Back from an International Photography Conference (WPPI)

Iā€™m back from 10 days on the left coastā€¦ Well, not quite all the way to the coast, I was in Las Vegas and Californiaā€™s central valley (Visalia). Iā€™ve skipped it for a few years in a row, now, and was overdue going to the big conference and rubbing shoulders with some of the best of the best in the industry from all over the world.

Itā€™s always an amazing (if not somewhat overwhelming) time, seeing the creative work of thousands of other professionals and once again I left challenged and inspired.

One of the funny things that you start seeing when youā€™ve been to enough of these conferences, is the ā€œrock starā€ big-name photographers who wash out and arenā€™t even in the photo business anymore. I guess itā€™s human nature, but so many ā€œbig nameā€ photographers seem to posture and exaggerate their success in order to seem like a bigger deal than they really are. My good friend Davy and I have both been full-time photographers for many years now and just donā€™t get why anyone would put on airs and pretend theyā€™re doing better than they are. Letā€™s all just be honest and transparent about it.

I drove this year, like I usually do. First, because I like to drive and have a ride wherever I go. And secondly, because itā€™s a great way to write off income since mileage is a pre-taxĀ business deduction and my car gets about 40mpg. The drive out was brutal. Remember the snow storm from a couple of weekends ago? Yep, I drove through that, all the way to Arizona before it stopped snow-storming. Still, a rough day of driving is more fun to me than being stuck on an airplane or a cruise ship, without any control over anything. =)

I didnā€™t take a lot of photos this year, and didnā€™t stay out late to party at all. Just visited with interesting folks (shout out to our album-maker Madera!) who crossed my path and then enjoyed some niceĀ local lodging with some regular old Las Vegas locals, thanks to AirBnB. (What a cool idea Airbnb is! I didnā€™t have to walk through the casino and none of my luggage smelled like cigarette smoke even after being in Vegas for almost a week!)

Ready for some iPhone photos?

Hereā€™s a screen-grab from my car-cam on the way out. Crazy weather the entire way until I was just an hour or two from Vegas!

How the roads looked in Arizona headed up to Vegas. No snow, finally!

Iā€™m always flabbergasted at the enormity of the casino hotels. Seriously, eight floors of penthouse suites at the MGM Signature Towers and it didnā€™t even seem like a tall building against theĀ Vegas skyline.

Hereā€™s a photo of the print judging with David Williams. That man is a genius in his own right. Such a pleasure sitting there for hours, listening to him talk about prints, photographic theory, the masters, etc. The prints are projected on a screen to the left, outside of this frame, and the judges view the photo under a special light in front of them. Seriously, if you ever go to a photo conference and David Williams in judging, please do yourself a favor and sit under his spell for an hour or two. Plus, he hands out candy randomly. Great guy.

Hereā€™s what a typical class looks like at WPPI. I may be halfway back in the room here. Pretty packed with lots of photographers taking notes and a few irritating photogs actually taking photos of every slide as they pop up. Itā€™s pretty impossible for a pro photographer to ignore another photog lifting a camera to take a photo, so this is really distracting to everyone sitting behind them.

Hereā€™s a photo of Mike Colon (sorry, Mike, couldnā€™t get that emphasis apostrophe over your 2nd ā€œoā€) talking about his recent move from Canon/Nikon to Sony. Interesting move, but not for me (yet). Sony has some amazing sensors, but seems weak in battery life, and focusing adjustments on the fly. Seriously, though, I would take a Sony sensor in my Canon 5D Mark III bodies any day of the week. Like today, if I could. They had a darkened booth and looking through a Sony A6000, it was as if I had night vision goggles on. Crazy!

The old, trusty VW, parked in my brotherā€™s new home in California. They had a new baby, and bought a new house all in the last couple of months, so lots going on over there. Being as close as I was, I couldnā€™t resist the jaunt over to the valley to visit them.

And then, after all the fun and visiting, the long trip homeā€¦ Took me more than 24 hours because I fell asleep in the car at a little road-side Indian casino somewhere in New Mexico. The same place I got a tank-full of bad diesel fuel on the way out. Learned my lesson this time, and just used their parking lot and restroom on the way back. =)

Seventy-degrees and sunny on the trip back! Loved these mountains off in the distance somewhere in New Mexico. Itā€™s amazing how far one can see when the land is so flat. I felt like I was seeing 50 miles ahead between mountains out there.

Ā Iā€™m glad to be back, safe and sound. Time for an oil change, air filter change, fuel filter change, cabin air filter change and maybe a new set of nozzles/injectors if the bad diesel fuel symptoms donā€™t clear up soon.

Seriously, though, Iā€™m super excited to be back, and Iā€™ve hit the ground running to be better than ever in 2015. Going to be expanding our commercial/business photography this year and plan to share more of that in the days ahead, maybe more on our Twitter account than here on our blog.

Thanks for re-living some highlights of the WPPI 2015 road trip with us!

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