DONNA JIRSA, F-PPC, S-PPCEditor, Pro Photo West

During this festive-but-busy time of year, I’m re-minded of how the images we, as professional pho-tographers, create bring joy to many of our clients during the holidays. I’ve had the pleasure to work with dozens of clients this year who are gifting re-stored old family photos to yet another generation. Seeing the expressions, sometimes tears, and hear-ing comments of disbelief when clients view their restored treasures brings me joy. My concern for fu-ture generations is that there will be no family heir-looms to share because they have all been captured and stored on media for which there will no longer be a retrieval source, or the files will be damaged or lost through the years. We must educate consum-ers about the importance of owning quality portrait prints.

In this issue you’ll find a few more merit images from Western States 2013 Image Competition. We have so much talent within our PPC Family, I love being able to share some of these images with everyone.

Rae DeVito has created an interesting introduction of our new West Coast School Director, Lorenzo Gunn. I’ve known and admired Lorenzo for decades, as have many of you. He genuinely strives to help edu-cate photographers and make our industry stronger. Be sure to register for West Coast School during De-cember to take advantage of the special bonus offers Lorenzo is bringing our way! www.westcoastschool.com

I would be remiss if I didn’t recognize the new Expo and Conference Manager, Cayce Newman. Our Board of Directors made the decision to move Pro Photo

Expo and Conference back to an earlier time of year in 2014, and Cayce is hustling to put this fantastic event together in six short months – half the time normally required. I hear many exciting changes are in the works! My hat is off to Cayce for his dedica-tion to PPC! Remember to register for Pro Photo Expo and Conference – it’ll be here before we know it. www.prophotoexpoandconference.com

This will be my last e-Supplement as Editor. I hope you have enjoyed receiving these online editions of Pro Photo West as much as I’ve enjoyed compiling them. The concept for e-Supplements came from a strong belief that our Members need to stay con-nected - inspired, educated and informed. I’ve been honored to commit many hours of my time to this volunteer project in order to help promote the ben-efits of Professional Photographers of California Membership.

Watch your mailbox in January for my last printed Winter issue of Pro Photo West. It is the Pro Photo Expo and Conference Issue, and will contain several inspiring articles you won’t want to miss!

Although we say good-bye to our 2013 Executive Board, we are pleased to have a committed group of officers to carry us forward during 2014. I’m looking forward to the new programs they will develop, as well as added Member benefits!

I sincerely wish each of you and your families a blessed and joyous Holiday Season. Remember to savor every moment you have with your loved ones because each day is a gift!

EDITORIAL

e-Supplement | December 2013 | 6

year-end greetings

MARCY DUGAN, CPP, F-PPC, S-PPCPresident, Professional Photographers of California

I can’t believe it’s been a year since I became your president. Where does the time go?

When I came into office, I promised to address issues that were most impactful to the future of PPC. A lot of delegates helped conduct a swat analysis of PPC that pointed us to focus on helping each other improve as photographers and help us grow to become success-ful business professionals. Well, I have one question for each of you: Are you a better photographer today than you were a year ago? Hopefully you took advan-tage of one of the many educational seminars that were conducted throughout California this year. And even if you didn’t, did you seek help from an affiliate member or share your knowledge with one?

I can’t tell you how much I’ve learned this year from all of my interactions with affiliate groups through-out the state. It has been such a fantastic run that I

am kind of hoping it will never end. But, then there are those days when you are consumed from the time you get out of bed until the time you crawl back into it, and it seems like nothing was accomplished. OK, after further review I’m ready to pass things on to Michael Sauer and I wish him all of the joy and learning I experienced this past year and I look for-ward to following his leadership to become a better professional by the end of 2014.

I couldn’t have made it without the help and sup-port of the PPC board: Robin, Mike, Penny, Jim, Mike, Cayce, and Mike. I love you all!

Again, thanks for a wonderful 2013 and I look for-ward to a prosperous 2014.

It’s all yours, Mike. I can rest assured knowing that PPC is in your great hands.

“Your Path to Success ”

PRESIDENT’S MESSAGE

e-Supplement | December 2013 | 8

February 9-10 Installation | Quarterly Board, Affiliate & Committee Meetings | Palm SpringsApril 23-24 2014 PPC State Photographic Image Competition | Pasadena Convention CenterApril 24-27 Pro Photo Expo and Conference | Pasadena Convention CenterJune 15-20 West Coast School | University of San Diego

Find details for all PPC Events at www.ppconline.com/events. Don’t miss a thing! Be sure to check often as new Events are added regularly.

