Gerrie & Michael after wedding

On Saturday Gerrie & Michael had an intimate wedding at a freinds house in Sedona. Sunday they came by for a portrait session to use for their wedding announcement cards. Gerrie wanted highkey images on the white background which led nicely to the reverse vingetteing.



This is the one they chose.... They look great together don't you think??



We also had some fun with Gerrie's wedding dress spruced up with her cowboy hat!!

AZPPA Print Competition

Arizona Professional Photographers Association (AZPPA) had their annual Convention and print competition this past weekend (16-18 Feb) and it was well attended. We had the most print cases submitted in a few years... I got named AZPPA Master Commercial Photographer of the Year for a print that I photographed for one of our favorite restaurants in the Village of Oak Creek at the Outlet Mall called the Marketplace Cafe. They do a great job and I consider them my "local." Michelle and Jeff have done a great job and I'm so glad to be able to help them promote their restaurant with award winning imagery. My other prints did well also so I was also named AZPPA Top Ten Photographer for the 7th time in 8 years. Here are the scoring prints from the case....



This is the MPC Image. It won Commercial Master Photographer of the Year and is in the AZPPA Traveling Loan Collection



This image was put together from a calendar project I did for the Sedona Arts Center. It was a blast to shoot. Based on the Calendar Girls movie and all the subjets posed (tastefully) nude. It made me realize that I can make people extremely comfortable in front of the camera which I feel is 3/4 of my job. It was called Expose Yourself to the Arts. It received second place in the commercial division and is in the AZPPA Traveling Loan Collection.



I love the Texture and Form of this one. It's also in the Traveling Loan Collection.



This one is from a personal project trying to capture moments of dance... It's called Tango and received a merit. Any dancers who would like to be photographed? Drop me an email and let see what we can do.

Jim & Lisa romantic image

I love images that capture the emotion of the moment at the wedding. There were probably prettier images captured at this wedding at the Creekside Inn in Sedona, but this is the one that really grabbed me. I can see the love and tenderness and after realizing that it moved me I thought I'd share it with you. I think making the image sepia tone adds to the timeless feel. Color can sometimes distract us from the content and Black and white can be a little cold for people images. Let me know what you think....

Featured Photographer of the Month

In the Wedding and Portrait Photographer's Photography Monthly Newsletter I was featured as member of the month. This is put out in association of WPPI's Rangefinder Magazine. Very cool! If you would like to see the article you can check it out here. It's titled The Special Non-specialist and was written by Linda May. http://www.wppionline.com/newsletter/Jan08/member-month.tml


This is a screen capture of the beginning of the article.

Creekside Inn Wedding Sedona, Arizona

Just photographed an intimate two person Sedona wedding at Creekside Inn on Saturday. Lisa and Jim were wonderful. You can tell when the couple really enjoy each other!! We captured images of the wedding at Creekside and then went to the bottom of Schnebly Hill to get some red rock shots. It was a beautiful February day so the red rock color popped and the sky was that really deep blue. I stiched together 7 photos to put together this panoramic. Can't wait to hear what they think of it.

Mentoring Fellow Photographers- benefits Thirst Relief

OK the auction is on for 90 minutes of me mentoring a photographer. And the auction closes Febuary 12th unless there is a bidding war. You can bid at the following web address...
http://www.fotoverite.org/auction2/auction_details.php?name=Bob-Coates&auction_id=184
The initial bid is $50 and with the extras that I am throwing in the value of the session, books and CDs is $733 See the post below for more details.

Mentoring Fellow Photographers

If you happen to be a photographer (or know of one) I am going to be in an auction and you can bid on 90 minutes of my time plus some other goodies. This is to raise money for Thirst Relief International http://www.thirstrelief.org/ Last year this same auction was held and they raised $25,000. I'm really excited to be a part of this event.

Here's the details....Mentoring sessions will go up for bid on an auction at http://www.fotoverite.com/joomla/index.php . The auction site will have mentoring sessions posted with details about the session and a link to the auction. Bidders will need to register in order to place a bid on the mentoring session. The auction that's being set up has an end time. However, when the auction time is supposed to close, if there is a bidding war happening over a mentoring session then the auction will stay open until the bidding war ends. This is very important feature of the auction.

Last year, the huge success of the WPPI Thirst Relief Benefit came because each mentor posted on their blog and in their newsletters about their mentoring session. Mentors put links to their auction on their blog. Important that bidders know the auction will not close if there is a bidding war over a mentoring session.

The auction will take place for three days from February 9-February 12th. Auctions will end on the 12th (unless a mentoring session is having a bidding war…in which case the auction will end when people stop bidding). Once the auction closes, the bidder who won a mentoring session will need to go to www.thirstrelief.org and make a donation for the amount that they won the session with. When they are making their donation they will need to enter the mentors name in the "on behalf of" space so that it shows up as a contribution made for the WPPI Thirst Relief Benefit.

When it's time for the auction to go live I'll post a link to my auction.

Visit with Dad

My dad's a dancer and everyone knows him.... especially the ladies. He dances 4-5 times a week. Goes to an exercise class. Plays in a pool tournament. Ping Pong, and more. You get the idea! Oh and at 86 years old he delivers Meals on Wheels to "the older people"Here's a capture I caught of my dad that I keep around and know that I will treasure this type of protrait.



And here's one of my dad in dancing action!

January was busy

Sedona Wedding photographer Bob Coates (Hey that's me!) was out and about for the month of January sharing my photography knowledge with photographers in North Carolina where I did a seminar on Marketing and Photoshop. On the way there I stopped in to see my dad who's in a really cool adult living complex that's more like living on a cruise ship there are so many ammenities!! My dad's a dancer and everyone knows him.... especially the ladies. He dances 4-5 times a week. Goes to an exercise class. Plays in a pool tournament. Ping Pong, and more. You get the idea! Oh and at 86 years old he delivers Meals on Wheels to "the older people" He's a great inspiration and I'm glad I got so many of his genes. Most good, some bad. I got his love of people, his patience, work ethic and love of life. On the bad side I also got his bad knees and bad back. I think I came out way ahead with the balance of good and bad.... Hope I got the longevity thing too!

After seeing my dad and doing my program it was off to sin city, Las Vegas where I attended a 3 day photography seminar. Learned a bunch there! Then last Tuesday night got even more infomation at our local Arizona Professional Photographers Association meeting from a great local destinantion wedding photographer named Jefferson Todd. I can't wait to implement these new ideas!! Which is good for you if you are looking for a wedding photographer who's ready to go work for you, wherever in the world you want to tie the knot. JT gave me the great idea that the pre wedding shoot could happen anywhere in the world. Want to go to the place you met? Have a vacation spot you want to see? Let's all go together!! Also we can spend a day photographing you at your honeymoon destination. Way cool to capture all the memories. I'll close on this post but will be shaing some images I'm working on from my dad, a wedding album and some travels.....