Wednesday, September 30, 2009

McLellan Style speaks at Nashville PUG

It doesn't look like many of the PUG leaders have been posting here lately. I know I am guilty of not posting.

I wanted to inform all of you about the great response we had for Sean & Melanie McLellan of McLellan Style. DWF and Finao's "Photographer of the Year" spoke at Nashville's PUG for the first time. Their presentation was titled "Shooting with Purpose, Shooting with Style: Pushing the envelope and delivering amazing results, no matter what!" This much anticipated talk brought out a surprising number of photographers making our attendance close to four times the normal amount!

I asked Sean & Melanie if it was alright to promote their presentation to the other PUG leaders and they said they would be willing to come speak for you. They will be guests at the Atlanta PUG tomorrow night. If you would like to have them join your PUG, drop them a line at sean@mclellanstyle.com.

Peter Carlson
Nashville PUG Leader
Dove Wedding Photography

Here are some photos from last month's meeting:





Friday, June 19, 2009

Gigbooks comes to LA

This month, I want to thank Shani Barel of Don't Smile Now Photography for being our Studio Spotlight and Justin Kifer for sharing a little bit about his online-business management software, Gigbooks, with us!

Does anyone read this blog? The first person to email me and put "watermelon" in the subject header wins a prize.







And thank you to June Ungaro for taking this cute pic of me and Marty.

Sunday, May 3, 2009

Jason Kiefer at the LA PUG

On the last Wednesday of April, the Pictage User Group I lead in Los Angeles was REALLY lucky to have Pictage founder, Jason Kiefer as our speaker for the night. Jason gave a very informative Powerpoint presentation on the state of the photography industry and what Pictage was doing to keep up. There were a few others from Pictage who came to the meeting, and all were really open to our comments and suggestions. I love that Pictage is willing to change and create an environment that is perfect for its members.

Thank you, Jason, for taking the time to speak to us! I think you should speak to a few of the other PUGs, too! You did a great job.

Thursday, March 19, 2009

March PUG in Los Angeles

I'm planning a v-e-r-y slow PUG tour this year. I'm going to try to fit in travel and speaking in between my weddings because I just want a chance to go out and see new places and meet new people. Last night, I practiced my talk, "Getting from I Do to I'm Done" on my OWN Los Angeles PUG. It was really fun! Thank you to Justine Ungaro for taking the photos.

I want to thank Kolo Albums, Tamrac Bags & Kubota Image Tools for providing such great prizes for the group!

Also, thank you to Christa Meola for being our Studio Spotlight! She shared some really cool information and showed us a stunning slideshow of her current work.

Here is Christa, our Studio Spotlight:



Then I took over to give my talk:





We have a really great group in Los Angeles! If you are a photographer in the area, please feel free to join us!





Thursday, February 26, 2009

Los Angeles PUG gets personal!

On Wednesday, we had the pleasure of getting to know our Studio Spotlight, Heather Kincaid. Heather showed us a stunning slideshow of her work and told us a little bit about how she started and where her business is going.

The rest of the time we talked. There was no speaker or program for the meeting because the goal was to share things we'd learned at the WPPI Convention. We were there for over three hours, and I was so thrilled with the amount of helpful and insightful information that was shared by everyone. I have a great group.

This is the lovely Heather Kincaid.



Friday, January 23, 2009

Philadelphia Photographers Video

Last month a few of us got together and hung out and shot each other. We decided to have Pete Malone of First Floor Films videotape it. We plan on posting it everywhere to build more buzz about our Philly PUG.

The video stars some Philadelphia based wedding photographers: the always happy Joy Moody, show me the moves Ryan Estes, the queen of budoir and dudoir Jenn Childress, Yours Truly ,Sofia Negron and Pete "no pants" Malone


Phun with Philly Photogs from First Floor Films on Vimeo.

Tuesday, January 20, 2009

LA and OC PUGs go to LACMA

We decided to start the year off with a field trip to the Los Angeles County Museum of Art to see the Vanity Fair Portraits that are currently on exhibit. It was so much fun to see the photographs with so many other photographers! Afterward we all headed down to Life on Wilshire for appetizers and drinks and to just catch up with each other. (You'll have to check my Facebook page for those shots since I just shot and uploaded them from my Blackberry.)

THANK YOU to everyone who attended, and thank you to Mark Barnes who sent me this image for my blog!

-Jules

Friday, January 9, 2009

CT PUG Holiday Party



Here's a video of everyone trying to cram into one picture: CTPUG

Thursday, January 1, 2009

PGH PUG Holiday Party!

