My amazing, awesome, goofy, fun, spunky, beautiful, witty and talented grandmother's birthday was yesterday! (We call her MomMom.) :) I took her to the gym to take some pix to commemorate her special day. She goes to Shapes 4-5 times per week! She totally rocks! Here she is, lookin' as good as ever AFTER her workout. (This is the part where I'd be all sweaty, draggin' my feet out to my car to collapse.) Not her! 84 years old, and putting the rest of us to shame! HAPPY BIRTHDAY!!

One of my best friends in the world, Aimee, ran her first half-marathon today! I can't even describe how proud I am of her. And she totally kicked butt! She finished in 2 hr and 10 min, just amazing. CONGRATULATIONS, AIMEE!! I <3 U!

Courtney's hosting a photo contest over on her blog from this past Sunday's shoot...the entry with the most votes wins a cool prize! So head over to her blog and vote for your favorite photo by leaving a comment!

(Mine is #4, heehee.)

Cheers! ~Zekeshem

WOW! Yesterday I had the extreme pleasure of hanging out with some of the most awesome and fun photographers in the Tampa Bay area. It was a chance to network, get to know each other better, take photos of each other, and have a blast while doing it! Courtney Fries of Courtney Fries Photography organized it, along with Nick Haskins. Also there were Steven Dohring, Will Hawkins, Taka, Erin and Chris, and Travis. Here are some highlights from the afternoon!




























































I had soooo much fun! If you care to see some of pix that were taken of me, Nick has some up on his blog, as well as Courtney. Steven made up a really cool slideshow as well.

Thank you so much, everyone!! I can't wait to hang out again soon!

Cheers! ~Zekeshem

I'm back! Had a wonderful vacation down in South Florida visiting with old and new friends from around the country while dancing 'til we could dance no more! But I think I may have pushed myself a little too far and am now paying the consequences: Fever, coughing, headaches, chills, sinus congestion...you name it, I think I've got it. Photos will be out for all you SoFLexers out there, but prob not for a few more days. I'm spending most of my time in bed or on the couch, trying not to look at the light, lol.

On another note, I'm getting lots of inquiries for weddings and other photo sessions for this spring and summer! It's so exciting to see my calendar filling up! I have a several exciting shoots coming up soon...can't wait to share how they went!

And now...back to bed for me! Sorry no photos for now, I'm just too exhausted to post. :( Be back on my feet soon, though!

Finally, it's here! My long awaited vacation! Well, I'm super excited to be headed down to South Florida with an amazing group of friends for SoFlex. That is, the South Florida Lindy Exchange. It's true, I love to swing dance! And now I get to go dance my heart, and shoes, out! I'll be back to work January 24th, and will be able to get back to all messages and inquiries at that time.

Oh, and one more thing...sheepish grin...I tried to set up an automatic reply to e-mails for while I'm out of town, and I inadvertently set it up to reply to EVERY SINGLE MESSAGE in my inbox! So I PROFUSELY apologize if you were one of the poor souls who got something like 10 e-mails from me saying I'll be out of town! I won't be trying that tactic for a while... Sorry everyone!!! :)

See ya when I get back!

~Zekeshem

Well, I didn't have far to travel...I mean, a 15 min drive last night and I was home. Whew! :P

I don't know how many people actually ended up at the convention, but I believe it broke all previous Imaging records. Photographers everywhere!! Hopefully the numbers will be posted somewhere soon, because I'd love to know the final count.

I attended several programs by some of the country's most talented and successful photographers...I feel SO INSPIRED!! The topics ranged from workflow, to lighting, to marketing, to shaking things up with wedding photography, creating amazing albums and more! Really, this was such a great experience, and I can't wait to jump into 2008 applying these new techniques I've learned!

I have to mention how lucky I was to meet Levi Nilsson, president of the Alaska Chapter of PPA. I just happened to sit next to him during the first workshop of the day on Monday, and we just kinda clicked and spent the rest of the conference together. Talk about someone who knows his stuff! He was able to answer so many of my questions (and so patiently, thank you, Levi!!) and give me tons of pointers for my business. Plus I got to see his brand new, 2-day-old Canon Mark III in action. ;) Levi and his wife are expecting twins in a couple of months, and I can only imagine how fast his shutter count is going to skyrocket once they're born! LOL Levi, you rock!!

Ooh, I also got to meet Erik Dungan of Big Folio, who I have my website through. Up until Monday he was just a name to me, and it was so cool to finally meet him in person! Big Folio has been such a great company to work with. Even though I could tell he was a li'l stressed with some internet connection issues at the trade show, he was super nice, answered all of the questions I had and even sold Levi on a new website! Thank you, Erik, for all of the hard work you put into your awesome company!

Next year I won't be so lucky to have the conference right here, it's going to be in Phoenix, AZ...but I feel it would totally be worth the trip and I'm already planning on going! Hey, if someone can make it to Florida from Alaska, I can certainly make it to Arizona. To sum up, I had an amazing, educational and super-inspiring weekend...2008 is going to be amazing and I'm so excited to see what goodness God has in store for Blue Lane Photography!

Cheers, Everyone!!! ~Zekeshem

I'm so excited! One of the largest photographers' conventions is this weekend, and it's right in my own backyard! Well, it's in Tampa...you know what I mean! Imaging USA is taking over the Tampa Convention Center, the Marriott Waterside, the Hyatt Regency Downtown, and the Westin Tampa Harbour Island. In fact, there are so many photographers in town for this event that the NY Giants had to look for lodging over in St. Pete for this weekend's game against the Bucs! Wow...this is gonna be GOOD!!

Yep, leave it to Albert to go for some ice cream on the coldest day of this winter so far! But hey, to each his own! ;) We spent a nice afternoon at the park, me trying to stay warm, he lickin' away at his frosty treat! ("I'm from Chicago, I like it cold!") Good times. Here are a few pix from our li'l adventure. Enjoy! (And now, I shall go enjoy a cup o' hot chocolate, while I'm sure he's sitting out on the porch in his flip flops, LOL.) Just messin' with ya, Albert!