If you follow me on Instagram, you probably noticed an unusual amount of selfies and more posts than usual. I think one day I even posted 7 different images. Sorry about that! There was just so much to share!
If you've been to Vegas before, you undoubtedly noticed that everything is big and ostentatious and flashy. Everywhere you look, there are a dozen different things trying to command your attention. It's definitely overwhelming!
But while I definitely enjoyed photographing some of the beautiful sights in Las Vegas (and plan to share those images next Monday), today I wanted to recap the WPPI conference, since that was the whole reason I was there.
WPPI is a yearly conference for wedding and portrait photographers. People come from all over the world to attend. Like thousands of people! Kind of ironic since a lot of photographers would consider themselves introverts!
I took 6 different classes from top photographers from across the country. There were dozens of classes available to choose from, but I focused on marketing and running your business efficiently. And between classes, I wandered the trade-show, looking for new vendors and checking out products that I'd only seen online. It's so hard to choose an album company without holding one of their books!
Some highlights from the trip:
- Seeing the desert for the first time! It's beautiful!
- Project Pie Pizza - I need to leave these people a review on Trip Advisor! It was so delicious I went twice! And they let you put on as many toppings as you want so I tried to add a bunch of veggies to make up for all the eating out I was doing!
- Meeting photographers I look up to and making new industry friends!
- Really yummy desserts! It's probably a good thing our hotel didn't have a bakery!
- Meeting up with other Virginia photographers for dessert at Serendipity 3. It was one of the funniest nights of my life!
And some moments I have to laugh about:
- Spending $106 on taxi rides! I had originally intended to take the bus for my sightseeing and stick pretty close to the hotel, but that obviously didn't happen. Thank goodness I was usually splitting a cab or that amount would have been doubled!
- Waking up at 5 am every morning in spite of staying up until midnight almost every night.
- Arriving super early to every class, even though I didn't mean to. Apparently my tired brain doesn't process time very well.
- Getting lost in the massive hotels
- Anxious conversations with my roommate and travel buddy at 4 am the morning we flew home about whether or not we would be able to make it out of Atlanta. Stupid sleet!
Last week I fought jet-lag, made new friends, ran into people I've met in online photography groups, and walked a LOT! And I flew home inspired and fired up to make this year even better for my CGP couples!