I spent this past week in Las Vegas for WPPI (Wedding & Portrait Professionals International). For all you non-photographers out there, WPPI is THE convention to go to every year, where photographers and vendors come together to learn from the best in the industry, browse the latest trends and research products on the trade show floor. In addition to the hundred plus programs, 300+ exhibitors—12,000+ attendees made the MGM Grand Hotel and Casino their home away from home.

Program topics ran the gamut from business, marketing, Photoshop and digital workflow, lighting/posing, and Social Media. In addition to the programs run by WPPI, a number of the exhibitors held hour-long programs at their booths. These included Miller’s Lab, Kodak, Nikon, Canon, Sony, and many others—large and small. No matter where you turned, you were likely to learn something new.  Here are some the highlight notes:

- Attending Doug Gordon’s (www.patkenphotographer.com) program ‘Posing is Back and it is the New Black,’ the reason brides don’t want posed photographs is that they think it takes too long. Not true when you have a system. In the course of the two-hour talk, Doug was able to show attendees two hundred different poses for the bride and groom.
- During the Canon sponsored Keynote, speaker Gregory Heisler (www.gregoryheisler.com) explained his philosophy behind taking pictures.  Even though he has finally migrated to 35mm DSLRs, Gregory still uses a cable release, because it gives him the ability to have a face to face conversation with his subject while taking pictures—which stems from when his experience shooting with large format view cameras that required this type of shooting.
- Vicki Taufer’s (www.vgallery.net and www.vgalleryhaven.com) program, ‘Unleashed,’ was all about her studio’s pet photography. One of the most important things she said was, “People are paying not only for photographs but for the experience.”
- JB and DeEtte Sallee (www.salleephotography.com), speaking at the Kodak booth, talked about the importance of adding a “whopper” package to your line. While you may never sell this one, the next highest one won’t seem as high in comparison. In their presentation, ‘Creating Loyalty Beyond Reason’ first time WPPI speakers Justin and Mary Marantz (www.justinmarantz.com) mentioned some great business books: The E Myth Revisited, Why most small businesses don’t work and what to do about it by Michael E. Gerber (www.michaelegerber.com), Lovemarks, The future beyond brands by Kevin Roberts (www.saatchikevin.com). Purple Cow by Seth Godin (www.sethgodin.com/sg)
- Kay Eskridge’s (www.imagesbykay.com and www.celebratesexy.com) program on boudoir photography was one of the more popular topics, with WPPI attendees lining up early to make sure they would get a seat.
- Lori Nordstrom (www.nordstromphoto.com) presented a business program that was filled with inspiration—for the photographer to understand that their studio is a business and needs to be run that way to be profitable. Some of what Lori discussed: Ask for referrals, and for each one, give your current clients a small gift. Be charitable, its good for you and your business.

- The session called “I need a workflow that works for me” showcased www.dpbestflow.org, THE benchmark from ingestion to archiving.
- Bruce Dorn recommended www.lynda.com for the best resource to learn anything, including video.
- Art Suwansang did a class on Lightroom.  He said that www.Ro3rds.com tutorials for LR2.
- Art Divitale gave this link to all the notes of his advanced class on Photoshop (http://www.divitalephotography.com/download.zip) and said to use www.validator.w3.org to check your site for errors.
- Julieanne Kost on Lightroom gave out a great links page on her site http://jkost.com/photoshop.html
- Social media guru Scott Bourne highlighted his favorites sites: www.search.twitter.com to see what is going on by subject, www.photography.alltop.com to see what subjects are hot in photography, and www.twittercounter.com to see his ranking.

Paisano Publications has 11 subscription biker mags, the biggest one of the bunch of course is Easyriders.  They featured some of my Laughlin River Run work in March and as luck would have it the next rally is coming up again in April, hope to see you there.

The dealership featured free food and drinks, museum tours with Buddy, pool tournament, and sales in general merchandise and parts. You could enter your motorcycle in 5 judged categories: Best Bagger, Best Import, Best pre-1983 Vintage, Best MMI Student Bike and Best Custom.  Many entered their classic car for Best of Show. The winner of each category won a $100 Stubs Gift Card. The weather held up and it was a fun shoot. Photo gallery.

I just returned from  a week-long road trip which included Sedona, The Grand Canyon, Page, Monument Valley, Canyon De Chelly and Window Rock.  In Monument Valley I used Navajo Spirit Tours, and Tseyi’ Jeep Tour in Canyon De Chelly.  In both cases I drove my own car with them inside, which is called a “step-in” guide.

This photo safari walk-about required getting up before the sun and late night time-lapse star trail exposures while painting trees with a flashlight.  Downloading, uploading, sensor cleaning and scratching my camera and lenses. Not to mention using 4wd low range going 1MPH, crossing rising muddy streams, and almost driving right over a muddy cliff at one point.  I could be found standing in streams, wrestling a tripod, working with cold numb hands, being in caves, trekking using eroded ancient Anasazi footholds, tromping through snow, missing meals (plus a dry reservation/no alcohol), long drives, getting lost and all with really soar feet.  I can’t wait to do it again and again.  Life is an adventure, or nothing.

