Shan at WPPI!

Here is the blog post from Mpix. This is Day 2 at WPPI (which was Tuesday). The show ended yesterday afternoon and I am happy that my hubby is on a plane on his way home now. (He is the last picture on here.)

I am so proud of him and everything that he was able to accomplish this year at WPPI. And I am excited to see where it takes us in the future!

WPPI 2009: Day Two

We've wrapped up day two at WPPI and are preparing for our final day at the show. Again, we're at booth # 701, so come by and see us! The show is open until 3:00pm today.

We want to thank our presenters for the amazing work they have done for us this week. Our team of Jamie, Carey, Dale and Shannon have been great to work with. Don't miss out on their presentations today!

JAMIE SCHULTZ | WEDNESDAY 11:00AM

DALE BENFIELD | WEDNESDAY 12:00PM

CAREY SCHUMACHER | WEDNESDAY 1:00PM

SHANNON SMITH | WEDNESDAY 2:00PM

Here is a link to the Mpix blog where you can leave a comment for Mpix and Shan.

Great job Honey! Can't wait to have you home!

Shameless Bragging on my Hubby!

This was finally announced on the Mpix blog this afternoon and I couldn't be more proud to proclaim that the hot guy on the right is my husband, Shan!

This is the exact post from the Mpix blog:

WPPI: Mpix Presenters Unveiled!

JAMIE SCHULTZ
"Templates and the Press: Exceeding client's expectations using Mpix Press products!"

Jamie will show how to combine Mpix Press printing with easy-to-use templates. Templates are hot right now, and Jamie is one of the leading template designers on the market. Learn how Jamie uses MpixPRESS to create stunning products that impress her clients.

MONDAY 11:30AM | TUESDAY 11:30AM | WEDNESDAY 11:00AM


CAREY SCHUMACHER
"Mpix book software: A powerful tool for your clients, more free time for you!"

Leverage the power and ease of the Mpix Book Software to increase your income and get more free time for yourself. Learn how digital-savvy clients will buy your images on a CD, and then have the ability to use Mpix's simple drag-and-drop press software to create their own stunning books.

MONDAY 12:30PM | TUESDAY 12:30PM | WEDNESDAY 1:00PM


DALE BENFIELD
"Unique uses of Mpix products: Stand out from your competition!"

Dale is excited to share some non-conventional uses for Mpix products. If you are looking to add some hip, new ideas to your product offering, don't miss this presentation. Dales message ­ learn creative ways to use Mpix products to both differentiate you from the competition and up sell packages to your current clients.

MONDAY 1:30PM | TUESDAY 1:30PM | WEDNESDAY 12:00PM


SHANNON SMITH
"Simplify to Multiply: How to streamline your business for even more growth!"

Shannon will be covering many options available with Mpix to streamline your business. If you are looking to make life a little easier for you and your clients, you won¹t want to miss Shannon's talk. Topics include online ordering with both Zenfolio and Mpix, simplified album options, work flow and utilizing forums for continuous learning.

MONDAY 2:30PM | TUESDAY 2:30PM | WEDNESDAY 2:00PM

We would like anyone planning to attend to do so as our guests, for free. To register online, go to www.wppionline.com and choose to register for the trade show. Enter promo code "MC 26" and select Exhibitor "Mpix".

SHOW HOURS:
MONDAY 10:30am-4:00pm | TUESDAY 10:30am-4:00pm | WEDNESDAY 10:30am-3:00pm





I am so proud of him. One of his goals that he set last year was to speak at WPPI in Las Vegas in 2009 and he is doing it!!!

(For those of you who don't know, WPPI is Wedding and Portrait Photographers International and their HUGE annual convention is in Las Vegas next week. There are over 10,000 photographers who attend this convention and to be asked to present on the tradeshow floor is a VERY big deal!)

A HUGE thank you goes out to Mpix for giving him this opportunity! They are a wonderful company and truly have become a family to us.

You can keep checking the Mpix blog and here on my blog for updates on the convention! If you happen to be going to Vegas, be sure to check him out!!! It is going to be a great presentation!

I love you Honey! Knock 'em dead in Vegas!

I will stop gushing now! LOL

Press Release!

I was thrilled to look in my e-mail today and find a press release from WPPI for my Accolade of Excellence. Reading through it made me smile and made me feel great about my accomplishment. I am not one to toot my own horn, but I was told that if I don't do it...no one will. So here I am...toot...toot!! LOL

Anyway..here is the press release (You can click on it to see it bigger! LOL). I forwarded it onto the Akron Beacon Journal, The Plain Dealer, The Canton Repository, The Suburbanite, The West Side Leader and Today's Bride Magazine. I would be so excited if it got published by any of them!



Thanks for sharing my joy with me!
Steph

Home Sweet Home

After a very long 12 days, we are finally back home in Akron! I had such a great time at WPPI, but I am also so happy to be home.

