Wednesday Jan. 27 – help Haiti – online photography mentoring

The Mentor Marathon 4 Haiti will be held on WEDNESDAY JAN. 27 to raise money for charitable organizations that provide relief for Haiti earthquake victims.

Photographers: Please donate $100 to receive unlimited access to a day-long online mentor session by the industry’s top photographers.
Mentors will be conducting portfolio reviews, image critiques, answering questions, etc. Of course, the amount of 1-on-1 interaction depends on the number of photographers participating.

Participants will be given a password for access to the session. Your password will allow you in-out access throughout the day so you can come and go at any time.

Donate directly to your charity of choice. Email your receipt to huy@fworkshop.com with the subject line : HAITI and he will send you the password for access.
(IT’S A COMMON PASSWORD. DO NOT GIVE THE PASSWORD OUT TO ANYONE ELSE.)

Here’s the link to the facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/event.php?eid=442716900606&ref=mf

Mentoring schedule for Wednesday (all times Central USA)

8 am – 10 am : Sergio + Critsey Rowe
10 am – NOON : DQ Studios
NOON – 2 pm : David Murray
2 pm – 4 pm : Tyler Wirken
4 pm – 6pm : Ben Chrisman + Anna Kuperberg
6 pm – 8 pm : JVS
8 pm – 10 pm : Brooks Whittington + Cat Benner (that’s ME!)

Here’s how it will work:

At 7:30 am Central time on Wednesday, HUY will login to www.dimdim.com and obtain a room name and the password. You can log in anytime after that. PLEASE SIGN IN WITH YOUR REAL FULL NAME or we will log you off.

DO NOT GIVE OUT THE PASSWORD TO ANYONE AT THE RISK OF RECEIVING BAD KARMA FOR THE WEEK!

Mentors will be miked up so everyone can hear them. They will make a brief introduction of themselves. After that, it’s up to the mentors to guide the session. They may want to answer your questions or present a topic of their choosing. It’s a completely open format.

Participants (you) will be able to participate using the chat box. We have 3 mics available so we can pass the mic control around if you want to talk. Everyone can hear everything and but only the 3 mics can talk.

If you’d like a brief critique of a few images or for the mentors to look at something, please have those images online and have the links ready. Let’s try to make the process as easy and smooth as possible.

If you run into technical problems during the day, you can email huy@fworkshop.com

The room capacity is 50 people but I don’t think we will need more than that at anyone one time.

If you’d like to thank the mentors personally, please feel free to make them feel appreciated for donating their time and expertise.

The people of Haiti thank you! FOR MORE INFO GO TO: http://fwforum.com/huynow/?p=218

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ZuzuWeddings

Please join me (Cat Benner) as I rock The Registry Event at Bloomingdale’s in Century City on October 4th from 11am-3pm.
I was so honored when the gals all Bloomies asked us to represent the photography category as part of the team of wedding experts that will be at this amazing event.
To be named, “the best that L.A. has to offer” by the best department store in the world is truly special!

Come hang out with me!! I’d love to see new Next Exit Photography clients and old. I’ll have lots of sample albums and frames with me to peruse.
All current Next Exit clients who visit will receive a coupon for a free 8×10 to be used whenever.

Special promos for new clients TBD!!

I’ll also be raffling off a free engagement session (or wedding dress redux session) with a 16×20 print.

Follow me on twitter @catnextexit as I tweet, tweet, tweet!

In honor of Clara’s 1st birthday on April 4th, Next Exit Photography will be hosting a cake smash day ALL DAY, this coming Wednesday, April 1st, as well as Thursday, April 23rd. The session fee is $200, which includes one 8×10. For this radtastic BIRTHDAY PROMO, we will be including a Storyboard Frame with 3 5×5 custom prints at no additional charge. This retails for $375 alone!! All you have to do is bring in your munchkin from 10-6pm on Wednesday, along with the cake of your choice and we will snap away while they get their first taste of sugary goodness.
*Appointments are essential. Email Cat to set up a time. A credit card is required to hold your spot and there are no refunds available.
**1st birthday must fall between March 1st and June 1st to qualify for this promotion.

*****Tell your friends!!

Here is a sample from the session we shot of cute Jude (Sherry McAnelly’s adorable son!)

Next Exit Photography | Next Exit Portraits | Next Exit Blog

Adi and I are so proud to have been selected from thousands of deserving photographers across the nation as the Best Of the Knot in the wedding photography category! The Knot is one of our industry’s most highly respected sources for all things wedding. What an honor to have been chosen for the second year in a row in their Best Of 2008 issue! This time, as the Editor’s Pick, no less!
The Knot says THIS about Editor’s Pick.
“Q: What’s an editor’s pick?
A: It’s simply that. We tossed aside the votes for those vendors we feel rank above and beyond for outstanding service and noted them as such by designating them with a check mark. We have worked with these vendors and were very impressed with their skill and service.”

