ImagingUSA 2012 - Life is To Short To Live Somebody Else's Dream

Just got home from ImagingUSA which was in New Orleans this year.  This is my fourth year at Imaging, and my first as a member of PPA (Professional Photographers of America) instead of a volunteer from SPS (Student Photographic Society).  I'm a grown-up!!  Hahahaha, yeahhh....  Anyway, I went with my ex-boyfriend and fellow photographer/former SPS and AiP kid Cryss.  We were able to meet up with our Colorado friend Sheena, which was awesome!  She and her husband used to live in Louisiana so were able to suggest all kinds of delicious places to eat (ok, seriously, Mother's?  That was one impressive sandwich).  I wish I could see my photographer friends who don't live around Pittsburgh more often, but it's nice to catch up at Imaging.


Cryss and I stayed about a mile from the convention center in the French Quarter, which I love.  New Orleans in general, I love.  I wanted to stay.  Yes, last year I wanted to stay in San Antonio, but New Orleans...wow.  Traveling is definitely in my future, though I was thrilled to come home.  While I was there though, so much walking!  All around, not just to the convention center, though I spend a LOT of time there!


My goal this year was to go to a bunch of classes on business (pricing, marketing, that sort of thing) and senior portraiture.  I need some help in the business/marking aspect so that was to teach me and I love doing senior pictures so wanted inspiration there.  Literally took half a composition book full of notes!  Sunday there were four time slots for class and I went to all four which was exhausting but informative.  The problem of course, was deciding what to go to, but I mostly picked good ones.  Monday I went to two out of the three, then went exploring, and Tuesday I slacked and only went to two of four because I slept in a little and then went to the Expo where I bought a Rogue Flash Bender (goes on your speedlight, pretty nifty) and a new LensBaby Composer Pro (these are AMAZING).  I can't wait to use them!!  I especially think the LensBaby is going to be a huge hit with my senior girls this year, so am really excited.  I'm also really excited about some of the things I learned.


A couple things really stuck out.  One was a lighting class by this guy named Oscar Lozoya.  He is AMAZING.  Seriously, look him up.  Actually, I'll make it easy and just click on his name, it takes you to his website.  I was so insanely impressed by his lighting and diagrams that I bought his book and had him sign it.  The other thing that stuck out was the phrase "FEAR LESS."  A couple of the speakers I saw talked about not selling yourself short and having confidence in yourself and your work.  To be honest, I have trouble with that sometimes.  One speaker though, Kimberly Wylie, she had these phrases on her slides: "Fear less, dream more" and "Life is too short to live somebody else's dream" that really hit me.  Those are things I've been working on and am getting better at (Damien tells me similar things a lot), but sometimes you need to hear them in a setting like that.  So yeah, that was really inspirational to me and I'm going to try so hard to live MY dream.

These are all images from my last day in NOLA, when I did what I spent most the trip attempting to do and went on a photo adventure to the cemetery where the Marie Laveau the Voodoo Queen is rumored to be buried.  So in love.

ImagingUSA 2011 - San Antonio

I'm writing this from the Emily Morgan Hotel in downtown San Antonio.  Loving the name of the hotel, as two of my best friends are Emily (aka werewolf girl) and model Trix Morgan.  San Antonio is a pretty awesome city with great places to go to, and because we got here a few days early to stuff the bags that all the attendees get, I got a chance to explore.  There's an AMAZING sushi restaurant called Sushi Zushi; the Korova, a bar which gets its name from A Clockwork Orange; and a pretty intense mall.  There's also the Alamo, which is directly across the street from the hotel (super weird that it's just this little building in the middle of a big city and right next to the mall.  I'd kind of expected it to be secluded in the desert), and the River Walk.  Everyone was saying "oh, you have to go to the River Walk while you're there!!"  Yeah.  It's true, even if partly because it's pretty difficult to avoid.  For example, it's easier to get to the mall food court from the convention center by using the River Walk than by taking the street.  It's a pretty neat little walk though, and I'll probably take some pictures of it tonight.

Speaking of shooting, earlier today I got out my tripod and photographed a bit of the ImagingUSA Expo (trade show).  Once I get back to Pittsburgh, I'll put the pictures up.  Also when I get back, I'll do what I meant to do before I left for San Antonio and put up a nice little blog about my first photoshoot of the year with Lady Sutton.  She's a friend of Trix's from New York and super awesome, so of course the two of us had to combine forces and make great images.  But she'll get her own blog post, so back to the photo conference.

I've been learning a good bit at Imaging.  Some of the classes have been kind of lame - a lot of it's basic stuff that I already know (like have a facebook page and tag clients in images of them), but it's good for refreshers and reminders, and I've gotten some cool ideas too.  It's also pretty nice to see when the speakers go over things I've been doing, because it gives me hope that I'm doing something right and once I get my name out there a little more, clients will come calling.

