Throwback Thursday - Hasselblad and WPPI: '95?

Left to right front row - Tony Corbell, Skip Cohen, Roxanne Moran, Carl Claesson. Back row - Bob Thompson, Mike Bowen, Roger Layton and Jim Morton.

This is what I like about photographs.
They're proof that once, even if for just a heartbeat, everything was perfect.
Jodi Picoult

My best guess is 1995, and it's WPPI, which would have been at the Rio Hotel in Las Vegas. Part of the fun at this point in my life is the entertainment value of just trying to remember when and where a group shot like this was taken.  Don Blair was the photographer, and I know it was relatively early in Tony Corbell's Hasselblad career.

It doesn't matter when or even where this image was captured - for me the kick is everyone in suits. For those of you far younger, there was a time when all of us wore suits to work every day and always dressed for the trade shows. What threw me for a loop was having a photographer tell me when we started to go more casual I was more approachable. I've always thought I was easy to talk to. I never anticipated the double-breasted suits were intimidating. Seriously, I couldn't be a bigger photographer-groupie and always loved working the trade shows and meeting more artists.

One thing I learned years later, which I recall writing about once before - Jim Morton always did an incredible job getting our booth together at every trade show. He knew I wanted to be helpful so he always left a few pictures for me to hang, but only so I'd stay out of his hair during set up!

And, at the NYC show when they let me help break down the booth - it took them weeks to straighten out the mess I made out of the show kits. If an empty spot in the kit called for the 150mm lens and I couldn't find it - I'd put in the 120mm figuring, what the hell, it's close! LOL Needless to say, President or not; I was never allowed to help pack up again!

Nothing beats Throwback Thursday for smiles and trips down Memory Lane. Whether you use old images on your blog to remind your clients of the importance of capturing those memory-making moments or not, it doesn't matter. Take the time for your own entertainment and pull out some of those old photographs and then, just enjoy the ride!

Happy Throwback Thursday!