Sunday, December 19, 2010

Santa's Visit to DiBella's

This was my third weekend shooting Christmas-related photos. This time it was at DiBella's Old Fashioned Submarines up in Cranberry. DiBella's is a wonderful old-fashioned looking sub shop, with a great staff (and delicious-tasting subs, I might add) headed up by Kristen and Jocelyn (pictured above) They decided to have Santa visit the shop Saturday afternoon. This assignment was a little different than the previous two weekends, because they asked me to print the photos right on the spot. I brought along my laptop and Epson PictureMate printer, and it was a piece of cake. I received many favorable comments about the quality and color of the PictureMate photos.

Saturday, December 11, 2010

Breakfast with Santa

As some of you may be aware, my older son KJ has autism. So when the Autism Center of Pittsburgh needed a photographer for their "Breakfast with Santa" event at the Hyatt Regency Airport, it was a no-brainer for me to get involved. This was a holiday event geared specifically for kids with autism, and it was great. The Hyatt staff really went all-out, including an incredible 8x16 foot gingerbread diorama of the hotel and airport (shown at left). The kids had a blast. Besides meeting with Santa, Miss Pennsylvania USA was also there. Kids had a chance to decorate their own gingerbread men. There were also some amazing autism-themed cakes from local decorators. A great time and a worthy cause.

(If you are looking for all the photos from the breakfast, they can be found here)

Monday, December 6, 2010

Photos with Santa

Every year, the first Saturday in December is my former employer's annual holiday party. Every year we take photos of the kids (and sometimes the adults) on Santa's lap, and post 4x6 files (1200x1800 pixels) online for a free download by the parents. I do provide the option of ordering prints directly from me if people want, and there are customers who prefer to do this.

Because I've been doing this digitally since 2003, I decided to put images from previous years online also. They're not available for a free download anymore, but folks can still look at them and order prints if they want. Last year I had one family that went through and found their kids' photos from each of the previous years and ordered one print of each. It was cute to see the progression through the years as the family grew and the kids grew up.

(If you're looking for the entire gallery of Bettis Santa photos, please click here)

Thursday, November 18, 2010

Samantha

Samantha wins the award for model who traveled the farthest for a shoot, having driven in from Akron, Ohio. In order to cut her travel time somewhat, we decided to do the shooting in Brady's Run Park, This is up in Beaver County, roughly halfway between Akron and my place. I've never shot there before, but it was rustic and rather quiet. Unfortunately, this time of year they drain the lake which is a central feature of the park, and they had chains up at the entrances to the lake area, so we had to find another part of the park to shoot in. Fortunately the park is several thousand acres, so it wasn't too hard to find another area to work at.

Samantha was extremely easy to work with, and didn't need a lot of direction. She had no problem working in the cold. Samantha's now rockin' the dark hair, and needed updated photos for her portfolio. The dark hair provides a wonderful contrast to her bright blue eyes. For something different, we went with a picnic theme, with a blanket, basket, and the works.

Wednesday, November 17, 2010

2011 Portrait Gift Certificates Now on Sale

UPDATE (12/21/2010): Any gift certificates ordered between now and Christmas will be emailed as an Adobe Acrobat (PDF) file that you can print out on your own printer. No waiting for it to be delivered!

Just in time for the Holidays!

I now have gift certificates available for 2011 In-Home Family Portrait Sessions. These gift certificates include an 8x10 print in addition to the session itself. The gift certificates are an $82 value and are available for a special Holiday price of only $34.95, which is the lowest price I have ever offered for this gift certificate.

Samples of my portrait work can be found here.

If you would like a Family Portrait Gift Certificate for the Holidays, you have two ways to order one:

1) If you wish to pay by cash or check, please email (pwossidlo@aol.com) or call (412-480-4698). I will make arrangements to meet so you can pay and receive your Gift Certificate.

2) If you wish to purchase your Gift Certificate using a credit or debit card, click on the button below to pay for your Gift Certificate using PayPal. I will mail the Gift Certificate to your PayPal address the same day.

(Button removed because the sale is over)


Please note that these gift certificates are for 2011 sessions only. If you need photos taken before then, please contact me as soon as possible!