Confession: I'm really REALLY hard on myself and because photography is so much who I am, I tend to get  depressed when I have troubles building my business.  Not sure you guys knew that.  But coming to ImagingUSA is definitely a spirit lifter - a reminder that I AM just starting out and WILL succeed.  I'm good, and I'm on the right track.  This might be my last year as a member of the Student Photographic Society and as student volunteer, but there's no way it's my last year of Imaging.  Tomorrow is the last day of the conference, but New Orleans next year, yeah!!!

ImagingUSA 2010

Just got in last night in from a week in Nashville for the ImagingUSA 2010 photo conference, where, for the second year, I was a student volunteer with the Art Institute of Pittsburgh's SPS (Student Photographic Society) chapter. I attended some lectures and checked out the Expo, where I bought an Interfit Strobies Portrait kit. It's freaking awesome - an accessory kit for my speedlight containing a mini softbox, a snoot, a beauty dish, barndoors, a 20 degree honeycomb grid and, my new favorite, a globe diffuser. Useful stuff for location shooting and will wonderfully complement the Alien Bees strobe I plan on buying in the next week or so.

There was also a portfolio review at ImagingUSA for the students and I got some input. Too much nitpicking and enough general tips, but my work was generally well received which was nice. I also made a couple contacts, including a man who runs a studio in Swissvale about 45 minutes from me and the president of the Professional Photographers of Pennsylvania. I've been invited to the first conference of the year, which is like a mini ImagingUSA for PA photographers and will be in 3 weeks or so. Might have to go check it out - only a two hour drive. There was also a woman taking photographs at the end of the conference party and I gave her my card (she was taking some of me and my friends) and then her whole group wanted my card as well! I have a couple different designs and they seemed to be comparing, which was entertaining.

Overall, Imaging this year was great, I learned a bit and made a great purchase. Hung out with photo students from other schools, which was great fun. I also got free subscriptions to a couple magazines - RangeFinder and my favorite photo magazine AfterCapture. Grabbed a copy of The Knot to do research for a wedding I'll be photographing in May. It was a productive trip!

ImagingUSA

I've just returned to Pittsburgh from Phoenix, AZ (which is about 60 degrees warmer than home) where I was attending the ImagingUSA photo conference as a student volunteer. While it was definitely not a vacation, I had a good time and learned A LOT - amazing Photoshop techniques I can't wait to try out; some ideas for weddings and portraiture; as well as that fixing my camera should be covered under SPS/PPA's insurance policy.

There was a portfolio review that, sadly, I didn't get as much out of as I would have liked, but did meet some interesting people. One is a portrait photographer from my home town of Moon Twp - interesting that I went all the way to Arizona to meet her! I also met the founder of AfterCapture Magazine, which I absolutely adore, and some of the photographers who looked at my portfolio were pretty cool. My reviews were a mixture of "your work is wonderful" and nitpicking. I was most pleased with being nit-picked, because it reminds me to fix small details and also lets me know that overall my work is decent far more than just being told that is. If they're looking at the tiniest things to correct I must be doing something right.

I shot almost 2 whole rolls of color slide film on the plane home today, so I have to go to Photo Depot and get them processed tomorrow!

The Good and The Bad

The Good: I got a flash (and a new camera case) for Christmas - it's the Pentax AF549FGZ, which is far too complicated of a name, so from now on it's going to be referred to simply as The Flash. It'd be great, except for...

The Bad: My camera broke on Christmas and it's currently off being repaired. I won't get it back for a good month or so, which is quite a setback.

The Good: I'm taking this quarter off, so I don't have to worry about actually HAVING to photograph and can spend time editing instead.

The Bad: I don't have a camera to take to ImagingUSA, though I'll probably be buying a point-and-shoot for the trip. This will also allow me to take a small camera with me when I don't want to lug my Pentax around. It'll be helpful for ideas and sketches.

The Good: ImagingUSA is next week!

End of Fall Quarter

This is my exhausted face. V-V

I have to wake up in less than 5 hours to go to Master Printing, last final of the quarter. I've already had Fashion, E-Folio (www.elena-dee.com), and Thesis. After tomorrow is have winter break and a quarter off to shoot shoot shoot. And, of course, go to the ImagingUSA photo conference in Phoenix in January! I, along with others from the AiP chapter of the Student Photographic Society (SPS), am going as a student volunteer, which basically means I get to go for free because I'm working there. It'll be amazing and really educational. I need to work on my portfolio for the review I'm getting while I'm there.

I also need to work on getting an internship and matting my Master Printing final. The negatives aren't scanned yet, but here's something from Fashion.