2012 has been full of blessings! Lots of amazing opportunities, changes, and new beginnings happening at Kismis Ink and we can’t wait to share them with all with you!

At the end of January, The Special Event came to Tampa. I had never attended before and had just returned from a conference (ISS Mexico) when I heard of it so I didn’t sign up for any presentations or attend any of the additional events. It was convenient that it was here in my home town, so I got myself over to the event a few times that week. I visited the Exhibit Hall, connected with some really talented wedding pros in our industry and had an opportunity to enjoy the event at a more relaxed and laid back manner. Overall, it was a great experience!

Meet Gigi, made up of an array of colorful flowers from FiftyFlowers.com. She was a celebrity at the Exhibit Hall with the paparazzi swarming around her constantly.

Concept Bait and AFR Event Furnishings did a stellar job with their booth. Loved the Moroccan vibe!

These glittery chocolates by Bedazzle my BonBons were yummylicious! Thanks to Caroline of Caroline & Evan Photography I purchased two boxes of one in every color to take home with me!

It was such a pleasure to meet these three ladies! Saundra Hadley of Planning Forever, Kelly McWilliams of Weddingtidbits, and Kelly Spalding of Perfectly Placed are outrageously fun and left me wishing that we had had more time to hang out.

There are many reasons I love attending conferences. One of the them is the way serendipity has a way of creeping in when you least expect it. That’s the only way I can describe meeting Tara Guérard. She was sitting at her book signing area at a time when I was waiting for WOW Mom session to begin. We greeted each other and a few minutes later we were chatting about Tara’s love of film photography, Elizabeth Messina, our families and how our businesses began. I’m so glad I got to meet her as I have since looked over and fallen in love with her work. Looking forward to opportunities to connect with her again in the future.

I was delighted when Stacie founder of Inspire Smart Success asked me to take a few snapshots of her speaking at the WowMom presentation. The speakers had great insight and a couple of my favorite parts included the slideshow of these talented women’s children describing what they loved about their moms’ businesses and Ruth Moyte‘s top 10 tips for mom survival in the industry!

Love these two ladies! xoxo!

I didn’t bring my camera the next day, but as the saying goes: “The best camera is the one that’s with you.” Here’s a few iPad snapshots (just for Kelly, lol) of the inspiring presentations at the Exhibit Hall:

A huge thanks to Eileen from Diva with a Fork for snapping this pic of me at The Party Goddess booth. Tweeting this pic won me a 3-month membership for the Bullpen Coaching Session with Marley Majcher!

The night before the Exhibit Hall opened at The Special Event, we had an ISS alumni meetup at Miguels (If you’re in Tampa and like Mexican food, you must try this delicious restaurant). It was great catching up with other alumni and meeting some new faces. A huge thanks to Eileen of Diva with a Fork  for choosing a great place and Sandie (Stacie’s wonderful mom) for putting this fun meetup together!
(Photo credit: Stacie & Kelly’s phone pics)

Another opportunity to connect with some awesome wedding pros was the TSE Tweetup at Champions Sport Bar (at the Marriott). Thanks to Melissa of Masterpiece Weddings and Lauren of Every Last Detail for setting this up. I was able to meet many new faces and finally meet some long-time twitter friends in-the-flesh, including the lovely Michelle Loretta from Sage Wedding Pros. You can see a few pics of the tweetup here and here.

It was a week of catching up with some industry friends, making new friendships, getting inspired and besides sharing knowledge and experience, sharing some great laughs!

Oh, Cancun. I left my heart there. Also my voice, ability to walk and thanks to your amazingness, I’m working today in my comfy pj’s. Covering the unbelievably gorgeous events at Inspire Smart Success Experience over three days could easily equal to covering 6 weddings in the same time frame! I can’t wait to share all the details and images of the last four days!

I met a fabulous group of talented and super-inspiring individuals that have become friends I will treasure forever! Many of the things I was able to do were beyond my imagination, such as ignoring my fear of heights and climbing a wobbly wooden tower with a stunning view of the Caribbean Sea to shoot with Mike Colon- only to almost push him off, accidentally of course. Oh, and lets not forget eating apples with lime-cajun spices (Thanks Lisi), and much, much more! Expect a jam-packed blog post with all the details, beautiful images, and my thoughts on this unforgettable experience!

A HUGE thank you to Stacie Ivers Francombe, Rachel Saito, Jennifer Warwick-Lewis, Jennifer Fisher, Christina Springfield, Shay Bell, Tifany Wunschl, Karl Rouwhorst, Nanette Dorbeck, Ryan Koral, the wonderful staff at Now Sapphire Riviera Cancun and everyone that helped make ISSE happen!

For now, enjoy this little preview brought to you by Epic Motion!

Inspire Smart Success Experience {ISSE} Cancun, Mexico from Epic Motion on Vimeo.

Last week was a hectic blur of busy-ness (not sure if that even makes sense, but that’s what came to mind when I recall last week’s events and preparing for our travel to Mexico!) In a whirlwind of emails, I found an email in my inbox from Thirst Relief. It was my first time hearing about this organization and the email explained that I had been nominated to participate in this year’s Mentor Auction. (A warm thank you to the person(s) that did so.)

