Avil Beckford is President of Ambeck Enterprise (http://www.ambeck.com), a firm, which provides diverse business research and analysis services to senior executives. Over the past 11 years, Avil has helped her clients to increase revenues and develop growth strategies by transforming data into ideas, insights and actionable intelligence.

Her experience includes conducting interviews, creating assessment tools, finding and evaluating information, synthesizing data from a variety of sources, analyzing findings, preparing written reports and developing resource guides.

Prior to starting her business, Avil worked as Director of Research for Drake Beam Morin, Inc., an outplacement firm, which operates in 52 countries. Later, acting as research consultant to Drake Beam Morin, Avil analyzed DBM's client database to generate client profiles. Results of this research made it to the front page of the Wall Street Journal.

A former VP of Marketing for the Strategic Leadership Forum, she is actively involved in the Canadian Women In Communications and The International Alliance for Women, where she is the editor for their newsletter, e-Connections.

She publishes Ambeck Edge, her company's monthly e-Newsletter, which is targeted to senior level professionals. Avil is also the author of Tales of People Who Get It and its companion guide Journey to Getting It.

My passion is ...

Reading, writing, traveling

Why I write ...

It gets me out of my head

What I am reading/watching/listening to ...

I am reading Cashing in on Content, A Woman of Substance, and When am I Going to be Happy

My first job ...

Paasing rollers in a hair salon

Arts & Humanities > Photography Portrait photography 101

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Whether you are a novice photographer seeking advice on portrait photography, or a pro looking for a few tips, you'll find information you can use, right here.

You may not be conscious of it, but as a photographer, you're engaged in portrait photography all the time. Your photos of people, weddings and animals are all portrait photography.

This aspect of photography can be a lot harder than it seems, and takes more time to master, because you not only have to know about what makes each person look their best, but also know how to bring out their personality and character in the shot...

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