Back to the subject at hand… every month Linda Surles (twitter | facebook) from the Bride & Groom Planner and Heather Vreeland (twitter | facebook) with Occasions Magazine team up to produce the Atlanta Wedding Professionals Networking Luncheon. I was excited about this months luncheon because it was being held at the Fox Theatre, Grand Salon Ballroom.

I’ve been to The Fabulous Fox many times for shows, but I’ve never shot or even set foot in the ballrooms and I finally got to see what I’ve been missing!

Our speaker was professional productivity expert Peggy Duncan (twitter), who I personally REALLY enjoyed listening to. She is the kind of disciplined person that makes me quake in my boots… as in, I’m ashamed to be in her presence quake in my boots kind of way.

These amazing florals were provided by Bloom Floral Design

Look at this amazing cake from Sharon Alexander at Sweet Sensations.

A BUNCH of industry friends were there but here’s just a few that I managed to grab. My apologies to the photogs that I didn’t get.

First up is Nadia with nadia d. photography who creates some awesome dramatic portraiture!

Next up is Laura with Artstar by Laura Stone, whom I famously told how annoyed I was by how good her photography was. It really is.

Next is the über chic Hollie with Lytle foto, who shot The Not Wedding recently and has been featured all over the national blogs.

And last, but not least, is David from Optimum Productions who helped shoot the behind the scene’s video for our recent Occasions Magazine cover shoot at the beautiful new 200 Peachtree in Atlanta. By the way, he’s single…

Here’s a list of the industry professional involved:

Venue: Fox Theatre, Grand Salon Ballroom
Catering & Decor: A Divine Event
Cake: Sweet Sensations
Florals: Bloom Floral Design
DJ: Joel Rabe, Lethal Rhythms
Media Sponsor: Bride & Groom Planner
Media Sponsor: Occasions Magazine

You can view more images over at our Facebook gallery of this event.

A couple weeks ago she posted a quick behind the scene’s post followed by a preview of the covers she selected for the next issue of the magazine. Here they are…

I can’t wait to show off the images we published as well as many more from the shoot and from behind the scenes over the next few weeks.

Today she posted a sneak peak from my friends Danny and David over at Optimum Productions, a quick behind the scenes video teaser… I can’t wait to see the entire behind the scene’s video!

Last summer Atlanta Occasions approached me about shooting the cover of their second issue. PWP Studio shot the beautiful cover image for the first issue so I had a lot to live up to. As Heather and I were scouting locations for the cover shoot I happened to learn about Ventanas, a beautiful rooftop venue to in the midst of downtown overlooking the Luckie Marietta District and Centennial Olympic Park. The best part was it was brand new event facility that hadn’t even opened yet.

In addition to the amazing patio view (the image on the cover) they also have a helipad on the rooftop for when you want to arrive in style. Once the team had our first meeting there, we were all hooked… here’s an image I took point-n-shoot style during our first walk-thru. I mean, WOW!

Inspiraton Station: Sherbet Chic

There was a dedicated team of professionals to make the shoot happen.

Location: Ventanas Atlanta
Coordination: ellyB Events
Florals & Decor: Amy Osaba
Linens: I Do Linens
Cake/cupcakes: Sugarplum Visions
Tableware: Owen Lawrence / Bloomingdales
Hair & Makeup: Scoobie West, H.S. West Hair & Makeup
Invitations: Sandi Spells Designs
Wedding Dress(es): Priscilla of Boston
Rentals: Event Rentals Unlimited
Venue lighting: Active Production & Design
Photo assistant: John Ellis

Rooftop Venues: Bird’s Eye View

In addition to the cover shoot I photographed the Ventanas Grand Opening for the feature story on Atlanta rooftop venues.

We went back to Ventanas a few times to get the right weather (mother nature wasn’t cooperating!) to shoot the cover image. Between the photo shoot, the Grand Opening, the cover shoot and all our meetings, I felt like I was living at Ventanas for half of November. Of course, I never complained about the view…

** CLICK HERE to view the entire issue online.

I wrote, in part…

We started off 2009 very different than it ended. At this time last year Maria had been in and out of the hospital more than once in her struggle to carry our 3rd son to full term. But the new year started with a bang. On January 6, we welcomed Paul Phillip Vigil into the world

Well, I think that Paul was feeling just a little bit nostalgic because 3 days shy of one year and he was back in the hospital… this morning.