Saturday, November 13, 2010

More Soccer Photos

This Fall was the fourth time I've done photos for the Dynamo Soccer Recreational League, and things went EXTREMELY well. I had the fewest scheduling problems this time, compared to the previous three times I did soccer league photos. In part this was due to having great weather both days of the photo weekend. There were only a few teams I missed, and we had a designated makeup weekend two weeks later to take care of those. Based on orders received, people seemed quite happen with the photos.

Then a funny thing started to happen. I was contacted by parents from a couple of the Travel League teams, asking if I could also do photos for them. This was the first time I've been asked to cover any of the travel teams. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige, getting the photos taken in short order. Because I was only photographing one team, there wasn't then same kind of pressure as I get with the rec league, when I sometimes getting 8 teams converging on me at once.

Hopefully I'll be doing more Travel League team photos in the future...

Friday, November 5, 2010

Second Shooting with Sohinee

My first shooting with Sohinee was a great success, in spite of less than perfect weather. Ironically, after that cold and rainy Sunday we had a succession of beautiful Sundays. Sohinee and I decided we didn't want to let any more great weather go to waste, so we set up a shooting the next sunny day that we got. To keep it simple, we decided to shoot right on campus, in order to minimize travel time. I met her after her classes, and we had only an hour or so to shoot before it started to get dark. The Fall colors were really great, and the low sun made for a great look. Sohinee did another amazing job modeling (as expected!).

Monday, October 4, 2010

Sohinee

This past weekend I had a modeling/portrait session at the Pittsburgh Center for the Arts with Sohinee. Even though her wonderful dark exotic look comes from her Indian ancestry, she's been mistaken for Latina, Spanish, and Italian.

Sohinee is a really trooper. Even though it was cloudy, cold (50 degrees), and there was a threat of rain, she was out there posing in a strapless minidress. Nothing seemed to faze her. She was very easy to work with and took direction well. I'm looking forward to working with her again in the near future.

Thursday, September 16, 2010

Dynamo Soccer Fall 2010

Update: The soccer photos can be found here.
This past weekend was my fourth time photographing the Dynamo Soccer recreational leagues. Fortunately this weekend we had great weather and I was able to photograph just about all of the teams.

One of the things I am trying to do differently this time around is to have a single weekend designated for reshoots and make-ups. Last Spring, the Sunday we had scheduled for photos was rained out. I ended up having to contact the teams I missed and making alternate arrangements. Some teams had to be scheduled multiple times because key people were missing from the first reshoot. I ended up making almost a dozen trips to Schenley Park, and it took almost the entire month of May before I had finally photographed all 62 teams in the league. I didn't want a repeat of that experience.

Saturday, August 21, 2010

Krystal

This past Thursday I had a modeling/portrait session at Settler's Cabin Park. Krystal is model I contacted via OneModelPlace. I contacted her as one of the sessions that I was going to have videotaped as part of a promotional video that I am having done.

One of the things I experimented with this time was "Pseudo-moonlight". This involves using lighting and white-balance tricks to make in appear that the photo was taken at night, rather than the middle of the day. It is actually a very old Hollywood trick. I'll have more on this in a future post.

Wednesday, July 21, 2010

Share

Share (pronounced "Shari" or "Cheri") is another model I contacted via OneModelPlace. She joined OMP recently and has been extremely busy, including appearing in the new Taylor Lautner film Abduction which has been filming in Pittsburgh. Because Share has been so busy lately, it took us several weeks before we were finally able to get together for a session. Unfortunately, the weather was a solid overcast, which meant the lighting was extremely dull. So out came the flashes to add some spark to the photos. We started the session at the Allegheny County Airport, and from there moved to nearly McBride Park. Unfortunately the pavilion at the park is in a state of disrepair and is covered with graffiti. We were able to actually get more of an urban look (as shown at left), even though we were in a park. Unfortunately Share's stomach started to bother her, so we had to cut the session short after one clothing change.

Saturday, July 3, 2010

Shooting a Self-Portrait

I decided it was time to create a new photo of myself for use as an avatar on various photo forums and for social networking sites. But too many photographers use a standard studio portrait of themselves, or a photo of them holding a camera. I wanted something different.

The concept for this photo got its start with an old manual typewriter sitting in my basement. I wanted to use it as a prop for some vintage photos. Since I'm an "old school" (or is it "old skool"?) photographer, I decided to have some fun with that theme and go with the idea of an old-time (1940's or 1950's) news photographer.

