Iowa Photographer of the Year!

What a great weekend hanging out with some awesome friends at the PPI convention. Besides the opportunity to be with good friends I was also named top Iowa Photographer for the second year in a row! I won 1st place in the wedding category, 1st in women outdoor, 1st in Illustrative, 1st in Digital. I also won a Fuji Masterpiece award and a Kodak Gallery Elite award! 2012 is off to a good start!  My next big competition is Regionals which will be held in Wisconsin this year and then from there I will enter them into International competition.  Last year I was honored with the International Diamond Photographer of the Year award by PPA and I'm going to do my best to get that again.  With these awards I have been getting lots of offers to travel around the country to speak to other photographers so keep an eye out for where I'll be next!

New Studio Details

The new studio is coming along!  We are spending lots of extra time on details to make it amazing.  I can't wait to be able to use nearly 3600 sq feet to play in.  My main shooting area is 30x40 with a 20x30 all cement and metal room next to it that I plan on turning into my water play area, plus when designing the studio nearly every other area was created so that I could use it as shooting space also!  We have a cool spiral staircase, old brick walls, stucco walls, huge windows with awesome iron shutters and much more.  It's going to be so fun to play in.  Stay tuned, we will be having a big open house soon!

A truck load of chandeliers!

getting ready to paint the chandeliers

architectural details

entry way columns

reception desk corbals

my shooting area/work room - it's going to be awesome in here to take senior portraits