WPPI 2009 - Impressions of a newbie - Day 5
Alarm… shower… breakfast. I couldn’t take McDonalds anymore, but nothing else was open. At least not in the vicinity of the conference center and nothing as quick as the Mc. My stomach refused to t eat another McMuffin (been eating those for the last four days). I tried but it wouldn’t go. Ended up settling for hash browns and an orange juice. I had no time to spare anyways, because I needed to be in my first class at least an hour in advance to make sure I’m in the very first row, because….
Jerry Ghionis, the Maestro of the world’s wedding photography was speaking :) If you’ve never seen his “From Ordinary to Extraordinary” series - you’re missing out big time! Beg, borrow or steal but find the series - it’s truly amazing. Ice Society is awesome (although a bit on the expensive side) - tremendous source of inspiration. During his presentation Jerry shared tricks and tips on how to pose “Less than perfect couples”. He’d grab people from the audience (couples) and show how to create dozens of poses out of a single one. He “shot” 15 completely different poses of the bride and four of her brides maids in under 3 minutes! And those girls were NOT his models, they were photographers from the audience! Creative use of available light, especially shadows - always shooting from the shadowed side. Pose your subject with their face turned to the light and then shoot from the shadowed side - amazing difference (slimmer looks). Covering larger arms of a bride by groom’s arms. Covering up bigger brides (or maids) with veils, door frames and again, using shadows *all the time*!!! This technique blew my mind. I’ve been “flashing” all my bridal pictures! This technique is something I will be experimenting with A LOT now.
Oh yeah, here is the auditorium 20mins before Jerry’s presentation began… it’s full!! I believe that room’s capacity was around 2000 people.
After Jerry’s class I finished my exploration of the trade show (ended up with 10lbs of booklets and promotional material :) and happened to catch most of the Dane Sanders’ class, the bulk of which was in the leadership - get out there, invest into yourself and market, market, market!
Finally, my WPPI convention ended with Gene Higa. He talked about how he started and how he got where he is now. Concentrated predominantly on destination weddings. Cool start with a video and live Elvis participation - something different. He also stressed continuously about needing to be unique and finding your own niche. Could not agree with him more.
I didn’t go to the awards presentation that night (it’s not like I could win any, right?). Instead I had a good meal for a change, rested and played a little poker tournament at the hotel where I was staying. Few beers and California crowd arriving for the clothing convention starting the following day made the evening quite enjoyable. I was the third one getting knocked out even though I felt it wasn’t fair: Was dealt 8 and 2, limped in, flopped two pair, pushed half a stack in trying to narrow down the field, got an all-in call, matched. The guy opens up a pair. I’m way ahead. Cool, sensing some $$! Turn…. Darn!!! He catches higher “two pair” and of course the river is no help to me. I ended up on a short stack and played Russian roulette on the next hand by pushing “all in” without looking at my cards. Blinds would have killed me on this very round anyways. And that was it folks :-)