Vegas shows usually have a no photography rule, but Absinthe encouraged it! This relatively new show in a circus-esque area outside of Caesar’s Palace is described as Cirque du Soleil’s younger punk brother, which was the perfect description of it. It takes the impressive acrobatic nature of Cirque and throws in raunchy humor (including making fun of Cirque) with a super intimate environment. The stage is only about 10 feet wide with seating for 200 in the theatre, so no matter where you are, you are up close and personal. If these performers were to mess up, you’d get a roller skate in the face. We didn’t splurge for the VIP tickets and still managed to get the second row, which was almost but not quite as terrifying as the first row.

The performers were all amazing and I think I watched half the show with my jaw hanging open. (The other half was spent wiping away tears of laughter.) If you’re easily offended, the humor in the show may not be appropriate for you, and if you don’t want to be picked on, sit a little further back :)

A parody of Cirque

The premise of the tight rope walkers were that they were the ring leader’s college buddies who used to get drunk and do stupid things.

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 :)

I am veeeeery late on editing and posting these, but thrilled to finally get them up here. Back in September I alluded to working with a Utah photographer who could easily be David Bowie’s lovechild (everywhere he went, anyone who met him would exclaim how much he looked like Bowie, which I imagine gets pretty tiring after a while!). Adam met up with me for a fashion shoot in the lobby/bar at THEhotel in Las Vegas, and we got a solid 35 minutes in before security put a stop to it. Considering I’ve been told to move at least every 10 minutes to prevent that from happening, I think we fared pretty well!

THEhotel is gorgeous and when I first saw it a few years ago I instantly wanted to work with a model in there. Adam was a perfect (and very dapper) match. I was hoping to likewise model for him, but we ran out of time. Hopefully at next year’s Photoshop World!

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!

Last year when I went to Vegas to attend WPPI, I was standing in line waiting for Jerry Ghionis’ platform class and started talking to the girl in front of me. What a small world it was; she was from Calgary! I hadn’t seen Stephanie since meeting her then, but we agreed we’d definitely get together in Vegas again this year (don’t worry, I’ll have a post coming about that soon enough!).

This year found her with a baby in her belly, so we decided some Vegas maternity photos were in order! The Vegas strip has a million fantastic photo locations that always get the gears in my head going, but I just couldn’t make it past the hallway to the convention center at MGM! The colorful walls called to me…

Stephanie was willing to strip down in front of all the other photographers walking by, and it was fun stopping for everyone who was chimping the back of my camera to see what we were up to! It was so much fun and challenging working in a totally different environment for maternity photos; usually I prefer to use a lot of natural light and give the photos more of a soft feel, but if you’ve been in any of the casinos in Vegas, you know they are very dark and very dramatic! My mom acted as my lighting assistant with my single strobe (I wanted to travel light – no pun intended), which made the shoot much easier, seeing as how I didn’t have a light stand with me ;)

Check out what a cutie Steph is…