Wedding and Portrait Photographers International ~WPPI~ {Southern Minnesota Portrait and Wedding Photographer}

I have spoken about how much I love this wonderful craft, photography, more than once. It isn’t just about taking the photos. It can’t be. 

This business is just that, a business. That for me, is the hardest part of my passion, is the business end. I ask a lot of questions of colleagues and have made a lot of connections with these questions. 

The community of photographers that I surround myself with is incredible. They are talented and lovely people. We are supportive of one another and encourage each other. That’s why I love going to conferences and meeting new and talented people to network with. 

I got to meet Jen Rozenbaum, one of the BEST boudoir photographers out there. She is so funny and I learned a lot! 

Which leads me to where I was two weeks ago. I was lucky enough to be able to attend WPPI in Las Vegas. My husband as able to travel with me and we got a week away from the cold and spent some time touring Vegas during my down time. We had an amazing Super Bowl experience, but I will have to save that for another post!

This convention was AMAZING. I was able to attend classes and learn more about the business end, new marketing ideas, meet some of the photographers I have looked up to for years, and reconnect with some that I have met in years passed. It was awesome. 

The photo walk was crowded, you had to be able to maneuver around many people at one time.  

The convention doesn’t just have platform classes (speakers in large rooms) they also offer master classes to work with photographers on a more intimate level, they offer photo walks where you follow a photographer with models and they show you how they run their sessions or wedding portraits. The nice thing about photo walks, I think, is the fact that you get to see someone in action. Not that you want to copy someone, I certainly don’t, but sometimes there it’s nice to see someone else work and pick up a few points here and there on what you can improve on. 

There were many highlights to this trip, many. However, two highlights for sure was going on a photo walk with Tomayia Colvin of Tomayia Colvin Photography LLC, and participating in a Desert Shootout with Jeremy Chou and Julie Paisley  (I have a whole other blog post for that one!). Watching these amazing photographers was so inspiring and also working along side other photographers during each shoot was so much fun! I made some great connections. 

This. This was my favorite image from the photo walk. 

Now, with the photo walk it was completely different than anything I have shot before. This was a senior portrait photo walk and the models were actual senior students and wore beautiful gowns. I really want to encourage my seniors to wear their prom dresses, how fun would that be?! 

This young lady had the most beautiful eyes. 

My other classmates and I were laughing and squealing with delight as we looked at the back of our cameras. It was fun to hear that I am not the only one that does that! 

We came from all over the country and all had some of the same thoughts on the walk. I met one person from Tennessee that was going to the Desert Shootout later that day with me. We are so similar and really had a lot of fun. 

Film. Oh film. 

While there I realized how much I love film. Even more than I did before, if that was possible! I was able to meet with my film provider and scanner at the expo (which could be a whole other blog post too!). I have plans for my film, and I hope you guys are ready! 

I will now end this very long blog post with this. 

“Community over Competition.”

A booth was giving away t-shirts that said this. I love it. This industry is a big one, but we are all different and have something to learn from each other.