Monument Valley highlights include:  The Mittons, Merrick Butte, Elephant Butte, John Ford’s Point, Camel Butte, Totem Pole, Yei Bi Chei, Artist’s Point, North Window, The Thumb, Pancake Flats, Ear of the Wind, Skull Arch, The Window, Square House Ruins, Baby Feet Ruins, Honeymoon Arch, El Capitan and Hunts Mesa. Gallery.

Guides Gary and Larson of Navajo Spirit Tours

Thanks to the THOUSANDS of pet parents and pets who took part in this event! We appreciate your support and your efforts to help save the lives of homeless pets in Arizona! Initial estimates: 7,000 people and at least as many pets; 50 animal-welfare groups; and more than $373,000 raised to help Arizona’s homeless pets!  View image gallery HERE.

I spent the day with 200 hundred of my closed friends and with one of Canon’s Explorer of Light, Jennifer Wu.  Her talk was hosted by the The Digital Imaging Group (DIG) as part of a series of annual seminars featuring well known and accomplished photographers/digital imaging experts.  Following George Lepp (2007), Arthur Morris (2008) and Lewis Kemper (2009), Jennifer Wu was the featured artist this year.

Jennifer selected a few of her best and favorite images and walked us through her process from initial visualization, composition and lighting and on through image optimization and printing. See Jennifer’s work at  www.jenniferwuphotography.com and in the Canon site.  Seminar notes here:  http://files.me.com/jenwu/dke7oh

I have not taken a formal class in photography so I always jump at the chance to hear other photographer speak and show off their portfolios.  Their personal approaches, experiences, practices and results fascinate me.  Their travels captivate.

Through Each Others Eyes (TEOE) had such a seminar yesterday in Scottsdale.   Their goal is to promote international understanding via the medium of photography. With the assistance of professional photographers who volunteer their time, and sponsors who donate in-kind and financial resources, TEOE has sponsored more than 19 international photographic exchanges in the last 15 years, involving more than 65 volunteer photographers and thousands of students on three continents.

Working closely with Sister Cities International chapters and local governments, TEOE sends two photographers from Phoenix, Arizona, to “home-stay” with two host photographers in countries such as Japan, China, Ireland, Scotland, Mexico and Cuba, so that they may photograph the people, landscape and culture of the host country. The two Phoenix photographers then host their international counterparts as they photograph throughout Arizona. The result is print photography exhibitions in both Phoenix and the other city.

Here were the presenters:  Errol Zimmerman, Colleen Miniuk-Sperry, Gustavo Ybarra, David Hunsaker, Paul O’Neill, Art Holeman, Dennis Scully, Kerrick James, Ken Ross.

The TEOE gang

My workflow to create a slide show using Showitweb software as it is now makes me a procrastination machine.  It takes me hours.  I decided to try Animoto and with just a few clicks I was really in business.  Here is an example using some old photos of friends, and I did in in just a few minutes.

I was covering a charity motorcycle event when I came upon TV3’s anchor Scott Pasmore riding his Paul Yaffe custom chopper.  Next to him was Sheriff Joe.  I could not resist asking the Sheriff to pose on Scott’s bike, and neither could he.  Later I gave the MCSO office the photo as a gift, which is now being put to good use.  It shows that Sheriff Joe has a great sense of humor, among his other qualities.

Scuba Specialties, 4139 West Bell Road Phoenix (602) 866-3636 is now featuring giclee gallery wrap fine art prints from The Main Event Imaging.  Since 1993 Scuba Specialties has been the premier dive shop in the Phoenix area offering diver training, dive travel and retail equipment sales. “We offer open-water training from a beginner scuba diver to an instructional level. We have an indoor pool heated to 85 degrees, and we sell everything you can possibly think of for scuba diving,” said Scuba Specialties store manager Frankie Smith. I was certified with PADI in Digital Underwater Photography though Scuba Specialties and look forward to a great partnership with them in the future.  So visit the store today to become certified or schedule your next dive trip, and don’t forget to buy a giclee or two while you’re there!

This dramatic shot of Iron Mountain Road helps to tell a story about every biker’s dream of riding through the Black Hills during the Sturgis Rally in South Dakota.  Here, everyone has to get lined up to scoot through the tunnel because it is one-way traffic only, then you need to find a crowd and make a hole and some noise! It is some of the best riding in America.   The Black Hills offer the Needles Highway, tunnels, pigtail bridges, split one-lane one-way windy roads, all in sight of Rushmore surrounded by pine forest and lakes, buffalo, deer, elk, sheep. . .and bikes everywhere riding between thunder storms and hail.  A riding playground!!!

Iron Mountain

The Four Peaks Mountains near Fountain Hills in Arizona look great when they get snow on them. The contrast between the desert sequaro cactus and the cold winter weather is music to my eyes.  When you use an infrared camera, things really start to rock & roll.  I wasn’t the only one up there yesterday, I noticed several hot blooded shutterbugs at dusk shooting away, some using tripods like myself.

When shooting the Laughlin River Run while on assignment with Quick Throttle last year, this shot was taken just outside of Oatman Arizona. Thousands of bikers who go to this rally and visit this ghost town to mingle with wandering donkeys, bar hop, and look good for the camera.  This talented model knew how to work it.  You go girl.