Brazos Valley Professional Photographers Association

Maria is an author, instructor as well as wedding, portrait, fashion, international and award-winning photographer. Her photographic background began at the tender age of seven when her father bought her a Nikkormat 35mm film camera with a bag of lenses and turned her loose. Much of Maria’s fashion as well as art background came from growing up in Europe.

While many people know Maria as a fashion and wedding photographer, she is a portrait artist. The interaction between her and her subject(s) is what feeds her creativity and her passion and no matter what she is photographing, her intimate fashion style shows in every portrait she creates.

In 2009, Maria decided to bring her talent to the world of PPA and WPPI where she has won over 20 international and state awards in her first year of competing. She is recognized as an “up and comer” and is known best for her lighting techniques. Maria’s studio lighting classes are so successful that they are typically sold out 4 to 6 months in advance. Over the last year, she has been approached to speak across the United States at various PPA meetings to share her talents and she has enjoyed every minute of it. She has been working on her studio lighting book and is hoping to have it finished by the end of 2010.

Maria Bernal Photography is located in Austin, Texas

Cost of program is Free to members and $25 to non-members. BWC is Maria’s lab of choice and will have a few door prizes for those in attendance. Don’t forget to drop in your business card to see what you can win!

In June, 2002, Leslie Ann Kitten was asked to do a wedding for $100. Thus was the birth of savant Photography. Since that time, she has grown her business and managed to double her profits each year. Savant Photography began in a spare bedroom of her home and has grown into a small studio with expansion in the immediate future.

Leslie graduated from Texas Tech University with a degree in Interior Design and Architecture and a Master’s in Agricultural Communications, specializing in photography. In 2004, she won Outstanding Master’s Thesis, meaning it was voted the best thesis in the nation. She regards this as her highest accomplishment.

Since starting her business, she has received many awards for her photography and philanthropy. Among these are the Nancy Coggins Award, 2007, TPPA President’s Theme, 2008, ACT Photography First and Second Place, SPPPA Fellowship as well as numerous other awards and publications.

In addition, Savant Photography was most recently named Best of the West for the South Plains, 2010. Kitten became a Certified Professional Photographer in March, 2010.

Believing in the value of a strong community, Leslie dedicates countless hours to help others. She photographs children who have struggled to be adopted. She also photographs for countless local non-profit organizations and donated her skills to 1 or 2 couples in need of wedding photography each year.

Kitten’s local photography guild, South Plains Professional Photographers Association has had the honor of Leslie contributing to their growth as Secretary, Vice President, President, and currently as the Chairman of the Board. Leslie also participates and is a member of Professional Women’s Resource Group, Association of Women in Communications, Lubbock Chamber of Commerce and serves as a member of the board for many other organizations.

Please join us Tuesday, July 13th and learn from Certified Professional Photographer Colin Burnum about sports photography.

Also check out our facebook page to get a copy of our NEW logo!  Please download the logo from the site and use it to replace any logos that you may have on your site for the BVPPA.

Our Facebook Page

Melanie Hall, CPP, is a 2007 graduate of Sam Houston State University with a bachelors of science in photography with a minor in business management and has owned Melonhead Photo in Conroe since 2004. She purchased a Virtual Background System in 2009 to add background variety in studio and on location.

During her program she will discuss the importance of background variety while showing how Virtual Background System actually works with a live demo (including set up) and how she implements it with high school seniors, school portraits, sports portraits and more. Melanie uses her Virtual Background System for school portraits, children photographs, family portraits, business and realtor head shots, musician promos, wedding formals, and boudoir sessions.

Beside being a portrait and wedding photographer, she began her photojournalist career in early 2005 when she became the photographer for a weekly newspaper, Montgomery County News. Then a year later she progressed to the county’s only daily newspaper as photographer at The Courier for three years covering sports, features, breaking news and advertising spots all while also running her studio part time.

She currently photographs around a dozen wedding annually in addition to roughly 75 high school senior portraits a year, not to mention other portrait sessions and contract photography. She also has been teaching a basic photography course through the City of Conroe Parks and Recreation Department for the past few years.

Melanie has membership in Texas Professional Photography Association and Professional Photographers of America. She received her professional photographer certification at age 23.

Liddie Deshotel, owner of Portraits by Liddie

Liddie Deshotel’s professional photography career spans over 20 years.  Having been fortunate to study with some of the best in the industry, Liddie is now a highly sought after expert. Since opening her studio over 6 years ago, she has quickly earned her Certification from the Professional Photographers of America and is will soon achieve her Masters Degree. The Dallas Professional Photographers Guild has presented Liddie with multiple awards, validating her work.  Liddie has created a reputation for a staunch attention to detail, the quality of her work, and her acute focus on customer service.