Unfortunately I no longer have my cameras that would be appropriate for that era (a 4x5 view camera or a twin-lens roll film camera), so the best I could come up with was my first Nikon film SLR. It is a 1983 motordrive-equipped Nikon FM2. I guess it says something about the current camera state-of-the-art that a manual-focus film camera is "vintage".

I decided to try shooting this in my garage, just to see how well that would work. Unfortunately we have a detached garage and it isn't air conditioned! I used the blue side of my collapsible chromakey backdrop, which I prefer to the green side. The table is a plain plastic folding table (I didn't feel like trying to lug a vintage desk into my garage!).

I wanted strong dramatic lighting, so my main light was my SB-600 flash clamped to one of the ceiling rafters. My SB-800 was bounced off a silver umbrella to the right of the camera. This was at a fairly low angle, so there would be enough light under the brim of the hat.

Originally this was going to be a true self-portrait, and I was going to use an infrared remote to trigger the camera. Since it was summer and he is off school, I decided to let my Junior Assistant-in-Training trigger the camera. Unfortunately his attention span is only slightly longer than a full-power flash, so we only worked with the one setup.

Since this is supposed to be a vintage shot, a B&W conversion was the obvious choice. I went with a more contrasty conversion to get the effect I wanted. I'm pleased with the end result, but I may revisit the concept to try some alternate angles.

Thursday, June 17, 2010

"Double Exposure": How NOT to be a Photographer

The Bravo cable channel started a new reality show this week called Double Exposure. It follows the behind-the-scenes life of celebrity photographers Klinko and Indrani. They have been featured extensively in Digital Photo Pro magazine, among other places. So I was interested in seeing how the "pros" did it.

The Wall Street Journal reviewed the episode, and noted that Klinko and Indrani had recently gone through bankruptcy proceedings. Given what I saw in the premiere episode, I'm not surprised. Besides the "jet setter" lifestyle (and the expenses entailed), the way these two act during a photo session is enough to send potential clients running. They apparently believe that "Celebrity Photography" means that the photographers are the celebrities. They fight with each other, fight with their assistants, and fight with the clients:



Although I can see where this kind of tension can result in some great photos, it doesn't inspire any confidence from the client. Why would anyone want to hire them? Ironically, Kinko talks about seducing the subject (which I agree with), but there's nothing seductive about screaming and carrying on like a prima donna. You're supposed to make a client comfortable in what for most is an uncomfortable situation.

The whole point of doing a "behind-the-scenes" video, whether it is just for YouTube or for your own reality series, is to show how professional you are, and make clients want to hire you. And Double Exposure just plain doesn't do that...

Tuesday, May 11, 2010

Corey and Carrie

In spite of the weather, I had a lot of fun this past weekend photographing Carey and Carrie's wedding. Carrie's mom had a really amazing backyard, which was great for posing Carrie and the bridesmaids before we headed out to the church. After the ceremony and family photos at the front of the church, we headed to the North Shore to photograph the bridal party at the waterfall there. The entire bridal party ended up climbing into the waterfall (Their idea, not mine!), which has to rank up there as one of the craziest things I've had a bridal party do...

Saturday, April 24, 2010

"Hoops for Hope" Gala

On April 23 I photographed the American Cancer Society "Hoops for Hope" Gala that was held down at the Heinz History Center. This is my second year photographing this event. The idea is to give people a chance to pose in front of some of the historical treasures, and I print out a 4x6 print for them right on the spot. This type of on-site photo work is the main reason I recently purchased a new Epson PictureMate printer. The prints are dry, waterproof, and smudgeproof, and I put them in a small folder for the guests to pick up when they leave. Although I could have printed directly from the memory cards, I opted to use a slightly longer workflow with my laptop. The main reason for doing this was to add a "plate" at the bottom of the image with the name and date of the event. This also made sure the images were backed up on my laptop for safe keeping. After the event I posted the images to a gallery on ExposureManager, so guest had the option of ordering additional prints if they wanted.

Last year we were posing people in front of the old Pittsburgh trolley that is on display. This year, we went with one of the cars from Kennywood's "Racer" rollercoaster. As you can see, folks had quite a bit of fun with that!

Monday, March 29, 2010

Emily

Things are finally starting to warm up, and we're getting a break from the rain.

Emily is a model I contacted via OneModelPlace. She has a real all-American look to her, which clearly comes across in her photos. We agreed to meet at a small park in North Huntingdon called Oak Hollow Park. It isn't a very big park, but it does have a small lake and enough variety for a range of photos.

