In keeping with my goal to blog on Monday nights from now on... which was one of the recommended things to do as a positive step to increasing the flow of your business... here goes... blog number 2!
So you might ask... what actually happens at a state photography convention? Well first off what means the most to me when I go to these events are the friendships with fellow photographers that are formed and the camaraderie we feel. Unless you are part of a creative circle you might not understand this phenomena in total. We creative types are kinda quirky, dorky, spacey sometimes (me... always looking at lights) and when we are together we feel comfortable in our skin. We belong. We understand each other... And boy do we know how to party! Especially we empty nested middle agers :-)
The next thing we do is learn... there are usually several speakers at any given time and you can choose which person that might match closely to what you are interested in.
The first day of the convention we grabbed our computers and went to 
Tim Riley
Tim Riley
a Lightroom 3 class given by Tim and Chris Riley, photographers from Maine and the makers of a lightroom/photoshop tool called RPG keys. www.rpgkeys.com Even though I have been using lightroom for years I did learn quite a bit about different ways to catalogue and that you can find some nifty free lightroom presets from www.ononesoftware.com and of course... I couldn't resist buying myself the keypad that is touted to save me much time in my post processing. Unfortunately I haven't had a minute to play with them yet :-(
There was an evening session that didn't interest me so a bunch of us hung out in the lounge chatting about everything and anything... boy did I get an education that night!
Day 2 found me at
Mary Mortensen and while I enjoyed her energy and the fact that she does pretty much what I do and we share similar styles, I really didn't get all that much out of her program. She is a great photographer and very big on marketing and willing to share her techniques but despite trying really hard, I could not see doing any of those things in my day to day business practice. I don't have 5 or 6 employees, or a huge studio that includes outside shooting gardens. I don't charge $150.00 for an 8x10 and I can never see myself doing so. There must be some wealth in the community in Wisconsin she lives in. She certainly seems busy, but my focus here... in the Hudson Valley is to continue to cater to the service professions, teachers, nurses, police, fire etc.... and I know they do not make what they should. I appreciate what they do and want to not out price the working class from my studio. So while I may have to raise my rates sooner than later, I will remain grounded and committed to my clients :-)
Later in the day I was here... listening to 
Jason Groupp
Jason Groupp Again... wanting to think outside the box of what I am used to. I know how to use off camera TTL flash but prefer not to. And this demonstration didn't change my mind at all. I actually had to leave and go take a nap... maybe a little too much party the night before? But Jason was a dynamic speaker and for those who want to cart stuff around with them to location shoots they probably learned quite a bit. I am just finding I am simple... I prefer soft existing light... and proud of it :-)
9pm brought the Animal House Toga party.... crazy costumes, fun times!
Monday I was pretty much too wiped out for anything but needed to take the Certified Professional Photographer exam that I had signed up for, I had passed the portfolio test months before and keep telling myself that I would study at some point and never got around to it. Baaaad idea. The test started at 1:30...... exactly the time I needed a nap. The room was cold and I was foggy.. not a great combination for taking a test, but I do what I have to do. A good test taker I am, I whizzed through the 100 questions in about 50mins and left the room. No turning back... Likely I didn't pass but not sure I would have if I had studied. Way too many questions on film cameras. Stuff I don't know anything about. And other things that I hold creative license to... some rules are just meant to be broken, so the answers were never what I would have done. Anyway.. it all remains to be seen, maybe I will be surprised. Waiting for that letter to come in the mail. Will keep you posted.
