They called it “One to Grow On,” which for some reason reminded me of dreaded birthday spanks, but turned out much, much better. Even though Danny and I didn’t win any of the many prizes they gave away. Darn it. We still decided that this, the fifth stop on the Professional Photographers of America 2011 Tour, was an excellent use of last Monday. Or any day.

In addition to taking pages of notes and dreaming up some exciting new ideas as we listened to the speakers, just being around other professionals who want to learn, who want to elevate their art and want to expand their business know-how, was incredibly inspiring. It reminded me of my college days: When I was in my senior manuscript writing class, surrounded by other aspiring poets and novelists and screenwriters, you’d better believe I worked feverishly on my poetry collection. A week ago, surrounded by other photographers who love their art enough to turn it into a career, I really felt the urge to walk right out of the conference room and get behind my camera.

That day though, I only took a few shots. Most of the attendees took pictures on their iPads or iPhones. It looked really funny when ten people in the audience would hold their iPads up to snap a shot at the same time — especially since these were all industry professionals who had left their DSLRs home for the day.

We worked up a ridiculous appetite during the morning session and were thrilled when they sent us out for our lunch break. I’ll blame the hunger on how hard our brains were working during Kay Eskridge’s marketing seminar.
After lunch (turkey sub for me, Italian for Danny — because I know you were going to ask) Mike Fulton of TriCoast Photography taught about creative lighting techniques. While our style is dramatically different from his, we left his seminar totally impressed with his skills, and with a few great new tricks in our back pockets.
Next in the lineup was Dave Cross, who taught how to use Lightroom and Photoshop in your “smartflow” (because he dislikes the word “workflow” since it sounds like a lot of . . . well, work).
After our dinner break — yes, more food — Kay Eskridge came back for a second session, this time all about smart practices for running a successful photography business. She had such a wealth of great information that those of us in the audience tried to copy down every single slide that she presented on her Power Point, or just snap a picture of the screen. At the same time, she cracked plenty of jokes and made a few unintentional double entendres that kept us laughing all evening (her defense was that she’d been teaching a lot of boudoir photography workshops recently).
In between the seminars, we visited the photography expo going on next door to the conference room. Collages.net, BayPhoto, White House Custom Color, Forbeyon, Midwest Photo Exchange, Nik Software, and several other companies were there to show off their latest products, share some PPA Tour specials and answer photographers’ questions. You’d better believe Danny and I took advantage of the opportunity. We also made up our minds on the new albums we’ll be offering as we roll out our new Fall/Winter 2011 wedding packages. Getting to hold and handle sample albums — without having to first create, order, and pay for sample albums — was an invaluable asset.

All that learning made me hungry for even more photography workshops . . . which is why I am incredibly excited to announce that Danny and I will be attending the Professional Photographers of America Imaging USA Conference in New Orleans in January 2012. Several days of seminars and workshops, a huge photography expo and the Big Easy? Yes, please!

~ Laura