The photography classes and club

I've been working on so many things that I haven't had a spare minute! Tonight we hosted an event for professional photographers. Stan Reedy from Reedy Photoprocess came down from St Petersburg, FL to show some of the Reedy products and the quality of their photographic prints. Using a professional lab is an absolute for great images.
It was fun, educational and a great networking opportunity! And I didn't take one picture! I meant to but I was busy chatting away!

Saturday was our Sunset Portrait class. It was two hours of class work then on to the beach. My studio is only 10 minutes from my favorite beach! The students had lots of fun - even though we didn't have a sunset. But it didn't rain so we were lucky. We had four lovely young women modeling for us. Thanks to the students who said all those nice things about the class on the Meetup site! www.meetup.com/photography-naples

Bayshore Festival of the Arts

My first art fair!
The Bayshore Festival of the Arts was held this past Saturday. Over 2000 people attended! It was my first time displaying some of my art pieces and I actually sold three pieces! I was thrilled! The three prints I sold are below.
I also displayed several portraits and promoted our new photography school. All in all, it was a great day!

I photograph a lot of events lately! This one was pretty cool - Governor Charlie Crist did the ribbon cutting for the new pedestrian bridge at Rookery Bay. The bridge over Henderson Creek connects Rookery Bay's Environmental Learning Center to two miles of nature trails.

Bayshore Festival of the Arts Sat Jan 23

11 a.m. to 5 p.m. Free
Saturday, January 23, 2010

Avant-Garde Images will be exhibiting!

This is a free event for the whole family. Come listen to great music, check out the local artists and eat!

And speaking of great music, after the festival, come rock out at South Street to Fake Problems!

Check out Fake Problems music at www.myspace.com/fakeproblems

Our New Photography Club and Workshops

www.meetup.com/naples-photography

I started a photography club in the beginning of December and wow - it has really taken off! We have 71 members as of this writing. Photography is so much fun and fun to learn about too!
We are now offering workshops to learn photography. This month January 27th is Photography Fundamentals and January 30th is Beach Sunset Portraiture. See our Meetup site for details. Please register while you are there! It's free to join our group!
www.meetup.com/naples-photography

We began with "Meetups" in my studio on Linwood Ave.
Our adult Meetup is held on the first and third Wednesdays and our Teen Meetup is the second Wednesday of each month. We meet from 6:15-8:15 p.m. and practice studio photography. Cost is only $15 to attend a Meetup.

We limit the number of participants to ten so everyone has an opportunity to use the studio lights and photograph. Plus we want the group to stay friendly, willing to share and helpful. We have all levels of photographers from beginners to several professionals. So if you are interested, sign up early. We will probably add more Meetups as we get going but for now, they are only twice a month for adults, once a month for teens.

We generally have a model. This is a great place for photographers, models, hair and makeup professionals to build up their portfolios.

Our model was Casie this past week. She was awesome! We worked on dramatic lighting. There were four professional photographers at this Meetup so everyone learned a lot!

After this week's Meetup, five of us dressed up like pirates and walked over to the English Pub. Wednesday is Pirate Night and pirates get half off their tab!!

It's free to sign up for the Meetup group. Once you are registered, you'll get updates on classes, workshops and Meetups. I hope to see you there!
Peggy Farren
www.meetup.com/naples-photography

Life in perspective

I'm stressing over getting all this work done and got an email just now that made me sit back for a minute and count my blessings.
We had a wonderful newborn session last year with Ava. She died at six weeks old. Her mom just sent me another thank you for the pictures. I can't imagine what these wonderful young parents must still be going through. I'm grateful that I was able to capture Ava in all her beauty.

Photo timeline

It's our busiest time of year! I thought I'd better give a quick update as far as pictures go. Our absolute deadline for ordering pictures for Christmas delivery has passed. We are working as much overtime as we possibly can to get all pictures retouched and delivered.

We are continuing to offer gift certificates for holiday gifts.

We are working on orders in the order they come in. We love ALL of our clients so we tried to treat everyone as fairly as we can. If you would like your pictures pushed ahead of our other wonderful clients, please know there will be a rush charge.

We are so thankful for all the business! Please note that the normal time frame from the date of order to the date of delivery is three to four weeks.

All holiday card images ordered before the November 20th deadline were pushed ahead of normal orders. So now we have several orders to catch up on. We meticulously retouch each image and it's a time consuming process. Our lab is not a one-hour consumer lab so it takes a few days to a few weeks to process the orders and get them delivered. We hope each portrait turns into a family heirloom!

Thanks for your patience!

Peggy and Helen

Marco Island Wedding
Sarah and Will were the sweetest people! Their wedding on Marco Island was just beautiful!
Phyllis (www.weddingsbyphyllis.net) was the officiant. She always does such a beautiful ceremony.
Sarah was just striking as a bride!
These two were SOOOOO in love!

We had a gorgeous afterglow on the back bay!

Sparklers! These were so cool. They burned for four minutes so we had time for some great pictures.

Bridal bowling

Avant-Garde Images participated in the WPPN Bridal Bowl fundraiser on Saturday. The Bridal Bowl raised money for the Shelter for Abused Women.
I won a prize for the biggest bow!

I forget the name of the Inn on Fifth/Naples Transportation team. But the theme was Shotgun Wedding! SOOOOO funny!

And of course the bride and her bridesmaids! Most of these women are the catering managers at all the high-end resorts in town. You want a sophisticated wedding; right?
Options thrift store donated the bridal gown that Dale is wearing. We women LOVE to dress up!

Peggy and Helen! Avant-Garde Images women at work!

Senior Katie

I love photographing senior high students!
Katie and I had so much fun! We played music (of course a lot Fake Problems but I let her play her own music too). Katie brought tons of clothes and props and we took lots of pictures!

Maternity Portrait

Maternity portraits are so special! Rebecca and Brandon have been together since they were in high school and are now expanding their family. Expanding... get it? See Rebecca's belly?
Okay, bad joke!I love the way Rebecca and Brandon interact with each other. I love putting together storyboards of portraits to show the love and connection between family members. These two are so adorable!

Senior Portrait

Sammie came in to the studio for her senior portrait session. We had so much fun! It's always a great idea to bring a friend. You may recognize Justine!
She's my famous underwater model. Her hair's a bit different now!

The necklaces were Sammie's idea. How cute!

The fan is a necessity!

Glamour girl!

Sisters!

Just a sneak peak from a couple of really cute sisters!

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