On Friday, I received an email from my old college neighbor and good friend, the amazing film/tv film composer, Chris Lennertz. He asked me if I had a few hours to go over to Warner Brothers the next day, and document the recording of the charity project that he had put together. Being that it was one of my few weekends off from weddings, I jumped at the chance.

25 film composers.
90 piece orchestra.
A 60 person choir.
A full sound engineering crew.
A documentary crew…

…and me right in the middle of it.

The result: An unbelievably beautiful, five movement symphony to benefit Haiti.

It was a thrill and an honor to be a part of such an amazing charity project.

For more information please go to A Symphony of Hope: The Haiti Project.

Next Exit Photography was privileged to have the honor of photographing Dr. Phil’s big 60th birthday bash on Saturday night at the Beverly Hills Hotel.
Our image can be seen on the Entertainment Tonight website. Hopefully, we’ll get to post a few more shots of the awesome event, but in the meantime, enjoy this one of Dr. Phil and Seal, who gave the guests a mesmerizing and memorable live performance!

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!

A baby boy’s bris is one of the most important rites in the Jewish religion. I had the honor of sharing this profoundly moving ceremony with Baby Ziv and his wonderful family at Temple Beth Am in Beverly Hills. Taking place on the 8th day following birth, the ceremony is not only where the baby receives his name, but it is also when the ritual circumcision is performed, beginning a connection with over 5000 years of religious tradition.

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.

I love this Family! Jill was referred to Next Exit by a guest (Leslie) who attended Lauren and Eddie’s wedding at Firestone Vineyard last year. Well, we kinda love Leslie’s family, too! These two Orange County moms each have three kids and we just spent the afternoon shooting their family portraits down south. But, before we had the pleasure of shooting all the kids (stay tuned for a kick-ass blog entry), we were honored to shoot Jill’s husband Mitch’s 50th Surprise Birthday Party in Newport Beach on an Electra Cruises yacht! And, it really was a true surprise to this handsome fellow. All I can say is that Adi and I were in awe of this amazing couple and the three beautiful girls that they raised together. We hope to say that we are even half as successful as these folks are at age 50.

Adi and I managed to score the event of the year! You guessed it, Sally Horchow‘s Birthday Party. We met Sally last year, as she co-chaired the fresh stART charity event that we photographed. Not only is Sally incredibly savvy and smart, she’s such a super nice woman. And, she is a lifestyle expert for such publications as The New York Times, Town & Country, and DailyCandy.com, to name just a few. She hosted 175 of her closest and dearest friends at Social Hollywood and every detail was perfect. The theme? An Ice Cream Social. She had the most fabulous vendors including a homemade ice cream station with an extensive 10 foot toppings bar, a genius balloon twister, a crafty card trick dude, a pool playing expert, and yes, Adi and Cat from Next Exit Photography (a side show all of their own) who dazzled Sally’s guests with their new photo booth experience.
Next Exit has launched it’s own photo booth experience for their clients. Now available as an add-on to all of our event and wedding packages. You can’t ever go wrong with our signature polka dot backdrop. Stay tuned for a huge contest where you can win a free photo booth at your upcoming event.

^^^^CAT AND ADI ^^^^

BUT WAIT, There’s More!

Shooting Emily’s Bat Mitzvah kicked off our fabulous 2007 event season. Emily is a near perfect 13-year-old. I say “near perfect” because if I said perfect, it would go to her head! She is sweet, smart, pretty and her voice”¦amazing! Her family is so wonderful and they put together a beautifully tasteful, fun afternoon for their first-born. Emily sang her heart out and with the help of our favorite Rabbi/Cantor duo, Steven Carr Reuben and Chayim Frenkel, there was not a dry eye at Kehillat Israel Temple. One of our favorite DJs, Craig Zuckerman, provided the tunes and age appropriate dance floor games!

Yesterday was industry party day and Adi and I made it two fabulous events. First, we attended the annual Leather Craftsmen (the best album company in the world!) party at the Robert Evans Studio. Robert is one of the kindest photographers in the industry and helped Adi and I twice in our early career. First, he helped us with a celebrity wedding contract and then he helped me with a gallery report assignment I had when I was in photography school. He just recently shot Tom Cruise and Katie Holmes wedding! What a superstar.
Later that evening Adi and I attended the Cake Crumbs Holiday Party, hosted together with our favorite bridal expert, Harmony from the Bridal Bar, and Thea Lignos, the Editor-in-Chief of the phenomenal Your Wedding Day Magazine!

Adi and I with the ever adorable Jules Bianchi.

Adi with one of the nicest photographers in town, Jay Lawernce Goldmen. (He was so fabulous on America’s Next Top Model a couple of seasons ago. I’m so jealous he got to shoot for them!)

me with the famous Robert Evans

Jules, Me, Cherie Steinberg-Cote and Dina Douglass

Becker and Jules

me with my buddie, Giselle McFarlane

At Cake Crubs… Ryan Phillips with Adi

Carrie Phillips, Dina, Me and Tina Carlone

The girls from Especially For You Designs ~ they love the Next Exit Blog!