WPPI Main Event – Young Guns
WPPI kicked off this year with a bang (no pun intended). I was asked by GraphiStudio to cover Sunday night’s Young Guns program which featured 12 of the hottest young photographers in the business. Moderated by Skip Cohen & Ryan Schembri, these guys discussed their innovative styles and demonstrated their unique skills in a combination of panel presentations and live shooting.
I arrived at the event half an hour early to set up not realizing how big this was. There were over 2000 seats and within just few minutes of the door opening, it was completely filled out. I got to rub shoulders with the best in the industry and even got to shoot along side with Terrell Lloyd.
I will try to provide some captions to these photos to help you go over how the event went:
Audience piling in…
Stage set check…
Backstage set check…

DJ getting interviewed before the show. Take a note of his shirt. I’ll mention something about it later…
Catherine Hall couldn’t contain her excitement…
Jerry Ghionis chatting with DJ. Jerry pretty much swepted this year’s award competition. Go check out his work. You’ll see why.
I love this photo of Gene Higa & Jose Villa. Cracks me up. It looks like I caught them red handed doing something bad.
I originally took this photo of them then a lady tapped me on my shoulder and asked if I wanted to be in the photo. So I gave her the camera, then stood in the group – then I realized that lady was Bambi Cantrell!

Here’s Roy Ashen (Triple Scoop Music), Jerry Ghionis & Bambi Cantrell
Let the show begin. The night started out with a slideshow of everyone’s work accompanied by Bon Jovi’s Blaze of Glory song.
Skip Cohen (President of WPPI) & Ryan Schembri opened the night…
Then the Young Guns made the stage with their version of gunslinger-like act…



John Solano was the first to speak…
Demonstrating his video lighting technique… I think Jose was mesmerized by the beautiful bride model

One of crowd’s favorite: Jesh De Rox
DeEtte Sallee’s definitely had the sharpest boots on…
The lovely Lori Nordstrom smiling…
Skip Cohen looking studly as usual…
Catherine Hall sharing her tips…
Crowd listening intently…
Another crowd favorite – Mr. Jim Garner (inventor of Boda Bag)…
This Australian stallion stole lot of ladies’ hearts that night…
Jesh talking about his philosophy on engagement sessions…


Mike Larson then took stage…
I saw my friend Rachel Elkind in the crowd. I met her at Jesh’s workshop this past September…
Mike thanking DJ for his awesome ShowIt web software…
Then he proceeded to demonstrate his famous fisheye camera toss that wow’ed everyone. I actually laid on the ground to take this photo…

I really admire Jose Villa as a photographer. It was good to see that he was so down to earth type of person. He still shoots with film – which some would consider lost form of art in photography these days…

Remember what I said about DJ’s shirt above? He wanted to sport me by wearing my shirt on stage. For that he gets lot of photo props.
Thanks dude!

DJ is everyone’s favorite. When he talks, people listen…

I love how Skip, the most revered man in this industry loves to just joke around with all of us…
The paparazzi’s

JB trying to be romantic and comical at the same time.

Here’s Jim giving me some props…
Behind every great man, there’s a greater woman – Here’s DeEtte talking about their unique style…
JB just smiled and let her do all the talking…
Here’s Lori Nordstrom demonstrating her maternity shoot…
Gene Higa showing the model how to strut like a bride… I think she did a better job then him…
Gene always takes a “thank you” photo which he sends to the bride after the shoot…
Jesh was having a great time…
John Solano making his final comment…
I met Michelle (left) in Hartford, CT during Bob & Mike’s tour. She came up with some of her friends to get a photo…
JB & DeEtte showing off their guns…
Boys will be boys…
Skips has a great sense of humor. He has so many jokes that makes everyone laugh…
Gene, Rachel, & Mike after the show…
Crowd coming up to meet & greet…
Angelica Glass (right) and her friend with Jose. Angelica is a super-talented photographer from NY. Check out her work!
All the speakers signing the poster…


I love these guys! They are such a great husband/wife team…
Skip got a smokescreen surprise from JB during an interview…
I think this photo of Jim summed up the night…
Here’s the entire gang…
That’s all folks. Whew… that was hard work but I had so much fun covering this event.
Thanks to GraphiStudio & WPPI for giving me this opportunity! This blog was part 2 of 3. More to come! Feel free to ask me anything about the event or leave fun comments below!





