I had a couple of objectives with this shooting. One was to work with the used Nikon N90s film camera that I recently purchased. Besides basic testing to make sure the camera was working properly, I wanted this to be a test for a hybrid workflow. The idea is to shoot film, and then have the lab save the scanned files on a CD for further digital processing. The second thing that I wanted to work on was using multiple flashes outdoors to give different looks. Besides playing with the lighting ratios, I also wanted to put snoots on the flashes to narrow the beam of light.

Above is one of the photos from the shoot. Obviously, it isn't one of the B&W film shots, and (maybe less obviously) it isn't using one of the snooted flashes. But it's still a nice shot...

Saturday, March 20, 2010

New Members of the "Team"

This week I picked up two new pieces of gear that I thought would worth mentioning...

The first was an Epson PictureMate Charm photo printer. The Epson PictureMate series produce 4x6 prints using pigmented inks. Which means that the prints come out of the printer dry, waterproof, and smudgeproof. They have an archival life of better than 100 years, and the cost per print is less than 30 cents. Paper can be either glossy or matte. So you're getting everything you get from your local minilab, without having to drive and pick up the prints. I purchased one of the original PictureMates 4 years ago, and it has been wonderful. My only complaint about it has been the print speed, which is approximately 2 minutes per 4x6 print, which is incredibly slow. That means you can only print 30 prints an hour.

The reason this is important is that I occasionally get asked to photograph an event and print out some images right there on the spot. The Picturemate's image quality and the durability of the prints are perfect for something like that, but one print every two minutes is just too slow to meet customer demand. Fortunately, the latest generation of PictureMates has reduced that print time by two-thirds, to less than 40 seconds. That works out to 90 prints per hour.

Besides the Epson unit, I also took a look at the Canon Selphy dye-sublimation prints. Dye-sub prints are a popular choice for photographers who do on-site printing. The Canon unit is inexpensive, and the cost per print is approximately the same as the Picturemate. In the end, I decided to stick with the technology I was familiar with, rather than going to something different.

The other piece of equipment was a used Nikon N90s film camera. Even though I still have my older manual-focus Nikon film cameras (an FM2 and an FE2, both from 1983), I wanted a newer auto-focus film body that would work better with my auto-focus lenses. I previously had a Nikon N70 that I had picked up in 1999, but I had sold it a couple of years ago when it looked like I wasn't going to ever shoot film again.

Of course, it turns out that I may, in fact, have a need to shoot film. One of the things you read online is that film just looks different, especially if you are talking about black and white film. In 2007 I had a model photo session where I shot both auto-focus digital and manual-focus film, and found that switching between the two modes of operation was incredibly difficult. Having an auto-focus film body would make switching back and forth easier, and given the amazing (or is it disgusting?)low prices on used film cameras, it seemed silly not to get one.

The three cameras I looked at were Nikon's N90s, N80, and F100. The F100 was Nikon's last (and best...) semi-pro film camera(where the D300s is now in the digital lineup), and the N80 was the last "enthusiast" film camera (same as the current D90). The N90s was the predecessor to the F100. The N90s is available used for less than $100, as is the N80. The F100 goes for three times that, so that ruled out that one. Between the N80 and the N90s, the N80 had newer features, but the N90s had a faster flash sync speed, and better build quality. So in the end I got the N90s.

This was my first opportunity purchasing used gear from one of the main NYC stores instead of through eBay, and my first time dealing with Adorama. The experience was great. The camera I purchased was rated as an "E" (Excellent)grade, which meant I should expect some signs of wear and use. Mine was literally spotless, with a little bit of wear at the strap attachment lugs. It even came with the box. The only thing that was missing was the original Nikon manual. By the way, I did check with my local camera store before purchasing online, and they wanted 4 times as much (!) for the same camera body.

I was able to find a PDF of the manual online, so I have that downloaded and even loaded on my smartphone. I was a little bummed that Thom Hogan doesn't have one of his e-books for the N90s, although he does have a very good review, which includes tips for using the camera. Ken Rockwell also has a very good review page for the N90s, which includes a "Usage" section with detailed instructions. So I think I'm in good shape at the moment, and don't need to spring for a Magic Lantern guide for the camera. Once I've run some film through the camera, I'll post my thoughts and an evaluation.

