The TOP ELEVEN Highlights to WPPI 2009!

1. Reunion Time!

We’ve gone to WPPI for the last three years, and every year it feels like a bigger and better reunion with friends you only see once a year. My dear friend, Sara France, and the awesome Robert Evans, hosted the best Photography Mentor/GOBee Bag party yet! It was Sunday night, and the BEST way to kick of the whole tradeshow week! Thanks you two for all the hard work that goes into throwing such a great party! And thanks for making it open to so many people. The heart of you two is always wanting to invite people in, and it’s a very cool thing! Check out Robert’s Photography Mentor site and Sara’s NEW, AWESOME blog!

2. Master Class Blast!

Our Master Class on Photo Coaching was a BLAST! Bronson took a ton of images that I haven’t even had a chance to look at, but I’ll post some up soon. We had a full class, and the energy in the room was awesome! Thanks to every one who signed up for our Master Class. It was a honor to spend those hours with you! So many of you approached us over the next two days and thanked us for the class. Your feedback meant the world! Thank you!! I also have to do a special SHOUT OUT to Roxie at Pixel 2 Canvas! She and Curt made these AMAZING canvases of our work and a HUGE, beautiful banner outside our door.

The whole thing looked amazing! Roxie, send me our photo so I can post it up here! Thank you to Pixel 2 Canvas from the bottom of our heart! (And thanks to the lovely ladies who helped in the background! You three were dolls!)

3. Stealing the Mic!

Tuesday afternoon, Brian and I did a talk at the Pictage booth with Denis Reggie.

For those of you who don’t know, Denis Reggie has been a hero to us since we first took his workshop in the early days (amazing workshop for wedding photographers). To be invited to speak with Denis was a wonderful honor. (but I soon realized that I had to GRAB the microphone from the man to get a word in edge wise! :)) Thanks to Mike in Hawaii from Mango Tree Photography for capturing this great image!

4. Heartfelt Dinner

Later that night we had a special dinner with a handful of Pictage leaders. Half way through the dinner, I convinced Mike Colon to switch places with me at the table so I could get to know Joe Buissink better. Joe’s work astounds me and Brian. His images leave us breathless. But his passion for photography is what moves me the most. I lucked out b/c Mike switched places, and I had the most wonderful, heartfelt conversation with Joe. We talked about all the things that are closest to my heart when it comes to being an artist; how do we build more confidence, how does our pain in life affect our art, and a few other wonderful conversations that I’ll share at our Discovery Workshop. Joe, thank you for sharing your heart. My time with you was a definite, unexpected highlight to our week!

5. Brian doing the River Dance!

Pictage hosted a HUGE party at Studio 54 (or 59?) late Tuesday night. I pretty much walked in and in 15 minutes had to turn around and walk out. It was the craziest experience b/c I felt so dizzy inside the club (and I wasn’t drinking :)). I think my Audio Deficit Disorder played into it b/c my equilibrium was thrown completely off that we had to head out. The moment we walked out the door, and the music was gone, I had my sense of balance back. So Me Ra learned something new. She can’t hang out in loud, and I mean SUPER loud, dance clubs. 🙂 Since the night was young, Brian and I joined up with Airika and Gerald Pope and Katie and Chris Torres and found ourselves at the Nine Fine Irishmen pub where they had a Irish band performing. Brian, being an expert River Dancer (as many of you have come to realize, Brian is an expert on just about every thing), did his river dance with Chris! That was a definite HIGHLIGHT for me. 😉

6. Jeramy and Sharon Showed UP!

Right before WPPI, Jeramy (our token male commenter :)), emailed us and said he and Sharon were coming to WPPI for the first day! Brian and I were so excited to see them! But we didn’t get done with our speaking sessions and appointments until almost 9:30pm. When we got up to our room that night, we called Jeramy and Sharon. They had changed into their PJ’s and opened a bottle of wine. We asked them if they were up to meeting us for dessert, and so awesome, they totally ditched the bottle of wine and had dessert with us! I laughed so hard that night I almost wet my pants! Thanks you two for coming out! We are so glad we got some time with you both!

7. Workshop Ladies Going for It!

Brian and I also ran into a handful of ladies from our San Diego workshop! These beautiful ladies all came to WPPI together and were having a BLAST! Some of them showed me their photography since they did our workshop, and I was speechless. Totally speechless! I’m so proud of you ladies! And way to go! WPPI is such a great thing for your business! I can’t wait to hear stories of how the week impacted all of YOU!

8. Hearing the NEW news!

We spent a few hours with the awesome founders behind Shoot Dot Edit, the BEST post process company ever! And ladies (and gents!), I’m excited to say that I got the newest scoop that you are going to LOVE! Shoot Dot Edit is now accepting a la carte orders! This means you don’t have to upload a wedding to have them color process your images! You can send them a 100 images from a Portrait Shoot, have them all color balanced, and only pay around $22! It’s INSANE!!! How can you beat that price! And I’m telling you, these guys care about your images as much as you do! We are proof of it! Yeah for the new A La Carte MENU!!! Check it out portrait lad
ies!

9. All Frozen Pea Jokes

…from my twitter and facebook status! Oh boy, Brian has such a great attitude! 🙂

10. Family!

We literally ended our time with seeing family! And that was the BEST way to end a great week! Brian’s sister, brother in law, and our niece live in Vegas b/c they are key players to the creative choreography in Le Reve, the Cirque Du Soleil show at the Wynn. Before we headed to the airport yesterday, we got to spend some precious hours with them. Not enough time, not enough. But it was such a wonderful, rich way to end our time! love you guys!

11. Coming Home Means…

We have two days and then we leave for TWO MONTHS to Thailand! Can you believe it?!! We leave with the kids on Saturday to start our adventure of Jungle School in Thailand! Ooooh, we are going to have fun on this blog over the next several weeks!

Honest to goodness, I think this was the best WPPI we’ve ever been too! Every year it gets better and better! Next year, you must be there! Big thanks to Bill, Skip, Shawna and all the those behind the scenes!!

p.s. I didn’t have as much time to follow your comments on the last couple posts. But I’m glad you all had fun with Brian’s “snip-snip” post. That was the talk of the show! 🙂 And we’re all super excited about how the tuition and new Focus Groups meets your needs even more for the Discovery Workshop! Thanks for all the blog comments!

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