Oh, the people you meet…

Thank you Dr. Suess for that phrase. If you’re not familiar with it, it’s from one of the books that is popular to give kids when they’ve graduated from high school. It talks about the things you will do and the people you will meet as you start your new phase of life.

Being a photographer, or probably any occupation for that matter, photographers seem to think they have the edge on unique-ness, but I doubt that’s really the case – ANY WAY – we meet a lot of people. Some of them are strange rangers, most of them are fairly run-of-the-mill and sometimes, well sometimes you’re just blown out of the water.

Meet Brian and Lisa of Leavell Photography & Cinema, LLC. Most of my friends and colleagues will know who these two are if I say “These are those CPPs that passed the image submission with off-camera flash!” Yes, I’m impressed and I’ve talked about them THAT much.

I’m a CPP liaison (which means I help folks that are trying to achieve the Certified Professional Photographer designation and offer the certification exams in my state for the candidates) and I’m always interested in meeting photographers who have achieved this designation.

Brian and Lisa came to a class I was teaching and in the midst of introductions, they mentioned they were CPP’s. Upon further questioning, it became apparent that they did not own a studio. Or studio lights. I’m aware that the image submission and exam are hard to pass without studio experience and was impressed. I was even further impressed when they told me their image submissions were done using off-camera flash. Yes, kids, these two figured out how to do 3:1 ratios with off-camera flash.

That takes spunk. And a LOT of work. And drive and perseverance. All I can give them is a “High Wootness Five!” for their efforts and my enduring respect for their hard work. I’ve worked with a lot of CPP candidates, but these guys take the cake on drive and motivation.

So, if you’re from PA or the Pittsburgh area, look these two up. They’ve recently taken leadership roles in the Pittsburgh PUG and I know they will be happy to network with you.