Although we have taken our time putting this up we wanted to share our experience at WPPI this year! The Wedding & Portrait Photographers International convention in Las Vegas this year was once again an amazing experience! Andy & I started our week there watching the print competition and as usual were blown away by some of the amazing work from around the world. They have some of the best photographers in the industry judging the prints and many categories from wedding photography to pets. They are 2 long days but well worth the learning experience! I was very excited this year to receive 3 accolades of excellence from it and Andy reached the second level of the accolades program, Accolade of Outstanding Photographic Achievement.
As always there were many parties including the GOBEE Bag party with the Fabulous Sara France & Lauren Hillary. We had such a blast at their party playing pool, hanging out with friends and taking many photos in the photo booth. I am also proud to say I am the new owner of a fabulous GOBEE bag and can’t wait to use it this year! We also went to the Finao party before they were shut down, gathered a bunch of tshirts and then waited about 45 minutes to get back to the hotel lobby. Going to the parties is the fun part of this convention, but it’s always hard to get up the next morning for a class.
WPPI always has a great group of talented photographers who teach each year. This year they broke it down into sections, wedding photography, photoshop, business, ect…. This was great because you could pick which class you wanted to attend starting with the the section you were most interested in. I would say if you are planning on attending, bring a notebook, a good pen and open mind because there is so much to learn from so many different people!
The tradeshow was also great, however overwhelming! Andy & I did not spend all of our money there this year but we did invest in a new Shootq account and am currently learning all the bells and whistles! If you know you are going to be buying some new equipment this is the place to do it because most of the companies who are at the tradeshow offer some sort of discount for being there. There is booth after booth of backdrop companies, album manufacturers, software companies, equipment companies and many more.
This year Andy & I spoke at a Platform class for WPPI about SEO and Web Presence. Our class was on Tuesday so we had some extra time to go over it again in our hotel room. We had a Marilynn Monroe impersonator introduce us and a lot of fun prizes to give away. We were so excited by all the people who came to see us! Our room was packed, including a group of some Colorado friends who we shared bright orange “Colorado Crew” tshirts with! We have a great community of wedding photographers here in Colorado and we are thankful for all of their support!
We are also very thankful to some amazing friends who helped us set up for our class, hand out prizes and tear down; it is because of you all that our class was a success! So thank you Suzanne & Jason Wille, James Wittwer, James Cooper and Ryan Kenny! The last group we want to thank is our sponsors, Photography Merchant Systems, Flosites & WHCC,! Without your amazing products that save us time and money our business would not be positioned the way it is.
We are so grateful to be a part of such a great organization! This is such a large convention with so much planning and I don’t think most people know how amazing the people who put it all together are. It is such a small group that do the entire convention and we applaud them for the work they put in. They change the lives and businesses of so many photographers around the world and if you haven’t checked it out yet, you should. WPPI has changed our business for the good through all of the education, network of people and wonderful friends we have made there!
Special Thanks to Suzanne Wille for taking the shots of Marilyn and us speaking
