WPPI – Day 1

I have been blessed with the opportunity to attend the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) conference in Las Vegas.  WPPI is the single largest gathering of wedding and portrait photographers in the US, and probably the world, and it only happens once a year.  I will be going through an extensive number of training sessions ranging from workflow, to lighting, to marketing, to image enhancement, to hands on training with models on a live shoots.  It will be 4 days of learning and growing.  After hearing Jasmin Star at the Freedom to Succeed tour in Chicago, something she said changed my perspective on things and I decided that attending WPPI was the best investment I could make.  She said, “you can rent equipment, but you cannot rent a brand”.  That impacted me a great deal.  Up to that time, I was set on acquiring more equipment and was saving for more lenses, cameras, and lighting gear.  But after hearing her, I decided that I had invested very little in me, in my growth as an artist, as a professional, and as a business owner.  So this year I decided to attend WPPI to improve myself first and my business.  As of Sunday, I have attended 2 classes and 1 live demonstration by 5 of the top wedding photographers in the world, Joe Buissink, Dennis Regie, Yervant, Jerry Ghionis, and Bambi Cantrell.  Just by watching them work and explain their thought process, I have seen things in a different light, and I have learned some techniques and ideas that will only improve my photography, and by doing so, my clients will get much better images of their special day.  I am so excited to be here and to be making so many friends, and meeting in person other friends I had met in the forums I participate.  I am sure I am gong to be very tired by the time the conference ends, but I know that my art, my photography, will have improved tremendously…it already has.  Stay tuned for more updates of my attendance of WPPI along with some images.