2018 WPPI Wrap Up

One of the  highlights of my job is getting to attend the Wedding and Portraiture Intensive in Las Vegas in February.

When I went last year it was career changing. I learned and implemented a lot of marketing techniques that helped catapult my business in mid-late 2017. As business owners, we are always talking about Return on Investment. The ROI with WPPI was huge.

I vowed that this year I would bring some friends with me, so this year my friend Beth, who is an outstanding photographer in Missoula, and I drove. Does anyone else out there love road trips? I always have. It’s about 900 miles between Vegas and the Bitterroot Valley, but we cleared the journey there in one day. Okay, so we actually ran into a bit of trouble on the road, but what is life if not unexpected? 

We met some other friends there who were a bit smarter than us and flew. My friend Stephanie out of Sonomish, Washington, has been with me on my photography journey since the beginning, and this was the first time we got to meet in person. 

My mom is a photographer in Texas. We roomed together, took some of the same classes, and headed out for a mini portrait session on the strip early one morning. 

More than anything, I learned all sorts of new ways to connect, impress, and build authentic relationships with my clients. This business isn’t about awards or accreditation. It’s about making my clients happy. At the end of the day, it’s about the photos that are hanging on their walls or the albums they can’t wait to share with others. It isn’t about online galleries; it’s about gallery wall art. It’s prints over pixels. It’s creating the heirloom pieces that will be passed on to their grandchildren.

Thanks Rangefinder Magazine and WPPI for the opportunity to learn, grow, be inspired, have fun with old friends, and make some new ones.