Photographers Jerry Avenaim and Rolando Gomez Form PhotoMeetUps.com — Fast-Growing Meet-Up Group Unites Pro and Amateur Photo Lovers

Los Angeles, California (PRWEB) May 22, 2009 — Professional photographers and book authors Jerry Avenaim and Rolando Gomez announce the introduction of PhotoMeetUps.com, their fast-growing co-op site of photography meet-up groups. Harnessing the power of a group of groups, Photomeetups.com has established groups in 15 cities across the U.S. in its first weeks. Photographic Explorer groups are active in Atlanta, Baltimore/D.C., Chicago, Dallas, Las Vegas, Los Angeles, Miami, New York, Orlando, Philadelphia, Phoenix, Portland, San Antonio, San Francisco, Seattle, with one coming soon to San Diego.

In 2003, People magazine chose his iconic portrait of actress Halle Berry as the picture of the year, placing it on their annual Yearbook cover.

“Photo Meet-Ups are for people with a passion for photography, from amateurs to professionals,” says cofounder Gomez. “We plan to host nine to 10 meet-ups per year at each networking location.” At these local meet-ups, cofounders Avenaim and Gomez combine a hands-on learning environment with guest speaker visits, roundtable discussions, portfolio reviews, panel discussions, book signings, and schmooze events. How-to sessions will explore Adobe Photoshop, lighting, and posing techniques.

“Our unity brings more than any photography meet-up group out there, while maintaining a regional intimacy,” says Avenaim.

The local meet-up groups will reap the benefits of this group’s co-op power, gaining opportunities for special offers from the MAC Group (Mamiya, Profoto, Sekonic, PocketWizard, Induro, Eizo, Tenba, Toyo-View and X-Rite), Nik Software, Leaf Digital, HoodmanUSA, Lexar, California Sunbounce, Leica, Chimera, LiveBooks.com, Samy’s Camera, Calumet, Wacom, Wiebetech, Atomic Digital Capture, Bright Screens, and Pilot Imaging.

At recent meet-ups in San Antonio, cofounders Avenaim and Gomez delivered presentations that drew rave reviews from their photo explorers http://www.photomeetups.com/testimonials/:

Jerry Avenaim and Rolando Gomez are multi-talented, well-published, masterful photographers, who have drawn SRO crowds at workshops and seminars around the globe. But it is their passion for photography, above all, that distinguishes PhotoMeetUps.com from every other photo meet-up.

Avenaim (www.avenaim.com), whose fashion and celebrity photographs have appeared in almost every major magazine worldwide–Vogue, GQ, People, Vanity Fair, and Newsweek among them–also boasts advertising clients Ford Motor Co., McDonalds, Samsung, Sexy Hair, Phat Farm, Guess, Paramount Pictures, and Warner Bros. In 2003, People magazine chose his iconic portrait of actress Halle Berry as the picture of the year, placing it on their annual Yearbook cover.

Recent projects include guest television appearances on ”Life in the Fab Lane with Kimora Lee Simmons” on the Style Channel and Germany’s ”Next Top Model with Heidi Klum.” Avenaim is currently working on a special series of the television show “LOCK UP, Doing Time in America,” where he spent six days in America’s toughest jail (http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lhRuaxUwmfw) photographing inmates, the warden, and the support staff. In future episodes, Avenaim will visit five “supermax” prisons across the U.S., capturing images of everyone associated with the prison systems.

Rolando Gomez (www.rolandogomez.com), an award-winning photographer and author, brings over 30 years of experience to the group, from military combat photography to portrait and glamour photography. Named one of the military’s top five photographers in 1994 while an active-duty soldier in the U.S. Army, he covered the fall of the Berlin Wall, Desert Storm, the Latin American drug war, and the Rwanda refugee crisis in Africa.

Gomez later transitioned as a U.S. Air Force civilian, where as chief of multimedia for the Air Force News Agency, he oversaw the photo desk and streaming media for Internet television and radio programs on the multi-million-dollar-a-year website of the United States Air Force, www.af.mil.

Following military service, Gomez founded GarageGlamour.com and is a popular photography instructor, who has presented 350 lectures and seminars worldwide in the past nine years, including Photo Plus Expo in New York, The Palm Beach Photographic Center, the Julia Dean Photo School in Venice Beach, and Samy’s Camera in Los Angeles. In the fall of 2007, he conducted a three-country tour in Europe for Calumet and California Sunbounce. Author of three top-selling photography how-to books for Amherst Media, Gomez has another book in the works that focuses on lighting. Gomez also has four years of accreditation with the NBA, covering the San Antonio Spurs.

His editorial credits include Parade, People, The New York Times, Stars and Stripes, Playboy, Maxim, Sports Illustrated, Rangefinder, Leica World News, Soldiers, Airman, Army Times, and numerous dailies.

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