Florida Camera Club Council State Convention 2012

 We were lucky enough to be the host city for the state-wide photography convention this year!  I had a booth at the trade show and was one of the speakers.  My preconference workshop was about Beach Portraiture, and because of the time of day (8 a.m. to noon), I got the opportunity to also teach "how to photograph people in horrible lighting".  Ha ha aha!!

Here we are on the bus to the beach!

Posing the man.  Men are tougher to pose than woman (in most cases).  Photo credit Bob Kelly.

Jillian from Tamron was my tech support ... so we made her model too!  LOL!  Photo credit Lianne Ellitott.

My, what a big mouth you have Peggy Farren!!!  I promise I wasn't laughing AT anyone.  I was laughing WITH everyone!   Photo credit Russ Caron.

Serious equipment!

David bumping up his flash.  Yes, you need MORE flash on sunny days!

Posing a couple.  We had several models and everyone got a lot of chances to shoot. 

We had three different "stations".  I brought my studio light and battery for one station, an off camera speedlight for another and we used on camera flashes for the third area.

It was a fabulous weekend, full of learning and fun.  Photographers came from all over the state of Florida and beyond.  Thanks to the volunteers who put this on, especially Eric Hanson, Sonny and Betty Saunders, Laura DePamphilis.  Sorry to everyone I missed.  I know this was a team effort!  You all really pulled it off!

A little PS....  The famous Arthur Morris stopped in to listen to my talk on Sunday and made me a nervous wreck!  LOL! 

Here is more information on the Florida Camera Club Council:  www.f3c.org
Arthur Morris:  www.birdsasart.com
And our photography meetup group:  www.meetup.com/understandphotography

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