Off to Professional Photographers of Michigan convention

Loretta leaves today for the Professional Photographers of Michigan convention, which starts on Friday evening in Ypsilanti. Michael and I will leave tomorrow, after Michael spends today and tonight preparing all of the desserts for Loretta's Presidential Welcome party. We will return on Wednesday.

When Michael volunteered to take on this dessert venture seven years ago, he had no idea that he would be two weeks away from his first Miss Heart of Michigan scholarship pageant. He is great at multi tasking, so dessert preparation and Miss Heart final details will be a challenge that he will be able to handle.

The four day convention will bring in over fifteen speakers from all over the US and Canada. Michael and Loretta presented a program for the Northern Ontario Professional Photographers five years ago and met the nicest group of photographers. Last year, they saw their Canadian hosts present a program at the Professional Photographers of Ohio convention. Rob and James gave one of the best programs that Michael and Loretta had ever seen, so they convinced the PPM program chair to bring them to Michigan. Michael and Loretta will get to become the hosts this time.

There will be programs from 7:00 AM until 6:00 PM, then a social gathering every night. Since it is Super Bowl weekend, PPM will have a huge party for the members. The weekend will be informative, fun and exhausting!

There will be hundreds of images taken at the convention (there should be, at a professional photographer convention!), so we will be sure to post them next week. This is my second convention. I know it will be great!

Have a great Super Bowl weekend!

Miss Michigan Wins!!!!

Our own Miss Michigan, Kirsten Haglund, just won the Miss America title! What wonderful news for Michigan! We are so proud of her! She will represent Michigan well!

Kirsten was scheduled as Master of Ceremony of the Miss Heart of Michigan pageant, but her new Miss America title will take her away from Traverse City. We will miss her, but we are so excited for her new venture!

Congratulations to Kirsten!

Handsome Willem

We photographed Willem for his two year portrait today. His grandmother hand made this beautiful sweater.

We met Willem before he was born. His parents came into the studio for a gorgeous pregnancy portrait. They also had birth announcement portraits taken when Willem was ten days old. He was the first ten day old baby who actually looked at Loretta during the session. Most ten day babies are content to sleep.

Willem was a very happy, curious child today. He was so much fun to photograph!

Riding for a Cause

Last summer a friend of mine lost his sister to cervical cancer. As you can imagine, this was a devastating loss for his family. Her name was Brandie. During her fight with cancer, Brandie and her family struggled to find the information and support they needed. After the loss of Brandie, her family was inspired to start a foundation to raise awareness and support for cancer patients. They started the Brandie Rose Foundation. The main goal of the foundation is to open a support center for cancer patients and their families.

Though the foundation is in its beginnings, they have made great strides. This weekend they are hosting their first fund raising event. I would like to invite anyone interested to join us this Saturday at Peegio's Restaurant on High Lake Road.
You can find more information about the snowmobile run at www.brandierose.org. This should be a fun afternoon!


P.S. Don't forget to watch Miss Michigan compete for Miss America Saturday night! The pageant is on TLC at 8:00!

Update on Miss Heart of Michigan

If you have been following our Miss Heart of Michigan news, we have an update!

The Miss Heart of Michigan scholarship pageant has been moved to the Park Place Hotel in downtown Traverse City. All dates and times are the same. Just the location has been changed.

Tickets are now available for purchase. Please call the studio or go to Missheartofmichigan.org for more information.

Happy Belated Birthday Monty

We photographed Monty for his two year portrait today. He is so handsome!

Monty was a very happy child at our Ice Cream Special!

He also loved the John Deere tractor!


Hope you had a great birthday!

Squirrely?

It's Monday! Back to work!

On Saturday night, Michael's photograph of the squirrel in the pumpkin was aired on 7&4's news as the day's "Hot Shot." If you have been to the studio, you know that right outside our office window, we keep the birds and squirrels well fed. Once our Happy Apples special was over, we put the pumpkins outside for the squirrels to enjoy. We all got a laugh out of the squirrels eating a hole through the pumpkin. Aren't they so cute?

The Miss Heart of Michigan Pageant will be here before we know it! So much progress is being made every day. Please remember that we are selling tickets in advance through the studio. Call the studio if you would like to reserve your tickets!

Michael and Loretta's winter vacation

Here are some of our favorite images from our mini vacation.


We found Nemo!

Michael loves rockets of any kind!

The Saturn V moon rocket blew me away! Look at the size of the engines! I am the little person in the right front corner.

Back Home Again

Hi from Loretta!

If you had not heard, Michael and I spent the last seven days in Florida. We attended the Professional Photographers of America convention. Lindsay held down the fort and fed the hungry birds and squirrels while we were gone.

I am a PPA Councilor, which is the governing body of PPA. The annual Council meeting was held during the convention.

Along with my Council meeting, Michael I spent three days in programs and the trade show, to find out what is new in the portrait photography world. Things change so rapidly that it is imperative to keep up with the latest and greatest in the industry.

It was an inspiring (new ideas), tiring (long hours) and challenging (what can we do to improve?) three days. It was great to see our friends from all over the country. It was beautiful weather, when we were able to get out of the convention center.

As an added bonus, we actually took a mini vacation, which we have not done since our honeymoon in 2001! We spent a great day at Epcot with our friends David and Denise Boyce (Denise is the PPM President Elect), then went on to the Kennedy Space Center for two days. We were so amazed by the Space Center. We saw the Shuttle Atlantis on the launch pad. The Shuttle was scheduled for launch on Thursday (the day we were there), but has been moved to February.

I get a one day turnaround to prepare for the Professional Photographers of Michigan board meeting in Ypsilanti on Monday morning. With PPM Annual convention only three weeks away, everything has to be in place and ready to go. Today will be a catch up, get ready for meeting day.

When we get a chance to look at our images, we will post a mini vacation image!