Trip to the Rockies & the Collective Soul Encounter

I had the wonderful opportunity to teach a series of seminars on the West and East of the Rockies this past week. The seminars went very well, and I ended on a great note. I started in Provo Utah with Allen's Camera, and then headed up to Idaho Falls for Farr's Jewelry. My third seminar in three days was at Pictureline in Salt Lake City, and then I caught a flight to Denver. The flight to Denver is a shot flight, I think the plane was delayed longer then the actual flight. During my time waiting I saw a few people who looked very familiar. One had retrieved something from his pocket and dropped a pick. At the time I did not know if was Will Turpin from Collective Soul, so I picked up the pick and handed it back to him. I wouldn't have stolen it, but I may have asked for it. So I waited patiently for my flight trying to rack my brain on how I new the gentlemen in front of me. As luck would have it I boarded the plane and realized I was sitting next to one of the members of the group. I did not recognize him since he started with them in 2008. I got on my computer and goggled Collective Soul and what do you know it was Collective Soul. Their drummer Cheney Brannon was sitting next to me and we started talking. They all live in the greater Atlanta area. We talked about the group and also family life. I have to say that it was a great conversation, and I really enjoyed learning a little more about the band. I have followed them since they started, but I must admit I did not know they had released a new album in Aug. Cheney told me to check it out and I like it. Still a wonderful band, and really down to earth.
Well we landed in Denver and I was still too shy to request a photo opp, and they were tight on their connection. I proceeded to go and teach my final class of my tour (not as impressive), however I had a first. Bill Koter and I went to teach the class and when we showed up at the facility we realized it was in an older movie theater. It was awesome. I had a huge screen and plenty of comfortable seats. This has been one of my more memorable trips. Gotta love the West.

Terrence

Parthenon, Nashville TN

I had the wonderful opportunity to visit the Parthenon in Nashville this fall. It has taken me some time to actually get this photo uploaded to my blog. It doesn't really matter how long it takes since my sister and I are the only people who follow my stuff. Thanks sis. I cropped this image like this since I had a lot of extra non-essential items in the image. I really wanted to draw emphasis to the main subject and not have it lost in the jumble. Buildings like this amaze me since they show the world how much we appreciate all of the culture they have given us. I am tired of the other parts of the world giving not pointing the finger at us, and stating that we are too stuck on ourselves. There are multiple organizations that are stepping up to help the Haiti survivors (note I said survivors and not victims) one of whom is the LDS church which will have 80,000 pounds of needed food. Our President Obama has pledge millions of dollars that we do not have, but it shows that we are ready to help others even if our leaders cannot help Americans. I just wish that people would see that Americans are genuinely good people, but we have some very influential bad apples running us into the ground. We need to get back to our roots and find our foundation that made us the best country in the world. Just my two cents.


Terrence

Upcoming Star: Ashley Harris

My work for Nikon gave me the opportunity to use the new video feature of our cameras. I am responsible for a video training segment. To do this I need to really push the video to the limit. I contacted a friend here in ATL and together we captured this wonderful woman with video. I knew the quality of Nikon's video was amazing, but after getting done with the shoot and compiling the video segments into the song, I was blown away. The video is amazing and the cameras are unbelievable. Here is a still from the shoot, and I will notify everyone once I get the final edit approved by Ashley and posted. Keep checking back for more updates.


Terrence

Faithful Slots CES 2010

I had the wonderful opportunity to work the CES 2010 trade show. It was a great opportunity since I was able to see a little different type of work. Nikon does not do an exhibition show which means they do not have every piece of equipment on display. They also do not release anything new during that show. We had quite a few customers who wanted to see the latest announcement, which is hard to show since they was none. It was great being able to see the mass market side of the business and also hear about the show. I would have loved to seen the rest of the show, but I was too busy with our own location. I heard that Microsoft was a site to see.
My trip was not full of pictures since the show did not get over until after twilight; however, I was able to shoot with Jason Stewart on the last day of the show and I got some great examples for my video segment.
My most memorable shot came as I was sitting in the airport waiting for my plane. If you have never been to Vegas you can gamble until they make the final boarding call. As this shot shows there were plenty of slots, but not a lot of players. I truly love the shot since it depicts a merging of beliefs. It was shot with a Coolpix S640 so I would not draw attention to myself. I hope you enjoy.