Vegas, Baby!

I spent the past week in Vegas at the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (WPPI) Annual Convention. It was an absolutely amazing time, full of friends, networking, learning, and discovery!

My friend Sarah Hodzic and I flew out to Vegas last Saturday. We met up with the fabulous and amazing Alex and started the week off right with a fun dinner I planned (with the help of my uber fabulous studio manager, Mandy) at Ah Sin at the Paris Hotel with 20 or so fellow photographers. It was a great way to start off the week - delicious food and fabulous friends!


A few photos from Saturday night...
The amazing and gorgeous Alex Abercrombie...




My new friend and uber fabulous photog, Jonathan Rubin



On Sunday I had the great pleasure of attending Dane Sanders' FastTrack Photographer Founders workshop. Dane is an amazing wedding photographer, teacher, friend, and, above all, a caring and generous person. It was truly a joy to spend the day with him and the rest of my new Founders friends! For the photographers reading, if you haven't heard of Dane's newest tool - the pDNA - identifying your photographer DNA - you absolutely must check it out.

photo of Dane by Sarah

The rest of the week was full of fun with friends, new and old. After a fun cocktail party sponsored by my lab (and life saver) Pictage, we headed to the Bludomain party on Monday night. Okay, enough talking, right? On to more pictures! They're worth a 1000 words, after all...

Alex is so fun to hang out with! I am so lucky to have her as a friend!!





Another fun pic of fabulous Jonathan....

I love this picture Sarah took of me when we were sitting by the pool at Paris.



Shawn Reeder is one of the most amazing photographers and people I have ever met. If you ever need inspiration, just check out his landscape and rock climbing photos. Truly inspiring.





The always fun Sarah!




This picture just cracks me up!!




Another new friend, the lovely and talented Christine ...



On Thursday, my new friends Chelsea and Jayce took Sarah and I out to Red Rock Canyon for picnic, rock climbing, and of course lots of photography! Shawn joined us on his way home too.

Can you believe the gorgeousness of this place?? I feel so lucky that we got to include this in our trip to Vegas!



Chelsea and Jayce and their adorable puppy Bella!





Jayce is on top of the world!



Sarah too!



And of course Shawn...

Whenever I do these personal/vacation posts, everyone says I don't put up any pictures of myself... so I snagged a couple of images from Sarah's blog...

Me, Sarah, Shawn, and David Jay at the tradeshow.... DJ, aside from being a fabulous photographer, is a wonderful teacher and giver. He continually gives back to the photographic community and encourages sharing and friendship between photographers instead of competition. Thanks DJ!

I love this image Sarah took of me outside the tradeshow.

Shawn, Sarah and I...

And a fun self-portrait of me, Shawn, Alex, Sarah, and Christine...

Okay, so sorry for the super long post... If you read this far, you are a trooper! Thank you to everyone who came up and said hello to me - it's so fun to meet everyone in real life (instead of just the virtual world!). Such a fun trip!

Stay tuned... coming up in the next few days is the sneak peek of Jodie and Steve's engagement session today in Annapolis.

Baseball - Dominican Style!

I was fascinated by these boys playing baseball in Campo Cano Piedra in the Dominican Republic. When I first walked up to them, I just saw a bunch of boys playing baseball and started snapping away with my camera. As I got closer I realized they didn't have a bat - they were using a skinny sugar cane. And as a missed ball rolled towards me, I realized it wasn't a ball at all - it was a doll's head. A couple of the boys had mitts, but most of them were playing bare-handed. And none of them were wearing shoes. I was amazed at their talent and their ability to hit and catch and throw with their makeshift equipment. And I was touched by their exuberance for the game and their genuine love of baseball.

Dominican Republic

I spent an amazing 9 days in the Dominican Republic with my college roommate, Danielle. Danielle was a Peace Corps Volunteer in the DR after college and she was my tour guide on our trip. We spent a couple days in Santo Domingo, a couple days visiting the villages (or campos) that she lived and worked in when she was a Peace Corps Volunteer, and then ended our trip with a relaxing stay at a beautiful resort in Bavaro Beach.

I wanted to share some pictures from my trip and you can see more in the slideshow here.