It started out like any other morning (that is, I was asleep), and just before breakfast Paul decided to take a dive off the high chair onto our hardwood floor. He calmed down and ate breakfast but was still out of sorts. We ruled out a head injury (concussion of the like… uh, been there, done that) ’cause he wasn’t vomiting and all the body parts seemed to work just fine. He napped and when he awoke and still just wanted to be held we decided to go ahead and take him down to Children’s Hospital.

After winding our way through “the system” and a traumatizing (for Paul) trip to the x-ray room, I snapped a few pictures with my Palm Pre. Can you tell that sleep depravation and the Motrin were starting to kick in by the last photo?

UPDATE: I left out one important detail. Paul fractured his collar bone… I guess that little bit of information is kind of important to the story.

Atlanta Occasions Magazine Cover Release & Venue Showcase Party

Let’s just say that if you want Ben Vigil Photographers to cover your wedding, you will definitely want what’s in the swag bag! Here are a few more reasons to come…

• I haven’t been this excited about an event in a long time, so that’s reason enough!
• It’s FREE!
• You get to see the cover location in person, shot by yours truly.
• You get to see which of my brides made the back cover. Maybe she’ll autograph it for you!
• There’s a helipad!
• SWAG Bag for every bride and giveaways.
• You get to meet the TOP wedding pros in the industry.
• Every bride who attends gets a free ticket to The Not Wedding ($25 value).

** CLICK HERE TO REGISTER **

Brought to you by Atlanta Occasions Magazine and ellyB Events.

PAUL PHILLIP

We started off 2009 very different than it ended. At this time last year Maria had been in and out of the hospital more than once in her struggle to carry our 3rd son to full term. But the new year started with a bang. On January 6, we welcomed Paul Phillip Vigil into the world…

Paul came about a month early and he spent a couple weeks in NICU, but it marked the end of months of bed rest for Maria. It was truly a welcome time for us as a family. And he’s grown into quite an adorable little kid. Much better than the first two

Here he is back in October in our foyer…

…and just a few weeks ago trying to stay awake with my wife Maria at a family wedding…

FIRSTS

2009 was a BIG year of firsts. In the past year I’ve had my first $20,000+ bride, my first book cover was published (even if it was in German), I was invited to shoot my first magazine cover (more on that in a minute), and I shot my first military wedding and first high school sweetheart wedding that was 50 years in the making.

In 2009 I also took my first and second “serious” forays into commercial advertising work with Blanqi and 4Laces, both of which launch in Q1 of 2010 as women-owned and -driven apparel businesses. I’m super excited for both of these companies and where they are going. Commercial work (headshots, architecture, advertising) has never been a large part of my business and I’ve never targeted that market segment but if the fit is right and I’m confident that I can serve my client well, I’ll take the business.

WEDDING INDUSTRY

2009 saw a big shake up in the bridal magazine industry. A whole spate of bridal magazines have closed and a few more have popped up. January saw the first anniversary issue of The Atlantan Brides, a sister publication to the Atlantan. The Atlantan Brides was a key part of my marketing efforts in 2008 and 2009 and I still think they represent the pinnacle of luxury bridal magazines in Atlanta.

I was fortunate to be able to work with Celeste, the [now former], Publisher of the Atlantan Brides. She continues to be one of the most impressive and talented people I’ve ever met in this industry. I credit her with starting my “vendor headshot side gig” when she asked me to shoot her headshots when she became associate publisher, and then, publisher. Alas, she was married and we were all sad to see her go as she followed her new husband on a great new adventure across the big pond in England.

Meanwhile, as The Atlanta Brides prepared for their 4th issue to go to print, there was a celebration taking place down in Hampton, GA as Heather Vreeland was preparing to launch the first issue of Atlanta Occasions Magazine. She flattered me by asking me to cover the launch party which took place in July.

