Three months ago I was experiencing photography vendors, classes, and masses of photographers in one place, the MGM Grand in Las Vegas for WPPI. I had heard about WPPI, but it wasn’t even on my radar at the time because I was in school and I wouldn’t want to go down alone or leave Logan in a hotel all day because it wouldn’t work for us to both go, until I found out you can go for A LOT cheaper as students. It really was perfect because I was already going to Las Vegas for a coaching session with Katelyn James (which I was going to drive 10 hours just for that because it was SO worth it) and WPPI started the day after my coaching session. That was going to be my last semester as a student and Logan could go with me now and go to classes too!

February and March are super busy months for us with Valentines Day on the 14th, my birthday on the 15th, our anniversary on the 23rd, and then Logan’s birthday on March 3 so we used this trip to Vegas to celebrate! To celebrate our “Birthtine Anniversary” we were going to stay for a couple nights in the MGM Grand Signature because we got a smoking deal on it and I haven’t ever stayed at a “fancy” hotel. Logan and I left Rexburg after I finished school one day and we didn’t get to our hotel until about 2 am. We aren’t used to hotels that have valet parking so we pulled into the hotel in our sweats with our car packed full of things. We were a mess when they told us they would take our car with valet parking because our stuff was all over the place and not neatly organized to quickly grab and put on the cart. The deal we got with our room was to also get a $75 food credit for any of the restaurants or room service while we were there. The night we went to get the buffet, we were 15 minutes late and so what better way to spend the evening than ordering $75 worth of room service and then not eating half of it, but laughing all night with each other. Excuse the photos! Most of them came from my phone so they weren’t super great.

They printed on the toilet paper. Who does that?!

The day after our coaching session we had to check out of the hotel and check into our second one for the trip. We stayed at the Days Inn Wild, Wild West. Terrible mistake. We went from an amazing jacuzzi tub to a bathtub that was literally falling apart. I don’t think I have ever taken quicker showers!

WPPI was an awesome opportunity for Logan and I both to go and learn a lot of new things. There are thousands of photographers that come to take classes and see the vendors booths. It was unreal to see so many cameras in one place for people who all do what I do. We were able to meet some really awesome people and it has been great to see where they have taken their business since WPPI. Some of my classes were about editing, posing, marketing, and every other aspect of photography. During the expo time we walked around to see all the different vendors and booths to look into different things to offer our clients, who we would like to print our images, and new things that can help us in our business. I’m pretty sure we put in plenty of exercise walking around to all the booths. WPPI helped me find a lot of ways to improve my business and become a better photographer. I would recommend WPPI to other photographers who want to learn more and see how others are making things happen for them. It’s overwhelming, but you meet so many other photographers and learn so much! It was totally worth it for us!