It's gratifying to see the Digital Wedding Forum's new Wedding Photographers Directory is instantly popular with our members.  More than 550 have subscribed to Wedfog in a single week!

Wedfog is being backed by a $100,000 promotional budget to help bring success to DWF Pro members who subscribe.  Thanks so much for your overwhelming support of this project!

In the words of David Beckstead, "The juxtaposition of bride and steel, bride and dirt, bride and brick is just plain fun and as meaningful or as meaningless as everyone wants it to be. It’s about Fun and Art!"  David's latest Beckstead Artistic Challenge is now posted on the DWF, and members are finding inspiration and posting URBAN wedding images...

The Beckstead Artistic Challenge continues in the DWF Pro Critique Forum.

DWF Member Cliff Mautner is the only wedding photographer in the world who's shot a wedding with a D3, and the only forum where you'll find images from his shoot is the DWF.

A few shots from Cliff's D3....

85 mm f/1.4 @ ISO3200:

24-70 f/2.8 ISO 2500:

You might get to touch Cliff's D3 at his Lighting and Skill Set Bootcamp in November.  Maybe even shoot at ISO25000.

Yep.  25,000!

There are more photos inside at DWF Pro and of course, at Cliff's Blog

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I continue to stalk Jerry Ghionis -- right now I'm in Denver after a visit to San Diego.  Half a world away, DWF moderator Andrena Douglas has made the long voyage from LA to London, where she had drinks with a slew of DWF members last night.

 Andrena in London last night

I'd asked Dina before she left-- "send some love to the UK, buy a few rounds on me?"   This morning my inbox is littered with senseless, drunken, thank you notes-- so I assume everyone had a jolly good time.

I've never heard the expression "thanks for beering us" but there it was in my inbox, and I can't figure out if it's a British slang, or if someone was just TUI.   (typing under the influence)

Photos courtesy of DWF members who'd been drinking, but not enough to impact their ability to upload.

DWF members are familiar with Christine Perry-Burke for her helpful responses all over the forums on behalf of Art Leather over the years.   My good friend Christine has now struck out on her own!  Along with Keith Piccione and Tony Randhawa, they've formed a new company called FINAO.   Finao is now the exclusive distributor of Seldex Artistic Albums in the US and Canada.

Thanks to the logo (above) we know how to pronounce FINAO, but I've figured out what it means.   FINAO stands for Failure Is Not An Option.   Now what movie is it from?

Trashing the Dress:  It's all that.

photo by Jason Cohen

I've always said the DWF is the best way in the world to stay on top of trends in wedding photography.  If only we had been around in the 70's, wedding photography would have gotten over the "couple in the champagne glass" shot a lot sooner.

This season, the trend du jour is Trash the Dress, and inside the DWF, it's amazing to watch as this trend become a frenzy.

• New York Times does article with color pix.
• Entertainment Tonight and Good Morning America read the article and do their own pieces. 
• As you've seen inside the DWF, newspapers cover the trend in Philadelphia, Chico, Ca, and points in between.

My background as a broadcast journalist for CBS allows me to offer a little insight:  Media outlets are incestuous!  As soon as one gets a good article, the News Director of every other outlet says "that's a great idea", much the way every photographer offered the champagne glass shot in the 70's.  Add in the fact that it's June, (in the media's eyes, all weddings are in June and no other time) and you have a full-blown media feeding frenzy!  My advice?  If you have a bride who'll do it, trash the dress now, while it's hot, call the newspaper, and get some mileage before news outlets get tired of the story.

 No Room at the Inn..

.. or in this case, at the Taj Mahal.  DWF University just sold out!   We are forming a waiting list for anyone who's up for four days of hardcore instruction at a major beach resort!   If you want to attend DWFU,  just email melissa@digitalweddingforum.com  

We took Jen & Steve Bebb to New York City a couple months ago, and at a restaurant in Little Italy, they asked "what's a canoli?"  We'd never met anyone who'd gone 0-for-canoli over 30 years.   When they come to Atlantic City to teach at DWFU, they're going to discover that Atlantic City's REAL claim to fame is.. Salt Water Taffy.  The Bebbs are determined to raise everyone's photography standards at DWFU.  We remain determined to lower their high-falutin' culinary standards.

I'm inside a huddle right now, typing this blog entry.  The Australian Institute of Professional Photography is hosting this series of "huddles" -- informal seminars with a lot of give and take beteween students and teachers.  There are 20 people in this room, Jerry Ghionis is leading the huddlie, and I'm doing what we in the USA call "not paying attention."

After more than a week with Jerry, my kid actually quotes him.   But in an annoying way:  I finally see the magnificent Sydney Opera House and try to take a picture of my son Benj in the foreground.  He says "the light's wrong!  It's all about the subject, not the background.  Forget that Opera House.  Turn the other way and work the light because it's all about the subject!"

Shut up, mini-Jerry.  And smile.

It's business and pleasure on a collision course here in Australia: We start with a great lunch under the warm Brisbane sun with a bunch of DWF members.  Nobody drank Fosters.

Okay, we had a beer or two.  But stone-cold sober DWF Moderator Ian Wilkinson was kind enough to drive us to a nature preserve so the Americans could play with the kangaroos.  It started innocently enough as my son strikes a pose.... (He's the one on the right)

But now, world-acclaimed wedding photographer Marcus Bell grabs the camera, and orchestras a full bridal shoot -- with my son and a freakin kangaroo as the subjects.  The whole act:  "A little closer.  Nuzzle into her neck, Benj.  Now on her shoulder..."

 photo by Marcus Bell, Studio Impresions, copyright 2007

I want to make sure Marcus got a copyright on this one.  Maybe it will open up new revenue stream for his studio...

It's no secret that a Bar Mitzvah is usual a shorter day than a wedding shoot.  But it requires a slightly different skill set.  Good thing DWF member Norman Kushner is around.

The owner of Norman Scott Photography wrote the book on Bar Mitzvahs.  Okay, he wrote the magazine article, and it appears in the April issue of Professional Photographer.  His article is entitled "Bar Mitzvah Basics."  Congratulations, Norman!   I just wish we could find a steady income stream in shooting the Jewish Bris ceremony.  Y'know, the circumcision.:  There's joy.  There's pain. There's deli.  You make an album.  I'll skip the joke about the cover material.