My life is not just about doing photography but it is also teaching photography and sharing what I know with others. I enjoy that so much!  I had the opportunity  to be the keynote speaker at this month’s Rio Grande Valley Professional Photographers Association Guild meeting in McAllen Texas. What a nice group of people and I want to thank them for inviting me.  I had a great time.   Okay, so the other thing I have to say which is not exactly related to photography is that we met in the banquet room of this adorable little corner restaurant-quaint, unassuming and then…BAM! the food came out. HOLY CANOLI. It was amazing!  They brought out some beef with a bearnaise sauce and asparagus that melted in your mouth. I had one of the FOOD NETWORK moments. You know…the kind where they visit these little rstaurants and then BAM, the food comes out and knocks your socks off!  Anyway, I was super impressed. The restaurant was The Corner Stone Bar and Grill.

AAAnnnywho… What did we discuss?

Well…”The Art of Fashion”.  It was a really fun night and I was super impressed with the turnout. I was told to expect only half of the people who actually turned up and in fact, we had to have the staff bring is more chairs to make room for more.

We talked about fashion industry, fashion lighting, fashion posing, fashion re-touching. All in all it was a fun night. I did love that I got to see my dear friend Jenny Hollis who is a member of that guild  (who received her masters from the PPA this year, congrats Jenny) and she is so talented. the next day as I was leaving she called me on the phone to tell me she was using some of the techniques I taught the night before. woh! that was a compliment, Jenny is amazing and I respect her work a tremendous amount so for her to call me and tell me she was using some of my techniques was cool.

Of course, I also want to thank my sponsors for getting me there, BWC, the MAC Group (Profoto, Sekonic, Pocket Wizard, …), and Precision Camera.  All these guys are awesome.

Here is a photo of the current RGV PPA Guild President, Julio Gonzalez and of me getting my PPA merits for speaking there

For those faithful readers and for those that have asked where I will be because they may want to go see me speak…

I will be presenting “The Art of Fashion” at the San Antonio PPA in March, The Lubbock PPA in September, The Tulsa and Oklahoma City PPAs in May, the Dallas PPA in Jan 2011.

I will also start presenting “The Art of Weddings” in November and I will start that tour in my hometown of Austin for the APPA.