Portraits by Liddie is known for its very unique and extremely successful style of Senior photography. Liddie’s training program, Seniors…from Beginning to End covers all aspects of High School Senior portraiture, beginning with tips for marketing to seniors and how to get those elusive mailing lists. In this session, Liddie teaches the key elements to a successful marketing piece. Participants discover what works and what doesn’t work in getting potential customers to take action to book a session. She discusses the benefits of a consultation, either on the phone or in person, and how that increases sales.  The program also covers learning how to involve the parents and making the senior feel at ease during the session. Finally, attendees of the course are exposed to some of Liddie’s own professional “tricks of the trade” while making the sale.  Improve your selling ability by attending this session.

Sponsored by White House Custom Colour

Join us on Tuesday, March 9th and enjoy an evening of great lighting techniques and information with Don Carico.  Find out more about Don and his great career below.

Bio:

Don Carico, B.A., M.A., C.P.P. – Don is a Certified Professional
Photographer and has served as President and was previously on the Board of
Directors of the Professional Photographers Guild of Houston. He is also a
member of the Texas Professional Photographers Association and the
Professional Photographers Association of America. As a member in good
standing, he abides by the strict Codes of Ethics established by these
professional organizations. In addition, Don taught photography,
cinematography, and videography to the NASA astronauts for seventeen years.
Don has been married to Mary since 1979 and together they have two beautiful
and happily married daughters. Aleta graduated from Auburn University in
2006 and Anna is at The University of North Texas. Don graduated from
California State University, Chico and majored in Industrial Arts
specializing in Photography, Graphic Arts and Graphic Design. He is also a
former instructor pilot in the United States Air Force where he proudly
served for seven years.

Don owns and operates Lakewood Photography, LLC in League City, TX and has
photographed at least 850 weddings over the last 25 years.

Program Info:

Don will be speaking on “Portraits by the Numbers”. He will give examples of
different portrait lighting and the proper use and understanding of lighting
ratios and the importance of proper metering. He will also discuss and
demonstrate the use of different light modifiers such as soft boxes,
umbrellas and parabolic lights. All of your lighting questions will be
answered!

Don Carico, CPP
Lakewood Photography, LLC
1010A East Main Street
League City, TX 77573
281-554-9700
281-554-9710 Fax

Past President,  Chairman of the Board and Fellow of the Professional
Photographers Guild of Houston.
Only three percent of America’s photographers are Certified Professional
Photographers.

www.lakewoodphotography.com

Who: Margaret Bryant, M. Photog., CPP
What: How to Speak Dog: Incorporating Dogs into your Family and Senior Portraits
When: February 10th, 2010
Where: College Station Conference Center Room #105
Time: 6:30pm Networking starts and after a short business meeting Margaret’s program will start around 7:10pm

Guests:$25 fee
New members can pay their dues at the meeting

Update: Due to Margaret Bryant’s meeting in Dallas, our meeting will be held on Wednesday night, February 10th, 2010.

How to Speak “Dog”: Incorporating Dogs into Your Family and Senior Portraits

Today dogs are as much a part of a family as the children. However, there is more to photographing dogs than just having a squeaky toy. This talk will teach you about dog behavior, dog handling and how to get the best expression from the dog. You’ll also learn how to prepare the dog for the session, what to expect during the session and how to handle some of the problems you might encounter. Sixty three percent of households have at least one dog in the family. Why not learn how to better include them in your family and senior portraiture?

About Margaret Bryant, M.Photog., CPP…

Margaret Bryant is an award winning Master Photographer with a passion for dogs. Her photography reveals the personality of the dogs and the special relationship they have with their humans. Her style is simple, original and authentic. She is knowledgeable about dog breeds, dog behavior and dog training and knows how to make dogs comfortable. Margaret shares her life with Molly, a border collie/sheltie mix and Sophie, a whippet.

Print Competition

We would love for you to participate in the print competition. We now have two categories: 16×20 mounted and 8×10 mounted. Judging will be handled by our speaker and constructive comments can be made by the members after the program. Remember, you must give your print a title and keep in mind the 12 elements of a Merit Print. If you have lost your copy, check out 12 Elements of a Merit Print

Attention All Members:

We have been asked to help judge 4-H prints for the Photographic Category of the Brazos County 4-H Contest.

If you can help us out we need to be at the College Station Conference Center at 5:45pm on Wednesday night before Margaret Bryant’s program to help judge the prints. This is a great opportunity to volunteer.

