It’s been a busy season so I’m two months behind on posting this, but better late than never, right?

I had a great time at Photoshop World again and learned many things which I have since forgotten (good thing I took notes!).

On my first day, I went on the Photo Safari with Joe McNally and Moose Peterson. I am lucky I signed up for it when I did because it was sold out several days later! This event is always popular because you get to spend an entire day shooting with these two very influential, talented photographers. They show you how they light scenes, interact with subjects, and see things the way they do. This year the field trip was to Bonnie Springs Ranch, which is a tourist attraction just half an hour outside of Las Vegas. The employees/actors who work at the ranch were our models, and they were great to work with.

We were on Moose’s bus. He taught us things and answered questions on the way there.

Our bus passed epic clouds and landscapes, but when we arrived at the ranch there was not a cloud in sight :(

Can’t get the wedding photographer out of me!

I introduce… Noir Peacock.

The cigarette was real. The peacock found it on the ground and was pretty happy to feed its addiction.

Just after the sun set, we headed onto the nearby hill for another lighting demo.

I was a little late getting to the burro and it snubbed me and walked away, but I managed to get one photo!

There are many interesting pokey things out there. I had cactus spines stuck in my sneakers for a few weeks after :)

I made some bus buddies, and we became known by our locations or quirks:
Chicago, Just Tony/Tardy, OP, Fisheye, Canada

After scrubbing off lots of desert dust and getting minimal sleep, it was time to start Photoshop World!

Joe McNally’s live lighting demo

RC points at some random thing (I think he just talks with his hands like I do!)

They went all out for the shooting areas again. Such amazing body paint! The man in the middle is the one who conceptualized this look.

It’s always a treat to run into Jeff Revell, though he was looking a bit like a cyclops.

This year I brought Cam along and we took a few extra days for vacation… plus I made him model for me a few times :)

Excellent view :)

Wednesday at DrupalCon was another full day of learning, and I attended extremely diverse classes from styling maps to talking about internet marketing. I had a few “ah ha!” moments, which are always a treat at these events.

Okay, that’s it for the actual DrupalCon photos in this post; the highlight of Wednesday was the Lullabot party in the evening! Trevor and I headed to the Underground, along with our new friend from Puerto Rico, Yazan. The night started with a “Geek to Chic” fashion show, where many of the “Drupal rockstars” donned top of the line nerd attire and strutted in front of us as we cheered on. I was almost in pain by the end from laughing so much!

Yaz and me

Me and Trevor

This was intense!

Luckily it was videotaped, and I happen to be opposite the action taking photos :)

Having webchick in crazy tall heels was probably the funniest part :)

We finally ran into Gord and Anne from NorthStudio (based in Victoria). I hadn’t seen them since DrupalCamp Alberta a few months ago, so it was great to be reunited and enjoy the dance party together!

The party finished off with Jeff Robbin’s (Lullabot) band Orbit, who were insanely good. Listen!

When I had had enough of the loud music, I followed Jacob and a few others to the karaoke party at Murasake, and was amazed by how many Druplers know how to belt out a tune.

These guys, whose names I never caught, did a number of classic karaoke duets including, “You’ve Lost that Loving Feeling” and “Don’t Stop Believing.”

It was here I met Jeff, and although he lives in Vancouver now, he used to live in Calgary and even spent time working in Brocket when he was younger. What a small world! It’s like us Canadians have homing devices built in.

Last week I had the priviledge of attending DrupalCon Chicago, a nearly week long conference dedicated to my favorite CMS, Drupal (it’s what I use the most to build websites, and since I’ve only been using it for a little over two years I still have a ton to learn). I went with U of L web guys Trevor and Wesley. I have a lot of photos I want to post, so I’ll be breaking this into three blogs over the next few days.

We left on Sunday for our flight out of Calgary, and had a smooth trip other than Trevor forgetting his passport on the way there (luckily we had left enough time that we could afford to go back for it!).

O’Hare International Airport in Chicago had some crazy lights going on and I was already in love with the architecture, which would carry on to the downtown district.