Friday, February 19, 2010

Taylor's Twilight

A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to work with Taylor for the first time. Based on the success of that first shooting, I wanted to come up with some other photo ideas that would showcase Taylor's look and talents. Taylor has very fair skin. So this started the gears turning. I remembered an interview with one of the actresses from the upcoming Twilight: Eclipse movie, where she remarked that because she was so fair skinned, she didn't need powder to lighten her skin for the role. That planted the idea for a "Taylor as a vampire" shoot. I also figured that as a teenager, Taylor would be psyched about doing a shoot with a Twilight theme.

If you're a reader of David Hobby's Strobist blog, the lighting for the Twilight posters (originally shot by Joey Lawrence) has been discussed before and even imitated. So there was plenty of reference material available online. I've also played around with changing the eye color to get either the red or yellow eyes the Twilight vampires have.

There were a couple of other objectives that I had for this second shoot. One was to play around with the lighting more, in order to get a dramatic effect. The other was to spend more time playing around in Photoshop Elements for more than the simple retouching I usually do. Besides the editing involved in "turning" Taylor, I also wasn't to experiment with a chromakey (also known as greenscreen) backdrop so that I could easily change the background.

Here's one of the first images from that session. I heavily retouched her skin, darkened the lips, and made the eyes red. I then cut her out from the chromakey background. I created a new background by taking a shot of bare tree limbs, darkening it, and tinting it red. I like how the resulting image has a strong red theme to it.

More to follow in a future post...

Monday, February 8, 2010

Taylor

It's the Monday after the "Snowmageddon" storm. Pittsburgh is still under a state of emergency, we're digging out from 18-plus inches of snow, it isn't melting because the temperature is less than 25 degrees, and there is another 4 to 8 inches predicted through Wednesday. So, what do you do? Hunker down with your favorite photo editing software? Try to make some headway on your business todo list? Start reading the copy of Facebook for Dummies you previously checked out from the library? All good things to do when you're snowed in, to be sure. But if you're slightly crazy (as I can be sometimes, ask my wife), you contact a model and set up an outdoor shooting in the snow.

I met Taylor through One Model Place (also known as OMP). I knew she lived my neighborhood (same zip code), and we had talked about getting together for a photo session at some point. I originally contacted her on Friday about a shooting, knowing that the "Snowmageddon" storm was bearing down on us and figuring we would be unable to drive anywhere after the storm. Since she lived nearby, I figured we could walk to a shooting location. Everything came together on Monday: School was canceled, and the sun was out. One email and a phone call later, we were scheduled to get together at 3 pm (the warmest part of the day). It turns out she's literally 2 blocks away from me, which made getting together a simple matter.

Taylor was great to work with. She has a teenager's willingness to try just about anything, and nothing seemed to faze her (like snow falling on her from the tree branches). We had a blast and got some great photos in a little over an hour. Taylor's just starting out, and I'm looking forward to helping her make more additions to her portfolio in the future.

Thursday, January 28, 2010

Field Trip!

One of the advantages to being self-employed is that I get to be more involved in my boys' activities, particularly anything that is going on during the daytime. Case in point: Yesterday #2 Son's class had a field trip down to Conservation Consultants Inc. (CCI) on Pittsburgh's South Side. CCI is a company that consults with small business and homeowners to make their buildings more eco-friendly. They do educational programs for schools, to teach kids all the ways you can improve a building. The photo shows their rooftop garden, made of of trays of desert plants. The garden provides insulation by eliminating the amount of dark rooftop that absorbs heat in the summer. Because the trays hold the rainwater, the garden also minimizes contaminated water runoff from the roof.

For the field trip they needed some parents to go along as chaperones. Since I didn't have anything else scheduled for the day of the field trip, I volunteered to go along. Of course I took a camera and flash along to take some photos. I figured the school could always use some for their website. Granted I wasn't getting paid for it, but I viewed it as an opportunity to do some free marketing as well as hone my camera skills. But all of that was secondary to the smile on my son's face when I first walked into his classroom...

Monday, January 25, 2010

Carlow School Basketball

This past Saturday was my first time working for a new client, Carlow School's basketball program. There were six teams to photograph (three boys and three girls), and they wanted team team photos, individual photos, and game photos. They had contacted me because some of the kids had also been in the Dynamo soccer league that I began photographing last year. The parents really liked the idea of being able to do all their ordering online through ExposureManager after the photos had been taken.

