FRIDAY FAVORITES: WPPI EDITION

Three years ago, I accidentally fell in love with attending WPPI.  You see, I originally went to the trade show portion of the conference in hopes of finding a lab to print some of my full color announcements and invitations (which I did!) and somehow in the middle of all the lens, bags, albums and camera chaos that flooded the show floor, I found out that there was a whole other side to WPPI - platform classes!!!  And not only that, I found out that year that Elizabeth Messina and Jessica Claire, two of my favorite photographers at the time, were speaking!

Being the daily blog reading devout fan to both of them that I was, I was stoked!  I didn't know what to really expect, although I was pretty certain the classes wouldn't involve talking about f-stops and all that other fancy photography jargon.  Thank goodness because my head would have been spinning.  I'm pretty sure all 12,000 some odd people that come to this thing know how to work their camera and take a decent photo.  Unlike me.  I was such a fish out of water, feeling lame that I was a graphic designer attending a photographer's convention, but I was totally inspired by both of their classes nonetheless.  They rocked!  But in different ways since their approaches and styles are so different from one another.  These classed left me hungry for more motivation, more inspiration, and more beautiful imagery.  So I came back the rest of the week for more. 

Along the way, in a crowded classroom full of hundreds of people in it, fate sat me next to this darling, sweet, and talented girl by the name of Jenny Bishop.  She was from Arizona - Mesa to be exact.  And to make a long story short, she literally lived around the corner from my sister!!!  What are the chances, right?!  We became fast friends and to this day we still keep in touch.  She's a gem of a friend, as in, she traveled all the way from Arizona just to attend a my baby shower without knowing a single soul other than me!  How selfless and kind is that?!  Well now that she has a bundle of joy on the way of her own, she was not able to attend this year and was definitely missed.  I couldn't help but think of her many times this year as I thought back to my first WPPI experience and her being one of the most memorable parts of it.

So fast forward to now having 3 WPPI's under my belt, and WOW, I swear each year just gets better!   And since this is technically supposed to be a Friday's Favorites post, these were my favorite parts to this year's convention...

#1 - hanging out with the COOLEST people ever...like Candace Simpson, Kristin Conk, and my girl Jeanna Hayes 

#1 A - having 2 days worth of front row parking right next to the elevator in primo spots (I normally have to drive around for 20 minutes)

#2 - being inspired by the COOLEST speakers ever...like Jasmine Star (with whom Jeanna and I had the lovely opportunity of meeting for 1.2 minutes one day while at the trade show) and Jill La Fleur aka the event planning Goddess!  Jill's utterly amazingly, awe inspiring presentation goes down as my most FAVORITE WPPI platform class ever!  She's the real deal man.  Talented, creative, gracious, warm, beautiful, I'll stop  here...

And #3 - having the honor of speaking briefly with said Goddess and snapping a quick photo opp with her.  But let me point out that this only happened because I have super sweet friends named Candace and Kristin that held my hands the entire time - I get so nervous in the service to do this sort of stuff.  But I kind wanted to push myself out of my comfort zone to do so, even if I didn't technically do it all by myself.  Baby steps I tell you, baby steps.  Thanks girls for making this moment happen and thanks to Kristin who was the one behind the lens capturing it all...

And because I'm a girl that loves the details, I begged Kristin to snap a photo of this GORGEOUS linen Jill had as part of her set up.   Isn't it heavenly?!  And if you think this is lovely, you should have seen the room!  While most rooms, wait, make that ALL rooms that these speakers engage us in just just have the lame banquet chairs and huge screens set up in them, let's just say that Ms. La Fleur has set a whole new standard and raised the bar by like 1000%.    Picture this...it was like a  wedding....beautiful lace wrapped promo packets sat on top of each person's chair, which these weren't just any chairs - they were Chiavari chairs with chocolate satin seat cushions.  Some of the chairs on the aisle way even had bunches of wheat tied onto them.  Jill spoke in front of a lovely linen like cascading back drop with giant framed photos (by Jose Villa I think) hanging over top, she had lush fresh floral arrangements, hanging lanterns, flickering candle light, the whole nine yards.  Plus she collected business cards from anyone who wanted to offer them up for a chance to win something from her slew of give-aways, like an advertising spot on Style Me Pretty, a spot to her upcoming workshop, and to me the most coveted item - a styled shoot designed by her!!!  GASP!  I so didn't bring business  cards with me (you know, because I'm there simply to be inspired not to network), but at that moment, I was so bummed I didn't have any.

{ images by: Kristin Conk }

All in all, it was a wonderful, inspiring week and gave me even more momentum to keep going on a little project I've been working on.  Details to follow soon.

Happy Friday everyone!

"A few things I think are just great. " - Oprah