David Ziser Master Class

I was blessed with the chance to spend a week with David Ziser in Northern Kentucky at his last week long Master Digital Photography class.  He and LaDawn were the absolute best hosts imaginable.  I am hoping to get out of my box and do an even better job of Wedding Photography.  Truly, I am seeing things a little differently.

One of the best things that happened is meeting people from all over the world and discussing business with them.  A Canadian named Michael Houlden has really tried to help me with my business model and has really made me think. www.houldenstudios.ca is his website.  Go and enjoy!


Things will never be the same in photography.  Hopefully we will cope, adapt, and change as necessary to stay in business.  I will post photos from the week as I get them transferred over from the laptop. 
Thanks for reading!

New Background

While we were in Tennessee at their state convention, I met up with the owners of Madcamp backgrounds out of South Dakota. We really liked some of their backgrounds. We couldn't afford it but decided we needed something different and purchased two. This is a 3 week old on the pedestal in front of the favorite of the two.
I hope you like it!

New Web Site

Deb and I are so excited. Our new site is up and running. Now our big problem is what to put on it! We will be able to change the images our-self so I hope to keep it fairly current. It pays music and has a beautiful background. Please let me know what you think and I will transfer that to the great company in FL that built it for us and hosts it! Thanks for reading!

www.spillmanphotography.com

Today

All days are different. Today I am learning the necessity of a positive attitude. I am going to work to improve! Those who know me and are close to me know the terrible attitude I have had lately. Does it do any good? Only a positive attitude can do good. Look at all the things I have to be thankful for! There are so many people so much worse. I hope everyone sees a different me! Blessings to all!

Life in August

We just returned from a great convention in Tennessee.
Boy did we get our hands smacked.
We found we are doing a lot of things right, but found we need improvement in many areas.
The more we are in the business the more we learn we need to do!
We are so thankful for where we are and hope to continue to serve our wonderful customers!
I haven't figured out how to get the email addresses of all our customers.....
We are moving away from mailing pieces to our friends and sending emails instead.
A lot cheaper and faster.

We need to post more photos and get more people to enjoy them.

I am having real problems getting results from a few of my vendors. It seems that no matter how hard times are.... some companies just don't have decent customer service!

Also my web-site is down and we are transferring to another company this week. I reckon everything happens at once!

I promise some images will follow soon! That is why most people look at a blog anyway, I think!
Later!!

Life

After considerable consideration and a feeling that I need to express myself; I am going to start this up again. Life is somewhat better. This is a good thing. Too busy to do anything except work. That is a good thing right now.

We seem to be very busy but not making enough to pay the bills. Garnet Vance said it correctly that it has to get better. It can't get worse. Or can it? I am so thankful for our customers. They are so faithful. We are so thankful for each and every one of them.

We are trying something new in having Fairies in the studio this week. We have it all set up and are ready to go. Deb worked on the set some today and it really looks great. Susan Livers best said it when she said "What little girl wouldn't want to dress up and be a fairy?" Susan has been a loyal friend since she started being my "Angel" at 4H Shooting Sports Camp. Now she is a freshman at WKU.

We went to Shooting Sports Training this past weekend and really enjoyed seeing most of our Shooting Sports Friends. What a glorious weekend. How blessed we were with wonderful weather. We will take a lot more of that. I taught shotgun for the first time and really enjoyed the difference.

Seems every where we go there are problems. It really would be nice if everyone just got along.
One lady at Training complained about us taking pictures. BAH HUMBUG!

I will post images of Fairies soon!

The Games People Play Now, ...

This title comes to mind this morning! Games that don't have to be played. Games resulting in wrecked lives. All of which could be prevented by communication!

There will be no more entries in this blog until things are better. Much better.

Encouragement needed!

It is a sad time in the Spillman household. All is not well.

Heartland Photo Group

Deb and I were invited to the Heartland Photo group in Calvert City to speak on Thursday night.
They meet the first Thursday of every month. They were so nice and gracious.

We had a good meal at the Cracker Barrel and went to a Baptist Church to meet. They had a very nice facility.

The class was on Wedding Photography. Since we are going to be giving an early bird class in January at the state convention, we felt this would be a good warm up for that.

We talked about what we do dealing with weddings from the initial phone call to the delivery of albums. No body got up and walked out and no one seemed to leave mad. So maybe we did alright!

I was so proud of Deb. She really did a great job. I did not know after being married to her for 35 years that she was so articulate. Maybe if I would listen more??????

Anyway we had great participation and they stayed the whole time even though we went over our allotted time by about 20 minutes.

We have been doing them so long that it is easy to talk about weddings. We also gave them a show of many of our images and one of our son Will's shows to define the Photojournalism that we take at weddings.

I would be in favor of attending again and maybe even speaking about something else.

Thanks Heartland! You guys are a great group.

Smokies 2009

Deb and I were going to lose a week in the Smokies if we did not use it. We could not afford it but went anyway. The best thing that happened was that we met the Siebolds down here. Bill and Carolyn Siebold are parents of former students. Some of the finest people in the world. We especially have a soft spot in our hearts for their daughter Jennifer who is one of our favorites. She even helped babysit Will when he was small.

