The title is a little phrase that is often used in the medical schools. It’s a way for the students to learn how to do a procedure. First you watch it, then you do it, then you teach someone else to do it. It’s really a great way of learning because no matter how much you think you have something figured out, it is when you are teaching someone how to do something that you find out you may not know as much as you thought you did. I learned that all too well a couple of weeks ago. There’s always a new question waiting just around the corner to make you look a bit silly…

I recently had the pleasure of going out to Pittsburgh and assisting my good friends Mike and Cody, of TriCoast Photography who were up from Texas to teach about wireless flash at the Triangle Institute of Professional Photography. It turned out they ended up with the largest class and because of the hands on nature of their instruction they asked if I would mind coming out to help as the students split into groups. I jumped at the chance to help out because a lot of what I have learned about flash photography I learned from Mike and Cody. But it was more than that, Mike and Cody have always been willing to share their time and knowledge of photography to anyone who asked and I thought this would be a way for me to do the same.

It was a blast! I met so many new friends who share the same passion as I do for photography and together we furthered our understanding of our art. From equipment to business discussions to just plain fun photography, I couldn’t have asked for a better bunch of folks to share a week of learning with, thank you all!

-Pete

Our group at TIPP 2010

Mike from TriCoast demonstrating a technique at TIPP 2010

A few of the other shots from the workshop.

For the past two years I have had the honor of serving on a committee within Arts in Orange that oversees the allocation of state grants to artists within Orange County. Artists of all types submit their applications in the hopes of receiving a grant from the New York State Council on the Arts so that they may promote their work. It is an extremely rewarding experience and has opened my eyes to the incredible diversity of artists and programs that are right here in Orange County. From the Greater Newburgh Symphony Orchestra to individual workshops where you can learn how to paint or to sculpt there is an enormous amount of artistic talent right here to enjoy.

Arts in Orange recently held a small get together for the recipients of the grants and I was glad to be able to attend. It was so nice to meet some of the people behind the applications. As part of the grant process we have the opportunity to attend events where the grants have been used and to see the artists in action. It has been wonderful and I have really enjoyed the performances of the artists whom I have been lucky enough to see. I hope to catch even more performances this year! One of the best parts about my participation is that I am helping to support the local artists. As a local artist myself this is extremely important to me because not only do I live here, but I work here as well.

So congratulations to all of those who were selected this year to receive a grant! It is always a difficult task of making the selections and unfortunately there is just not enough funding to cover everyone and many submissions just don’t quite make the cut. It’s not fun to have to make those choices because there are so many worthy artists and events and many times it can be quite a fight amongst the board members. Hopefully those folks who did not get selected attend some of the submission workshops and try again next year.

And if you are looking for something to do in the Orange County area, check out the Arts in Orange blog for the latest updates about events, I think you will be surprised at whats available right here in your own backyard!

Wow, I have recently returned from a trip out to Las Vegas for the annual Wedding and Portrait Photographers International convention. There were 13,000+ photographers all gathered together to share knowledge and learn how to better serve our clients. It was an incredible event led by some of the top names in the wedding and portrait industry and I left there inspired!

One of the things photographers are always trying to do is to evolve and adapt to the changes in the industry. We have seen a lot of change since the digital revolution, some good, some not so good. And sorting through all of those changes and making the ones that will give our clients the best value was part of the reason we chose to attend. From new album offerings, to better equipment choices, to marketing, it was jam packed from morning until night. And then of course, the obligatory networking after all of the sessions were finished.

But beyond the fun and games and the shiny new gear were sessions where the speaker highlighted how important photography is, and how powerful it can be. And these were the sessions that I loved the most. One of my favorite speakers this year was David Williams. David’s program was so incredibly moving that there wasn’t a dry eye left in the room. He spoke from his own personal experience about how important photographs can be as he related the story of his mother’s passing. It was beyond words and for me by far the most inspiring session of the convention. Thanks David.

