What a week! Wednesday, I returned home after a whirlwind of speaking in Tampa Florida. I was honored to speak at the Professional Photographers of America's Imaging USA convention. Over 9000 photographers from all over the world gathered to learn, share, and party! PPA asked me to do a platform presentation for their members. My seminar entitled "Standing out from the Crowd", drew standing room only crowds at 7am!!! I was stunned at the attendance and I was equally stunned that I was awake for it! I had a blast and the crowd was terrific. What a tremendous experience.
In addition to that seminar, I also represented the Nikon Corporation and spoke Sunday, Monday, and Tuesday on their tradeshow stage. I've been a spokesperson for Nikon for the past few years. It's honestly the biggest honor of my career to represent them. I was joined by the one and only Joe McNally and the amazing wildlife photographer Ron McGill.
I was also honored to speak for the Digital Wedding Forum's 4th annual convention which was held 8 miles from Imaging USA. My seminar there was entitled "Hot Sun, Cool Images". It was a lecture and a demonstration on how to capture images in incredibly difficult lighting conditions.
I did three seminars on Monday! 7am, I was on the stage for PPA, 12noon on the stage for Nikon, and 2pm for the Digital Wedding Forum, and I squeezed in 2 mentor sessions to help other photographers as well! Lets just say that martinis were inhaled by day's end.
Of course, a little bit of fun should be mixed in. I had a blast with some great friends. It was great to see Marcus Bell, Jeff and Julia Woods, Steve and Jen Bebb, Ryan Joseph, Parker Pfister, Joe Buissink, Susan Stripling, Michael Schuhmann, Greg Gibson, and so many others. Special thanks to my buddy from Nikon, Mike Corrado, for a terrific dinner Sunday evening.
My next speaking gig will be in Las Vegas at WPPI. I'll be a print judge for the Photojournalism competition and I'll be doing a master class on "Demystifying Flash". That seminar is sold out already.
Special thanks to my great friend Susan Stripling for capturing these while I was speaking for Nikon
Special thanks to David DiRentis for these photos. These were shot while teaching my Digital Wedding Forum Seminar on Monday afternoon.