I researched more about Thirst Relief and I became anxious to help when I read about their mission and last year’s mentor sessions:

“Last year the sponsors and 90 mentors who participated in the Mentor Auction raised more than $40,700 which directly provided 8,147 people with clean water! 100% of the proceeds directly benefit Thirst Relief International, who provides at least 25 years of clean drinking water to the more that 1 billion people who don’t have it! Add to that the incredible wisdom and talent that is being shared in the one-on-one mentor sessions and you have better and more successful photographers/business owners! So, not only are lives being saved, but the lives of many business owners are being made better! It’s truly a win win for everyone involved!”

Thirst Relief is a non-profit that has set out to “overcome death and disease resulting from the consumption of contaminated water by providing safe, clean drinking water to those in need around the world.”  They have provided a way for all of us to HELP by sharing our knowledge, experience, and time. To accomplish this goal they’ve asked some of the best and brightest in the industry to donate 90 minutes of mentorship time and anything else they feel like giving to be auctioned off to a winning bidder!

The Mentor Auction will start tonight, the 14th at 11pm EST and go through the 17th 11pm EST. You will be able to bid on a 90 minute session with a mentor of your choice/field and the highest bidder wins the session.

Here are the details about my mentor auction:
90 minutes of mentorship time by phone, Skype, Google Hangout, or in person (if in person, includes lunch at one of my favorite restaurants!). The sky is the limit on what we can discuss- fashion, the latest Dexter episode, your latest adventures and any topics of photography and business including social media, connecting & working with your clients to get the most relaxed and natural poses, marketing, shooting destination weddings, shooting & submitting stylized editorials/weddings for print and online submission. Your session will be catered to meet the needs of your business. If you aren’t a photographer or just getting started, you can still bid- this mentorship is open to everyone and includes a hug!
Also included: A goodie bag that includes our exclusive studio resource guide & much more valuable information. A follow-up 30 minute phone call with Mariana three months following your initial mentorship session to revisit areas of discussion.

I am thrilled to be a small part of the 2012 Mentor Auction! If my involvement impacts at least ONE life, it’ll be worth it to me. Please, take the time today and bid, spread the word and impact lives.

You can also help by:

• Donating your FaceBook status to say: Mentor Auction is happening right now! Save some lives today: http://bit.ly/sX1dwN PLS RT
• Donating your Twitter status to say: Mentor Auction is happening right now! Save some lives today: http://bit.ly/sX1dwN
• Blogging about the Thirst Relief Mentor Auction: http://bit.ly/owO063

I admit it. Receiving UPS packages and snail mail MAKES.MY.DAY. Since I was a teen one of my favorite times of the day was when the mailman came. It ignites a ‘Christmas morning’ feeling in me, every time. I even fantasized about becoming a mail-person…or an elf. So, you can imagine how much I love this part of my job. But, what I never expected was to open up the packages and fall even more in love with our clients’ wedding albums.

To see their unique wedding story spilled across the beautiful pages and hold these memories in my hand makes me all sorts of happy. Delivering wedding images on a disc could never give me that same feeling. Never. Clients trust us and hire us for our artful eye. Our visual interpretation of their special day. A day full of dedication, love, happiness, and endless hours of preparation.

These gorgeous books allow us to pull everything together and complete our vision. Albums are the tangible reward of all the efforts, love, happiness, and endless hours of preparation that are part of the wedding story.

Thank you Graphistudio for your amazing customer service, your quality, and your dedication to making sure we have the best to offer and our clients are happy. A huge thank you to all our clients for trusting our vision for one of the most important days of their lives.

Here are a few images of Yomi & Matt‘s lovely wedding albums.

I think the title ‘professional wedding photographer’ should be changed to ‘miracle worker just in the nick of time while being hit with every obstacle imaginable!’ Most of the time, I feel more like the latter! I read a very thought-provoking article last week on the “new wedding guest” and it truly helped me appreciate our individual creativity and uniqueness even more. Reading the article actually made me want to work harder! The knowledge (or challenge) that we offer our bride and groom (and their guests, family and friends) something that 50+ guests’ cameras can’t provide, brought me much excitement! Instead of seeing obstacles during a wedding as a burden, embracing these obstacles to develop our skills, experience, and to demonstrate our professionalism is one of the most rewarding choices.

Here’s a sneak peek of our gorgeous bride and groom this past weekend at the Marriott on Sand Key. Completely obstacle-free. The sneak peek, that is. You don’t see the not-so-perfect hotel lighting conditions, the busy and crowded elevators to the left and right of the couple, the hotel guests all around, staring and offering their sweet advice on how to capture the moment, the limited time we have to put the camera in the right settings for this creative shot and the time to take the shot because the groom is hungry, the bride is a bit uncomfortable in front of all these people, and people are impatiently waiting to pass by.

What you do see is that loving moment between the wedding couple, captured perfectly within seconds, despite any and all obstacles. I love being a wedding photographer, ahem, I mean, a ’miracle worker just in the nick of time while being hit with every obstacle imaginable!’ : )