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We are so excited about this fund raising project and to be partnering with Independent Living Pediatrics (ILP) Director, Aleisha to accomplish Portraits in the Park where all kids SMILE and WIN!

When our son Eric, born with Down syndrome, was a baby teetering on the edge of life, Aleisha, a speech therapist college student and employee of a local daycare for children with special needs, would babysit for our son. Few people had the training or heart to take care of our son, but Aleisha had both!

Fast forward 14 years of not seeing her, and in the studio she walked! Not only did she finish her degree, but she also got married, had two children and became the Director of ILP. Together, our commitment and heart for kids with special needs prompted this idea for Portraits in the Park! This handsome guy is our son!

These sample photos will give you an idea of the portraits we will be taking. If you are interested in submitting a photo of your child, please read the specifics below.

Happy Holidays!
Kim & Bob

PORTRAITS IN THE PARK is a photo contest where ten kids will be chosen to participate in a professional photo shoot in which the selected gallery of images will permanently hang in the Independent Living Pediatrics clinics in New Tampa and Westchase.

To ENTER, simply mail a photo of your child’s smiling face to our PORTRAITS IN THE PARK Photo Contest. The contest is open to children ages 10-10 from all walks of life, with and without special needs.
Your child’s smile-ability will give a child with a disability a better opportunity in life.

On in five households has a child with a special health care need, yet with early intervention, half of these children will go to school without needing special services. Your $20 entry fee will go directly to Easter Seals Florida, Tampa Bay Region helping children with disabilities hope, dream and succeed.

Winning smiles will be announced in February 2010. The top ten winners will participate in a professional photo shoot in the park in the spring time by Tampa’s award-winning photography studio-Thompson Studios.

The winning portraits will be displayed in the local newspaper, announced through the Thompson Studios’ e-newsletter, displayed on the Thompson Studios BLOG and on the ILP web site. The final art pieces will be showcased in a one-night gallery opening honoring all contest participants, before permanently hnging in the park-like lobby of Independent Living Pediatrics specializing in physical, occupational and speech therapy to bring out the BEST and the SMILE in every child!

Each winner will receive an 8-image portfolio of the photo shoot!

Enter now through January 31, 2010.
It starts with a smile. When children smile, everyone wins!

Mail a 3×5 color photograph, a parent’s e-mail address, telephone number, and home address. Please include a $20 entry fee to:

Thompson Studios
10329H Cross Creek Blvd.
Tampa, FL 33647

Photos will not be returned. Entry fees are tax deductible.
Check payable to: Easter Seals.

So, anyone know of a truly authentic New Orleans Po Boy shop in the bay area? I do!!

Check out Ricky P’s (www.rickyps.com) at 6524 4th Street North in St. Pete, but only if you want to have a party in your mouth!! We had the honor of shooting a few of their flagship items one Saturday night after they closed recently. OMG!! The best part? Eating all of the photo subjects as we went along. My faves? Well, let’s see, the Muffaletta was Deeelicious, well wait, the gumbo made my mouth dance. But then again, the Shrimp Po Boy made my pants shrink, while all the while the jambalaya made me say things I couldn’t control. But then there was the Bread Pudding after it was all said and done. Yes, the Bread Pudding and I had a very special moment. Ahhhh…. As Ricky P hears all day long from his loyal cajun fanbase: “Dang, that’s good!”

Go check ‘em out for yourself and tell them Bob T sent you!

The man, the legend!

The Bread Pudding… be careful not to lick the screen!

Here’s a crabcake, jambalaya with Ricky P’s famous slaw. Mmmmmm….

Eight years ago on the morning of 9/11/01, I was taking pictures of the Executive Leadership Development program Kim was leading at the Embassy Suites in the financial district of New York City, a stone’s throw to the World Trade Center. While the CFO for the company she worked for started the morning off with a keynote talk about the current global finances to the 150 employees in the room who had come from all over the world (as far as New Zealand, Australia and the Netherlands), the group was interrupted by a panicked sounding woman over the intercom informing us that a plane had just hit the World Trade Center.

Mayhem hit soon after.

The room dispersed, people scattered. Most cell phones stopped working, so the bank of pay phones were crammed, people stood immobile, staring at the news on the large screen TV that hung in the lobby, racing outside, racing to their rooms, racing around not knowing what to do or where to go. I ran upstairs to our room (the elevators stopped working) to collect my belongings when a good friend called my cell. She was watching the news from Tampa and was adamant about our getting out of there now!

