This year's WPPI was so special for David and Luke. It's been said time and time again, the best part about being at WPPI is reconnecting and being inspired by the talented photographers in the industry. This year, the Edmonson's spent most of their time outside of learning, hanging out with some of the best in the business. And there was a little thing called the 16x20 Print Competition as well. We knew we had done well but were totally floored to discover we had taken home the Grand Award in the Commercial Division, 2nd Place in Wedding  Division  :Bridal Part and 3rd place in the Portrait Division: Individual. We will know our total Accolades of Excellence once we receive our press releases but we did very well there as well!

For brides in the Dallas area it's important that you know that this is a really special market - with some of the most talented artists competing and excelling on the International level from right in your own backyard. Major kuddo's to our friends JB & DeEtte Sallee who took home the night's highest honor, Grand Award: Wedding Album and 1st Place in Bridal Party. And Kevin Jairaj took home 2nd Place in Seniors and Third Place in Animals/Pets.

Not only are these really talented photographers but they are great people - we couldn't be happier to see Dallas bring some friendly competition to the perennial champs, the Australians.

We were blessed to place 1st and 2nd in the January DPPA print competition. Here are the two award-winning images for the Wedding category by David and Luke. We like competitions simply because they give us something to work on or think about all month - and it helps us challenge ourselves and grow. Besides its' a friendly banter for us as father and son!

The highlight of our night had to of been hearing the very talented Carlos Baez speak about the importance of shooting from the heart. And how critical lighting is in setting yourself apart from every other "wedding photographer" out there shooting "urban grunge". Carlos doesn't speak as often as many on the wedding photographer speaking circuit because of the importance he places on being close to his wife and two boys in Miami. So if you every get a chance to hear him - we highly recommend you do so!

We have been so blessed with our friends and colleagues at WPPI. Since joining in 2005 and first attending in 2006, many of our closest friendships have sprung from this wonderful organization of wedding and portrait photographers. We consider it a true honor that they asked us to be WPPI's November Studio of the Month. 

First let me thank Anthony Ronga - President & CEO - who isn't afraid to roll his sleeves up and work directly with his clients. Whenever I needed to reach out and ask him a question - he was there. If there was a problem - he solved it. And that's what makes him a great leader.

And then there are the Jill's of All Trade's - Meghan Bingle and Kitty Wells. Need to find out how the progress is going - ask and answered. Have a list of minor tweaks to make to the blog to go live? - They are on top of it. Thankfully they have two heads and four arms to keep up with the barrage of phone calls, emails and projects on their plates while keeping smiles on their faces. And you can hear the smile when they talk to you. No one says you have to work with pleasant people but it sure is more fun when you get to!

And no web project is complete without the unsung hero - the developer. Brad Hassett is their Blog Guru. And for good reason. I wanted to take the standard blog and add functionality to make it perfect for our business. And some of the good ideas that start off in design - wind up not working in reality. But Brad makes complex problems simple - and you can only do that when you know how a platform works inside and out.

When we were looking for a company to partner with for our new blog - we knew a lot of what we didn't want - and some of what we did want. In addition, we were developing our new blog at that same time as four new websites with another company. Our biggest issue was to make sure that the two designs came together in a way that complimented our brand and was seamless for our Users to jump from one site to the next and back and forth. ITDR listened to what we wanted - made suggestions when appropriate and leveraged their custom solutions such as SlideShare Max to integrate in our blog. It was also important to us that the blog "had good code" took advantage of Web 2.0 standards, leveraged new AJAX capabilities and presented bleeding edge solutions without breaking on older browsers. ITDR did all of this - iPhone for MT, Twitter, Social Bookmarking sites, Forward to a Friend Viral Marketing and more.

My favorite part has to be though how easy it is to use SlideShare Max within your blog. They have made the "Code" part so easy in the admin interface that any web monkey - myself included can have a SlideShare up and running plus posted on the blog in less than a minute.

I cannot sing ITDR and the team that Anthony has built praises enough. For any photographers looking for a new blog that goes beyond Blogger, Live Journal, Wordpress or Xanga - look no further. The money you invest with ITDR will be a wise decision.