Save These Dates! calendar of events

FAREWELL MESSAGE

MICHAEL COLLINS, M.Photog.CR., CPP, F-PPC, S-PPC, B&A-PPCExecutive Administrator, Professional Photographers of California

The Professional Photographers of California will be holding their first quarterly board meeting and in-stallation dinner this year in Palm Springs at the Spa Resort Casino and you are cordially invited to attend. The dates for this splendiferous event will be Febru-ary 9 and 10, 2014.

The Spa Report Casino is located at 100 North Indi-an Canyon Dr., Palm Springs and information about the resort can be found at www.SpaResortCasino.com. There is a special room rate for our members of $139.00 per night plus a resort fee and taxes. Their normal rate is $219 per night. When you call to book your room, make sure you mention you are with the Professional Photographers of California. You can call 1-888-999-1995.

The Spa Report Casino boasts 229 exquisitely ap-pointed and spacious rooms that have views of the

Santa Rosa, San Jacinto and Little San Bernardino Mountains as well as the distinctive Coachella Val-ley. They offer an award winning blissful Spa, three relaxing pools, stylish gaming floor, several restau-rants and lounges. Their property sits atop the actu-al springs that gave Palm Springs its name, and thus two of their pools are natural mineral spring pools. They and operate two historic Golf Courses. Locat-ed in the heart of downtown Palm Springs, they are within a ten minute walk to 75 restaurants, clubs and stores to enjoy.

The Installation Dinner will take place on the eve-ning of Sunday, February 9. With Michael Sauer be-ing installed, watch out for the many surprises that are in store. Rule number one is come to have fun!

Watch your e-mail for further information as it be-comes available and plan to be in Palm Springs in February.

EXECUTIVE ADMINISTRATOR’S MESSAGE

e-Supplement | December 2013 | 12

announcing the2014 INSTALLATION OF OFFICERS

The PPC Judging Academy is about to start the third year of the Judges training program. The qualified judges who took their training in 2011 and 2012 are required to take a refresher course during 2014. The PPC Judging Academy is announcing the qualified Judge’s Refresher Workshop. The course will be pre-sented during the 2014 Pro Photo Expo and Confer-ence. Each member on the current qualified judges list will receive an invitation to attend the workshop. The workshop will be about 2 hours and will cover judging procedures. Changes to the rules are occur-ring faster than ever before and this class will allow our judges to remain current.

For those members who are on the qualified judges list, you will be asked if you want to continue or be taken off the list. The purpose of the list is to provide qualified judges for the many affiliates that cover the state. However, the affiliates have had difficulty get-

ting listed names to commit to be a judge. Scheduling is always difficult, but it is important that our mem-bers have quality judging for their image competi-tions.

More information on registering for the Judge’s Re-fresher Workshop will be posted soon. This class will be open to all qualified judges. If you have not taken the basic judging class, you are not able to reg-ister for the refresher course. The course will not be included in the conference registration. The course is a PPC Judging Academy authorized workshop.

Look for new dates for the Judges Workshop and Moderator Workshops. The PPC Judging Academy is looking for locations and dates in both Northern and Southern California. If you are interested in attend-ing the workshops, please contact Tim Mathiesen. As dates and locations are set, they will be posted on the PPC website.

TIM MATHIESEN, M.Photog.Cr., F-ASP, F-PPCImage Judging Academy Chair

IMAGE JUDGING ACADEMY

www.ppconline.com30 | Professional Photographers of California

announcing the Judge’s Refresher Workshop

Judging Academy Workshops cover all aspects of the judging process including:

• Digital vs. print judging • The 12 Elements of the competition image. • The competition categories; what they mean and how to judge them. • Terminology • Scoring details (update on scoring procedures) • Challenges (how to make your challenges effective) • Ideology • Image presentation • Juror conduct • The role of the panel moderator • Other rules that govern the entire image competition process

Fall 2013 | 31

Long Purple Bootby

David Stelmack

Olde Tymerby

Stewart Schulze

Look Into My Eyesby

Jim Paliungas

www.ppconline.com31 | Professional Photographers of California

By RAE DE VITO

meet THE new directorOF WEST COAST SCHOOL

“West Coast School is an unforgettable learning experience, a place you will establish relation-ships which will last a lifetime.” -WCS Director Lorenzo Gunn

