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These CPP Award Winners were recognized for the highest scoring Certified Professional Photographer (CPP) print, album, or electronic submission in their state print competition.

John Hill, M.Photog., CPP
PP of Connecticut
Kelly Highby, CPP
PP of Nebraska
Catherine Carter, M.Photog., CPP
PP of North Carolina
Jennifer Hudson, M.Photog.Cr., CPP
PPA of Massachusetts
Ryan T. Brown, M.Photog.Cr., CPP
PPA of Missouri
Jeff Bowman, M.Photog.Cr., CPP
Virginia PPA
Wilbur Jeffcoat, CPP
South Carolina PPA
Steven Yahr, CPP
PPA of New Jersey
Paul Speaker, Cr.Photog., CPP
PP of California
David Deutsch, M.Photog.Cr., CPP
PP of Michigan
Bogdan Fundalinski, M.Photog.Cr.,CPP
PPS of New York
Gary Fail, M.Photog.Cr.,CPP
Kansas PPA.
Beth Forester, M.Photog.Cr., CPP
PP West Virginia
Ella Carlson, CPP
PP of New Hampshire

Has your affiliate awarded this CPP Award to one of your members? Let us know so we can share and celebrate this with all of our affiliates! Send the member's name, your affiliate name, when the award was given, and even a .jpg image of the award winner to affiliates@ppa.com.

Affiliate Managers Meeting
PPA Headquarters, Atlanta, GA
Sunday, June 7: 1pm - 5:30pm and Monday, June 8: 9am - 3pm

Improve your association management--Don't miss these discussions presented by PPA Staff! Learn to solve specific problems unique to your situation:

• motivating your board
• recruiting volunteers
• budgeting & financing
• negotiating with hotels
• sponsorship and more...

Please confirm your attendance. RSVP to: affiliates@ppa.com.

Hotel Accomodations

Hyatt Place Atlanta Downtown
330 Peachtree Street NE
Atlanta, GA 30308
404-577-1980
atlantadowntown.place.hyatt.com

• Room Rate: $135 per night
• For reservations, call 888-492-8847 (use corporate rate code PPHO)
• Reservation deadline: April 15

Where does Brides Magazine tell its readers to go when looking for a photographer? Why PPA of course! See #66 on their list.

Last October, nearly 350 Professional Photographers of America (PPA) members in 41 states and the District of Columbia joined PPA Charities' Family Portrait Month, an annual, national fundraising effort to benefit Operation Smile--raising the total donation to more than $150,000.

On January 10, during PPA's Imaging USA convention in Phoenix, Arizona, PPA Charities presented a check for $50,635.21 to Operation Smile at Alice Cooperstown. The check was presented to Beth Marshall, Operation Smile Senior Executive Advisor for Latin America and Caribbean, and Carmit Bachar, Operation Smile Celebrity Smile Ambassador. Bachar, an American singer and dancer, is best known as a member of the pop group, The Pussycat Dolls. In addition to serving as a Smile Ambassador, Bachar--born with a cleft lip and cleft palate--participated on an Operation Smile medical mission to Santa Cruz, Bolivia.

Join Texas School of Professional Photography and Professional Photographers of America, July 19-27, 2009, for a photo tour of Ireland. Travel by luxury motorcoach with the camaraderie of other professional photographers. This tour has been especially designed for the most scenic and picturesque places. Includes limited edition travel shirt, evening photography seminars, special program with Ireland photographers, and over $1000 dollars in door prizes.

Don't miss out on this once in a lifetime experience. Register online at https://www.tppa.org/forms/register_ireland.php.

LAND FARES
(Based on fare-paying passengers per coach)

• Per Person............................................... $1585.00
• Single Room Supplement......................... $347.00
• A deposit of $250 per person is required. The balance is due Friday, May 8, 2009.
• When the trip is sold out, you will be put on a wait list and not charged your deposit until you are confirmed on the trip.

TRAVEL PROTECTION PLAN
Premium per person.................................. $149.00
CIE Tours International offers this travel policy with Trip Mate (see attached information sheet).
Protection Plan can only be purchased at the time of deposit.

