I just spent the past four days at a photography conference called Skip’s Summer School in Las Vegas. Chalk full of information, I took pages and pages of notes on how to take my photography and business to the next level.

I was privileged to learn from some of the best in the industry, like children’s photographer Tamara Lackey and marketing experts Jules & Joy Bianchi. The sexy Australian accent of Jerry Ghionis was intoxticating while impressing all of us with his incredible imagery. And it was great to see Bambi Cantrell who knows everything about posing and how to make a woman look beautiful.  Wedding photographer, Roberto Valenzuela was hysterical with his crass humor and really encouraged me to practice my craft everyday with the simplist of things, like a banana. These guys were truly inspirational!

After lots of lecture, the next day focused on a more hands-on/show-and-tell approach to teaching. Bobbi Lane was an incredible instructor and taught me tons about studio lighting, which will help me a lot in my classroom. The celebrity photographer, Matthew Jordan Smith was truly inpsirational and encouraged me to dream big and even volunteered to come speak to my students! Woo hoo!

Skip Cohen and Scott Bourne ended the four day conference with all sorts of great advice on marketing and social media.  But I was truly wowed by what Vincent Laforet does with video on the Canon 5D Mark II and the new Red Epic Camera. Truly remarkable stuff!

But one of my favorite parts of the conference was when I went on a shoot out with Clay Blackmore in the Mirage Hotel and on the Las Vegas strip. It was awesome! I have been involved in lots of shoots with other photographers before, but never one that involved such magnificent backdrops. We had a blast!

Here is our first model, Dannika Renée, which we placed against a bright neon Beatles sign. Super fun!This is Clay Blackmore in action. He is the real deal and such a nice and humble guy. It was an honor to be lead by such a talented photographer.And this beautiful girl is actually one of the photographers, Ashley Zimmer, who just happened to be gorgeous.
So this was my FAVORITE part of the whole four days, right here. I felt like I was on the set of America’s Next Top Model. Imagine loud tribal music in the background and huge flames coming out of a volcano with a smoking hot model in front. For a photographer, this moment was pretty epic!
And this is what a shoot out looks like, a bunch of photographers playing together to get the perfect shot! So much fun!

And some things I want to leave you with, said by the great Gerry Ghionis,

“Photograph your subject through the eyes of their loved one.”  and “If you want to be a better photographer, you have to be a better person.” Truly good stuff kids!