sobs and sniffles, I suppose there was a good bit of laughter as well.

At any rate, as a side-bar to the primary story line, Holly Kennedy (played by Hillary Swank...who doesn't like her!) is a desperately creative soul, driven by wanderlust and passion. In one of the pivotal scenes of the film, Holly and Gerry, perfect strangers at this point, are walking along a beautiful road through the countryside of Ireland. Nervous conversation leads to philosophical discussion and Holly, in an effort to further explain herself, attempts to quote poet William Blake. She does a ridiculously insufficient job, but the result is something beautiful:

My business is to create...

All I know is if you don’t figure out something, you’ll just stay ordinary.
It doesn’t matter if it’s a work of art or a taco or a pair of socks, just create something new.

And there it is. It’s you.
Out in the world, outside of you.

You can look at it or hear it or read it or feel it. And all of a sudden you know a little bit more about you…a little bit more than anyone else does.

-Holly Kennedy, PS, I Love You

This afternoon we were excited when our dear friend and former wedding client, Annette, came up from Atlanta to put the finishing touches on our new studio gallery. Now every day we will be reminded to Just Create. I guess you could call it the "bow" on top of the package.


Equally exciting, on Thursday, from 6-9 pm, we are hosting a grand opening open house to celebrate with our special clients and community members for Cobblestone Rue. It's a come and go event, and we'd love to see you there. Please RSVP to info@cobblestonerue.com. We will have food, fun, and fabulous prizes provided by some of our favorite partners and downtown merchants.

The studio is in a storefront space located in the Southside District of downtown Chattanooga. The address is:

55 E Main St, #103
Chattanooga, TN 37408

Note to photographers: a special photographers-only open house is scheduled for October 13 @ 7pm. Visit, meet, network, and create new relationships with photographers from all over the country!

Elevate 4 Guest Speakers: Sean and Melanie McLellan

WOW, just five more weeks until elevate 4! It's amazing how fast time flies. We are thrilled to announce that the amazingly talented, uber-cool, husband-wife photography team, Sean and Melanie of McLellan Studio, will be joining us as our guest speakers at elevate4. I can't tell you how excited we are about this! We ALWAYS seek the best talent to come and support our workshops and this time is no different. We've been fortunate to have the likes of Steve and Jen Bebb, Gene Higa, Ann Hamilton, Andrew and Rachel LaCour Niesen, Curt Littlecott, wedding designer extraordinaire Lisa Konecny, Ritz Carlton Director of Sales Kristy Chenell, and now the McLellans.

We first met Sean and Melanie a couple years ago and we were struck by their magnetic personalities. And then we saw their work and said, "WOW!" Since then we've enjoyed lots of learning and growing together (and eating lots of Oreos) and they've continued to inspire us as their business has soared and their photographic style and imagery has continued to evolve. So in short, you're in for a treat and we couldn't be more excited.

For more information visit www.garrettnuddworkshops.com. For the first time, we're hosting elevate at our studio in Chattanooga. We've extended the early-bird registration fee to accommodate a few folks who have inquired within the past couple days. :-) We are also having an Open House for photographers on October 13 @ 7pm, the eve of our workshop, so come join us!

In the meantime, please let us know if you have any questions.



An updated photo of our studio in progress:



And a sample of their STUNNING work, (Melanie's First Place image from the WPPI 8x10 competition).

Making time for what matters most.

When we travel and when we speak, one of the questions we are most often asked is about our marriage/business relationship. Certainly Joy and I consider ourselves blessed to be able to work together doing something that we're so passionate about. With that said, one of the downsides to working together is that we're constantly working and it becomes all-consuming and effects every aspect of our family life.

We were excited last year when we visited the Jeffrey and Julia Woods and their Portrait Life studio in Washington, IL, and they told us that they were building the foundation for a seminar for couples who work together in the photography industry. And we're even more excited to be attending the conference next month.

The workshop is going to rock and we're totally excited. Jeffrey and Julia have really been an inspiration for us and we're confidant this is going to be a conference not to miss. If you're interested or you'd like more information, visit the ONE conference website.



See you there!

Andrew joins the band

Last weekend we photographed a beautiful wedding at one of our favorite venues, the Fabulous Fox Theatre in Atlanta. The bride and groom, Amy and Jason, were fantastic and we'll be posting a few of their images soon.

We were privileged to have our great friend Andrew Niesen, of LaCour, riding shotgun. Something just doesn't seem right about that statement...I should have been the one riding shotgun for him. Nevertheless, it was a great time and we, along with our clients, were fortunate to have Andrew and his mad skills there.

During the reception I got some fun shots of Andrew in action and couldn't resist posting them, especially since this week is his birthday!

Andrew "twittering" before the ceremony...


One of the singers from the band made her way onto the dance floor and Andrew never left her side. I think he was hoping she'd hand him the microphone.


Late in the evening I looked on stage and noticed Andrew making a second attempt at trying to join the band as he rubbed shoulders with the drummer.


Sorry, my friend. Better stick to karaoke. Cheers!