Our view driving in was fantastic, with the skyscrapers growing larger and larger as we neared our hotel. When you live in flat Lethbridge and mostly vacation in sprawling Los Angeles, skyscrapers are such a novel thing!

Our hotel was situated right along the river coming from Lake Michigan, and I could see a hint of the lake from my room’s window.

The day before the conference, we had each signed up for a pre-con training class, and I chose Upgrading Drupal 6 to 7, a hands-on class where we upgraded a variety of websites to the newest version of Drupal. The session was taught by Acquia members Jacob Singh, Joshua Brauer, and Erik Webb, as well as additional help from Heather James, and they were fantastic to learn from.

After a full day of learning, I headed back to the hotel to check out the opening reception. DrupalCon was now officially underway!

While Trevor went to a Bulls game, Wesley and I wandered downtown in search of food. Our walk took an hour longer than it normally should because I couldn’t stop taking photos. So beautiful! It was terribly cold, though much better than the -20C we had left behind at home, so I couldn’t complain too much.

On Tuesday morning we woke up bright (or rather foggy) and early for the opening keynote by Drupal creator Dries Buytaert and several other important figures in the community.

The man himself, Dries

An excellent Drupal suit

This was my first DrupalCon, so I was excited when Jacob Singh asked me to help out for one small portion of his presentation of the Media module. I wandered through the classroom before he began, taking paparazzi photos of the audience for Jacob to later use in his demo of uploading a gallery. Not only was it a great way to meet people (I met someone who used to go to school and be close friends with one of my art professors), but I got a shout-out during the session (at 6:36 in the following video).

Lily, who had been in the Upgrading class with me

I absolutely love this:

I saw an awesome presentation on mobile design by Fisher, who lives really close to us and who I already saw speak at DrupalCamp in Calgary. He was an amazing speaker and got away with taking a great little jab the Americans: “In Canada, we use Celsius… like most of the rest of the world. But I can also tell temperature in Fahrenheit, because we used to use that instead too. In other words, it IS possible to make the conversion…” :)

Rather than go to the Field Museum party (which we probably should have gone to, because the venue looked insane!), Wes, Trevor, and I took a walk to the Navy Pier and went for dinner. I loved it there, though it was a little too touristy after the Santa Monica Pier which I am much more used to.

We ate an amazing dinner at RIVA. I don’t like seafood, so I had the lemon chicken…

…and washed it down with a white chocolate Crème brûlée. Delicious!

Each time I go to Disneyland, I intend to blog my favorite photos but never get around to it… well, no more! This time around it was a challenge to find photos of things I have never taken there before, and with a few new Christmas elements and special touches around the park (along with some inclement weather), the task was much easier than I expected! Even though it rained quite a bit, it was nice to get away from the snow for a week and have a break :)

The Calgary Airport

Holiday candied apples

The artificial snow following the fireworks

It’s a Small World

Some odd stuffed animals for sale

A hidden Mickey in the orange tree

The cutest snowmen (and snow-women) you will ever see

The Grand Californian Hotel (which I sadly did not stay at!)

The rain puddles made for gorgeous reflections. It was still pouring at this time, so I had an umbrella over me and the camera.

No one here believes me that California gets cold in the winter, but those snow capped mountains aren’t at that high of an elevation!

Marshmallow snowman

The Haunted Mansion gets switched to the Nightmare Before Christmas for the entirety of the holiday season, so you can still experience Halloween belatedly :)

A murder of crows swarmed near the Haunted Mansion, how fitting :)

One of my favorite bands, Surburban Legends, was playing one night. I was so excited to find out that trumpet player Aaron has rejoined the band!

Another exciting gift from “Santa” was that my friend Alan had a piano shift on our last day at the park (he only fills in for other players, so we don’t always get to hear him).

That day they also had guest marching bands from the Rose Bowl Parade. This dog is naturally with the firemen.

This band trotted like horses while they played, which was super impressive.

With the release of the new Tron, Disneyland put on “ElecTRONica,” a street dance party inspired by the movie. They also recreated Flynn’s arcade, which was quite accurate (including 80s music!).

