vegas highlights | wppi

I got back from WPPI on Wednesday.  It was completely re-energizing (in spite of the very few hours of sleep) and a fantastic experience in every way.  I’m already looking forward to going back next year!

I though I’d share a few highlights from the trip…

Hanging out with my roommates and awesome photographer friends  Shannon and Alison. We’ve been online friends for years, but this was our first real life meeting.  When I realized yesterday that there’s now no one to sit on the edge of the bathtub and soak their feet with me in the evenings while we chat about the day, I was very sad!

(That would be my poorly group executed shot by self timer.  It was SOOOO much better in my head.)

Our trash the dress shoot with Beth on Sunday.  She was UP FOR ANYTHING, as you can see below!  I have many many many many many more shots to share, so this is just a sneak sneak peek.

The classes! There were so many fantastic speakers this year, and their energy was contagious.  One of the best parts was seeing how some of the speakers’ philosophies conflict each other.  Which just encourages that idea that if you are who you really are, you’ll attract clients that love that thing that you love, and you’ll be successful.  There’s no one road to great wedding photography.

Seeing the print competition judging. I made it a point to fly in early enough to see the print judging.  And even though it meant a 2am wake-up after VALENTINE’S DAY, it was totally worth it.  I think it would be a waste to enter the WPPI competition without seeing the judging first.   It was inspiring, but also kinda a downer.  I think it’s hard to watch a photography convention without ending up feeling like a total hack!

Meeting Bobbi.   When you read Bobbi and Mike’s blog you get the feeling that they’d be the type of neighbors where you could be like “hey–wanna come over for pizza tonight?” and they would come over and you’d be such good friends and have so much fun together that you wouldn’t even clean up before they came.  You’d just push the laundry piles to the side.  Sometimes when you meet people that you love online, it’s sorta a disappointment.  Some people just come off better online (I suspect that I am one of these people).  Bobbi is NOT.  She was so gracious and friendly and didn’t just do the obligatory “nice to meet you, thanks for introducing yourself [cough-cough-stalker-cough]” but actually chatted with us.  I didn’t take a picture, but here’s a pretty accurate depiction of it:

When I texted Nic that I had met THE Bobbi and that she was every bit as awesome as I had suspected, he texted back:  “did your head explode?”

Our hotel. We stayed at the MGM Signature, and I am so hoping that WPPI is held at the MGM again next year, so that we can have the same perfect set-up.  For the photographers that read this blog, I definitely recommend it!  You’re close the action so you can run back to your room between classes (it’s about a mile walk to the conference rooms, but it’s all indoors and you’d walk the same amount if you stayed at the Grand), but you don’t have to walk through a casino, and it’s a very new nice hotel.  I waited for three hours for a room on Sunday, so we were upgraded to a balcony (on the 28th floor!), and I think we’ll splurge on a balcony next year.  It made such a difference to have access to some fresh air!  Looking down from the balcony was kinda freaky though!