What alumni events will you host in 2024? Read this article to find learn five reasons why it's not just a get-together but a strategic move that can positively impact your alumni community and the alma mater.

As the year draws to a close, I find myself reflecting on all the interesting jobs and people I’ve gotten to work with this year. 2023 has been a unique journey – one filled with incredible opportunities, challenges, and growth. As a professional photographer, I have been fortunate to work with a diverse array of businesses and universities, each with its own distinct story to tell.

So far in this life of mine, my proximity to mass spectrometers and other complex lab equipment was mostly from crime scene procedurals like CSI. And of course I’ve gotten to visit many college and university labs with a catalog of new and old equipment in my photography career. Lucky for me, Novatia reached out in hopes we could update their staff headshots and lab photos at their cutting-edge facility in Newtown, PA.

If you are involved in the business side of things for any sort of big business, non profit, or educational institution, then annual reports are nothing new to you. The yearly publication — whether produced in digital or print (or both!) — is a showcase of your institution.

The Pennsylvania Conference for Women attracted more than 8,000 women to our fair city last month. It’s been a few years since I attended the conference and I was thrilled to be back! I love what the event stands for and am so grateful I was able to be involved in my own way.

Universities and colleges have a lot on their plate when it comes time to select a new leader.

One of my newer clients — Chestnut Hill College — recently went through this exact process when their beloved president of thirty years retired. After a thorough search, CHC appointed Dr. William W. Latimer as their new president.

Branding can often feel like an vague term. The general idea is easy enough to grasp but when you dig down, it gets harder to wrap your head around. A lot of different things a business or organization or school does to stand out falls under the branding umbrella. One component of branding is photography, of course. But, just within photography, what you choose to photograph and how you organize and deploy those images can have huge impacts on the messages you’re sending to the world. One thing I love to tell anyone who is starting a new brand or considering a rebrand is: don’t sleep on lifestyle branding. 

One of the many reasons I love my job is because of the many ways that projects come together. My creativity often feeds off of the unpredictability of photo shoots — will the weather hold out? Will the subjects show? It’s a lot of nimble problem solving and thinking on my feet. It’s not unusual for me to be thinking about my next shot while I’m still clicking away at my current one.

Collaboration is at the core of my photography and business philosophies. No matter if I’m working with a new or returning client, a single person or a large business, it’s important to me to be a partner in the creative process. The team approach always produces the best results in my experience. When Ballinger reached out about working together a few weeks ago, it only took one look at their website for me to know we were a perfect match.