Kim, the CFO and I were the last three people out of the hotel. Kim had her laptop in a backpack and dragged her suitcase by the handle (for the next 75 blocks). I had my camera bag over my shoulder and my suitcase. I couldn’t carry my set of lights, so I left them in the ball room where the program was being held thinking I would come back later to pick them up (it was more than a year before I ever went back and everything left in the hotel was damaged and irretrievable).

The debris was falling like a blizzard of gray snowflakes blanketing the ground and clinging to the clothes and skin of all the people running. The SWAT team, in their full regalia (black masks, on piece suits and boots), guided us by waving a forceful arm swing pointing toward the Hudson River. There was no thinking at this point. We followed their direction and ran like hell across a grassy field (I think it was a soccer field), through a ripped open chain link fence, down a few stairs and on to the wide sidewalk that paralleled the river. We must have run for 15 minutes and then everyone just stopped and turned around. We followed suit and in a moment, we witnessed the second tower implode and collapse as we felt the energy of thousands of mothers and fathers, sisters and brothers, sons and daughters float upward in the morass of billowy black smoke.

Against my better judgment, in a moment of mass destruction, I reached for my camera and with tears in my eyes, snapped off a few, while silently blessing all the people who just lost their lives.

We spent the night at Kim’s boss’s home outside of Manhattan that night, where it was eerily peaceful and quiet, rented a card the next day and drove home. We heard the guy from New Zealand spent nine days getting home (to a wife and new baby) via Canada, Alaska, and so forth, and arrived to a hero’s welcome full of the press, family, friends, and the community at large!

To have the dubious distinction of having eye witnessed such a world tragedy is something I haven’t quite resolved for myself. However, what I have resolved is that I am more grateful than ever for my family and my life, and every 9/11 for the rest of my life, I will whisper a prayer to the families of those who lost their loved ones on that day.

Until next time,
Bob

By the way, the photo of the twin towers was taken on the evening of 9/10/2001 from a dinner cruise on the Hudson just as we passed the Statue of Liberty.

All a parent ever wants for his or her children is to give them a good time, then watch them enjoy the experience. Kim and I are no different. I present to you a brief photo-documentary, (all photographed by one Mr. Mike Ossola, associate photographer and post production manager, and on this particular evening part-time shooter and also guest of Buddy), of one Mr. Buddy Thompson’s 16th Birthday Bash, held at the Palm Pavilion on Clearwater Beach over the August 15th weekend. Huge thanks to Cindy, GM at the Palm, and long time friend of mine (I’ve been playing there since ‘95) who really made us feel welcome and took great care of us (round of drinks on arrival, preferred Bud-seating, open arms, etc), and to Debby at the hotel who took great care of us as well. Kim and I couldn’t be more proud of our miracle boy, and what a blast it was to watch him just have a blast. Enjoy!!

“A Man Boy on is 16th Birthday” or “The Calm Before the Storm” (Note the slight presence of a Matt Garza-like beard on the southern tip of his chin) Great portrait Mikey!!

I mean really, who doesn’t want to see their name in lights? This was one of Cindy’s surprises. Nice touch.

A moment between sets. Bud has been talking about this day and this gig for at least 2 months. This is one excited dude.

This is where Bud spends most of his time during our gigs. He truly has been one of the band for years now. We added the electric guitar this particular day for the first time, and it was a smashing success!! He knows the words, and he sings his little heart out! (Cable, what cable?)

Bud’s backup vocals come complete with personal gestures. What a dude. This boy has got the moves. (-:

A piece of Mike Ossola beach art. Nice shot and nice edit Mikey!! (I told you guys he was good…)

Buddy goes Hendrix crazy among the crowd in a spontaneous explosion of rock and roll fury during a John Mellencamp tune. That’s from the right, Ricky P (rickyps.com), Victoria, Kevin, Bud, the Boys in the Band, Kathryn, Noah, Ken and Kim’s clapping hands.