The event starts with a stage show, with 80s music and costumes, and then switches to the style of Tron Legacy, with music by Daft Punk.

Flynn’s

The infamous $80 Tron Mickey Mouse Ears

Leaving a bit of snow for a lot of snow.

Lastly, the highlight of my trip was my conversation with a talking trash can:

Like last year, pardon the bad point and shoot camera photos. I had to throw a few of the not-very-in-focus ones in just because that’s all I had. Speaking of which, my little Sony is 6 years old now. Does anyone recommend a good, small camera I should get to replace it?

We stayed at THEhotel, since Mandalay Bay had no more openings by the time we made our reservations. Lucky for us! THEhotel was stunning, and easily the nicest place I have ever stayed. It was hard to leave. If it had a kitchen, I would have been just fine living there forever!

Lotsa photos!!

Wow, the room was so personalized for me! ;)
Maybe I should start calling myself that?

The view at night

The view in the day

The first day I was up bright and early – well, not quite bright as it was before sunrise! My east facing room had a gorgeous view of the sun rising over the mountains.

PSW was held at Mandalay Bay, which is a gorgeous hotel/casino I was only briefly at one time before.

A small portion of the crowd waiting to get into the opening keynote

Courtesy of Zack Arias :)

Co-worker/traveller Brian poses before we head out to the After Hours Party at House of Blues

Earlier that day, R.C. Concepcion personally introduced me and Michael to Zack Arias, which was a pretty big deal for us since we admire him immensely. It didn’t hurt that R.C. raved about our work during the introduction :)
We had a chance to better chat with Zack at the party, and Michael had a good visit with him on Friday.

Myself, R.C., and Michael

Scott Kelby’s band Big Electric Cat

That night we met John, a commercial photographer and digital editor from Texas, and he became our buddy for the remainder of the trip.

We remembered Vanelli from the party last year, but didn’t properly meet him until now. He became a staple for the remainder of our stay, and I’m so bummed I didn’t get a chance to shoot with him (*almost* – so it will have to happen next time!) (I think this accurately sums him up, haha)

Michael’s friend Jerry, who assists for Don Giannatti.

Michael with Matt Kloskowski

Early the next morning I ran into Vanelli again, and he personally introduced me to Scott Kelby :)

At the next class I went to on blogging, I was pleased to discover that Jeff Revell was one of the chairs for the discussion. I hadn’t talked to him since PSW Boston last year, so it was great to have a few minutes to say hello and catch up!

PSW this year had a rock & roll, concert theme.

R.C. hooked me up with this David Bowie doppelgänger at the party. Adam is also a photographer, but when he looks like that, he needs to be on both sides of the camera! Michael was my VAL (voice-activated lightstand) and we got a good half hour out of the lobby of THEhotel before we were kicked out. This is just a teaser and there are more to come!

Michael and Adam

…plus myself

At the Tradeshow they had tons of models you could photograph, and I’ll probably still do something more funky with these when I get the chance.

R.C. was good at pimping out Adam, and threw him in with the models a few times.

Brian, John, and Michael – our fancy night on the town

The view from The Mix bar

Scott Kelby did a lighting demo at the Westcott booth

Getting a photo of all of us taking photos

Mike Kubeisy gave a detailed demo on the lighting he uses for his Hollywood glamour photos, and after finishing with his hired model, R.C. got in there again and had Adam model. (I later thanked R.C. for making us feel like celebrities – to have someone “big” like that raving about you to other important people is such an amazing feeling!)

I was lucky enough to get to borrow Mike’s Pocket Wizard and get a shot of Adam in that set up.

Goodbye, PSW! The closing ceremony, which I had to duck out of early because I forgot to eat lunch!

The sun set over the strip, and we were on our way home.

It’s worth noting I slept until 1pm today to compensate for the week. Oh my!

