317-409-1801

March 2008

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Day 2 was a much needed vacation day for us! John and I LOVE hanging out together so we had planned for a day of shopping, attractions, and just chilling out. 🙂 We walked all over Paris and Bally's that day…Vegas has some of the best shoe shopping I've ever seen…I loved it! I also had to resist the temptation to buy this adorably cute pink jacket. It's so cute but so flamboyant too! LOL I don't think I own anything else that would match that…except basic black maybe?! 

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The Hilton had a Star Trek exhibit on display and even thought I am NOT a Trekkie at ALL, John definitely is…so that was the first thing I had planned for us on Day 2. Even though I didn't really know what all of it was about, I still thought they did an amazing job with the exhibit! 😉 And I got "wife brownie points" when I bought him a replica of one of the space ships and surprised him with it before lunch. He was lovin' it!

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After lunch at the Hilton, we decided to check out the Stratosphere which overlooks all of Las Vegas…. 

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We cut through a hotel on the way over there and found this! LOL 

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And this was on the way….oh my…. 

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Yikes…glad we never eloped…LOL 

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The AMAZING view from 110 floors up in the Stratosphere! They actually had a Starbucks up there too so John & I sat at the coffee bar and enjoyed the view… Here's a VIDEO of the view from the top!

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Then we had to head back to Paris to get all dressed up for the WPPI Plus Welcome Reception in the Diamond Lounge – oh la la! 🙂 We met Skip Cohen, the President of WPPI at the event, it was fun! 

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After that was over, we changed clothes and had the night to explore the town again so we went to the Wynn…I LOVE that hotel!! Here's another video that John posted on YouTube, he's so funny….:) 

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When we walked in they had the line of trees all lit up with lights… 

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Then we walked toward the back of the hotel and found out that the awesome water wall that I loved last year is actually turned into a light & water show in the evenings! CLICK HERE to watch the amazing video John took of this! (By the way, it's probably worth mentioning that his little video clips are from a tiny point & shoot camera – the quality isn't the best and we do NOT offer wedding video services!) 😉 LOL He was just having fun capturing videos while I took photos…

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Then we shopped around the Wynn and had dinner on the back patio near another waterfall that night…so romantic! 🙂 

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Come back tomorrow to see a wedding fashion shoot with Yervant!! 🙂 

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I loved the bright blue skies when we left for Vegas, doesn't it look like we're headed into orbit or something?! LOL We actually left a few days earlier than most photographers since we signed up for the WPPI Plus class with the world renowned Australian photographer, Yervant. They limit the Plus classes to about 20 people per class so it's super hard to get into them…(all 8 classes ended up selling out fast!) I was literally hitting the "refresh" button every few minutes (around midnight) while waiting for the WPPI registration site to go live a few months ago so here's a tip to all of you photographer blog stalkers out there – if you know you want to go to WPPI next year, be prepared to register the moment the site goes live in order to get into all of the classes you want!!

Anyway, back to Day 1…we arrived safely in Vegas and got all of our luggage. I knew after having a hard time getting everything to fit into 1 suitcase last year that we'd be better off bringing an extra one with us and it definitely paid off…except for the fact that we had to rent a limo to get to the hotel. (darn!) 😉 All 4 suitcases and 3 carry-ons wouldn't fit into a cab for sure!! LOL We stayed at the Paris Hotel, same as last year, and the convention was at Paris & Bally's. Here's the limo driver dealing with all of my pink luggage…LOL

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Check out this display in the lobby of the Paris Hotel…only in Vegas would you see this…LOL Oh, and they do sell those cake toppers in the gift shop!  

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We unpacked our stuff and then headed out for a stroll after dinner…here's the Eiffel Tower at night… 

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We watched the fountains at the Bellagio twice…it's all synchronized to music and it's AMAZING…John uploaded this video to YouTube – CLICK HERE to check it out!  

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Then we went inside to take more pics…the garden area was under construction when we stopped by (they were switching out their decor for the Easter season) but I managed to get some cool shots of their lobby and of some of the stores inside.  

