Lit up legs courtesy of Studio 54 dancers. WPPI 2010 in Vegas courtesy of one of my biggest fans, a very happy somewhat belated 30th birthday to me. And a very big thank you to Dan! And while I’m doing thanks you’s, a big ol’ thank you to Veerle, my traveling companion, it wouldn’t have been nearly as much fun without you. And giddily skipping down the halls of the MGM would’ve just looked strange on my own.
So what is WPPI? It stands for Wedding and Portrait Photographers International, and this year was the 30th anniversary of the annual convention and trade show. It’s in Vegas,
at the MGM Grand, and it’s ENORMOUS. A trade show with a zillion, ok maybe not a zillion, but loads of vendors, photographers, makers of albums, printers, gizmo developers, bag designers, imaging software thingies and just generally wonderful photo stuff. It’s the mall of my dreams complete with massive Canon booth, cute girlie camera bags (shootsac) (I love camera bags the way normal girls love pretty purses) and a camera holster (the spider) guaranteed to make you the fastest draw in the west (ok maybe they don’t guarantee that but it’s fun to say and I bet it’ll help). And that’s just the “lookee here at all the cool stuff we’ve got” part.
The other part, the conference/class/speaker/learning/listening/meeting part is an avalanche of classes one after another and many times all at once about everything from digital processing to rekindling your passion for photography. It’s a smorgasbord. Since my trip was so last minute, and I wasn’t really super prepared, I just kind of threw darts at the available interesting classes in the program.
The first class I got into (and I say got into because there were some serious lines), was Art Suwansang’s Lightroom 2: Development Module Creative Fast Track which was perfect for me. For the non-photo geeks, you can feel free to check out for the next paragraph.
So when I started with digital imaging I was using Photoshop 7, or maybe even 6, I can’t remember. It was eons ago, at least in digital terms, in ye olde time years, it was like 6 years ago. So now I’m now shooting RAW and I’ve been processing with CS4 and Bridge for the last few years. I started a trial of Lightroom to see what all the fuss was about and loved it. I watched a few tutorials and got an idea af how much you can do in lightroom without ever getting into Photoshop. And I’m not into over-modifying images, but it’s quick easy fixes that I could do in Ps and Br but are way faster in Lightroom. Hello streamlined processing!
Anyway, this class got my Lightroom skills up where they should be – lots of good information, good good good. The funny thing was Art asked who of us (the 200 people in the class) had worked with the “F” word – in photo, the “F” word is “film” – and I was one of maybe three people who raised their hands. Now maybe some people didn’t raise their hands, but only three?! Apparently at the ripe old age of 31, I am OLD SCHOOL. That’s right, I learned to shoot with film, I can develop my own film with -gasp- chemicals, print my own prints (again with smelly, bad for you chemicals, that I still miss the smell of) and I even know how to hand spot them! It’s insane that film is now almost totally obsolete. I mean digital is cheaper, excellent quality and super malleable, but film, even if it’s just the grandpappy of imaging has got it’s place. I don’t know if I could tell you where that place is, but I know that starting out with film taught me to self edit, think carefully about composition and learn how to see and translate light and those are all photo basics. And I’m glad I got to learn them with film.
Stay tuned for more from Vegas!
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