The gym was a small older one that reminded me of something out of Hoosiers (that's a compliment, by the way). One of the things that is interesting about this gym is that the balcony where the spectators sit is right up against the court. So if you are at the railing, when the action comes near you, you are literally right on top of it. This gives some really unique angles for some of the game photos. Unfortunately it also meant that I spent a lot of time going up and down steps, which I felt in my legs the next day.

For the indoor individual photos of the players, I used my SB800 (with a diffuser) on my Stroboframe bracket, and the SB600 on a stand to the left and behind the player. The SB600 was set 2 stops lower than the SB800.

Carlow basketball is the first sports shooting this year. I'm anticipating doing a lot of youth sports in 2010. It seems the online ordering approach appeals to local parents who are tired of the usual approach of order envelopes.

Tuesday, January 19, 2010

Another Office Assistant...

This is another one of my office assistants, Jumper. He's asleep on my laptop keyboard waiting for his morning caffeine fix... Good help is hard to find!

Jumper is your typical senior staffer. He's been around for a while, and he isn't afraid to flaunt his status. Like many senior people, it takes him a while to get started in the morning. More often than not, you can find him in the break room having a snack, or schmoozing the CFO (my wife), or looking out the window daydreaming. But you also find him chasing after the new hire, to keep him in line. Jumper is also responsible for corporate security, and is constantly on the lookout for birds, squirrels, and other potential intruders.

Monday, January 11, 2010

"Picture the New Year" Portrait Promotion

For the month of January, I'm offering a new promotion for my family portraits. The sitting fee for the portraits has been reduced from $70 to $50. In addition, all customers receive a coupon for $50 off of their order if they order at least $100 worth of photos. Which means that the the sitting will effectively cost nothing!

Sittings are usually done at the client's house, and typically take an hour. Multiple poses, multiple groupings, and multiple clothing changes are all recommended. My portrait portfolio can be found here.

Saturday, January 9, 2010

The Office Assistants...

One of the advantages of working in a home office is that I have four office assistants of the four-legged feline variety. They are wonderful for keeping me on schedule (Especially when it is feeding time). They also love to keep things organized by pushing papers off the table onto the floor. They are trying to learn how to use the computer (although their emails and IMs still need some work). They even tell me when it is time to take a break, usually by curling up on my laptop's keyboard. Unfortunately we still have a problem with office politics (particularly fighting over who gets which workspace) and more often than not, we usually find them sleeping on the job.

Unfortunately they aren't always the best models. Even though they are always primping themselves and demanding attention, they're really poor at taking direction. Getting them to hold a pose for any length of time is difficult, and they refuse to work with others. It is also impossible to keep their attention, especially when they hear the refrigerator door open.

Pictured above is Chagall, the newest member of our staff. Like most new-hires, he is enthusiastic and energetic. He can be somewhat loud and demanding at times. I think he is angling for a job as my personal assistant, because he seemes to follow me everywhere.

Technical Details: I had to work quickly because you can never tell when a cat is going to get up and leave. I used my 35-70 f2.8 lens, set manually to f3.5. Lighting is from my SB800 set to TTL, with the head turned 180 degrees (in other words, backwards) and tilted up at 45 degrees to bounce off the wall (3 or 4 feet behind me) and ceiling.

Friday, January 1, 2010

A New Year Reminder

Hope everyone had a safe and happy New Year's. Just a friendly reminder to everyone to update any copyright notices you have on your websites and other materials to 2010. If you are an ExposureManager user, there are three areas you need to check:

  1. You want to check your backprinting settings ("Sell My Photos" ==> "Overview" ==> "Packaging Slip / Print Settings"). This will appear on the back of all prints (8x12 and smaller) that ExposureManager prints for you.
  2. Check your watermarks ("Gallery" ==> "Edit Settings" ==> "Protect") in all new galleries. Don't forget that if you need to change the watermark on an existing gallery, you must regnerate that gallery afterwards ("Gallery" ==> "Regenerate Images") and then clear you browser's cache and cookies in order to see the changes.
  3. Check your custom headers and footers ("Layout" ==> "Custom Header & Footer"). I have a "Copyright 2004-2009..." notice in my footer, and needed to update that to 2010.

Here's to hoping that 2010 is a great year for you and your business.