AZPPA Member Mentors Student

AzPPA Member Mentors Student Intern

By Rochell Planty, CMP, CTA

AzPPA Member Monica Gardella of Gardella Photography had no idea that her MySpace site would lead to a student intern that has made an impact on her life.

Robin Dunlap a junior at Buena High School in Sierra Vista, Arizona googled local photographers last year and found Monica Gardella through her MySpace page which Monica had set up for High School Seniors. “Robin was a sophomore at that time and said she wanted to be a Photographer, wanted to learn and be an intern for me.  I was shocked!  Someone wanted to work with me and thought I was good enough to teach her, said Monica.”

From left, Monica Gardella, James Dunlap and Robin Dunlap

From left, Monica Gardella, James Dunlap and Robin Dunlap Image © Dave Weingarten

Monica was so intrigued about the initiative this student expressed that she invited her to the studio to share her portfolio and at that point Monica was hooked. “I didn’t know I needed an intern until she showed up on my doorstep. She definitely had a great eye and her photos were much like mine. She was so professional, yet fun – again just like me! She played trombone – like me! We totally hit it off,” Monica shared.

Robin started out taking landscape photos for fun and started sharing those with her parents. “There was a natural eye there as we look back, shared Robin’s mom Andrea.”

This natural eye Andrea mentions might actually be something she has inherited from her grandfather James “Mickey” Dunlap who is a retired photographic craftsman from Newport Beach, California. Robin has been the only grandchild to show interest in the photography industry.

Robin’s schedule keeps her quite busy. She attends school from 6:30 am – 2:30 pm and then in the studio most days following school until 5:00 pm. Monica was amazed at how quickly Robin picked up on things. “She’ll watch me do something once, and then she’s off and running. She works with me on shoots, assists with posing, changing backgrounds, getting baby’s attention – you know all the glamorous stuff, ” Monica said.

Robin has set her goal on being a Wedding Photographer and has had the opportunity to be a second shooter for Monica.  “We’re coming up on her second year anniversary, and this year, I had her photograph all of our Senior Yearbook photos.  She was responsible for lighting, photographing, and editing.  It was PERFECT!  Also – she’s been the lead photographer on several High School Senior sessions – most notably our first ever Senior Model.  I loved how the photos turned out and most importantly, so did our Model,” expressed Monica.

Self starter is how Monica has referred to Robin. She jumps right in and teaches herself, especially when it comes to utilizing Photoshop.

Monica invited Robin to the Arizona Professional Photographers Association (AzPPA) State Convention last year when they had recently met. She wasn’t able to attend but when the convention came around again this year, Robin’s parents sat down with her and discussed the convention and if photography was her passion, this would be a good opportunity for her. “Robin has been raised not to miss school unless she was sick or it was a real need. Since the last day of the convention was on Monday this was a big decision for us,” Andrea shared.

Robin was so ecstatic about being able to attend that she called her grandfather to invite him to join her at the convention in Phoenix. Her family was committed to her being able to attend and for her grandfather to be able to share this moment with his granddaughter. Robin’s father flew to California to stay with his mother while “Mickey”, Robin’s grandfather, flew to Arizona for the convention and Robin’s mom traveled to Phoenix with Monica and Robin.

When it was mentioned how special this was for Robin to have her grandfather at the convention Mickey responded “this really meant a lot to me to be with my granddaughter!”

James “Mickey” Dunlap started his photography career in Glendale, California in his parent’s garage. His business expanded into a studio and he eventually took on a partner for twenty three years to create Dunlap-Turney Photography. They started out with two employees and grew to twenty five. He continued on his own for another twenty eight years after that. In 1982 they built a two story, 6,000 sq ft. studio. Mickey worked with West Coast School of Photography and served on the board of Winona School of Professional Photography before Professional Photographers of America (PPA) was formed in 1958.

Even though Mickey is now retired, he thought it was important and it meant a lot for him to attend the AzPPA Convention with his granddaughter and to share in her enthusiasm and desire to be a photographer.

Monica stated “I travel a lot with my husband on his business trips and he always makes sure we bring a gift home for Robin because – as he puts it – we wouldn’t be where we are today without her!  She is fantastic and I keep begging her not to move away after High School. Robin is the best intern I could have ever hoped for!”

With the dedication and commitment Robin has through her mentor Monica Gardella, her parents and Photographic Craftsman grandfather, she is bound for great success.

You never know where an inquiry might lead. Opportunities are out there to mentor someone,  and what you might gain personally from giving your time and sharing your knowledge is invaluable. If you are not in the situation where you are able to take on an intern, you might consider being involved with the AzPPA mentor program held each month during the monthly programs. There are opportunities out there that you may share with others as Monica Gardella has been able to do and has enriched her life as she never expected. To learn more about Gardella Photography visit  http://gardellaphotography.com

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ThirstRelief International Mentor Auction

Thirst relief Banner

Thirst Relief International Mentor Auction

http://thirstrelief.shootq.com is the URL to get started checking out the available mentors to bid on to raise money for Thirst Relief.

AZPPA’s Bob Coates is participating. You can check out his info on the ThirstRelief web site or see the details below…

Grow as a photographer while saving lives!

