HOLY COW WHAT A FUN MONTH!

So, in January every year is Imaging USA. It's the largest conference for photographers and it's just EPIC. You learn from the coolest speakers, you see your photography tribe of friends, you get to go on a BLISS vacation, basically.

Well this year, it was held in National Harbor, Maryland. So, Washington DC basically. I'd never been. Not to MD, not to DC and not to VA. None of those states. So, what did we decide to do?

DRIVE!

Yes we did. For those of you that are going, "from where? Drive from where?" Well, I live in Texas. My studio is in Plano, but I actually live an hour north of my studio. What I'm saying here is...we drove 20 hours to get to Imaging USA this year. TWENTY HOURS!

It was amazing. I took COPIOUS amounts of photos through the windshield. The skies were incredible, the trees, the scenery... (Tennessee is my vote for prettiest on this drive) but we saw all the gorgeous scenery.

We pulled into National Harbor, set our bags down and I went straight to one of my best friends' rooms to scream and hug her and just BOND. Just LOVE on people that I haven't been able to see in TWO YEARS. I saw so many incredibly inspiring people... I mean...I can't even gush over this enough.

So what did I see? Who did I meet?

I saw my incredibly inspiring friends. I saw Pete Souza get his Lifetime Achievement award from PPA (Professional Photographers of America). If you don't know his name, he was Obama and Reagan's official photographer when each was the president. His work is some of the best you'll ever see.

www.petesouza.com

I saw Mike Michalowicz speak AGAIN. It's my fourth time. I absolutely love hearing him and reading his books. If you don't know his name, yeah, he's written some of the coolest business, marketing, finance books around. Trust me.

www.mikemichalowicz.com

I saw Kaplan Mobray speak again. This guy. I bought his book, too! (Thank goodness for these incredible humans writing their knowledge and inspiration down) I've seen Kaplan speak before, but it was on Zoom....This guy has more energy than anyone I know... It was pure gift to see him in person.

www.kaplanmobray.com

I got to meet so many new photographers and business owners and friends... it's one of my favorite parts of the year and I'd forgotten that over this pandemic! It was so incredible to be reminded of it!

I actually am someone that will set certain people to meet. I want to meet the people that inspire me and that I look up to, and I got to meet one of the two I'd been set to meet. (Thank you Kesha Lambert for being SO COOL.....and Parker Pfister, our meet day is coming!) The other people that I was set on seeing in person were the people that I do business meetings with that are from Ireland, Wales, England, etc. They were all coming over here and I got to have drinks in an Irish Pub with them and laugh and be better friends than we even were before!

I also had the honor of being asked to walk a friend across the stage as her sponsor while she got her Master Photographer designation from PPA! It was so great to celebrate her win with her and I can't even tell how how much it meant to be able to be the one who walked her across the stage!!! Congratulations, Tina Caron!!!

THEN.... I got to walk around Washington DC and see the monuments and White House and all of the buildings! It was incredible to see these historical sites! I really want to go back when the cherry trees are blossoming... It was gorgeous in snow and ice so I can only imagine the springtime!

I'm including all (not really all) of my cell phone photos for your viewing pleasure, so you can see what I saw!

We drove home in the same gorgeous way. Beautiful skies, trees to die for, and tons of photos through the windshield!

Since being gone for almost two weeks in the month, battling our own omicron stuff (we were lucky, we were sick and then okay) and then having a couple of ice days here... it feels like I'm in a permanent catch up mode.

I'm not. But....

I AM BACK!

And I'm ready to develop the film of my trip, schedule some workshops AND some shoots. I actually scheduled nine shoots yesterday. This year is gonna ROCK!

I think you, as my blog reader friend, deserve some insight into plans for this year. Well, there will be LOTS of workshops AND I'm going to start offering some film sessions! I can't wait to roll out what I've been planning. You're going to just love this stuff. We have a big year planned over here and I am so excited to get it started! We're officially starting 2022!!!!!

LET'S DO THIS THANG!!!!!