Wednesday, December 31, 2008

Decided to go to ImagingUSA conference

I’m a member of the PPA…new member, and so far all I’ve done is listen to a webinar telling me what their website already told me about the services they offer. I don’t mean that to sound bad, it’s just that I haven’t had an opportunity to use their services yet. I’m still in the fledgling stages of all this you know. Yesterday afternoon, my wife calls and says that she believes I should go to the conference in Phoenix in January because she feels like it will be a good way to jumpstart my business. I agree with her, we have talked about this before and I thought the money was too much to justify but she made some valid points. If I spend $2500 going to this conference and the pre-sessions I want to attend, and it saves me from making big mistakes from the beginning and it sets me up to succeed from the start, then it is money well spent. So, I’m going.

Now I’m a planner. I’ve been to several conferences for my regular geek job, including my favorite, Microsoft TechEd, which I’ve attended several times. Each time I plan on going to a conference, I go through the scheduled classes and events and plan out my time there. I don’t always follow the plan as once you are there you learn more about what the sessions are like and find that you may want to change some things, but I do this anyway. I don’t know if it is time well spent or not but it makes the planner in me happy. So, in case anyone is curious…here is my plan:

Thursday & Friday

9am - 5 pm

The Business of Photography

Thursday 7pm

Coyotes vs. Lightning Hockey

Saturday

9am - 5pm

All I Know: Mastering Light

7pm-1030pm

Coyotes vs. Stars Hockey

Sunday

7-830am

Importing and Organizing Images with Lightroom

9-1030

The Magic of Posing and Lighting (The Lost Art)

11-1230

Bellies and Babies

5-630pm

Profitable Portraits

7-9pm

Under the Desert Sky - Opening Night Party

Monday

7-830am

From Ordinary to Extraordinary in Children's Photography

9-1030

Retouch Secrets of the Masters

11-1230

Portraiture in Today's World

5-630

2008 Benchmark Survey Unveiled: What it takes to Succeed

7-830

Anne Geddes

Tuesday

730-9

The Joy of Pricing

1-230

The Structure of an Event - Event and T&I

3-430

The Subtle Art of Family Portraiture

5-630

How to Photograph Everyone

7-830

PPA Awards and Degree Ceremony

830-1030

Nashville…Next Stop! Closing Night Party

Yes, that is Hockey on the schedule. I figure if I’m going to go across the country for a conference, spend all this money and vacation time from my geek job, then maybe I should have a few hours dedicated to just relaxing and enjoying something not related to photography. I happen to be a southern boy who loves hockey. Well, I’m not very southern, I just happen to live down here. But I love it. We have a minor league team in town, the Columbia Inferno (ECHL) but they are taking a break this season in hopes of building a new arena in time for next season…unfortunately I don’t think it is going to happen. Anyway, I need my hockey fix, and I’ve never been to an NHL game, so I’m going to at least one of these. Anyone who wants to go with me, let’s go!

One last thing, sorry I didn’t post some of the other shoots yesterday. I got really busy at home. I’ll try my best to get them up today. Thanks to everyone who has commented so far. I really appreciate it.

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