We flew back into Dayton on Friday night and then spent the weekend with Shan's family in Northern Kentucky. It was a lot of fun to hang out with Shan's brother Aaron, his wife (and my best friend) Ashley and their boys Peyton and Jackson. Our boys and their boys are very close in age (Peyton-6, Ian-4, Jackson-2, Christian-1) and she is expecting BOY #3 in August! Can you imagine?!?! 5 boys between us!!!! We have decided that Smith men don't make girls! LOL It was also great to hang out with Shan's Mom Vicky and his step-dad Chuck.

We had a wonderful Easter. The weather for church was cool, but sunny. Here are a couple of pictures of Ian and Christian before we went to church.





Christian made it through about 30-40 minutes of church before he got so restless that I had to take him out to the car. Ian did great in church and I was very proud of how quiet and calm he was.

Anyway...I am going to sit on my couch and enjoy the rest of my night...in my house! I love to travel, but sometimes the best part about traveling is coming home!

Steph

More Vegas Baby!

We had a couple more great days in Las Vegas. I had the privilege of meeting Jerry Ghionis and hearing him speak on his natural and very artistic style of posing. It was amazing to see what he was able to create in very ordinary situations just by looking at his surroundings.

Shan and I spent a lot of time on Tuesday and Wednesday networking with other professionals in our industry and getting to know vendors. With our ambition to speak at next year's WPPI, we realized the need to get to know as many people as possible. Before I came to Vegas, I made it my goal to collect as many business cards as I could from fellow photographers. I think I did pretty good with my goal and I got a chance to talk to many people that I never would have met if I hadn't had this goal in mind!

Here is one more Las Vegas collage for you! I hope you enjoy it.



Steph

Another awesome day in Las Vegas!

Monday was a fabulous day here in Vegas. The convention started and I had a huge list of things that I wanted to accomplish.

I had the honor of hearing Me Ra Koh speak on Monday morning. She is such a warm person and so willing to open up and let us see how she has become so successful. In the afternoon program, I was able to hear Sondra Ayers and Jerry Deck from Power Consulting (They are currently revamping their website). They helped me see that I already have a lot of the right business practices in place, but also helped me realize that it is possible to get to the next level. And for the evening program, I had the pleasure of hearing Jose Villa. He was extremely helpful with specifics on what magazines are looking for in submissions. This year I will be focusing a lot more on getting published and Jose provided wonderful, solid information on how to do this. Thanks Jose!

In the afternoon, we had the chance to meet Becker. He was doing free headshots outside of Paris and Shan and I got the chance to get our headshots done together. We also saw our friends Wendi and Devon and grabbed a couple of quick shots of them too!




After a full day of seminars and a couple of hours of walking around the trade show, it was time to get ready for the Giveaway Gala at the iBar in the Rio. This was a cocktail party that was sponsored by Photo Lovecat and Pay It Forward. Throughout the whole night, white beach balls with giveaways taped to them were thrown out into the crowd and people received a lot of great stuff! (We didn't ever end up catching one! LOL) More than anything, it was more of a chance to hang out with some of our photographer friends and get to know them better. You will see some silly pictures from us throughout the night!







I'm sure you can tell from the images, but we are having a great time and meeting great people! I will try to post later today some images from yesterday and I think that tonight we will head out on the strip and take some shots of Vegas! (Last night we stayed in and went to bed early because we had only gotten about an hour and a half of sleep on Monday night! LOL)

Steph

Viva Las Vegas!!!

I am in Las Vegas for the WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) convention and having an absolutely great time!

Shan and I flew in on Friday night and spent most of the day Saturday and Sunday morning sitting in on the 16x20 Print Competition Judging. I had submitted 5 images in the Premier category. (Meaning that I had never competed in an International 16x20 print competition before) It was extremely enlightening to hear the comments the judges were making and to learn what they are looking for. All of the comments that they made about my images I completely agreed with...good and bad. Having this information will really help me in my future print competition submissions.

I am pleased to announce that I did earn an Accolade of Excellence for one of my images and it may be published in WPPI's Album 2008. This is the image that received the Accolade of Excellence. (I think that technically I am not supposed to know this, but I was sitting there when it was judged so I have early information!)


We have had the pleasure of hearing a number of amazing speakers already this weekend. We have heard from Me Ra Koh, Pepper Nix, Jules Bianchi, Sara France, Mike Colon, Joe Buissink and Denis Reggie.

We have also taken some time to relax and have fun. We have really enjoyed meeting up with our photographer friends from around the world and hanging out with them. We went to a party at Club Rouge in the Celebrity Suite at the Palms last night and had a great time socializing and getting to know some of our new friends better. Here is a quick collage of our first couple of days here in Vegas and some highlights from the Club Rouge Party.


We were also able to get some shooting time in with 2 models at the Club Rouge Party. The models were there for us to be able to practice our Couple's Boudoir photography and to gain some amazing images for our portfolios! Here is a collage of the work that I got last night. (Keep in mind with the boudoir images that I was shooting with 9 other photographers in the room at the same time shooting and we only shot for about 10 minutes! So these were quick captures and very on the fly! Of course...it helps when you have drop dead gorgeous models to work with! LOL. Thank you Brittany and Justin! You were a blast to work with!)


Anyway...that is just a little update from me. We will be going to a formal cocktail party tonight, so I am sure that I will have a lot of great images from that to post tomorrow!

Steph

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!