The PMDA Soldiers’ Angels Portraits of Love project is a great volunteer program within the photo industry that we here at Picture Soup wanted to share with our visitors. The PMDA (Photo Manufacturers and Distributors Association) has partnered with the Soldiers’ Angels volunteer organization to create the PMDA Soldiers’ Angels Portraits of Love Project, with the goal of taking the portraits of 10,000 families of service men and women who are serving abroad this September and send both the families and the service men and women a print by the holiday season—at no cost to the families.

You can find out more about this great volunteer effort within the photo industry by going to the website www.pmdaportraitsoflove.com. You can also sign up to volunteer as a photographer via the website; or as a military family, you can find a participating photographer.

As an industry we think this is a great way that photographers can share their talents while bringing families of those serving in our armed forces around the world a little closer for the holidays.

Along with PMDA, Fujifilm, SeeHere.com, Independent Photo Imagers (IPI), Nikon, Canon, Tamron, Samsung, Pentax, Olympus, Microsoft, HP, GE, Casio, ArcSoft, National Geographic Magazine, Cameo Style, Popular Photography magazine, Photo Industry Reporter, Tiffen, and American Photo magazine are also sponsoring this program.

Hello and welcome from the editor of the Picture-Soup.com blog. Picture-Soup.com is the online destination for your [photo] imagination. If you’re a professional photographer—whether you have been doing so for only a short time or decades—you’ve come to the right place for photography tips, techniques, marketing and business best practices, gear reviews and photography inspiration.

The editorial genius (executive chef) here at Picture-Soup.com is Diane Berkenfeld.

Diane has been a pro photographer for 20 years, and covering the photography industry for the last 10 for such publications as Studio Photography magazine, where she was the editor, and Photo Trade News (PTN) magazine, also as the editor. She has also been published in Professional Photographer magazine, ppmag.com website, Photo Industry Reporter, PIR PMA Show Daily, Distinction magazine, and others. Diane is presently a Consumer Content Specialist at Nikon, working on the camera company’s website.

Some of the specials we’re planning include:

Special of the Day — special blog post of the day

Gear — new product announcements

Product Reviews — reviews of photographic hardware and software

Book Reviews — reviews of photo books – including business, technique, art, how-to titles

And much more to come…

Drop us an email at picturesoupeditors@gmail.com and let us know what you’d like to see here in PictureSoup.