Please vote daily until April 4

http://www.cadillacoftestdrives.com/dealers/influencer.php?cn=naplesportraits

If I win the most blog votes in this area, Hope for Haiti will get $500. THANK YOU!! Please pass this link on to your friends.

Hope for Haiti needs help!

After the tragic earthquake, donations came on strong for about a month and then slowed down dramatically. Please donate to Hope for Haiti whatever you can. It's rainy season down there and a MILLION people are homeless. Can you imagine living in mud all the time and never getting the chance to dry off?

Help me win $500 for Hope for Haiti. Just vote for my blog on the Cadillac of Test Drives once every day from now until April 4.
Here is the link: http://www.cadillacoftestdrives.com/dealers/influencer.php?cn=naplesportraits

I'm having fun driving a brand new Cadillac SRX, courtesy of Devoe Cadillac here in Naples. I drive for two days, and blog for 14 days. The blogger with the most votes wins $500 to the charity of their choice.
Here's the link again: http://www.cadillacoftestdrives.com/dealers/influencer.php?cn=naplesportraits

Our new ad for Florida Weekly

I posted this ad on my Facebook page and asked for feedback. Most of it is negative! Too busy!

How can I convey all the different workshops we are offering? Our target clients are so diverse! We are offering beginner classes for non-photographers such as : Food photography for the restaurateur, Interiors and Exteriors for the Real Estate Professional. We are offering photography classes and classes on all the photography software. People photography, still life, nature, macro! For beginners to professionals. SO MUCH we have going on!Become a fan on Facebook and give me your feedback. Our new school ROCKS and input from all of you will only make it better!
www.facebook.com/photographynaples

A few hours off work!

My mother and son gave me a gift certificate for a massage for my birthday. Today I cashed it in!

Eisa Lindner has the most pleasant personality and the greatest massage hands! Sorry fellas - she only works on women! (239) 595-4073 mothernurt@yahoo.com
This Naples Photographer needed to relax! I feel so much better and now I'm back to work!

Ooh la la!

I'm working on the pictures from today's pin up party! We had so much fun!

Tonight's event

Tonight's job was out of this world!

I've never seen anything like this. I had to get my fisheye lens out to capture the entire ring.
I found this explanation at www.farmersalmanac.com:

Ring Around the Moon

While stargazing, have you ever noticed a large circular band of light surrounding the moon? If so, you have seen a lunar halo.

A lunar halo is caused by the refraction, reflection, and dispersion of light through ice particles suspended within thin, wispy, high altitude cirrus or cirrostratus clouds. As light passes through these hexagon-shaped ice crystals, it is bent at a 22 degree angle, creating a halo 22 degrees in radius (or 44 degrees in diameter). A double halo, sometimes with spokes, may be seen on rare occasions when light reflects off water or ice.

The prism effect of light passing through these six-sided ice crystals separates the light into its various colors, resulting in a halo tinged with very pale rainbow colors with red on the inside and blue on the outside. The phenomenon of a lunar halo is similar to a rainbow produced by sunlight and rain falling between your eye and the sun.

Weather lore says a lunar halo is the precursor of impending unsettled weather, especially during the winter months. This is often proved true, as cirrus and cirrostratus clouds generally precede rain and storm systems.

Lunar halos are, in fact, actually fairly common. So watch the night sky – and keep the umbrella handy.

Ashlynn's Maternity Session

We had a lovely model for one of our photography studio sessions. We host practice sessions for professional and amateur photographers in our studio on the first and third Wednesdays every month. Ashlynn is one of our photographers! She should have that baby any day now!

Here are a few of my portraits from that night:

If you are interested in taking your photography skills to the next level, join our Meetup group:

www.meetup.com/photography-naples

Repeat clients and referrals!

Four years ago, I was referred a wedding by Weddings by Phyllis. Chris and Cindy came from the north to have a beautiful beach wedding on Marco Island. Instead they had a monsoon on their wedding day in November of 2005! We made it fun by borrowing the yellow slickers from the valet guys at the Marco Hilton and captured the crazy, windy, rainy day in a fun way!

Four years later, it was family reunion time on Captiva Island.

Chris and Cindy

Extended Family

Now it's time for niece Lauren to get married! Stay tuned for pictures from Lauren and Jon's April 3 wedding at the fabulous White Orchid in Fort Myers!

We work hard to make our clients happy and to keep them coming back!
Every client should turn into a client for life!!

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!