meeting Mike Kehr in Chadds Ford, chatting with Two Paper Dolls in Wayne
Thursday, July 03 2008
Speeding back down Route 1 South yesterday, I explained to Peter over my mobile "I NEED a GPS!". We've talked about getting one for my car now for a while, and have looked at this one in particular, the Dash. I always tell him that getting a GPS is a waste of money, in particular if the GPS has a monthly fee, because I never felt like I went enough places to justify paying the monthly fee. However, as my business gets up and running I've been networking, scouting new locations, and going to new places, I can see a GPS in my future very soon.
So yesterday was filled with more networking and a quick trip to a new town to investigate printing options. First, I drove to Chadds Ford, where I met with Mike Kehr, of Mike Kehr Photography. Mike's been in the photography industry for many years (25+ according to his site), and when I was researching area photogs, I knew I wanted to meet him because he had a cool website, an active blog, and beautiful pictures. These are the things I look at when researching photographers and that's why I have a blog and website as well - I know how important it is for a photographer to have an active online presence. I can't tell you how much it drives me bananas when I see a photographer's site and they have awesome work but a stale blog - i.e. no posts in like forever! This is coming from the geeky side of me, but I truly think it's better to have no blog, than have a blog you don't update at all.
Mike spent over two hours with me, chatting about his experiences in the industry, and sharing with me a little about how they run business at Mike Kehr Photography. I was immediately struck with how real he was - he obviously has had a lot of experiences and has a lot of knowledge to go with those experiences - but he just came accross as being a really cool guy - I never felt like any of my questions were silly or beneath him to discuss.
After chatting with Mike, I left Chadds Ford and headed towards Wayne, PA to find the Two Paper Dolls studio. I'm thinking about having my print work done with them (business cards, cd mailers, cards, etc...), so I wanted to meet with them and discuss my options. It really shouldn't have been that complicated to get to Wayne from Chadds Ford. The directions were fairly straight forward. The only problem was that I don't know the area AT ALL, so I was constantly second guessing myself and stopping at little gas stations and such to make sure I was going the right way. And then when I finally arrived in Wayne, I went the wrong way off of the exit and that resulted in like a 20 minute detour because of all the crazy traffic congestion around Villanova University.
I finally made it to their studio (with the help of several of the helpful girls talking me through it over the phone) and met with Nicole briefly before having to zoom back down to Delaware as I was teaching a night college course at 5:30. When I had planned my day of meetings, I totally thought I had enough time to get everything done and manage to get back and even eat dinner before class began. I made it in time to pick up dinner, but the actual eating didn't really end up happening (except for a bite or two of my wrap on the break). One important lesson I have learned: no more major travel on the days when I teach night courses!
