The studio belongs to the Antique and Amusement Photographers, International (AAPI) organization… it’s an organization that’s been around now for 26 years and was originally started by a group of people that banded together as an “industry” to bring their issues with the current processes of the times to the then film, paper and chemical companies that were involved with dark room printing of photographs. Many of those original members are still involved with the organization and I’m very pleased to be able to call them my good friends…
Well, each year we have an annual convention. This year it was held once again in Las Vegas, the first one was there and it’s bounced around the country but a lot of us like the Vegas option….
One of the great attractions to the convention is the annual photo contest. We have 30 categories and we generally enter between 5 and 8 entries each year. If you’ve visited the studio you’ve likely seen a few photos on the walls that have won blue ribbons… well, we have a new one to add to the wall this year… and not only did Natasha’s photo win a category blue ribbon… (drum roll please….) She won BEST of SHOW!!!! So very proud of Natasha and her efforts and I’m sure if you’ve been in the studio and worked with her you’d know how great she is to to work with!! Congratulations Natasha, it’s a great accomplishment!!
Here is her Ribboned Photo…
Here’s the entire wall of Blue Ribboned photos… A lot of great photos on that wall! Makes Best of Show a very proud moment for this owner!
The next great news…! Yes, it kept getting better… This is our staff photo. Martin’s idea, he’s the guy in the front counting the money, I’m (Jeff) on the right and Natasha is on the left… not only did we get a second place for the category but we brought home a Technical Excellence award. This one is particularly special to me because it’s a decision by the Photo Contest committee who’s given these awards each year, we hand out five. I’m a member of the committee and for obvious reasons had to excuse myself from voting for my own studio’s photo but out of all the 300+ photos that were on the walls for the competition… ours was pulled off by another member of the committee and given the award via a vote by the committee. Go us!!
But WAIT! There’s more! I’ve been involved with the association for awhile having served on committees and on the Board in the past… this past year we undertook redoing the AAPI website (www.oldtimephotos.org) to a new and much easier to update WordPress platform… so basically since my second year in the association I’ve been as active as I’ve been able to try to help the association that’s been so good to me… last year I was awarded our service award and this year I received the Martin Glaser award… it’s a very special award for the association and I am very honored be on the list of my very good friends for having received the award. 🙂