We had an enjoyable time at our 3rd Annual PGH. PUG Holiday Party! Most of the usual PUG subjects joined in the festivities with a few extra shooters thrown in the mix and one new PUG member! All in all, it was nice to sit around, have a few drinks and talk shop together.
Thanks to Pictage and to my fellow PUG members for another wonderful year! Now let's make 2009 our most successful PUG year yet! Looking forward to all our PUG meetings this year!

BIG love, Joanne Bartone Photographer | www.joannebartone.com | www.joannebartoneblog.com

Thursday, December 11, 2008

LA, Long Beach and OC Holiday Party!

Last night instead of having our regular monthly meeting, the Pictage User Groups from Orange County, Long Beach and Los Angeles joined at Life on Wilshire for a Holiday Party!! We had a fantastic turn-out and so much fun. There was a great band, an amazing close-up magician and free food (Thanks, Pictage, for the appetizers!)





Friday, November 21, 2008

Philly November PUG

This month in Philly we talked about second shooters. We talked about whether second shooters should keep the rights to their images or not. Should they be able to use the images for whatever or be restricted. There were definitely two schools of thought. I think most of us fewlt that second shooters are work for hire, they shoot for us, we keep the copyrights, some allow usage on the blog if they plug the studio and make it very clear who they were shooting for. Some photographers felt like they created the image, they should be able to do what they want, whether it goes on their website, they submit to a contest etc. They did agree the main photographer could sell the image to their clients but felt like they shouldn't use it on their website as their own creation.

Personally, the second shooter is a work for hire. They would not have gotten that image if I hadn't advertised, networked, schmoozed and sold myself to the client.

How do the other PUGS feel about second shooters?

We also discussed a second shooter agreement, which I can link to if people are interested. Of course, have your lawyer look at it too.

We also talked about elevating the wedding industry on the East Coast specifically Philadelphia. We have found there are three groups. The ones who have been around, successful, teaching and speaking at conferences that rarely if ever share in the area. They never come to the meetings, they don't really mingle with other photographers except maybe within their own 5 or 6 people group. Then there is a good group of us, successful but are not teaching and speaking nationally and we get together at these PUGS and share, talk, learn and grow. Then there are the weekend warriors who sometimes come to the meetings but don't have a lot of time.

Do other PUGs have these issues. Is there an elitist group among your community that if they shared and hung out could elevate your local market? How have you encouraged these photographers to speak, share or at least be social? How have you educated the weekend warriors that undermine the industry? How do you build local buzz about different photographers?

We would all love to have the fun, comraderie and elevation that California photographers have done for their local industry and the industry at large.

Sunday, November 16, 2008

Long Beach PUG for November

Well, due to a bad case of the flu going around our house we had to move our November PUG meeting to Pictage HQ!

We had Dane Sanders and Roberto Valenzuela as our featured speaker and studio spotlight.

Your lovely and talented PUG leader, yours truly!


Roberto and his presentation


We had a great group show up!


Dane Sanders and his presentation


Even Bob Davis showed up for this special event!






Illustrating the idea of breaking barriers, Dane broke some drywall...


I figured he needed to make amends to our owner & CEO Jason Keifer



All in all we had an awesome evening!!

Thursday, October 30, 2008

October LA PUG

Hello! greeting from Los Angeles.

This month's Studio Spotlight for the LA PUG was the lovely Meg Perotti. She shared a slideshow of her stunning work and told us that she's quitting her day job TOMORROW to become a full-time photographer.

Our October speaker was switched to November at the last minute, so I stepped up and took the role of speaker for the evening. I brought my computer and gave the Keynote talk that I presented last month at both PartnerCon and Channel Islands Professional Photographers Association. I love my PUG - everyone is so open and willing to participate.

I want to start traveling a lot more, so if you would like to have me speak at your PUG, please let me know!

Wednesday, October 15, 2008

Dennis Reggie in Chattanooga!

Ok, so I'll admit that this is the first time I've posted to this blog. With so many blogs and forums to be involved in though, I have to say it gets pretty crazy!

Anyway, I thought this was blog-worthy, so we go!

Amber and I have spent time with Dennis Reggie in the past, even away from the crowds, but I have to say that the PUG at our place in Chattanooga a couple of weeks ago was a treat! We had PUG members from the Nashville and Knoxville groups as well, with a total of about 35 people crammed into the bottom level of our home!

Very rarely do photographers have a chance to interact with Dennis in a more relaxed setting, but this was so low-key and up close and personal, and I think we were all excited for the opportunity! I think Dennis felt the freedom to speak with even more passion than he normally does, as well as throwing in jokes here and there - it was brilliant!

The following are a few images from the evening. It got pretty dark in the room as Dennis was showing slides - hence the silhouette images.












Monday, October 13, 2008

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