Age: Timeless

Marital Status: Married with kids and grandkids

Currently Resides in: San Diego County, CA

Strength as a Director: “I’m a people person”

Photographic Specialty: Editorial shooting aka ‘character photography’

Favorite Subjects: Children 4 to 10 years old and the elderly

Other Subjects: Everything from architectural photography to tabletop food shoots

Photo Secret: Wanted to be a photographer since the age of 9

Additional Career: Business Consultant for Burrell Imaging

Favorite movie: “Pulp Fiction”

Favorite TV Series: “House of Cards”

Favorite Music: Traditional Jazz: Miles Davis, John Coltrane, Lena Horne etc.

Favorite Vacation Spot: Outingdale, CA; Umbria, Italy

Favorite Food: Braised beef short ribs in Zinfan-del demi-glaze

Other Area of Expertise: Earned a Certificate in Culinary Arts

Although Lorenzo Gunn is West Coast School’s ‘new’ director, he’s no newcomer to the school. Lorenzo started taking classes (at the then Santa Barbara campus) back in 1973. “I was hooked on it. I was a Yellow Jacket (in-class volunteer), and they could expect to have me there every year after that.”

Lorenzo later served as Chairman (the school previously had a Board of Directors) in the mid 90’s, responsible for seeking out instructors, vendors, a venue, and handling all of the market-ing. Now he’s back in the driver’s seat as Director, and ready to make this unique, hands-on, profes-sional photography learning experience bet-ter than ever. The week-long session is back at the University of San Diego campus June 15-20, 2014.

The impressive 2014 list of world class instruc-tors encompasses a wide range of photographic and computer knowledge. Most could well be referred to as “returning favorites”: Tim Meyer, Arthur Rainville, Judy Host, Eddie Tapp, Donna Reinbold, Suzette Allen & Jon Yoshinaga, Carl Caylor, and Woody Walters.

“I will continue to pursue photographers who are the best at what they do, but who are also ex-cellent educators. These are the photographers I’m constantly in search of.”, Lorenzo shares.

Two teachers are new to the WCS scene: Vic-tor Ha and Jose Quintanilla. They bring a little something different to the table. “For 2014, the

WEST COAST SCHOOL

e-Supplement | December 2013 | 26

Lorenzo Gunn

differences involve bringing back a bilingual instructor (Jose Quintanilla) and adding Victor Ha, one of the pioneers of HDSLR, for a five-day session. Video is here with a vengeance, and it’s not going to go away. It provides photographers with yet another tool.”

WCS not only provides the opportunity for a unique learning experience, but the chance to forge life-long friendships. ‘Camaraderie’ is a word that comes up time and time again while talking with Lorenzo. WCS is an annual reunion for many, and a chance to make new friends in the business who are generous enough to share what they know.

The special nature of these sessions puts WCS on the calendar as an annual investment in a pro-fessional photographer’s most important piece of equipment: Themselves. Even though the economy hasn’t recovered, fifty percent of WCS students last year enjoyed their week long im-mersion so much they signed up for 2014 before they left campus. Another ten added their names to the ranks at PPC’s Pro Photo Expo and Confer-ence in Pasadena.

Lorenzo says the school’s new ‘easy pay’ plan has something to do with that: WCS can charge your credit card monthly, so students don’t have to make their education investment in one payment.

And this month, Lorenzo put on his Santa hat and added four weeks of Holiday Specials: Students who sign up in the month of December get an awesome ‘gift’: Each week of the month, a differ-ent holiday special will be advertised for students registering that week for WCS.

Lorenzo’s got some other ideas up his sleeve for future WCS weeks that he plans to divulge as time goes on. A hint: Expansion, both geographically as well as a broader student demographics. “I’m going to be widening the net, broadening oppor-tunities for other photographers.”

What’s our ‘new’ director’s biggest challenge? “If it’s possible to touch each student emotionally with WCS, I’ve met my challenge. I want every student to come back - and bring a friend who will benefit from the WCS educational experi-ence.”

Check out the West Coast School 2014 countdown on our website, www.westcoastschool.com: How many days, hours, minutes, and seconds until our week of unparalleled photographic education and camaraderie begins? Not soon enough.

Best Friendsby

Kristi Elias