One of the finest bass players in the universe today, (because as you can see, he’s not from this planet) Mr. Chris Ryals. It is my distinct privilege to play with this guy, and we’ve been doing it since ‘96. Bud, the man, the legend, singing his way through his 16th. Rock on…

This is Mr. Mike Massaro, a craftsman of a percussionist, and very cool dude. A tad on the serious side, but only while he’s playing. He’s a teddy bear inside… Mike and I met 20 minutes before I did a TV appearance on Ybor Live at the Columbia Restaurant back in the early 90’s, and we’ve been friends and playing together ever since. He’s scary good at what he does too. His hands hurt a lot.

Haaappy Biirrrtthddaaayy Toooooo Yooouuuuuuu!!!

Okay, so I’ll begin by saying that this one was pure magic from the beginning. From my intial chat with Leona in April in the parking lot after a quick shoot up in Ocala, to riding bikes through a German village on a gorgeous golden German morning, Kim and I had the ‘gig’ to die for — Kim and I because she got to go too! I was actually hired to do several things. First on the list, take great photographs of the folks on this trip having a great time wherever they went and whatever they did. Gee, I think I can hang with that! They are all of our client’s top selling insurance agents – this was an incentive cruise down the Rhine and Mosel rivers in Germany, originating in Amsterdam. Somebody pinch me. Of all the places we could go, there’s nowhere more dear to our hearts than the very place Kim and I “grew up” as young Air Force adults stationed above the Mosel in the early to mid ’80’s. Unbelievable!! I’ve included some of my favorite shots and moments from the trip, where, as part of my ‘package,’ I sang two gigs, one atop the ship as we cruised the Rhine on a gloriously sunny, crisp blue day, and one evening down in the ship’s lounge. Got to pull out my Deutsch and let ‘er rip with some of the ship’s staff and play interpreter to some of the passengers. Kim and I had no luggage the first 4 plus days, making our trip even more ‘memorable!’ The trip was a total success, as we were invited back next year when they treat the company’s best to a Banff, Canada! We met lots of new friends, and had the time of a lifetime. Kim and I really used the trip to truly take a look at life from afar, and we came back clearer about life somehow. Europe can do that to a person. Enjoy the shots and thanks for “listening.” BT

We grabbed a nice little lunch in Amsterdam before boarding the Casanova.

A slice of life in the German town of Trier. These 5 kids were fluent in German! Amazing!

That’s the president and cofounder of the company we were working for, in one of my favorite places on the planet, a German Beer Garden (yes, I meant to capitalize!)

Tell me, what’s more European than a couple of street accordion players?

Came upon a group of artists painting a cathedral, only two of whom noticed I was there.

Here are Kim and me in front of the Roman gate of Trier, a city over 2,000 years old.

Cool shot of a German bridge, somewhere in the night…

View through the antiquated glass of the Cochem Castle. All of the Insurance folks were equipped with cool red umbrellas.

I’ve always been a sucker for a cool German cafe window, especially one with a cool handwritten chalk sign.

This is yours truly doing my thing. Before our luggage was located, we were traveling with only a guitar, a laptop, and a camera bag. Three things that we decided we could start a new life with if necessary. (-:

I love Amsterdam because the cafes are always full. This is 3:00 pm on a weekday. Hmmm… what do they know that we don’t?

And I think that this is where they all parked…

View of Cochem on the Mosel River, this is definitely one of the coolest castles on the river, and there are many!

This is the name of the ship we cruised…

Here’s a shoot that had some fun built into it — we got a call from David King, the owner of the historic Thunderbird Resort on Indian Rocks Beach. He and his family have had the resort for close to 40 years. The resort had undergone a facelift of sorts, and now it was time to give their website a photo-facelift. The shots he’d been using were aged and out of style, so basically we laid out a plan to shoot the entire place. We shot everything from rooms, the courtyard, the restaurant, lobby, EVERYTHING!! This ties in beautifully with our Custom Stock Photography concept, where we come into a company and shoot everything that there would be a need to shoot, then provide the client with a catalogued library of images that they can use for anything that can come up. In David’s case, the website was the most immediate need, and you can see the new photography at his website: www.thunderbirdflorida.com. Since this was a multi-day shoot, of course we had to stay and get a taste of what the Thunderbird had to offer during our stay. What a great place to hang at the beach!! The Tiki Bar was a great place to be at sunset and after a huge day of shooting. We really enjoyed the resort and encourage you to check it out! Give us a call if you’d like more info on Custom Stock Commercial Photography…