An Amazing Trip!

This past week was amazing. I attended the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Convention in Las Vegas.

I put in usually 20 hour days and I have never been more excited or learned so many new things. I challenged myself to learn some new things, stepping outside of my comfortable Photojournalism world. I learned some new portrait techniques and some very cool art techniques (look for some playing with that very soon.)

But one of the biggest things that I learned was that everyone has their own way of doing things and as long as it is what you want, it is good. There is nothing wrong with me not knowing a ton of classic portrait stuff. Just exposing myself to it will allow me to follow some of the classic techniques, but in my own photojournalistic way. I learned that everyone does things their own way. We would go to hear different platform speakers so that we could combine our notes and recordings to learn the most. And inevitably, someone that Shan went to hear would do things one way and the person I went to hear did things completely opposite. But both methods worked for them.

So it helped me to feel better about doing things my way. Shan and I have very different approaches to a lot of things in photography, but we are both successful with what we do. His way isn't better than my way and mine isn't better than his. But each is the best for ourselves.

So while I am going to be taking my photography to the next level, I will always stick true to my style and my love of photojournalism! And I am determined to leave my mark on this world!

Purple 4

You ever have one of those days...the kind where you wake up and you are so excited about what you are doing that day that you seem to lose your brain.

Monday was that day for me.

On a whim about 3 weeks ago, we decided that we were going to attend the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Convention in Las Vegas. Although my passion for weddings hadn't really faded, my ability to make my work fresh had completely stagnated. I needed to take action! What a perfect opportunity...a photography convention!

So I am typing this as I sit in my hotel room at the Golden Nugget. My 3 year old is sleeping on 2 arm chairs pushed together to make his "special bed". We determined that it is his pirate ship. (This is the only night that he will be sleeping on the chairs, but there just isn't room for 4 people in our bed!)

This convention has been amazing and I am planning to make a few posts over the next few days. (Not likely on Friday since we will be taking the red-eye out of here tomorrow and won't actually get home until almost midday on Friday!)

But for today...I will just tell you about Purple 4.

So Monday was our first full day at the convention. We arrived at 8am...problem #1 for me...I am not a morning person. NO Starbucks...problem #2...I needed caffeine to break up the rust in my brain gears. And wearing shoes that although cute, really were a bad choice! (I have 3 blisters to prove it!)

So we came out of the convention on Monday around 3pm to our afternoon break. We needed to run to the store, so we decided to pile into the rental car and go shopping.

"Hmmm....anybody remember where we parked?"

"I think we were on 4"

"No, I'm pretty sure it was 5"

"Really because I was thinking 3"

So 4 very intelligent people spent about 20 minutes wandering around 3 different parking deck levels because we had filled out heads so much with good photography information that we didn't even notice where we parked.

*Side tidbit: The Level 4 color is Purple at our hotel and at the hotel the convention was at.*

So we have decided to always park on Purple 4 so that we could find our car easier.

Of course, then it has transitioned into our superhero group name.

So we are the Purple 4 and we love it! I can't imagine we will every forget who we are!

Go Purple 4!

Until we meet again,
Steph

A beautiful Ohio day...okay...not today. LOL

Tuesday and Wednesday were beautiful days in NE Ohio. Tuesday was the prettiest and I have been suffering from a major case of spring fever! So we packed up the kiddos and headed outdoors!

Shan and I took the boys to the Towpath in the Valley and went for a bike ride. (Shan got a new bike, mine got tuned up and we bought a bike trailer for the boys!)

I took a few nature shots. Here are a couple of some geese that were enjoying the day as well.



And how could I not include one of the kiddos. Here are Christian and Ian in the trailer.


The beginning was a lot of fun, but here is what it looked like at the end. LOL



Well...so much for a peaceful bike ride. At least the weather was great! Then more snow today...oh well. So is life in NE Ohio!

Until later!
Steph

Happy 1st Birthday!

Just wanted to share some pics from a recent 1st birthday party that I shot. There is no joy more true than a boy with a cake!

Enjoy!

My Boys!

Had to start my new blog on a personal note.

In case you don't know much about me...I am Steph. I am happily married to Shan and have been for almost 5 years. I just turned 30 years old. I am the mommy of 2 boys. (Ian is 3 1/2 and Christian is 6 months) and I am a Photojournalist!!!

Here are my loves:

Shan (This shot was from my birthday party. See Shan's blog for more info on that!):

Ian (being silly at my birthday party):

Christian (these were his 5 month pictures):

So that's my family!

My life!

My Loves!

My Boys!