Category Archives: asheville pug

photographer denis reggie speaks to asheville pictage group

Tuesday night, photographer Denis Reggie spoke to the Asheville Pictage User Group at my studio.  Denis is one of the most well known wedding photographers in the world.  I have included his impressive bio below.  The PUG meets each month on the 2nd Tuesday and we normally have 12 – 25 photographers that attend.  I was beyond thrilled that 44 people showed up to see Denis!  A huge thank you to everyone that attended, especially all of the new people that had never been to a PUG meeting, all the people that drove 2 – 3 hours and all the faithful regulars that are so supportive every month.

One of my favorite things about Pictage is that they are incredibly supportive to their photographers, locally and nationally.  When the photographers that use them are doing well, it translates into the company doing well.  I first heard Denis speak 3 years ago at a Pictage conference and attended his workshop the next month.  My business and photography are where they are today in a huge part because of Denis.  I got kind of choked up introducing him, since he has meant so much to me.  I have been getting emails, phone calls and Facebook comments all day from photographers saying how grateful they are to Denis for coming to Asheville and how inspired they were from his presentation.

Please bookmark the Asheville PUG blog for information about the monthly meetings.  If you want to be included on the Evite that I send out as a reminder each month, please email me regina@reginaholder.com.

I am excited to announce that LaCour will be speaking at the April 14 meeting on the topic Marketing in a Recession!  Mark your calendars now and make sure you don’t schedule anything else!

Hailed by Town & Country as “the great wedding photographer of our day” and by Oprah Winfrey as “the best in the business,” Denis Reggie and his impact on wedding photography have become legend. Sensing the frustration of many brides with the posed look of traditional and pseudo-fashion wedding photography, he set out to refine and popularize the truly natural, editorial style he termed “wedding photojournalism.” The wedding photography industry has never been the same.

In the 2007 American PHOTO cover feature naming “The 10 Best Wedding Photographers in the World,” Denis Reggie was listed first. At the request of the Smithsonian Institute, several Reggie photographs will become part of the permanent collection of the National Museum of American History in Washington.

His images have been featured on the cover of LIFE, and named in “Photographs of the Year” by People, Life, Time and Newsweek among other publications. He has be interviewed at various times as a guest on NBC’s Today show as well as on Oprah! A Denis Reggie photograph of Oprah Winfrey and Jackie Onassis was featured on a broadcast highlighting “Oprah’s favorite things.

Denis Reggie’s celebrity client list reads like a Who’s Who among America’s elite and includes Vera Wang, John Kennedy, Jr., Susan Lucci, James Taylor, Mariah Carey, Rudy Giuliani, Peter Jennings, James Garner, television anchor Campbell Brown, Alan Greenspan, Ted Turner and Don Henley to name a few.

He has been featured on Entertainment Tonight, VH-1, E! Entertainment Television, CNN and Fox in national broadcasts. He has also been the subject of feature stories in each of the major wedding and photography magazines and in the New York Times, Wall Street Journal and numerous other publications. His photographs are frequently used in books on weddings, etiquette and photography including titles by Vera Wang, Letitia Baldridge and Town & Country.

Denis Reggie was the first wedding photographer named Explorer of Light by Canon and was named by Microsoft as its first Icon of Imaging.

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may pug and my birthday

Last Tuesday night was our monthly Pictage User Group (PUG) meeting, which is held in the conference room upstairs from my studio. Charlotte photographer Critsey Rowe was our guest speaker. Critsey is a partner of Indigo Photography and has recently launched her own boutique style company. She has been published in many local and national magazines and had her first international magazine feature in the current issue of UK’s “You and Your Wedding”. She photographed Carolina Panther Thomas Davis’ wedding that will be featured on the WE channel show Platinum Weddings and published soon on the cover of a local magazine. Critsey talked about how she stepped up marketing her business and meeting with event planners outside NC. She founded The Next Set, a group of photographers networking to high end vendors. She photographed celebrity planner David Tutera in his NYC apartment last month. Critsey and Thomas Geist from Germany just recently got married. It was great having them up for the PUG and dinner afterwards.

So, my birthday was the day after the PUG, last Wednesday. I had thought that Mexican would be a good choice for dinner – because it is my favorite. Then, I had the most embarrassing birthday experience ever in a restaurant. They came to the table singing with a red sombrero that they plopped on my head and started sticking a spoon of whipped cream in my face. Thinking it would make the guy stop, I finally let him put the spoon in my mouth – only to end up with whipped cream up my nose. What was I thinking!!! Please God, don’t let any cell phone photos show up on the internet!

I had arranged a lunch at 12 Bones with Critsey, Thomas and a few other friends from the DWF forum, which is how we all met. Much to my surprise, Critsey, Corey Cagle and Honour Hiers had arranged for a lot of other photographers and vendors to come. 12 Bones always has a long line and so as I walked up – 1/2 the line started singing! They went all out decorating and even got an awesome cake made with Reese’s cups.

My beautiful cake from Chez Nous.

Woodward + Rick (Brian and Gry)

Surprise! – 1/2 the line starts singing.

Brian, Corey McNabb and Thomas

More singing – 3rd time!

The whole gang!

Jill Schwarzkopf and Corey McNabb

Shay Brown and Brian

Critsey, Me and Brie Castell

My friend Christine from TX did a wonderful blog post for my birthday and you will get to see my new pimped out present soon!

I got a ton of birthday wishes on Facebook, my new internet obsession, and an awesome email from my friends Gene Higa and Ann Hamilton from San Francisco with a hilarious series of photos. Bogie was asleep so he is partying in photo form.

THANK YOU SO MUCH to all my friends for making me feel so special!

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asheville pug – february meeting

At our February meeting, the Asheville PUG did a panel discussion. The PUG has so many new members that I thought it would be great to have a format that allowed them to ask questions to a panel of “experts”. Honour Hiers, Corey Cagle, Corey McNabb and I answered questions and got to know some of the new people better. Out of the 13 people in attenance, 8 have been in business about a year or less and 4 were at the PUG for the first time. Questions that we will explore further in future meetings include second shooters and the expectations both from the primary and second photographer, advertising, studio task management and websites.


The group

Sage, Christy and Suzanna


Alicia and Corey McNabb


Corey Cagle and Honour


Mark Block asks a question, Christy, Suzanna, Peter and Zac

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