Were you at the IPPA Photo workshop in Moab

Thanks very much for coming to the workshop! The class notes can be downloaded here. Make sure you use the password I gave you at the workshop to download and open the file. Also, if you are entering the alphabet contest, the instructions and entry form is in the "Read Me.pdf" file inside the .zip you'll download. Best of luck to you! The contest ends this sunday, 10-10 at midnight. Winners will be notified about a week after that via email. 

Winner of the latest alphabet photo contest!

Congratulations Frances Parker, who entered my alphabet photo challenge at Skip's Summer School. She stepped up and entered her beautiful and creative interpretation of the alphabet and won! All entries were posted to my SmugMug account and open to public judging to determine the winner. Frances will be showered with over $1000 in goodies from our awesome partners, like:

Bay Photo Lab , Tamrac , AsukaBook , Kubota Image Tools, Fast Track Photography by Dane Sanders, SmugMug Pro, Red Boot Design, Vgallery & more!

Here's Frances' winning entry. Click on it to view it larger:

Skips Summer School - you were there!

If you came to Skips Summer School, and to my program, "The Power of the Project", then you probably want to download my seminar notes :-) I really appreciate everyone who attended the program. Skip's School is a unique learning experience and a fantastic forum for bonding with other photographers who share the same passion for photography and growing their businesses. Thank you Skip Cohen for putting your heart and soul in to it!

You can download the notes here. Make sure you use the password I gave you at the seminar to download and open the file. If you are looking to enter one of the project contests, please click here.

Update on Thursday, August 12, 2010 at 08:37PM by Kevin Kubota

If you got a message "the maximum number of downloads has been reached." please try again. It has been fixed. Thanks!

Why would you photograph the alphabet?

Well, I can think of a couple good reasons, at least for the folks who attended my workshop at WPPI last week: A creative whack to the head and the chance to win $1000 worth of goodies! As part of my program, I shared a project that we do at my Digital Bootcamps and our Italy workshops. It's a really fun way to see things different - things you normally would walk right past. It makes you smell roses that you never took the time to smell. I love the alphabet project because I have a ton of fun with it and my class always comes back amazed at how much fun they have and we see some wonderfully creative interpretations of our daily typography.

After showing a sample of the alphabet project to the folks at my seminar, I got a crazy idea to offer $1000 worth of prizes to the person who took the coolest set of alphabet images while at WPPI. I'm going to post them here in a few days and let the public vote on a winner! If you weren't at WPPI, sorry, the contest was limited to those who attended the program and captured their images while there. Check back in a few days to vote on your favorite! 

Here's a sample of the alphabet project from past Bootcamp® attendee Josée Lafrance. She took these at the workshop.

Favorite 1-liner bits of advice from photographers everywhere

I ran a fun contest on my Facebook page asking for photographers to share their favorite one sentence bit of advice - either something they've heard, or something they concocted. It was really great to read through them all! The winning one-liner earned it's creator a FREE FULL YEAR membership to SmugMug PRO! Sa-weet deal for sure. You can see the 100+ one-liners on my FB page if you're looking for some laughs and inspiration. I had to ask my staff to pick the winning entry as I just had too hard a time. The top 10 are here...and the winner was....

Erin Wray Cady
I heard this one early on and it stuck with me:

Your most unhappy customers are your greatest source of learning.

The other top 10 were...

Heather Brizendine Gill
Never stop learning - everyone has something to teach you!

Jennifer Lebron
Connect to a community & create conversations about what you love.

Sally Benn Clark
Above all else, be yourself.

Diane Nanos Parsons
Have great customer service! You can be the best photog in the world but no one will book you without your customer service (Smug Mug is a GREAT example of perfect CS!)

Riz Crescini
You need new equipment like you need a hole in the head. Invest in yourself instead!

Courtney Paine Bodily
Believe in what your doing, believe in who you are!

Colin Vincent
As a photographer, one of your goals should be to make pictures *with* things, rather than to take pictures *of* things.

Conrad Flemming
The best photography investment I've ever made was buying comfortable shoes.

Russell Haddock
Do or do not....there is no try - Yoda :-)

I actually like Russell's recitation of Yoda myself!