Admittedly, Las Vegas is not my idea of an ideal vacation spot but during the week of
WPPI, there is no place I'd rather be. I just returned from a week full of educational classes, a trade show packed full of fabulous photography vendors, and connecting with photographers from around the world. I'm brimming with new ideas and excitement!
Some highlights:
1. Photo Shoot with
Jasmine Star!
I admittedly blog stalk
Jasmine Star. Not only is she a fabulously talented photographer, she is an incredible writer, and an all around inspiring person. Last year at WPPI, I saw her across the room, worked up the guts to introduce myself to her and before I knew what was happening, tears were streaming down my face. I wanted to tell her how much I admired her as a person as well as her work but all I could manage was something like "Uh, I like uh, really love, uh your work..." Pretty impressive, Emily. I wanted to sink into the floor. I'm not joking when I say it was like meeting a celebrity! Thankfully, she was incredibly sweet, gave me a big hug, and was so gracious.
Needless to say, I was THRILLED when I was randomly selected to be a part of a group of 20 other photographers for an early morning sample photo shoot with her! We all brought our cameras and got to shoot right along side Jasmine and her husband, JD, who is equally as sweet as she is. This experience was definitely the top highlight of my week (maybe even my year).
As a small side note, I was totally excited to also meet
Amy Wenzel at the shoot as well! :)
Jasmine and her husband, JD:
And the fabulous models, Mark and Jaclyn. They flew in all the way from Kansas!
Jaclyn is also a photographer! These guys are great on both sides of the camera!
2. Seeing the
Mammoth Men sing karaoke at the
BluDomain gathering!
The Mammoth Men are comprised of twelve awesome photographers (each with their own photo business) who take random trips every now and then and rely on their blog readers to "choose their adventure" for the day. They are extremely talented and hilarious. Again, I felt like I was seeing celebrities! Check out
Kelli Nicole's blog for some photos of them (Shawna and I even made it in the background of one of them....see if you can find us!).
What made it even more fun was the fact that Shawna and Kory were there from Shawna Noel Photography!
I also made some new friends! Tim and Angela Chin from Montreal, Canada!
Angela and I were extremely excited to be in front of the Mammoth Men!
Harold is another new friend! He is a photographer and also does some work for a new album
company that is on my radar! And who doesn't love a photobooth!?
3. Connecting with friends from last year!
I got to hang out with
Jeff and Trishia who I met a year ago during WPPI! This year, their son Joe came with too! Thanks for
Jeff for this photo!
4. Randomly meeting Neal and Eric from
Lemon Lime Photography! Crazy...in a good way!
5. My awesome roommate,
Amanda. I can't believe we didn't take a picture together...but we had so much fun. I'm so excited for her and her new photography business! Go leave some blog love on her
site!
6. I could go on and on and on about the awesome people I met, fun things I learned, etc. etc. but we'd be here for days! I feel blessed for this opportunity and can't wait to start implementing some new things!
