Ok, it's back! The Alamo Arts Photography Group is going back to it's roots! Soon we'll have our website up an running again. Gone are the monthly dues! We're going to make this group free from this point forward. No dues! We will only charge for our meet-up events. We've learned from our growth and are giving you what you've been asking for all along, simplicity.

Now about the group--Originally founded by photographer and author Rolando Gomez (that's me), a native of San Antonio, I've traveled and worked as a professional photographer in 39 countries. My background is photojournalism, a majority of which stemmed from being an active-duty U.S. Army soldier (Staff Sergeant) then a civil servant (GS-12) for the U.S. Air Force for a combined 17-years out of my 30-plus years as a photographer.

A summa cum laud graduate with a Bachelor's Degree in Communication from the University of Texas at San Antonio, I'm not only proud of my roots, but am passionate about spreading the gospel of photography. While many of you know me as a fashion, glamour, beauty and nude photographer, I've photographed weddings, combat, animals, landscape, portraits, commercial, advertising and even helped the Army at one point in Forensic photography while stationed in Frankfurt, Germany.

Basically, I'm going to use my photo industry contacts and connections I've built up over the years as a speaker and lecturer at the Photo Plus Expo in New York City, Photo Imaging Design Expo in San Diego, Julia Dean School of Photography in Venice Beach, FotoFusion in West Palm Beach, the Palm Beach Photographic Center, Samy's Camera in Los Angles and many other areas. I've conducted over 400 workshops and seminars since 1999 and when you combine that experience with my European tour for Calumet Photo and California Sunbounce, I'm ready to share with you all I can about photography.

For our veteran members, Jerry Avenaim will still support this group when he's in town. We've been friends for so long and recently lectured together at the 2009 Photo Plus Expo Event in Manhattan. I can't wait to bring him back to speak to the group! I'll do my best to schedule meet-ups every 4-6 weeks and sometimes we'll combine meet-ups with our friends in Austin. Please be patient and look for new things for AAPG.

For any membership dues paid in advance, they will be credited proactively and you can apply that credit to any of my workshops at any location, provided they are hosted by me. You can also apply that credit to any future meet-up fees. I look forward in seeing everyone at the next event. Thanks, Rolando