International Foodservice Editorial Council was in town last week at the Omni. They hired me to cover the event over a few days. There was plenty of food and wine to go around.

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Apologies for being incommunicado for the last two weeks. Since returning from Merida, it’s been non-stop business and craziness which is partly encouraging and partly dementiafying.

Enjoy some of these select images from my week in the Yucatan Peninsula–on assignment for Central Abroad Program.

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Two books I’ve recently purchased have been incredibly helpful on the business aspects of assignment photography.

Pricing Photography is a well written resource on pricing in the industry. It helped provide some leverage as I was negotiating last week with Metropolitan Gallery. The gallery just signed a contract with me for usage of two images from the Luminary series–they’ll be creating 40″x 60″ installments for permanent display in Tempe, Arizona.

I’ve also been gleaning some business skills from John Harrington’s Best Business Practices for Photographers. It’s especially helpful with structuring estimates/contracts and licensing images. I’ve used estimate forms and examples twice already this week–just signed with IFEC for event photography and UT’s College of Natural Science magazine, Focus On Science for a full page portrait.

Now I just need to find an accountant, any suggestions?

Neal and Dan tied the knot last week and I had the pleasure of documenting the weekend for them.  Below are some of my initial favs.

And an update on Mexico: I made it! I’m currently in el aeropuerto of Mexico City waiting for my connection. I found out yesterday that when AeroMexico says they’re mailing paper tickets, it means they made it an eticket and won’t mail me anything. Whew, hopefully an update of the Mexican tales later this week.

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I am now a proud member of PPA, Editorial Photographers, and still a contributing member of WPJA.

               

I am also incorporating giving back into more of my business–specifically through Kiva, a great organization I’ve been working with since February. Kiva advances the principle of micro-lending in a very personal and trackable way. The idea is to loan to people in the developing world small amounts of money to create or further their businesses–in turn, they become independent, healthier, more productive, happier citizens. Before this concept, the world’s poor had little hope of improving their situation. Muhammad Yunus won the Nobel Peace Prize last year for his revolutionary work with micro-lending. I love working with Kiva because:

• it’s not charity, it’s a loan–which I believe is more empowering and more of a long-term solution to poverty
• I can choose who I loan to, see their profile, get updates on their business
• Since Kiva relies on donations and volunteers for management and works with microfinance institutions around the world, I know 100% of my loan goes directly to the individual

Throughout my world travels, I’ve met a variety of poverty-stricken people. The imbalance in this world is striking. Despite the great advancements of recent civilization, we have still left a billion of our neighbors in extreme poverty–not because they have nothing to offer, but because our global society has failed them. I’m now committing 40% of the proceeds from my fine art series as well as a portion of my wedding work to Kiva. Take a look at who I’ve loaned to already. Or check out this video on Kiva from the NY Times.