Vegas Recap (Tuesday’s events…)
Some people have told me the images have been slower to load on my blog the past few days so I went ahead and resized all of them so hopefully this will help. 🙂 Anyway, last Tuesday was an incredibly busy day…we went to Matthew Jordan Smith's seminar and he was great! He is the photographer for America's Next Top model and has photographed celebrities like Oprah, Tyra, Aretha, etc.
Then I went to Joe Buissink's class that afternoon and he was simply amazing…he shoots celebrity and high-end weddings on a regular basis (like Jessica Simpson's wedding) and he's the most humble photographer you'll ever meet, I loved it. In between classes, I took time to walk the tradeshow floor some more where our wedding photographer, Gary Fong (pictured above) was doing a live demo of his new Whaletail flash diffuser accessory. Gary is such an amazing photographer and businessman, he probably has one of the largest followings of anyone out there. 🙂 Needless to say, I bought the Whaletail at his debut and I'm most excited about the colored gels it comes with…I think it will take our modeling shoots to a whole new level.
Here are some fun shots from images that Joe showed everyone at his seminar, he photographed this dog in various costumes for fun and his images are now being turned into a huge product line, like greeting cards, calendars, etc. that will be released in the U.S. later this year!
Here's Denis Reggie introducing Joe at the beginning…Denis is the man who coined the phrase and concepts of "photojournalism" which took our industry to a whole new level. (No more stuffy 1980's poses!) 🙂 
Some more fun dog shots below… 
And here's Bobbi & her husband, Mike. I ran into them after the seminar…they are so cute together, they remind me a lot of me & John. 🙂 (Bobbi, I'll be good and leave out the funny face shots you took of yourself…) ;p 
Here's Joe Buissink…. 
And on the way back to the room that evening, I ran into this couple who had just gotten married. She was trying to fix her dress but it wasn't cooperating so I immediately went into wedding mode and helped her with the dress and took a few fun shots of the two of them together and of the crowd in front of them. (Nothing like being in a hotel with thousands of wedding photographers around you! LOL) 
Congrats!! 
WPPI recap (Monday’s events…)
Again, these are out of order since Blogger only lets you upload 2 pics at a time (does anyone know WHY that is?! It's driving me crazy…) Anyway, the first seminar we attended on Monday was Liana Lehman's class, she was AWESOME!!! She truly inspired me to make some much needed changes in our workflow and website and I'm totally excited about 2007 and what is in store for us. After her class, we walked the tradeshow floor for a few hours, again getting totally inspired by all of the new products that have come out this year. It was great to finally meet a lot of our suppliers face-to-face too! So much of what we do is via phone, fax, e-mail, etc and to actually meet our album suppliers and order fulfillment crew in person was great.
In the afternoon, I attended a class that was supposed to teach better photoshop workflow techniques but it definitely wasn't all it was cracked up to be…who actually wants to try to memorize every photoshop shortcut there is out there?! Talk about a waste of time, I'd much rather spend the time memorizing the most used shortcuts and then run actions on the rest of the pics. :O LOL
Anyway, aside from that, all of the seminars and speakers were awesome and had a lot of great ideas. We even had some time throughout the afternoon to run over to The Forum Shops where I treated dad to one of his favorite seafood restaurants for lunch. The shopping over there puts Clay Terrace to shame….Harry Winston…Tiffany…Versace….loved it. 🙂 That evening, we attended the Champagne Shootout where 4 prominent photogs were in each corner of a ballroom with their models showing everyone how to shoot under certain lighting conditions, how to work with the model to get the best shots, etc. It was awesome to sit so close to the stage and watch Australian photographer, Yervant work with his beautiful models…he was my favorite of all of them. This shot cracks me up, talk about getting into your posing! 😀
What happens in Vegas stays in Vegas…..LOLThese were some girls who were in front of our hotel promoting their show.
Dancing to "Diamonds are a Girls Best Friend" 
The Eiffel Tower during the day… 
Dad shot this of me….:) 
I took this shot for one of my sisters who loves horses and shopping…this pretty much sums it up! LOL 
Thought this was a cool angle. I loved their outdoor escalators…I must be amused by the simple things. It really does make sense though, it's easier to cross the busy strip via escalator and bridge/walkway rather than waiting for the lights and hoping you don't get ran over! LOL ;p 
Loved the colored fountains and amazing architecture! 