We want to hear from you, our clients, both past and (hopefully) future, we’d like to ask you to take a few minutes, drop us a line and tell us your thoughts about photography and how we can better serve you.

-Peter

Just a quick note this morning. Because so many of our visitors are viewing the site on mobile devices these days we have installed a mobile theme to help speed things along. For those of you accessing Quinnco Photography through your computers you should see no difference, but for those of you on iPhones and other smartphones you will notice a difference. It becomes a little more stripped down, like an RSS thread so it loads much faster but you can still see all the content. It is also able to be turned off if you prefer the regular site view for your mobile experience.

Whether you are viewing weddings or other events on your smartphone this should make it much faster and still give you about the same content that you would get at home. There may be a few small exceptions because of the limitations of mobile devices, but we’re doing our best to allow you to learn about Quinnco Photography wherever you are!

That’s it for today! Much more to come later this week!

Just a quick post today about an event that I had a chance to participate in yesterday. For those that have followed the blog for a while you know how important that education is to me. I am always trying to learn more so that I can better serve my clients. Last month while attending another photography event I was asked if I would give a talk to the NYC SmugMug User Group (SMUG) during their monthly meet-up at B&H Event Space. I happily accepted because it is a chance to share some of what I know with the rest of the photographic community and a chance to make some new friends. I have been fortunate that other photographers have shared and continue to share their knowledge with me so it was an easy way to pay it forward. We had a great turnout and spent a couple of hours talking about equipment, such as Radiopoppers, and other various little gadgets that help me to do what I do. Hopefully everyone that attended had as much fun as I did. If you were one of the attendees and have any feedback for me please feel free to drop me a note via the contact page or add a comment to the post. Click for larger image. Thanks  Rob Munroe for the tweet and the picture!

Thanks SMUG for the invitation to share and thank you B&H for their generous use of your Event Space!

Wow, it seems like just yesterday we (photographers) were trying to keep up with the blogs because they were they fastest way to show what we had been up to. We would try to make a post every week or so in order to keep things fresh and show our potential clients our latest work because galleries were almost impossible to keep updated. And I know that I am guilty of that!

But things have changed a bit and sites like Facebook and Twitter have become enormously popular and they allow for almost instant updates and a simple way to network with others. Because of their ease of use many folks have almost done away with their sites and blogs all together and moved entirely to these social sites and it seems we have inadvertently done that as well. I mean really, a month between updates?! But if you were to take a look at our Facebook page you would see that we really have been around, but just haven’t updated the blog as well as we should have.

Going forward we will still use our blog to highlight events and projects but for now (because things always change) if you check out our Facebook page you will see that a lot of the day to day things that happen and are updated continually. I think that because we have done the small incremental updates on Facebook it has also lead to the blog kind of taking a bit of a backseat. We’re going to integrate the two better as we go along and we’re not going to abandon our blog so don’t worry about that. We still rely on this site for many things such as our email because we just can’t track the Facebook messages so if you want to contact us, please do it through our contact page here. For now, this is like the home base, the place where you will find more in-depth posts, pricing and also where our clients can find their previews and things like that. Our Facebook page will give you the latest on what we are doing. I hope you take the time to check out our page and to add yourself as a fan so you can instantly get the latest updates and offerings.

Also, if you have any thoughts on this, please take the time to leave a comment, let us know what you think, we love hearing from you, it’s your feedback that helps us to improve our services.

Thank you!

By the way, here is what we are up to now!

Wow, can you believe all the rain we have had here in the Hudson Valley lately?! It took me a moment to figure out that the big yellow thing in the sky yesterday was the sun. Finally!

So, to catch you guys up on a few of the things that we here at Quinnco Photography have been up to….

We went out to support the American Cancer Society’s Relay for Life here in Pine Bush. It was a great event and they had a wonderful turnout despite all the rain. It was quite a muddy walk but everyone’s spirits were high and a lot of money was raised for cancer research. Thanks to everyone who supported the effort! This event has really been growing here in Orange County and this year they launched a long term study (Cancer Prevention Study -3) that will help future generations with the ongoing fight to find the causes and cures for the various forms of cancers that exist.

