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!