In three words: I loved it.

In five words: I didn’t take many pictures.

So, although I may or may not eventually post some more New Orleans shots on the blog, I hope you’ll please enjoy this one to the fullest, or as much as you can enjoy a photo of a name badge:

I headed to New Orleans with Danny feeling giddy about all the picture-taking possibilities (the architecture! the cuisine! the nightlife!), but what I ended up taking a lot of were notes. Pages and pages of notes. Because the presentations Danny and I attended were excellent, filled with inspiration, practical ideas, and speakers whose “If I can do this, you can do this” attitude was just the added push we needed to jump-start our year.

We learned from some of the incredible photographers who have helped reshape the wedding photography industry — Zach and Jody Gray, Jim Garner, David Beckstead, Jerry Ghionis, Brook Todd, Doug Gordon, Kenny Kim — and met a few others — Kevin Kubota, Sal Cincotta, Bambi Cantrell — during our four lovely days in the city. Absorbing everything we learned that week could take us several months, but we came home with some new plans for our business, and some new strategies we’ve implemented already.

In short, Imaging USA was well worth the trip. And although we really never made it out of the French Quarter, New Orleans’ architecture and food were great (and if you’re ever in New Orleans looking for a fun eatery — because I hear that city has a shortage of them — swing by Lüke, a fabulous German/French/Creole brassiere). Since I’m really not much of one for the nightlife, you’ll have to ask someone else how that went. As for my experience — well, let’s just say Danny and I are already planning our trip to Atlanta for Imaging 2013!

~ Laura