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Jean Phillipe's was an amazing pastry shop at the Bellagio…these desserts were way too pretty to eat – so we didn't…we just took pics! LOL 

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Then I noticed they do wedding cakes!! AMAZING stuff…I've posted some closer up detail shots in case any of you want to use these as inspiration for your wedding… 

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Oh and these "bags" were made out of cake and fondant….WOW! 

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Our hotel at night… 

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The reflecting pool…. 

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More pics to come soon! 🙂 

I can already foresee this week is going to be a blogging marathon for me…I shot over 4,200 pics and John shot over 200 video clips in Vegas so yeah, it's taken awhile to get everything downloaded, backed up on multiple DVDs, organized, etc. We spent 11 amazing days in Vegas, then flew back home for Easter and my sisters b-days, then I spent 3 days last week at the OSP Indy event, then had planned to go to Mitche Graf's seminar on Thursday but I wasn't feeling that great so I skipped that one and went to the HCCVB's media & PR workshop on Friday instead. I think I'm about "seminar'd" out! LOL Needless to say, I haven't had time to blog like usual since we've just been trying to catch up on work around here. This weekend was the official start of our wedding season too so I'll have some AMAZING pics to post from yesterday's wedding!!! There is one shoe shot in particular that I may just have to post as soon as I finish downloading….it's so freaking cute!! So stay tuned all week for 11 days of Vegas pics, videos, Easter pics, a Sweet 16 party, OSP event pics and the wedding…lots going on!! 🙂

I thought I'd post some of my personal faves from our 2/24 shoot that never made it to the blog due to my traveling schedule. 😉 Here's one of our buff models pulling off the modern day "Rosie the Riveter" look…Lauren Melvin from LUSH the Art of Hair did her hair & make-up, doesn't she look fab!? 🙂

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I thought this was a cool shot…Lauren (from LUSH The Art of Hair) saw a shot similar to this in a fashion mag (Vogue I think?) and wanted to give it a try by using a full length mirror and the Frank Sinatra inspired hat… 

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Meet Olivia…she's an amazing 11 year old model who is the Indiana spokesperson for the National Alopecia Areata Foundation. After dealing with alopecia areata (an auto-immune disease that causes hair loss) she made the most of her situation by deciding to go into schools all around the state to teach kids that it's ok to be different. How cool is that?! She came out with her own t-shirt design and sells them on her website. A portion of the proceeds from each shirt sold goes to the NAAF to help them find a cure for the disease. She needed some updated photos for her website (which will hopefully be added soon) and promotions that she's doing around town and she needed some head shots for her new modeling comp cards too! 

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Olivia's mom knew the lady at a local wig shop that let us use some wigs to play around with during the photo shoot. Since she is pursuing a career in modeling, she needed to show what looks she could pull off with and without a wig. 😉 Of course, my shopping excursion to Claire's also came in handy…we added the funky colored hair piece in the back of her wig…LOVED it!  

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A more serious look… 

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Our beauty queen…:) 

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Another favorite… Lauren from LUSH The Art of Hair did this look too!

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Thanks everyone for a fun time at the shoot! We had a TON of girls who came in for basic head shots too that were great. If anyone out there is interested in our next photo shoot class, it will take place on Race Day (5/25) in downtown Indy. Email me for more info: [email protected]

My next posts will be a recap of our Vegas trip…it was SOOOO awesome…I had the opportunity to shoot with Yervant, have Becker take my new head shots, get one of the very first autographed books from Gary Fong (our wedding photographer), hear some other amazingly famous photographers speak, check out all of the new products and services at the largest photo trade show in the world, mentor my Thirst Relief International benefit winner and see Wayne Brady's show all in the matter of 10 days! If any of you photographers out there were in a class with me and I have pics of you from the trip, email me so I can send them to you…I have a mountain of stuff to sort through still, including everyone's business cards for sending out photos! 🙂

Hey everyone! John & I had an AWESOME time in Vegas!! We had so many amazing experiences and learned so much in such a short amount of time, it's still kind of surreal. Even though I'm back in Indy, I won't be back in the office until the end of the week since I have some more seminars to attend here in Indy this week but I will hopefully get all of my Vegas pics downloaded and start posting some of them over the next few days. I can't wait to share all of the stories and pictures with all of you!!!