Camera Shy?

Professional Photographers spend their lives capturing the special moments and occasions for our clients. We take great care to get just the right look, from the right angle to hide anything you might consider an imperfection, to ensure you have a portrait that depicts you and gives you that perfect memory. In my business, I call those "Images that make your heart smile."

It is amazing, however, the number of professional photographers who are themselves... quite camera shy (no, that would not include me.) Such is the case with my friend Renee Marquis, whose beautiful wedding images have brought so much joy to her clients for years, yet Renee hadn't a professional portrait of herself.

So after a little convincing (it only took about a year) she presented her awesome self at my studio door... and we captured some awesome images -- a few of which are presented here.

Some days, I *really*love my job.

Who Motivates the Motivator ?

I wrote a blog post a while back entitled "So, I Met This Guy... ," talking about my (now) friend and colleague, Steve Borek, business coach. Actually, "business coach" might be a bit of an understatement, but you can get all that from his web site, End Game Business.

Shortly after the meeting mentioned in that blog post, Steve awarded me the pleasure of updating his executive portrait and we came away with this image that portrays his personality: easy going, approachable, laid back, a kind of quiet confidence. That's also the way he conducts his coaching sessions -- quiet, laid back, and conversational; except he's not really doing the talking, you are (or in this case I was). And, he's not the one coming up with answers to your problems; he just casually facilitates you coming around to your own. Yup, he's as good a coach as he was invigorating conversationalist over coffee in my original blog post, and he helped me come to some life changing realizations.

And among other things, Steve also produces plays for the Baldwinsville Theatre Guild. As a matter of fact, right after I make this post I'll be heading there to see the closing performance of Exit the Body. So, if you have an urge to patronize your local theatre guild, give BTG a look.

Have an awesome day.

Kelvin

Executive Portrait: Not your normal stuffy executive!

When you think of executive portraits, you tend to envision a serious, stuffy, starched, uptight, dark suit, sterile corporate atmosphere. Nahhhh. Not today's executive -- or, at least not this one!

Meet Wendy Cobrda: purposed, driven, intense, meticulous, fun, successful, famous? Serial entrepreneur, wife, mother, author, executive.

Founder and owner of Catenate Consulting, founded in 1997 with a desire to help companies solve their customer profiling and acquisition challenges, and more recently, Earthsense, LLC, which was founded in 2007. Earthsense is a unique applied marketing company that combines the best practices of market research, data mining and GIS (spacial representation of data) to understand the motivations and barriers when marketing "green" to consumers.

Wendy's presentation undermines the stereotypical image that comes to mind of one engaged with such statistical intricacies, and she emerges as a vibrant, engaging personality.

But don't miss the intensity and depth of purpose in her eyes -- this executive of the 21st century.

Wendy was interviewed in October by Jill Hurst-Wahl of Hurst Associates, as part of the a Enitiative Grant-funded "Talking Business: A Conversation With..." series of workshops, when Earthsense transitioned from a home-based enterprise to a full-fledged business located in the Syracuse Technology Garden -- another by-product of Wendy's intensity and resolve. Behold today's executive.