Bob Coates is participating in the 2010 ThirstRelief Mentor Auction. Our mission is to save lives by tapping into the incredible talent and generosity of the photo industry.

Did you know that every 15 seconds someone dies of a waterborne illness? That’s 5760 people every day! You can help. Bid on a mentoring session with your favorite photographer! 100% of the proceeds directly benefit Thirst Relief. Add to that the incredible wisdom and talent that is being shared in the one-on-one mentor sessions and you have better and more successful photographers! It’s truly a win win for everyone involved!

About Coates and his mentor auction
Marketing is my mantra. Based in Sedona Arizona Bob Coates Photography is a Successful Photography business that specializes in not specializing. Photographer, author of several books and many magazine articles, industry speaker, business coach and mentor. I look forward to sharing knowledge to raise funds for Thirst Relief International. http://bcphotography.com http://bcweddingphoto.com http://sedonavista.com

Bob’s mentor session can take place at WPPI 2010 (Las Vegas), in his hometown of Sedona, AZ OR on the phone.

Also included with Bob’s auction:
Wedding Album Design DVD from Software Cinema. Wedding Album Design and Sales for the Professional Photographer from Amherst Books. Strategies and Techniques for the Digital Photographer from Amherst Media. Certificate for 20% discount to yearly coaching program ($600 value) Total value of the deal including your mentoring session $1,064!
To bid on Coates’ auction, visit thirstrelief.shootq.com

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Lightroom and Wedding programs

Everyone had a laptop to work along with Art  Image © Bob Coates Photography, Inc.

Everyone had a laptop to work along with Art Image © Bob Coates Photography, Inc.

January 31 found Art Suwansang giving a great program on workflow using Adobe’s Lightroom. Art did a very fine job in sharing his knowledge in an informative, friendly fashion. He was able to communicate to rookies and experienced Lightroom users without loosing either group at the same time. I heard only solid positive comments about Art’s presentation from Azppa members. I fielded many positive comments about his wedding program as well on Monday night the 1st of February as well. If you have the opportunity to see Art speak I would highly recommend it…. You can check out his work here

Art also has a video posted on his web site about the Lightroom 3 Beta just introduced showing new features. Check it out! http://www.wedding64.com/theater/lr3b

Art Suwansang program presentation

Art Suwansang program presentation Image © Bob Coates Photography, Inc.

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Allen Patrou AZPPA Studio Tour

This is a post from Allen Patrou’s  blog about the Studio Tour in the beginning of November. We had a great Arizona Professional Photographers Studio Tour here on Sunday. It was a small group which allowed more question and answer during the presentation and the Location Lighting demonstration outside. We had a lovely model, Jin Cha, who posed for us as I demonstrated the benefits and proper usage of location “studio” style lighitng outside in my posing areas. I use an Elinchrom Ranger pack with 1100 watts of lighting power derived from its own battery power source. I demonstrated with our model in light shade with the sun behind her, and with sunlight directly on her face. When you have the right equipment and the know how, you can overcome the normally harsh contrasty lighting outside and create beautiful images! Take a look at the image below. Here Jin is in light shade with our lights creating beautiful soft “modeling” and seperating her from the background at the same time. To see and image created showing some lighting techniques click here. Here also is an email from attendee Tom Cheswick…
Hi Allen,

Thank you and your model Jin for a great studio tour. It was very interesting to see the use of high powered strobes used outdoor. I loved to see just how easy you were able to control the light to get the proper lighting for the angle of the face, regardless of the type of sun light you had to deal with. You also explained things very clearly and were very generous with the sharing of your techniques. You have a great mastery of studio lighting!

Jin was also a great model. She was very warm and friendly and welcomed everyone as they entered the studio. She was the perfect model and also added a lot to the discussions that took place in the studio. It’s easy to see why she is one of your favorite models, it would be a lot of fun to work with her sometime.

I’m copying the President of AzPPA to let Wendy know what a fantastic job that you did!

Take Care,

Tom

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Here’s the group photo of the attendees at the Faux Wedding held at Villa Sienna at the October meeting. We had well over 100 photographers participate in this event! It was a blast. Steve Nissle set up the image and his lovely wife pushed the shutter button for him.

AZPPA Photographers pose for the "Family Group" shot

AZPPA Photographers pose for the "Family Group" shot

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Faux Wedding at Villa Sienna

We had an absolutely great turn out and wonderful event at Villa Sienna. Our three photographers Steve Nissle, Michele Celentano and Davd DiDios showed how they work an event. As a bonus Steve Nissle has sent images captured from the shoot. Michele has been changing her studio location (whew what a job!!) and has not had a chance to process her images. In a rather sad turn of events, David had his studio broken into and had his computers stolen so we won’t be able to view his images. Here are Steve’s images from the Faux wedding… Click on individual images to view full frame

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Hello world!

Welcome to the Arizona Professional Photographers Association web log. Hopefully with the help of Wordpress we will be able to use this forum to share photography knowledge as well as offer a portal that will allow you to register and pay for AzPPA’s education events online. This will be a space to exchange ideas, show you what’s happening in the Arizona PPA at seminars and events. Eventually this should be the place to sign in for monthly meetings and sign p and pay for AZPPA events. That’s the plan anyway… Hope you’ll spend some time with us here.

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