My buddy the international award winner

I want to congratulate my pal Johnny Tran- the hippest, freshest, baddest photographer in Calgary on winning the Finao / DWF Photographer of the year - http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/finao_dwf_photographers_year?s=706d3f0938777f7619b39aa42aa40c72

My main man Johnny and I are gonna kick it in Vegas at WPPI. Hopefully, I'll have more hardware to talk about by then too ;-)

Be sure to check out his blog - http://www.jtimages.ca/blog/

One thing I would like to say to all photographers out there, is that print competition is an important part of your growth.

Seeing your images critiqued is an important part of learning. Also seeing other great images, will help inspire, challenge, and educate you (props to Jerry & The ICE Society)!

Some opportunities for Chicago photographers to enter print competitions are Northern - http://www.ppani.org/ and CPPA - http://www.cppa-inc.org/

Til next time

New CPPA newsletter / WPPI / Northern

Hello All,

I know it's been a while since I posted. It was a busy holiday season!

Shot a wedding in Los Angeles, Xmas and a lot of reorganization of business stuff.

For everyone in CPPA wanted to let you know that a new Photoshop tutorial is on its way. The next one has to do with creating actions. I know a lot of people are out there selling actions, and many of them are very good.

With a little knowhow and patience though, you can create your own actions and save a lot of time in your Photoshop workflow.

If you're going to WPPI, let me know. I'll be there Feb 13 - Feb 18. I hope to learn a lot and catch up with a bunch of great people that I met around.

I also hope to see people at the Northern Illinois print competition. I just joined Northern or PPANI.

Print competition is a great way to improve your photography. It's not about creating images that are good for the customer. It's about pushing yourself and going up against the creme de la creme. By pushing yourself technically and creatively, you'll be able to up your talent and create EVEN BETTER images for your clients.

Hope to see you there, and I promise to post more.