A week in the life

No surprise on my end, but I have really fallen behind on my assignments for the Willette class. I have some of them ready to go, just no motivation. This past week was full. So, because I can't properly compose a paragraph right now, I am going to pull out my magic bullets for this post.

* Last Friday WPPI started. For those of you (who like me a year ago) who don't know what WPPI is, it is the big ol' photography convention / trade show that comes to Las Vegas once a year. I attended WPPI-University. It was for people in the process of setting up their own business. It was fun, but it was intense. I didn't even go to all the classes because my brain started to overload. If I would have sat through one more class I may have walked out to the casino and handed some drunk man my camera and told them to have fun.

*Sunday was my birthday. The big 36. I can't believe I am heading towards 40. Not possible. Here is where I should insert that I had a great day, but I had to speak at Church. Because I had been so busy the whole weekend, I was up at 6 am trying to put my thoughts into some kind of outline that made sense. The talk went well, but I was so HAPPY to be done with it.

After church we came home and had out little family party. Thomas had decorated, Steve and Clara baked a cake and Steve BBQ'd some steaks. It was a nice, quiet night. My favorite.

* On Monday I was back at WPPI to attend the trade show. I wasn't really excited to go walk around and look at stuff I couldn't really afford, but I heard that they would have speakers at many of the major booths. While I was there I started listening to this woman at the SONY booth. She was fantastic. I went back for her second presentation and was blown away with everything she was sharing. I decided to approach her after the talk and tell her how much I enjoyed her and how much I learned from her. We were talking with one another and she invited me to a luncheon she was having on Wednesday. I grabbed her bio information and came home and googled her. I had NO IDEA who I was talking to. Her name is Me Ra Koh and she has been featured on Oprah and is a correspondent for the Nate Berkus show. I poured over her website and decided that this luncheon was something I had to attend. I am so glad I did, it was fantastic. She invited 60 women to a garden luncheon in honor of her scholarship program she developed a couple years ago, SOAR. We ate lunch, she spoke, and then she took us out to shoot a bride and groom. She gave us her tips and tricks and just spent time working with each of us. Not only was she there, Dane Sanders, an amazing lifestyle photographer, was there as well. After she shared her tips, he shared his advice for about 30 minutes. I learned more from the two of them in the 2 hours I was at the luncheon than I did all weekend. It was a great way to end the convention.