Wedding & Portrait Photographers International Convention 2011

I've been MIA this past week due to the Wedding and Portrait Photographers International Convention in Vegas, it's an annual convention. I was hoping I would have time to blog while there and even brought my computer to do some editing, but alas there was hardly any time to do anything other than attend the convention and sleep. I decided to bring my husband, Tyler, as he is truly my rock and support. I thought it would be nice for him to learn some of the business side and some of the technical photography stuff. But I was blown away by his eagerness and excitement to learn. One of the nights I woke up at 3 in the morning and he was sitting up in bed writing. I asked him what he was doing and if he was going to get up with me in just a few hours to go class. He was so cute and said he had so many great ideas and his brain was racing and thought it would help to write them down. Then he even woke up at 7 to attend class.

I've felt so blessed to be able to attend WPPI could not have been done without the help of both sets of grandparents! Here's a list of some of the photographers' classes I attended, classes where from 1.5-2 hours long!

Dane Sanders
Jerry Ghionis
Tim Meyer
Jason Aten
Craig Heidemann
Scott and Adina Hayne
Cliff Mautner
Doug Gordon
Joe McNally
Bob and Dawn Davis
Sarah Petty
Gene Ho
Jasmin Star
Kevin Kubota
Tamara Lackey
Kenny Kim
Kay Eskridge
Lori Nordstrom

My brain is on information overload! But I'm very excited for my business and photography and what the next year will bring! Can't wait to start experimenting with techniques and tips I learned.

I also got to meet other great photographers from all over the globe and talk to them about their tricks and tips. Everyone there was so friendly and open! For 6 days I focused completely on photography and the industry. I felt like I was in a bubble and time stood still. It was a great experience.

Unfortunately, Ashley, our youngest, had a 104 degree fever for 4 days while we were there, and our other kids were also sick.

Of course!

That's just how things roll!

So, late Wednesday night we decided to make the trip back home to get Ashley to the pediatrician. Turns out she had an ear infection. Poor thing! I was bummed that I missed two other classes that I'm sure would have been great. But there's always next year! Tyler said he wants to go next year which is so encouraging to me. So here are some pics from our trip, we didn't get to hang out in Vegas, because we were so busy with everything going on at WPPI and we were hoping to get to go out Thursday night since we would get done a little earlier, oh well...

Kenny Kim- He was awesome an had some great tips!

Lori Norstrom, I saw her speak at the trade show at WPPI and decided to attend her class. She was also great! I wish I would have taken a pic of every speaker, but I only took these two. :)



View from our car!


View from a friends hotel room at the Cosmopolitan...






We got to attend the trade show as well, lots of gadgets and fun stuff. I had to try to contain myself and not go crazy buying everything in sight! I just bought two thing. Yay!

Tyler and I stopped and listened to some music. Thinking of adding music to our site! If you have an opinion on either way would love to hear it! Either way, we are thinking of doing slide shows with music!

We got to see our friend Tim for all of 5 minutes, but it was fun!



Self portraits...

Before and After

I decided to show a before and after picture. The before picture has been edited for the background, tweaked exposure(it was a dark cloudy day), and white balance. The next step is to clean up the skins. If you are a parent you know how babies scratch their faces all the time, skins is blotchy, and how they start to get baby acne, but you don't need to worry about how the pictures are going to turn out. :)

Elin's Newborn Pictures - Casa Grande Photographer

I hope you guys have enjoyed the picture of Elin's birth. I'm so jealous, her pictures are way better than any picture of my kids' births! Actually, the pictures of my third birth are the worst! They are all blurry, but blurry or not I will keep them because those are the only pictures we have that document her birth.

I went to Elin's home the day after she got released and technically she was 2 and a half days old! Babies this little are so easy to pose. They are so sleepy they don't care what you do to them. Here are some of pictures from her session...

Rylee - Mesa Newborn Photographer

I got to meet this little lady earlier this week. Sadly her mom had tried getting another photographer to do her newborn pictures, but that photographer kept rescheduling their appointment. That made me so sad! Newborns change daily, everyday counts. The majority of newborn pictures on my site are before the baby is even a week old. I was up for the challenge of photographing a 3 week old. I got her in as soon as I could.

Rylee put up a good fight.

She really didn't want to sleep.

Every newborn session is different and come with their own challanges. I've had a 6 day old baby not want to sleep. I've had babies poop all over. Gotten tons of poop on my hand, or pee. I've even gotten it on my clothes. Hahaha

But Rylee's mommy was wonderful and patient. So, we waited her out. She slept for a good 30-45 minutes. Just enough to get several poses of her sleeping. But I love the awake pictures too. Here are just a few of my favorites...

Elin's Birth- AZ Birth Photographer

Sunday night I received a text from my friend Trisha.

"contractions have started"

We had a conversation a few days before about her going possibly over her due date and me leaving out of town. I was really hoping that wouldn't be the case. She'd asked me to be at her baby's birth a few month ago, and I'd really been looking forward to witnessing the birth. Truly an amazing experience. I've had 3 kids of my own and the experience of watching another human being come into this world never seizes to amaze me.

Tim called be about 3 a.m., I had asked them to call when Trisha was dilated to a 7, but things just went so fast. She went from 6cm to fully dilated in a matter of 20 minutes.

"If you want to be here for the birth you need to hurry," he said in a sleepy voice.

"I'm on my way," I said and hurried and slipped on some clothes. Luckily, I had decided to sleep with my contacts in earlier that night, just in case.

The hospital is about 15 minutes from where I live. I set my camera settings as I was walking into the hospital. I got there literally a minute before the on-call doctor did. The doctor walked into the room and washed his hands.

"Push"

One push later baby Elin took her first breath. It was a bewildering moment. Thanks Tim and Trisha for letting me be part of this amazing occasion!

Welcome to the world baby Elin!






















For info on having your baby's birth photographed contact me at dcarverphoto@gmail.com