One of the highlights of my year for the past few years has been going to the annual WPPI (Wedding and Portrait Photographers International) Convention in Las Vegas, and this year was no exception. The morning after my big dance show I drove out to Montana (cheap flights!) then flew to Vegas, only to go to the convention the next morning at 7am! It was four days of intense classes and a killer tradeshow with few breaks, and I learned so much and came home with a notebook full of ideas. This was definitely the most informative year for me; finally, I was focused! Now onto the photos and stories…

Like last year, WPPI was held at the lovely MGM Grand Hotel and Casino.

I was joined by my favorite travel buddy, my mom! She threatened me that this is the only photo of her I’m allowed to put on the internet ;) (She’s the second silhouette from the left)

All I needed (plus a notebook and a good pen)

Most mornings, the lines for the classes looked like this:

Jerry Ghionis showed samples of wedding albums he designed early in his career, which was a humbling platform class ;)

There are very few places in Vegas where you can get free Wireless access, so I often found myself crammed in tiny corners in the few hot spots checking my email while my mom patiently waited.

I didn’t go outside for the first three days because of the tight schedule, but was grateful for all the picturesque windows.

Hanson Fong did a posing class, and demonstrated that including an Asian in your photo makes it 110% bettter ;)

This photo was taken on Day 2, and the bags under my eyes were already pretty apparent! Classes every day started at 8am, and I can’t miss breakfast!

I met up with Lethbridge-and-area photographers Amber Sessford, Lorelei Hoffarth, and Jan Tajcnar. I’m very happy we were photobombed by another photographer, AND this photo was taken by Bobbi of Bobbi + Mike, who I love love love!

Me with Bobbi. She’s super tiny and I am definitely not, so I’m pretty much doing the splits in this photo ;)

Louis Pang speaking on lighting

On the last day they had an event called Photographers Ignite where a bunch of the “big shots” had to give five minute presentations with a new slide every 30 seconds, which were usually hilarious, informative, and a little panicked! You can watch the presentations here.

Jed Taufer went on stage and announced he had to poo, before getting into his content.

Scott Bourne

Doug Gordon’s slides wouldn’t work, so he broke out into a long rant of all the things his photographer father made him do when he was 12. It ended up being a fantastic comedy routine :) You definitely need to watch it on the link I put above; he gets going around 2:40.

Khara Plicanic, however, was the most outrageously funny in her presentation as “Uncle Bob” (a favorite slang term in the photo industry). Another video you should watch :)

When most of the people had already left, a few of us were able to stick around for one final business class put on by Sandra Ayers and Jerry Deck. It gave me a little longer to visit with Stephanie, meet a few other photographers, and I had a little surprise that made me reflect on how far I’ve come the last few years. They had photographer Mark Robert Halper give a short presentation, and it took me a few minutes to place where I had seen him before…

When I was fresh out of university and had no clue where or how to start my photography career, PPOC Alberta had their annual meeting in Lethbridge (a rare thing), and I bought a very discounted student ticket to go to the three day event and watch the speakers. Halper was the speaker the first day… you know, the day I was terrified and didn’t know anyone there! Through that event I made a handful of very important connections with people that led me to where I am now. It was nice after almost a week of intense learning and motivation to think back to where I started not that long ago :)

All in all WPPI was a great experience, and this was the first year I didn’t feel overwhelmed! I knew what I wanted to get out of everything and came out of it feeling inspired. The only bad part was the bag they forced on us at registration….

WPPI was over on Thursday, but our flight didn’t leave until Sunday, so it was time for fun! …except that we both came down with pretty nasty colds that same day. Seeing as how I’m still coughing, I guess what happens in Vegas doesn’t stay in Vegas. However, we weren’t going to stay holed up in the hotel room, and the weather had finally warmed up so we persevered our way up and down the Strip.

New York New York

It’s not Vegas without him… Is it bad I can do the Elvis lip and this Elvis can’t?

The view from our hotel room:

I love the ominous green glow you have to endure while staying at MGM, so I made use of it for a few self-portraits.

The new hotel/casino Aria is absolutely gorgeous! It’s architectural art. I think I walked through it with my jaw gaping open the entire time.

And to conclude, a slideshow with extra photos!