WPPI 2011 - Las Vegas, NV

A lot of you know I just returned from WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Photographers International) in Las Vegas, Nevada. It was my second year going. I learned SO much this year and I'm SO pumped about it! I've heard there were around 16,000 photographers there(WOW).

Here is a video that Still Motion did for WPPI! It will give you a small idea of it.

WPPI 2011 // behind the scenes from stillmotion on Vimeo.

It's such an incredible learning opportunity. I was able to learn from some of the world's best photographers. We learned things such as lighting, posing and business. I also attended a HUGE tradeshow there. It's so much fun seeing all the new and improved products & ideas. By the end of the week, my brain wanted to explode.

NOTE: I borrowed(with permission) some of the pictures below from my friends(you will see their watermark on the ones I borrowed). Please check out their work. They are great!

In-N-Out was a MUST! I waited all year to go back to this place! (this is most definitely a cell phone pic btw;)

This year(and last!) a big group of Christians at WPPI met together for a gathering called UNITE. We met on Monday night and we were able to listen to a message by Albert Tate and sing praise and worship songs lead by Brian Wurzell. Vegas is a really weird place, REALLY. It was so encouraging to be able to just sing to Jesus in the midst of Vegas. After the Unite meeting we met up with some people and went zip lining on Fremont Street. It was AMAZING! We had a blast! My AWESOME roomies (Alyona Semenov, Valerie Schooling, Laura Sitzman, & Kelly LaBruyere), along with Sarah Bardo, Shannon McMahon, Montana Dennis, Josh Newton, Kristen & Matthew Roberts! PLEASE check out each and every one of their websites. They are AWESOME people and photographers.

So, there was this other guy that came along. His name was Horse. You will see him dancing in this next video and then you will see some people ziplining! Click here for the video!

Because there were so many of us, we took a limo. Our driver was the bomb.com fo sho! I thought he had the COOLEST mustache thing ever! Check it out! I COULD NOT stop laughing! To see his mustache thing move, click on this video lol! Yes, I asked him to.

We also went out shooting at Red Rock Canyon...I love it there. I wish we could have stayed longer. It really makes me want to go hiking now. I seriously need to find a rock to climb or something.

That's our shadows:)

Okay, I hardly ever see pictures of myself taking pictures...and let's just say I HOPE I'm not always this classy...

Photo by: Kelly LaBruyere

Valerie Schooling

Kelly LaBruyere

Alyona Semenov

Colin Pattison

So, Kelly caught me getting a pic of myself and the canyon... Photography tip for the day, never shoot yourself with a fisheye lens because your head will look like a pea, like this....! ddd..ooo...r...kkkkkk! One day Laura and I decided to go out and take a few pictures of each other around Vegas. She's so beautiful! I'm so thankful I met this girl. We met at Passion in 2009 on an escalator. It's so cool how God allows you to meet people in random places and become great friends. She flew to Georgia last year to shoot a wedding with me and here we are roommates at WPPI :) God is just cool like that! She's the best!

Oh, one other thing! I won a photography scholarship with faux/tographers!!!! I won through a Twitter game. After Sara Kauss & Josh Newton (the teachers at faux/tographers) spoke at Millers (at the tradeshow), they said that whoever can get us 47 Twitter follower first wins a seat to their workshop! So, a bunch(50+) of people followed them for me and I won(along with Trevor Dayley). Woohoo! Thank you Sara & Josh! Haha!

Follow them on Twitter at @faux_tographers ;) http://twitter.com/#!/faux_tographers

Okay, that's enough blogging for me today. :)