Please RSVP to
Cindy Kovar at
mckovar@txcyber.com
if you can help us out.

Join us for our first meeting of 2010 with Doug Box on January 19th.  Doug will be speaking about posing and some off camera flash techniques.  Find out more about Doug below!

Posing, Posing and more Posing plus a Bonus Section on Off Camera Flash

by Doug Box M.Photog.,Cr

With over 35 years practicing the Art of Posing, Doug will demonstrate his successful techniques that apply to both portrait and wedding photography. Doug will teach you how to create balanced posing, which will allow you to handle any subject’s body size and type. These techniques will enable you to pose any family, couple, and bride & groom.

With samples and demonstration, you will be shown over 200 poses that you can use in your business. Program will include: Classic and Dynamic Poses, Group and Family Posing, and Facial Analysis.
Doug will cover:
• How to pose to make people look their best
• Feminine and Masculine poses
• What do you do with hands
• Easy Group Posing
• What to do with feet
• How to make people look comfortable in their photographs
• How can lens selection affect your photos
• Posing Men, Women, Children
Plus a bonus section on Off Camera Flash

Everyone there will receive a FREE Posing Card

About Doug Box

M.Photog., Cr., CPP
Doug has appeared in seminars and conventions in 47 states in the U.S. plus Canada, Mexico, Scotland, Wales, England, China, Ireland and on 5 cruise ships. He was chosen to teach at the International Wedding Institute and has taught at 18 different PPA Affiliate week-long schools. He is only the third person in in the history of PPA to earn over 1,000 PPA Merits and is a member of the prestigious Camera Craftsmen group.
His articles and images have graced the pages of most professional photographic publications. He is the author of “The Power of Business” marketing systems and has written several books including “Professional Secrets of Children’s Photography”, “Professional Secrets of Photographing Weddings”, “Natural Light Photography” and ”Posing for Portrait Photographers”, published by Amherst Publishing.
He is Past President of Texas Professional Photographers Assoc. and currently the Executive Director of TPPA.
He has served as Executive Director ASP (American Society of Photographers), Published ASP Magazine,
Chairman Affiliate Managers Group , Vice Chairman of the Portrait Group PPA, served on the Membership, Affiliate and Chapters Committee , Vice Chairman ANNE Committee, has been an officer in his local Guild and is currently on the PPA Board.
He is the owner of Texas Photographic Workshops, an internationally recognized educational facility where he and his wife LaVelda host photographers from around the country teaching all levels of photography. He is an award winning photographer who has owned studios in Houston, Brenham and Caldwell.

Location: College Station Conference Center

Time: 6:30pm Networking, 6:50pm Business meeting 7:10pm Program

Also don’t forget that dues are now at $125 for the year.

We are extremely excited about our upcoming BVPPA event to be held at the College Station Conference Center on November 17th, 2009. Our speaker of the month will be Walter Eagleton, Cr. Photog., PPA Certified of Eagleton Photography in Denton, Texas. Walter is being sponsored by White House Custom Color.

Walter’s Bio-

Walter holds a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts and a Master’s Degree in Music with Jazz as his special field. His career in photography began as a hobby he and his wife Kim enjoyed together.

Walter is an active member of Professional Photographers Association (PPA), TPPA (where he is currently serving as the Treasurer), and Senior Portrait Artists (SPA) and also volunteers his time in his local community of Denton.

His work has been featured at several PPA national conventions from Las Vegas to Chicago to New Orleans and he has been honored to have one of his portraits published in the exclusive PPA Showcase Collection.

Walter has achieved the distinction of Certified Professional Photographer and in July of 2004 was awarded the degree of “Photographic Craftsman” by the Professional Photographers Association.

Walter’s program will be a half-day program.

• 4pm-6pm Set up for the Senior session and the session itself
• 6pm-7pm Dinner Break   (Jason’s Deli)
• 7pm-9pm Retouching and Sales

This workshop is open to non-members for a fee of $35. $25.00 for the workshop and $10.00 for dinner. Current BVPPA members will be charged a fee of $10.00 for dinner. We ask that you RSVP to any of our Board members whose names and email addresses are listed on the website.

We would also like to take time to thank WHCC again for their sponsorship of Walter Eagleton. Without them, this event would not be possible.

Event Details:

• November 17th, 2009
• College Station Conference Center
• 4pm-9pm with an hour break for dinner
• BVPPA members-$10
• Non-members $35
• Please RSVP by November 13th, 2009

Since we are doing a half day program there will be no print competition for this month.

If you are interested in learning how to frame and how to incorporate framing into your photography business, or if you already offer framing and need to brush up on your selling strategy, this is the Program for you!

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