Thank you, thank you, to Rebecca Crumley, and her amazing team for this unbelievable honor.

We are so thrilled to be published in the current issue of the Knot Magazine with TWO full-page spreads. The first one is of the rooftop at the Oviatt Hotel from Debbie and Stuart’s wedding in Downtown Los Angeles and the second one is of Megan’s gorgeous bridesmaids in their stunning green dresses. How cool is that!!! Besides, these two brides happen to be the nicest people ever and they totally deserve this really cool honor!

Adi and I are going crazy right now. We just ran out and bought the new issue of People Magazine.
It’s a special edition all about Real Weddings, full of beautiful, fun, crazy and inspired stories of brides and grooms from around the country.

Two of Next Exit Photography’s weddings were chosen! We are totally honored and completely psyched!!!

Congrats to Heather and Daniel and Shelly and John, for helping us to get printed in this incredible publication!!
Both Adi’s mom and my mom are veteran subscribers of People Magazine, so you can imagine the excitement in both of our family’s households!!

I met Cynthia Vuong at a recent Next Exit wedding and we got to talking. Adi and I are always interested in community fundraising efforts so we invited the entire Asian Pacific Coalition at UCLA to help them fundraise here at the Next Exit Studio! We started with a few board members to go “Tyra” in our space and we’re hoping to get all 200 graduates in here next week! A portion of all of the funds will be donated to their club.
If you belong to a club or charity that needs to raise money (whether it be a senior class in high school going on a trip, a swim team, a drama club or a school orchestra, you name it!) Let Next Exit help you raise the cash by getting your photos snapped!! Your families will all want to buy (trust me) and it’s as easy as that.There is no fee or any financial commitment. Just a commitment to have fun!!

Just contact us at the Next Exit Studio for more information.

We have the most phenomenal news. I mean, really, really big!!
Adi and I”¦well, and Next Exit Photography, have been voted as one of “”The Knot 2007 Best of Weddings Picks””!! Basically, The Knot Magazine asked over 25,000 brides from around the country to complete a survey on who they felt were the very best wedding vendors in the country and we were selected!! Only those vendors who received over an 85 percentile got a little blurb and Next Exit scored a whopping 99.4%! True, we’re never perfect (we kinda like it that way) but hey, that’s the top one percent of ALL wedding photographers in the country! Oh, my!!
Here is what the magazine (and the voters) wrote about Next Exit Photography: One of the most sought after wedding photojournalists in Southern California, Next Exit makes everyone look beautiful and turns any venue into spectacular scenery. They have “impeccable taste” and ” beautiful work” that will make you glad you didn’t hire anyone else. You’ll be “thrilled with their work!”
We are beyond honored and totally psyched! Adi and I have never done any paid advertising in the five years that we have been shooting weddings, so it’s such a huge thing for us to be recognized in the press. We work our little tooshies off for our clients (and they have recognized us for it). Thank you so much to all of your who selected Next Exit Photography as one of the very best!!
We promise to continue to strive for the very best that we can give back to all of you.

It’s a special day for Adi and I, here at Next Exit Photography. We have finally launched our brand new gorgeous website and taken down ole faithful, which served us so well over the last five years. I know how many of you have commented over the years how much you loved it! But, hopefully, you’ll love the new one even more!!
It’s a totally new look, a more modern design and it shows off our work (we think) in a beautiful way. We had to search through almost 200 weddings and 200,000 images to pick some of our faves. We’ll be adding more images in the future, so please keep checking in!
Thank you to Nanette, Aubrey, Christa, Vince, Tara, Bree, and Becky, those of you who helped us with your incredibly insightful  comments in the beta phase.
Stay tuned for our new portrait site, launching in the next month. And, of course the official opening of the Next Exit Photography Portrait Studio!!
Also, thanks so much to my amazingly talented brother, Jeff Krantz, who wrote and recorded the songs, “Stina’s Song” and “Fortune Cookie” just for our website!!! Jeff lives in New York City and is currently seeking representation for his beautiful songs, which he writes and performs. IMHO, he is the next Jack Johnson. Come on Next Exit blog readers, somebody hook a brotha’ up!

We are so close.

The electrical is finished, the interior walls are painted, new windows are in, the lights, speakers and projector are installed, and the fan spins…

Stay tuned for the upcoming launch of the Next Exit Photography Studio and a BRAND NEW NEXT EXIT WEBSITE!!!