Our very own Gloria Mesa received an Accolade of Excellence from Wedding and Portrait Photographers International! With a score of 85, Gloria qualified for the award on this photograph that she created at our Westlake Village studio:



It was an exciting moment to see her print on display at the annual WPPI Las Vegas convention. Congratulations, Gloria! We're very proud of you.

Join up with me and a few friends in an experimental evening shoot this Friday.

I've gotten involved in the planning of The Branch ... a forward-thinking gathering at our church that's going to be quite artsy. We plan on using a lot of visuals in print as well as in web and video applications. Only problem is, we have no stockpile of images. This is where you come in.

This Friday nite, 3.14.08 from about 6:00 p.m. to whenever we get tired and hungry, we're going to have a "Locals Only" Photo Shoot to get our stock of images. This doesn't mean that you have to be a local, but we want your images to feel local.

We're not looking for "pretty" shots as much as graphicly interesting art shots! Nothing will be critiqued, and nothing will be ruled out. Consider this a visual scavenger hunt.

We're looking for grainy black and white stuff, movement, nite shots, anything that captures the Conejo and it's surroundings on a Friday nite. You just have to be cool with our group using your images (but hey, we want the stuff you probably deleted last week 'cuz you thought is was junk).

We're meeting at the studio, 2649 Townsgate Rd. Suite 600, Westlake Village at 6:00 p.m.

Questions? Call me at the studio...805-367-8100

"Locals Only"...it's all good!

Can you believe this portrait of my granddaughter, Emma Grace Hartman was taken only 8 hours after she was born? She looks like she's ready for a Gerber Baby commercial!



Emma arrived Feb 25, 2008 at 10:22am. She weighed in at 8.5 lbs...pretty big for Kelly's size. Andrew was by her side during the whole thing...unfortunately, by the next day when they went home, they both had only had about 5 hours of sleep out of 36 hours at the hospital.



Andrew's parents, Larry and Ruth flew down from Seattle on Sunday, so we were all at the hospital when Emma made her entry. The guys had a cigar (pink bubble gum), and Ruth gave me a run for my reputation as the premier cameraman in the room.



What an exciting time for our family. Emma is such a blessing from God, and we are thankful to the Lord for the safe delivery. If you would like to see more, Andrew did a great video that is on the Hartman blog...you'll also find it here: