WPPI 2012 Recap Part 1 :: Vegas Baby, Vegas!

Attending WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Professionals Int’l) – the biggest photography conference in the world, had me spending 5 days in late February in beautiful sunny Las Vegas!  It was my second time to the conference, and as usual – I threw myself in head first and took advantage of so many different opportunities while I was out there. I started to recap the entire 5 days, but this post got TOO LONG!!  So…here is an overview of some of the things from the first 3 days…  (some of the pics below are iPhonography!)

I arrived Saturday morning after quite the uncomfortable 5.5 hour flight via Southwest.  After checking in to the Signature at the MGM, I headed out with a small group to take part in the desert bridal shoot hosted by Gavin and Erin Wade, styled by Gloria McCune of Grand Engagements, and florals by Pixie Petals!  THIS gorgeous couple – Kate and Chris – totally rocked it out for us, and I was just loving the gorgeous light at the Jean Dry Lake Bed.  amazing.  Look out for a separate blog post on this shoot!
That same day, Muhammad Ali was celebrating his 70th birthday with a massive party at the MGM.  In the lobby of the MGM, I saw him signing autographs for hordes of fans.  The other pic is me taking a self portrait in the reflection of my balcony at the Signature.  I loved that the rooms there had balconies, to get some fresh air, and to see what the (rapidly changing) weather was like.  One afternoon it was 77 degrees, and the next morning it was 31!  BRRRR!  Saturday night, I met up with Kim Tucker and Susan Gietka for dinner at Diego for some yummy Mexican foodage!
The next day, I registered for the conference, and attended a few classes, including the Boudoir Divas class.  Later that night, I headed over to the Cosmopolitan for a dinner that I had really been looking forward to!  Over 100 members of ShowIt (my webpage provider) got together for some grub at the Wicked Spoon buffet…and it was simply amazing!!  Such gourmet foods, served in individual pots and pans.  I opted for the veal meatball, the gnocchi with lamb ragu, shrimp cocktail, truffled potatoes, chocolate and crushed oreo covered strawberries, and salted peanut butter gelato.  But seriously?  I should have trained for an eating event like this!!  One plate of food and I was full?!  Disappointed in myself ….
This was just a picture of books in the lobby of the Cosmo, but it sure did look real!
Monday, I hit up the tradeshow for a good part of the day, and then had lunch with Serena.  The pic below is a random model for one of the tradeshow booths, and an example of some CD packaging.
Afterwards, I attended one of the classes that I was most excited about – Law School for Photographers (yep, I’m a nerd!)  But I learned a ton, and that’s great for bizniz  😉   From there, I immediately ran (literally) to the lobby at the MGM…(in case you were wondering – it’s a solid 15-20 min walk from the conference rooms to the lobby!) where I met up with Moshe Zusman, Noah Hayes and Becca Watkins, who led a group of us on a photowalk.  We played with some off-camera lighting on our fantastic models and Moshe imparted his knowledge on us.  It was a fun group to learn with and I had a great time!
That’s Moshe on the right  – you so pretttttty  😉
Come back tomorrow for part 2!  You’re not going to want to miss the Baseball and Babes with Victor Sizemore, and the Sunrise shoot hosted by Justin and Mary  (with my friends Liz and Ryan as the models!!)

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  1. […] – so you’re caught up on day 1-3 of WPPI in Las Vegas.  If not – check out the first part of the recap HERE!   Now for Monday night – […]

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