Heather has since become a good friend and I’ve had the opportunity to work with Atlanta Occasions, including a photoshoot and event imagery for the Winter 2010 issue and shooting the cover for it too. The new issue officially launches today and in a day or two I’ll have a full post on all our work for this issue.

In addition to shooting Heather in a magnificent Anne Barge dress in October, during the magazine cover photoshoot we managed to squeeze in a moment and shoot her headshot for the new issue of the magazine…

I’m already looking forward to the incredible work Ben Vigil Photographers and Atlanta Occasions will do in 2010!

WEDDINGS GOING STRONG

2009 brought a number of really amazing weddings but one of them sticks out for a personal reason. My good friend of many years now, Skotti Ray Frese (I love her new name! It sounds like a super hero character, doesn’t it), married the man of her dreams in June. I actually spent 3 full blog entries on it — Part 1, Part 2 and Part 3.

To this day, I still credit Skotti with almost single-handedly launching my photography career. She’s been a constant cheerleader and personal inspiration to me. I can’t thank her enough and I wish her all the best in 2010.

BEN v2.2

Today, January 1, 2010, also marks the beginning of a new stage for Ben Vigil Photographers. We’ve rolled out a slightly tweaked branding, an entirely new pricing structure and we’ve laid all the ground work for a new stage of our business, the upcoming Ben v3.0

Here’s evidence that I’m still a total geek at heart: as a holdover from my days in software and web development, I’ve started giving version numbers to each stage of my business. You may or may not have noticed that for the better part of the last 6 months we’ve been sitting at Ben v2.0. Today marks the upgrade to Ben v2.2.

Thanks for coming along for the ride and I look forward to sharing a fantastic 2010 with you!

One of my commercial clients just put up their teaser site using some of the imagery that I shot earlier this year. They aren’t giving away much on the site, so I’m not going to say anything else except that I can’t wait to show you more! Here’s a screen grab from their web site. Go check it out!

So I came across this video with lots of stats on the social media revolution. One of the more interesting tidbits is the part where it touches on how people “find out” about information…. in other words, how do businesses reach the consumer? More and more companies — from the largest Fortune 50s to the mom and pops — are discovering that the traditional top-down advertising campaign where the advertiser can throw enough dollars at a market and virtually guarantee a certain market penetration simply isn’t working any longer. The connectedness of the average consumer combined with the ability for every individual to become a customer evangelist (or beacon of warning) to hundreds or thousands of people via their personal networks on Facebook, Twitter, LinkedIn, etc., means that the consumer is increasingly having their first contact with a business or product not from any direct communication of the business, but from contacts within their sphere if influence. In a word, socialnomics.

And it’s not just advertising reach we are talking about here, it’s all information. Did you hear a few weeks ago about how Shaq found out that he was being traded from a friend on Twitter? Any old Joe with a phone has never wielded so much power as they do now.

So if you are a business owner, you first have to be asking yourself “how am I communicating with my customer?” But after that the more important, and possibly make-or-break, discovery you need is the answer to the question: “what is my customer saying ABOUT ME?”

Watch…

I think being in the NICU does something to their tolerance for pain and discomfort because as soon as they get disconnected from all the tubes and wires they just sleep and sleep and sleep like they are in a total happy land. Joseph was the same way and he will get deathly ill before he complains about anything. One time his school nurse called saying he wasn’t feeling well — they knew he was sick because he was complaining and they had NEVER heard him complain before. Back to Paul…

It’s so funny to watch him every time he feeds because he acts like he’s drunk and is out like a light in no time.

He’s back up to birth weight now (about 5 1/2 lbs) so he’s still a tiny guy. Just like Joseph, he looks like a little old man with all his wrinkly preemie skin.

Ben Vigil, speechless

Here’s an image from their wedding. Who knew that night as they toasted their new life together that it would include a honeymoon baby?!!

I wish I had a picture of the baby to post but this one will have to do. I’ve chatted with Stephanie’s mother a few times over the holidays and she’s kept me informed. I was a little surprised that Stephanie beat Maria (my wife) to the punch but I hear that everything went just as planned and there were no problems.

Congratulations again!

– Ben Vigil