Well, I didn't have far to travel...I mean, a 15 min drive last night and I was home. Whew! :P

I don't know how many people actually ended up at the convention, but I believe it broke all previous Imaging records. Photographers everywhere!! Hopefully the numbers will be posted somewhere soon, because I'd love to know the final count.

I attended several programs by some of the country's most talented and successful photographers...I feel SO INSPIRED!! The topics ranged from workflow, to lighting, to marketing, to shaking things up with wedding photography, creating amazing albums and more! Really, this was such a great experience, and I can't wait to jump into 2008 applying these new techniques I've learned!

I have to mention how lucky I was to meet Levi Nilsson, president of the Alaska Chapter of PPA. I just happened to sit next to him during the first workshop of the day on Monday, and we just kinda clicked and spent the rest of the conference together. Talk about someone who knows his stuff! He was able to answer so many of my questions (and so patiently, thank you, Levi!!) and give me tons of pointers for my business. Plus I got to see his brand new, 2-day-old Canon Mark III in action. ;) Levi and his wife are expecting twins in a couple of months, and I can only imagine how fast his shutter count is going to skyrocket once they're born! LOL Levi, you rock!!

Ooh, I also got to meet Erik Dungan of Big Folio, who I have my website through. Up until Monday he was just a name to me, and it was so cool to finally meet him in person! Big Folio has been such a great company to work with. Even though I could tell he was a li'l stressed with some internet connection issues at the trade show, he was super nice, answered all of the questions I had and even sold Levi on a new website! Thank you, Erik, for all of the hard work you put into your awesome company!

Next year I won't be so lucky to have the conference right here, it's going to be in Phoenix, AZ...but I feel it would totally be worth the trip and I'm already planning on going! Hey, if someone can make it to Florida from Alaska, I can certainly make it to Arizona. To sum up, I had an amazing, educational and super-inspiring weekend...2008 is going to be amazing and I'm so excited to see what goodness God has in store for Blue Lane Photography!

Cheers, Everyone!!! ~Zekeshem