Las Vegas has never really appealed to me.  But when I found out that the biggest and most awesome photography conference, WPPI, was held there each year … I knew I would be on my way.  And here I go!  For 10 days!!

I’ll be out of the office until March 16th — so please be patient with my email responses — I’ll try to do what I can from afar.  Troy and I will be road tripping around the southwest after the conference — and I cannot wait to take photos and enjoy the desert.   Last year, this same week, Troy and I road tripped around NM and AZ.  It was my favorite trip to date (aside from living in Ecuador, if you can count living somewhere as a “trip”), and I am sooo excited to return.

I took so many photos of our trip last year.  It’s crazy to think that one year ago I was in the southwest with a Canon Rebel and a kit lens … a girl with just a photography hobby … and absolutely no idea that any dream could become reality.  In fact, trying to make it happen wasn’t even an idea on the horizon yet.  I was ruled by insecurities and fears of having no money if I decided to pursue my first and forever love — art.  One year later … I am actually able to call myself a photographer.  A for real photographer — making art and making a living.  And attending a huge professional photography conference.  This still blows my mind.

Life is a trip.

See you in 10.

And to all my online photo friends — I can’t wait to meet you!!  You can stay updated on where I am and what’s happening by following my Twitter feed.  So far I know for sure that I’ll be at the Airhorns and Lasers party on Sunday night, at Jesh de Rox and Jasmine Star’s platform classes on Monday, and probably walking the trade show floor a whole bunch on Tuesday.

Photo from last year’s trip to the southwest.

Late at night, I leave you with this morning’s shoot.  Some personal work.

Models are my friends Suzy and Lexy.  Location is my condo.  Lighting is all natural, available light.

This past weekend I attended a workshop by David E Jackson, all about breaking the rules of portrait photography.  Many of you know I’ve only been at “professional” photography since this past summer of 2009.  I was lucky enough to shoot 13 weddings in my first half-season, which amounted to a huge learning experience.  One thing I really love about photography is how there is always more and more to learn.  I am constantly challenged, never bored.  It’s perfect for me — someone who craves and needs constant change.

Dave’s workshop was awesome.  His style is worlds apart from mine — and I love that.  I like to learn from people who have something different to offer me.  I don’t see the point of always attending workshops by photographers who will simply reinforce what I am already doing.  I want to learn new elements that I can somehow introduce to my own style — never directly emulating, but rather being inspired by.

The day itself was 16 hours (20 hours for me — including the 4 hours of travel to and from Appleton), and what I walked away with blew my mind.  I have read so many books on lighting and yet Dave summed it up so well with a few slides and demonstrations.  It finally all clicked.  We had tons of time to shoot various models in several locations, and my only regret is that I didn’t bring a Pocketwizard along with me.  I really wanted to get some studio lighting practice, but I still learned a ton from observation (which is how I learn best anyways).

I’m so grateful to Dave and his studio manager, Trevor, for everything they put together for this workshop.  It means a lot to me that Dave was so awesome and genuine.  He was constantly circling around, answering questions and encouraging all the attendees.  He was very open and generous with his knowledge and truly cares about following-up with each of us and how we might implement what we learned in order to improve our own photography.

Thanks Dave and Trevor for rocking my world!

Here are a few shots I captured of Freddie and Lis, using all available light.  One thing Dave emphasized was his post-processing workflow and how freeing it is to batch process and not have to bring each file into Photoshop. I admit I get action-happy sometimes, but it’s something I really want to take baby steps away from this upcoming wedding season.  I’m happy to say that I didn’t doing any post-processing on these images in Photoshop!  It’s so true that if you can combine great lighting with proper exposure — nothing else is necessary.  So these shots might look a *tad* different than what I usually do, and I still love the vintagey post-processing.  That won’t go away completely, but I’m working daily on getting everything right in-camera … and only adding a *touch* of vintage post-processing.

Here goes (um, Lis … be still my Anthropologie-loving heart):

I know I cut-off some feet and the jumping shot was just for fun and the last image of Freddie in the puddle reflection is soft … but I learned so much about posing and portrait composition and I tried to remember and incorporate it all — while still taking the shots I like to take — which aren’t always properly composed — but I still like that :)

Last shot is of Dave helping Victoria.

Thanks for reading this ultra-long post (if you actually did).