More Vegas pics…
Blogger isn't putting pics in order tonight so here are more of my favorites from last Sunday….The above shot is from the Venetian, their entrance was amazing!
Here's a shot of Bally's Hotel at night…I loved the variation of colors in this photo. 
The Venetian has fabulous shopping inside the hotel with this open atrium-like area with musicians and gondola rides, it was awesome. Dad & I stopped for a scoop of ice cream at Cocolini's and listened to the amazing Italian performers singing one of my favorite Bocelli songs (Con Te Partiro) It was one of those surreal moments in life that I won't forget…in fact, I'd like to take this above image and turn it into a canvas print to hang it as a fine art print in our home. 
Gondola rides…I first saw this hotel featured on a travel show when I was a little girl. I couldn't figure out for the longest time where this was at but since I'm the typical "romantic girley-girl" type, I was bound determined to see this in person one day. I remembered how magical this place seemed on TV and when I started looking at places to see during our down time during the convention, I found the Venetian's website and couldn't believe it was the same place I saw featured on that travel show so many years ago. We went there on Sunday night, the first night we got there and it was just as awesome as I thought it would be. 
The Strip at night…I did a lot of time exposures, even hand held shots since I didn't bother bringing a bulky tripod in the already overflowing suitcase. 🙂 (More about that later! LOL) 
(Above) This was really neat, we went to The Mirage and they had this color changing walkway leading to a Beatles performance show and gift shop.It reminded me of some strange Austin Powers movie or something…LOL
Beautiful waterfalls inside the Mirage… 
The interior & exterior decor of the Paris Hotel. The ceilings were all painted like blue skies. 
Viva Las Vegas!!
We arrived for the WPPI convention last Sunday at the Paris Hotel in Vegas…it was AWESOME!! The above pic was the pool/Eiffel Tower view from our room on the 10th floor. The convention was held in Bally's & the Paris Hotel but I was soooo glad we stayed at Paris, it was so nice and they had a ton of shopping and great restaurants. I took my dad with me on this trip (John had to work but definitely wanted to go!) and dad was the best tour guide ever…LOL…he's been there so many times for real estate seminars and conventions so he knew all of the best places to shop, eat, photograph, etc.
A lot of people don't know this but my dad actually got me into photography back when I was about 5 or 6 years old. He handed me his Minolta X-700 and I LOVED it…of course, it was a film camera so I couldn't wait to see the pics and now we're all totally spoiled with digital. It was so cool to be able to take him with me to WPPI. Who would've thought over 20 years later we'd be sitting in seminars together looking at amazing pictures and listening to some of the greatest photographers of all time speak on topics like luxury weddings, destination events and making a living by doing what you love. I'm the luckiest photographer ever! 🙂
(Self portrait in dad's sunglasses) 😀 Hey, what else do you shoot while standing in the taxi line?! LOL 
I loved, loved, LOVED the lighting at the Paris Hotel. Everything was SO ornate… 
And a couple of shots from the air, it almost looks like I'm in outer space going over the rockies in that shot. 🙂 Southwest should buy this as a stock shot…I loved the sky that day! 
Back from Vegas!
We just got back from Vegas last night, fabulous pictures coming soon!!! 🙂 We had the best time ever…I learned so many cool camera/lighting tricks and heard some of the most incredible, influential photographers from around the world speak on topics like marketing, destination/luxury weddings, fashion photo shoots, workflow, etc. One of the best parts was being able to go through the most unbelievable tradeshow EVER. It took me 6 hours to walk the whole trade show floor and I bought so many cool things and got information on new product lines we'll start carrying in 2007 & 2008. I can't wait!!
I came home to hundreds of e-mails though so I will start responding soon (still unpacking here) since every time I tried to use the business center at the hotel, the line was out the door. :O I got in there one day just to delete the junk mail and that was about it. So I promise I'll respond to everyone this weekend. 😀