One would never know by this image that she was an agile, dutiful, obedient girl.  But hey, it’s her birthday.  Cut her some slack.

I have a smile on my face.

Rangefinder Magazine is a professional photography magazine published monthly.  A colleague of mine, Peter Kotsinedalis wrote an article titled “The Professional Edge Combating AWACS Amateurs With A Camera”.  Peter interviewed several photographers including myself regarding the challenge that we as professional photographers have in this day and age of digital technology.   Rangefinder published some of my comments along with a sample of my images!  It was quite humbling and pleasing to open up my issue this month and see my work in print amongst so many talented and amazing photographers!    You can view the online version of this article by clicking this link here or going to Rangefinder Online and selecting the current October issue and scrolling down the pdf files to locate Peter’s article.

Ok, so it’s obviously after July 29 and I mentioned my life was changing. It changed. Hopefully you have read my about me section here–the photographer in the body of an IT geekette yada yada yada. I might have to redo this now. I am a self-employed photographer full time. That means accepting more clients that I have had to turn away and it means devoting 150% to Pam Biasotti Photography instead of the 105% I was devoting my time to!

For the first time in 22 years (uh oh now you can figure out how old I really am) I am not working for a big corporate company answering to the pointy hair bosses or evil human resource directors as to how much more productivity they can squeeze out of me while cutting expenses more and more each year. (Disclaimer: My last manager was really none of those things and I love her to death and only stayed in the corporate hell hole for as long as I did because she rocked and was the BEST example of what a manager should be) For the first time in 22 years I won’t be walking into an environment where Lumbergh is asking me to work 24/7 on an outage that is really the application side’s fault or the business side’s fault. I won’t be toting hardware from one building to the next or re-imaging a desktop. I won’t be on my hands and knees disconnecting equipment. I won’t be sneezing repeatedly at all the chemical crap in the company carpet. You get the picture. The people who were on the same contractor account as me were awesome. I will miss them all terribly but I won’t miss the days of Dilbert like absurdities that plaque every corporation.

I have done it all. From college I worked in banking as a Customer Service Manager/Ops Quality Control person with an Assistant Vice President title (which is REALLY NO BIG DEAL cause everyone is an AVP in banking), managed call center employees (ackkk fancy word for babysitter of the disgruntled), worked as a Help Desk admin (How many times are you going to forget your password? Sheesh!), Data Security analyst, Network Engineer, IT Consultant, blah blah blah

I went through the motions, did my work as well as I could, gave it my best but something died in me after my youngest came along and I just couldn’t forge ahead the way I used to. I lost my spark. So, anyway, the outsourcing company I worked for outsourced me one last time on Tuesday the 29th. It was a good ride but it’s time for a change and for Pam Biasotti Photography to be a top children’s and dog portrait photographer. I have some big plans and changes coming my way and I look foward to sharing them with my past, present and future clients. Here’s to the next 22 years of doing what I #$%()$%$#’n LOVE!!!

Speaking of love, Riley’s got some new cousins.

You can check out the information here

Onelight

What I like about this workshop is Zack’s commitment to teaching. He doesn’t have to do this but he graciously shares his knowledge and passion and we have an awesome time using off camera light via flash. His website is worth checking out as well.

Zack’s work 

So, this week is going to be crazy for me as Monday I have a session and am wrapping up some client orders. Wednesday two dear friends that are photographers also are coming out to take the workshop with me! It’s going to be crazy at the Biasotti house! Terrilyn from Florida and Connie from Maryland are heading to my hometown! I have known both ladies for about 4 years now. Connie and I were roommates at WPPI in Las Vegas a few years ago and last summer both ladies along with three other friends and I attended the PPA convention in Memphis.

This photograph did not come from my camera but *I* was the one who pushed my finger down on the shutter, so I am sure neither lady will mind having their smiling faces on display here. Be prepared for more photos from our adventures this week coming up.

Anyhow, I decided to post this photo of myself to celebrate a bit. Finally I have decided to toot my horn and admit something that happened last month. I completed my PPA certification. PPA is Professional Photographers of America.

Those who have earned the Professional Photographic Certification have passed a comprehensive written exam measuring their technical expertise, and have successfully submitted their work to a panel of judges for review and approval. That is straight off their website–sorry for not paraphrasing that–but what it means is that I passed. So, while I don’t often like to post my photo or brag about myself, I thought I would take a moment to kick my heels together and share with the two people that read my blog (gosh I hope there are more than two people) that I am a CPP. A CPP with wrinkly pants.