ok… here it goes. i have to be honest.. i haven’t blogged in over 14 days because i have been facing some severe writers block. sometimes, i feel like i have so many ideas in my head, and so much to say that i don’t know where to start. so here i am, starting.

i would love to share all of the amazing experiences from our “tour to get awesome”… with you all, but i swear it would be the longest blog post in history, and writing a novel would perhaps be more efficient. SO, i just want to outline some of the highlights in 2 parts. Part I will be about WPPI and SHOWIT United in Las Vegas, and Part 2 will be about The Fix in Phoenix which i will post tomorrow.

First off, if you are a photographer, and you are contemplating going to WPPI or Showit United next year, all i can say, is do it. you will never regret the knowledge gained, and your life will never be the same after having the opportunity to meet some of the amazing people that we did. seriously, just take the leap, take the risk, and do it.

after attending many workshops at WPPI, i have to say that Jerry Ghionis inspired me the most. if any of you ever have the chance to see him speak, don’t pass it up. he literally had us engaged from the first minute to the last, and his photos were so brilliant that i actually felt like i could cry … isn’t that ridiculous? but SERIOUSLY! check out his work, i hope to be able to elicit those same types of emotions for my clients one day.

besides all of the incredible wisdom gained throughout the 7 day conference, i have to say that the best part of the trip was meeting so many amazing people who are all after the same dream and on the same journey. some of you were probably wondering through the many facebook status updates about the “Showit crew”, and who we were talking about. SHOWIT is an amazing company who’s aim is to unite the photography industry in a way that it has never been united before. Their goal is to build a community of photographers who all want to learn together, succeed together, and lean on each other for support. during this process, they have created an amazing website software that allows photographers to fully customize their sites in order to be unique – so if you are looking for a great new website, i can’t stress enough how blessed i feel to be a part of this community.

SHOWIT also held their own conference at the same time as WPPI, called Showit United. unfortunately we didn’t get tickets this time to as many classes as we would have liked, but i can tell you that next year we will be attending many more, no exceptions 😉

the showit community blew SC and i away… the first time we really saw it, was one of the nights when truth be told, we were feeling very alone and intimated in a huge center full of people. i decided to take a risk, and post on the showit facebook group, asking if anyone wanted to meet up. to my surprise, the comments started rolling in, and it was because of this that my career will never be the same. Lori Yehe from Purple Tree Photography was the first to reply and  said that she would love to meet some fellow showiteers, so scott and i went to the lounge, not knowing what would happen next. then out of nowhere, karina and rob from Verge Photography had also seen the post and decided to come down to meet us… before we knew it we were sitting at a table filled with some of the most kind and caring people i had ever met. all so encouraging and inspiring in their owns stories. leaving that night, janine, scott and i knew this was the start of something huge.

as the week went on, we had the opportunity to meet more and more showiteers. we had the brilliant privilege to get to know rob and karina both professionally and personally over the 3 days that our trips overlapped, and i can honestly tell you that they are one of the most kind, caring and FUN couples i have ever met!!

on the last day of showit united, we went to meet jackie and her husband joe for a photo-shoot that we had won. jackie is the definition of a a showiteer ROCKSTAR and because of that, she knew EVERYONE! i was so thankful for our time together, as she is so easy to talk to, laugh with and be around. that night janine scott and i decided that we would go to New York New York to the dueling pianos with the rest of the showiteer group. we were pretty nervous at first because we really didn’t know anyone, but we made it our goal to meet as many people as we could. on the way there we had the pleasure of meeting tamara lockwood of tamara lockwood photography a fellow CANADIAN SHOWITEER,,, HOLLAAA!  from the first 5 minutes we talked with her, we were all immediately best friends 😉 – this girl is amazing, and to check out her work, click here. then we walked into the dueling pianos, and saw nothing but a cute blonde woman whipping out an ipad from her purse… it would be no other but courtney cook (courtney cook photography), who we later had an adele singing contest with in the lobby of the hotel. we all won, and i’m sure we sounded great :p. A highlight of the evening was when Trevor Dayley (AKA “a big deal” 😉 ) graciously gave us a large portion of his time to share some of his knowledge with us. we were soo appreciative of his willingness to share and his sincerity. one of my favorite things that i took in from this trip came from him, which was “whoever speaks less, wins”. I think this is a brilliant concept that i would love to live by, and goes along with something that Jasmine Star mentioned in her workshop, that “you will go further in life investing yourself into 2 other people than you will having 2 other people invest in you”. these are some brilliant minds. Andrew Barlow (AKA.. another big deal), Cassie Jones, Vanessa Embling, Dan Dalstra and so many others also shared their time with us that night, and i believe that the friendships made that evening will last a lifetime. this brings me to the Part II | The Fix in Phoenix Arizona, which i will talk about tomorrow 😉

*moral of part 1: it is ok to step out of your comfort zone, take a risk and challenge yourself to meet new people who fill you up with something so inspiring that you can only move forward together. embrace and cultivate these relationships in your life, and be united.

 

our las vegas wolf pack ;)…

some of the AMAZING photos that Janine Sept Photography took of SC and I on our last day in vegas! check out the album by clicking here!

here are a couple of my fav shots from our shoot with the talented Jacilyn M Photography! to check out the rest of the album click here!

some images i snapped from the shoot with janine! i will post this full post soon, but to see more teasers click here!

great friends <3

“it’s fun to have fun, but you have to know how”.~ Dr. Seuss .. 😉

to read part 2 of our trip (The Fix with Jasmine Star in Phoenix), click this link!