carpe vita blog – carpe vita photography

Last week, Steve and I made a quick little jaunt to Bloomington, Indiana to visit with inspiring photographers Jeff and Michelle Richardson.  Jeff and Michelle graciously shared their time and expertise with us as we prepare for the next developmental step for our business. While we were there, they helped us enjoy the lush 70s temperatures and gave us some recommendations to see in their lovely state.

We flew to Indiana on Monday on American Airlines – in coach, thank you very much.  But as we were flying the friendly skies we remembered about a session back in July with Celebrated Living magazine’s editor Janet Thomas. It was time for Janet to have new photos done for her editor’s page of the magazine and she wanted something a little more relaxed and true to her and she thought of us. Celebrated Living is the magazine for American’s First Class fliers so as we departed the airplane, we snuck a copy off.

As these are scans of the magazine pages – the photo doesn’t look as great here but you can see it on the CL website here.  If you get to ride First Class anytime soon look for Janet’s pic and our itty bitty photo credit hiding near the seam in the bottom right corner.  We took a variety of photos so Janet could change her look based on the season.

Janet is actually greatly responsible for Carpe Vita Photography being even alive today, because back in 1994, she introduced Steve and I to one another.  This is a photo Janet’s husband Steve took of that fateful night.  I sailed regularly with Janet and her Steve on their boat – second from the left – and our Steve sailed with other friends on the red boat.

We probably passed one another many times on the docks during racing season but because we raced in different fleets, we never really met.  But this night July 23, 1994 when we were supposed to race, there was no wind so a raft-up came about and the rest is history. We celebrated our 15 year Introversary this July.

Now the little surprise that came our way yesterday – Carpe Vita was named Best Photography for the Northern Region by Texas Meetings & Events Magazine this week at an awards gala in Austin, Texas.  For more details, here’s the link.  We were honored to be nominated and blown away that we were selected.  We love photographing all the work and thought that goes into meetings and events.  As we don’t tend to do the print on location event photography, we are available to showcase what all the vendors and planners spent all of their genius on creating for their clients.  It is amazing to be recognized and wow, would you look at the other peeps who won!

Best Caterer: Creative Cuisine (go Geni and the rest of the amazing gang)
Best Conference/Convention/Exhibition Center: Plano Centre
Best Entertainment: Lone Star Murder Mysteries by Lagniappe Productions
Best Florist: Macaux Florals (we photographed their amazing florals earlier this year at the Johnson-Long Wedding)
Best Destination Management Organization: Plano Convention & Visitors Bureau
Best Golf Resort/Country Club: Cowboys Golf Club
Best Holiday Event/Party Venue: City Club of Fort Worth
Best Hotel with Meeting Space: Gaylord Texan Hotel and Convention Center (we love our neighbors)
Best Green Meetings/Event Venue – Garrett Creek Ranch Conference Center
Best Unique Venue: Circle R Ranch
Best Rental Service (tents, tables, linens): Ducky-Bob’s Event Specialist
Best Teambuilding Facility/Organizer: Rockin’ C Ranch
Best Transportation – Premiere Transportation Services
Best Photography – your’s truly Carpe Vita Photography
Best New Venue – Union Station (which we had the honor of doing promotional photography for earlier this year – which reminds me I never did a blog entry for…)