I’ve always been one of those people who never wins anything. Competition makes me uncomfortable and I don’t like to lose, so I rarely participate in contests of any kind. Last month, though, I was compelled to enter one contest in particular because of one word. That word? JOWLER. In case you don’t know what a jowler is, there’s a great site dedicated to the artform that explains it perfectly. I first learned about jowlers several years ago from a friend of mine. He had me take a picture of him jowling while we were at a bar in Las Vegas. When handed me his camera and said, “I’m going to do a jowler,” I had no idea what that meant. I was mortified when he started flopping his head back and forth rapidly in the middle of this crowded bar. I snapped a photo and couldn’t stop laughing at the results. I’ve since taught many of my friends how to jowl and I’ve got a pretty nifty little collection of jowler photos that I keep handy in case I need to use them as blackmail later.
But, back to that contest. You’ve heard me mention the [B] School here before. Becker, the founder of the [B] School, together with a rowdy group of photographers known as THE MAMMOTH MEN, invited photographers to submit their best jowler photos. While it’s true I already had a very large pool of jowler photos to pull from, I decided to take a new one and my loving husband gladly stood in as my jowler model. While we were downtown doing our portrait swap with Jenny and Tyler, I decided to utilize part of the Los Angeles skyline for our jowler photo. I call it Jower and the City. Behold:
Hott stuff, right? Back off ladies, this one’s taken!!
Well, all of this is really a not-so short and to the point way of announcing that I WON! For my (and Chris’) efforts, I was awarded a Private School membership to the [B] School, which means I am now a lifetime member and I gain access to super special parts of the [B] School that regular members can’t see. It’s very exciting to me because the [B] School has proven to be a very valuable tool for me. I’m so glad I’m a part of it. And, now I’m a lifer! Thanks to Becker and The Mammoth Men for putting on a super cool contest!
Speaking of the [B] School, last night I hosted a get-together for Southern California [B] Schoolers. It was a potluck white elephant party and good times were had by all in attendance. The rain was pretty gnarly so several people couldn’t make it last minute, but we had a nice little group of photographers, I was very pleased! Here’s a few snapshots from last night:
Araxi of Araxi Photography, her husband Nick, and Jason Javier check something out on Jason’s Canon.
Matthew Saville rips into his gift.
Eric and Nicky of Eight20 Photography were there!
And so was Jenny from Fairytale Dreamer Photography! Here she is being amused by her gift.
Joel of Arellano Photography stole Eric’s sweet Lord of the Rings DVD. He’s so mischievous.
Brian Dreisbach was totally enamored with the awesome gift that I contributed to the party, as you can see. Who doesn’t love a snow globe?
Here’s Chris with his new friend, Chia Head Shrek.
Oh, and here’s Matt Saville–a die-hard Nikonian–holding a Canon. Guess he didn’t want any incriminating evidence to be posted on the Internet, though. Hehe.
And that’s about what I’ve been up to recently besides the usual holiday business that always happens this time fo year. Chris and I are heading to Colorado this week and we aren’t coming back until January. Woot! So excited. I will be doing some family portrait sessions while we’re out there so I’ll be sure to post those when I can!