We asked them to go with us up the mountain to take pictures. They seemed to enjoy the scenery. I hope we did not bore them. I know we really enjoyed their company. They brought back many great memories about Hiseville School. Times sure have changed.

The week was full of shopping and eating and trying to relax. Upon Will's recommendation we got call-forwarding and took most of our calls down here. The worst thing was that AT&T has no service where we stayed. So to stay available, I went out and bought a disposable phone from Verizon. It works well but I am getting very tired of their calling me about nothing. Also it seems that someone else must of had the number before because I keep getting weird calls that do not talk. So goes the game of cell numbers.

Posting is not a problem and I usually have too much to say. It is just remembering to do it and finding the time.

I found a camera and lens on Craig's List down here and am going to see the owner today. I may be going deeper into debt again. We shall see!

Till next time.

TPPA

We went to Tennessee to their state convention. Deb and I actually got to go to classes instead of work. They do a great job down there. At first no one talked to us. But as you know, I never met a stranger and began talking to several of them. It wasn't long until I spoke to several couples. We probably will go back to TN because in KY we have to work so that we miss the speakers. There were some friends from KY there also and naturally we had a great time with them. One night we went out to eat with Ron Rice, co-owner of Dury's. He is a great friend and always treats his customers right. We saw everything from baby photographers to pet photographers. Probably the best known speaker was Michael Taylor from California. He has been called an Icon by Kodak. His lighting techniques are awesome. I hope a little of all of them rubbed off on us.

Since we have been home we have been so busy! I wish it would continue but the book is not near as full as I wish it were. We can only hope things will improve!

Ryan Gledhill

Ryan is the Three year old son of a fairly new family to our customer list. What a great family! Every time I am around them I am more and more impressed. Dad is obviously brilliant working as a computer programmer. Mom is so patient amd loving with their children. And their wonderful attitude and work ethic has has rubbed off on their children.
I would have never thought that I would welcome into my hole (office), where I work, anyone to help me. But sure enough, James, their oldest has proved to be a great asset to me. At this point I don't know what I will do without him when he goes on his Mission trip for his church in several months. He can do things with a computer that I have no idea how he does it or that quickly. The best thing about him is his young inquisitive mind. He wants to learn and please in anyway he can. Great attributes for anyone. Especially a young man. He is polite, considerate, trustworthy and honestly I believe he is glad to get away from home some. I know I am glad to get him. I wish I could pay him more!
I don't know how I got off on James. This was supposed to be about Ryan. Isn't he a handsome young man!

Adeline Coleman

On Friday, one of our favorite families came for photographs of their three month old.
Adeline is precious as you can tell. She is already holding her head up and has a great personality. The parents are truly blessed! We are also blessed to have them as friends first and then as customers. The parents are both former students. We are very proud of them and how well they are doing. Time sure flies when you are doing what you want to do instead of what you have to do!

Browning Grandchildren

Deb and I had the task of photographing seven children, all cousins.
These adorable kids are like any others. They can't all look the same direction at the same time. I felt real good about getting what I did. The moms all worked hard and especially Aunt Becky that came also. We even had a dad in on the deal. The oldest, Mason , was like a rock and did anything necessary to help out. Their parents should be proud. Jack and Carter were especially good. We did special "princess" photos inside of Hallie-Anne. I hope they like them as much as I do!

Briggs Harris

We had the pleasure of photographing this handsome boy yesterday. This is out next to our pond. We hope to have a pond event soon!

Whitley Gibson Tea Party

Newberry Sale

Deb and I went to the Newberry sale this morning.
Frank Newberry was my principal for too many years to remember. From third grade all the way thru my junior year. Then he hired me as a teacher and I worked for him till he retired. His log cabin, assorted antiques and junk sold today.

He had a beautiful two-story log cabin that was a combination of three and it sold for three thousand dollars. What a steal. But it had to be moved. I would love to have it for a studio.

Many antiques were sold for much less than they were worth yet a little seat I wanted as a prop sold for fifty dollars very quickly. I was hoping to get a momento from the estate but it was not meant to be. There was a Knights Templar sword and scabbard that I would have loved to had but it had a man named Smith engraved on it! And I did not want to wait all day for one item.

It was good to see many people from the community. And a few I stayed away from.

Red, White and Tuna

If you have not been to the Kentucky Rep Theater and seen the play Red, White and Tuna, you need to go.
The family went tonight and I have not laughed so much in a long time. It was a little more edgy that the other two with more colorful language. It was hilarious. I hope Will and Marilyn enjoyed it as much as we did.
Support your local Arts!

Encouragement

I have been asked to write a letter of encouragement to other photographers. Because I am a board member of a small group of christian photographers called the International Christian Photographers.(www.abouticp.org)
During these slow times everyone needs encouragement. I do not know where to start. If any reader has a suggestion, please contact me directly. Deb has already been a great help by suggesting I refer to Paul's writings in 1st Thessalonians chapter 5. My Life Application NIV version has a great chart that I may use as a framework or outline for my letter.
We may think we are in control of our lives, but are we really?

Self Portrait

Finally finding the remote release, Deb and I posed for a few images for the program for KPPA that was discussed earlier. Now everyone can see how lucky I am to have such a beautiful wife. Who is that old man she is standing next to?