Land Fare Inlcudes

• Transport by luxury motorcoach with a driver/guide (one man) for 8 days
• Hotel accommodations based on twin bedded rooms with private bath as listed opposite for 7 nights.
• Full breakfasts (7).
• Table d'hôte dinners (6).
• Welcome drink in your Dublin hotel.
• Dinner and evening entertainment at the Abbey Tavern.
• Guided tour of Dublin.
• Passage on the Tarbert Ferry.
• Boat trip and bus tour to the Aran Islands.
• Catamaran cruise on Killary Harbour.
• Visits and admission fees to:
  • St. Patrick's Cathedral
  • Trinity College (Book of Kells)
  • Blarney Castle & Woollen Mills
  • Skellig Experience
  • Cliffs of Moher
  • Dun Aengus
  • Clonmacnoise
• Hotel porterage, service charges and government taxes.
• Flight bags, ticket wallets, baggage tags and identifying strap.

Are you a Facebook user? If so, come on over and join the PPA and Imaging USA Facebook groups. We would love to see you there.

If you were at Imaging USA in Phoenix and have some great pictures you want to share, upload them to the Imaging USA group. And who knows, you might see yourself in someone else's photos!

• Professional Photographers of America (PPA)
• Imaging USA

Colorado photographer Sandy Puc' (Expressions by Sandy Puc') has designed a marketing campaign to promote studios nationwide, raise funds for charity, inspire photographers, and help photography studios bring in money during the lean months of the first quarter. Participating studios receive a complete marketing campaign with marketing tips.

The National Charity Model Search will select "America's Cutest Kid." Participating photographers will submit portraits of children, ages 18 months to 14 years, to determine the city winner. City winners are determined by online votes. Each vote is $1, and proceeds from votes benefit Now I Lay Me Down To Sleep (NILMDTS.org). Photography and model industry experts will determine the contest's national winner.

The national model winner receives a $5,000 US Savings Bond and a Canon PowerShot G10 digital camera. The photographer who submits the winning portraits earns national recognition and up to $10,000 in prizes including a Canon EOS 5D Mark II kit with EF24-105 f4.0 L IS.

For more information, visit www.sandypucmodels.com.

Photographers tell stories every day with images. But let's not forget that behind every artist is their own story. And we'd probably be surprised how often our personal stories resonate in the hearts of others...just as a beautiful image inspires. Horace Holmes, Jr., Cr.Photog., CPP, ABI,API, is not surprised, though.

From growing up in a family of migrant workers to his introduction to photography, Horace shares the secret struggle to read that he faced and recently overcame. He made it through Bible college (where he met his wife, Yvonne), worked in a church, and even became the marketing director of Coca-Cola before opening his photography studio in 1982. But, as he says in the article, there was always a measure of shame and regret.

It was Horace's hope that his story (in author Ed Grisamore's article) would help encourage others in literacy programs. More than that, though...it is a testament to human will and determination.

Below is the full article published Sept. 7, 2008, reprinted with permission from The Telegraph, out of Macon, Ga., and author Ed Grisamore:

I always feel blessed to be a part of the photographic industry. This month's magazine is focused on commercial photography, an area of photography in which I have very little training or knowledge. But while I have chosen to concentrate my business on portrait photography, I do have the opportunity to tackle a few commercial jobs every year. One of my first commercial jobs--a job I accepted my first year in business--had a great impact on my life, or my almost lack of life.

What you must know is that I am afraid of heights, to the point where I don't even like riding in glass elevators. But I was hired by a company out of New York to photograph grain silos in a town close to Marshall, Mich. The day of the photo shoot I showed up at the airport with my camera to find a really young pilot and a very small airplane waiting for me. After takeoff, I realized that the window of the plane didn't open. I asked the pilot, "How am I going to photograph the grain silos?" His response was not reassuring--we would open my door when the time came.

Take a look at the smiles that are created when you participate in Family Portrait Month. By participating in this charity event, you help PPA Charities raise funds for Operation Smile, allowing them to continue their work with children around the world.

Since 1982, more than 115,000 children and young adults have been treated by thousands of volunteers worldwide and thousands of healthcare professionals have been trained globally. For as little as $240 Operation Smile can change a child's life by giving the gift of a surgery. Revenue in excess of surgical costs is invested into our sustainability programs, empowering our partner countries to treat more children on their own and making your investment go even farther. In as little as 45 minutes, one cleft lip surgery can change a child's life forever.

For More information, or to participate, visit www.PPACharities.com.

Slideshow prepared by Angie Weedon for PPA Charities.