We also had the opportunity to support another casue on a much more local level. Autism is a misunderstood disability which as often gone misdiagnosed. A young local businessman, Jimmy Burpoe, who heads up Operation Skate teamed up with the folks from Autism Move-O-Thon of Orange County and put together Bord BQ. This event was to not only help raise autism awareness but to introduce the public to Jimmy’s goal of a skateboard park in Middletown. As an avid skateboarder and owner of Little Jimmy’s Skateboard Shop this dream of a skate plaza is very personal to Jimmy and seeing a young businessman out there working to promote something like this was great! There were bands and food and a lot of fun to be had! Thanks to all the sponsors and participants who braved the rain to make this a fun event. We were glad to be a part of it. Anything that promotes a drug-free environment for kids and gives them an outlet for their passion is good by us!

Here are some shots from the event. Great turnout and a lot of fun!

Jimmy and the folks from Autism Move-O-Thon of Orange County

Jimmy and one the guys hamming it up for the camera.

More Jimmy... He was everywhere!

The dunk tank!

Skating in the rain was a challenge!

Jammin' to one of the bands!

Who needs a new board?

We sure had a good time at the Board BQ and were glad that we could be a sponsor and help these two causes. Nice work putting this together Jimmy and we’ll see you again soon!

And still more rain came…. Those that have followed the blog for a while know that I am always trying to learn something new or to experiment with some lighting or to find other local area artists that want to have some fun from time to time. Well, this rain delay for the summer has given me some spare time and one of the projects I was able to do was to team up with one of my favorite makeup artists, Nicole, and a model named Kelly and we spent an afternoon just goofing around with some leaves, glue and lights. These little sessions can be fun because it’s just a chance to kick back and play around a bit. Nicole is a wonderful makeup and hair artist and she does a lot of bridal make-up so if there are any ladies out there who are looking for someone, drop Nicole an email at beautybynicole@yahoo.com and maybe she can help you out.

Anyway, we had a good time and we are able to forget about the rain for a while. Here’s a couple for the session, If you like them feel free to let us know!

-Pete

What a fun weekend I had! I spent Saturday participating in the Pine Bush Area Chamber of Commerce sponsored Art Tour where I had the opportunity to meet some more people from the area and was able to show off some of my personal work. Many times photographers don’t get the chance to showcase our personal projects and it feels good when you are able to do that. Thanks to Lou and Cathi at Subway for hosting us, and everyone who came out and supported the event and Quinnco Photography!

We also were able to shoot the engagement session for Katie and Joe in Port Jervis  You may remember them from a few posts back. What a fun couple! And the double bonus of shooting their engagement session was that we got to hit Len and Jo’s for pizza again afterward! I do love the pizza at Len and Jo’s… Anyway, here’s a funny one from the session, I told Katie it was going on the blog for sure! Katie and Joe, you guys were great!

A quick reminder to anyone in the local area. Tomorrow, June 6th, the Pine Bush Area Chamber of Commerce will be holding their first annual Arts Tours. This is designed to bring together local artists and business who are in the community. Tomorrow will also be the Farmers Market of the season and the weather is forecast to be great! Lots of great local produce and other items to see and enjoy. Come on out and help support your community because these days more than ever we need to work together!

We will have some photographs on display at Subway and we hope to see you there!

Just a quick thanks to everyone who came out for the promotion that Pineapple Day Spa in Pine Bush had put together and we at Quinnco Photography got to take part in. During the cold winter months the wedding photography kind of slows down and things like this give us a chance to get out and meet more people and give something back to the local businesses and vendors who support us.

We met some wonderful new people and had a great time doing it. Lisette was kind enough to let us post some shots from her session so we put together a quick little music video. Thanks Lisette!

~Pete