Well, it just so happens that what happens in Vegas follows you home in digital form!  Then it gets posted on facebook and all over people's blogs, so you better behave!

And I did, believe it or not.  I went to several classes, thoroughly enjoyed the tradeshow,  networked beyond belief and even got a little partying in here an there...  I still behaved myself though, believe it or not!

It's actually the networking that makes this trip all that!  Imagine 13,000 of your closest photographer friends all in one place with the goal of sharing information and helping you better your practices while trying to sell you stuff!  It's a party waiting to happen!

And my friends (Joel Ross & Tonya - who works with Joel, Trevor Brucki, Manny Sousa and Jeremy Dueck and his wife Heather - who absolutely loves geek talk!) joined me for this big Photography Adventure which made it even better.  On the very first day we all got a new little lens that should add an element of artsy fun to every event.  It's called a Lensbaby.   The Lensbaby is designed to have one sweet spot of focus while distorting and blurring the surrounding areas.  I had the very first lensbaby that came out - (1.0) but it was great to be able to try The Composer.  That's what I settled on in the end.

One great Vegas afternoon, some us went out to do a test shoot and learn a thing or two... 

 Here are the shots.

 Joel:

 Here's the Vegas skyline from the MGM.

 Trevor

 That's me!  Joel took this shot.

 Planet Holliwood Hotel.

 Joel.

 Joel's hand.

 Joel getting ready for a jump.

A very out of focus (I call it artsy) Joel jumping through the air.

 Joel with... I can't decide... Jazz hands?  or Monster hands?

 You almost felt like you were in Paris... The crepes here were out of this world!

 An evening shot through the palm trees with Caesar's Palace in the background.

 From the Venetian.

 Joel got this shot of me...

 Then he did this one of himself.

 I think Joel took this one too...

 The Three Amigos going down the escalator.  Tonya took this shot.

 Here's me and Tonya looking Metropolitan.

 More three amigos... Tonya, Trevor and Myself.

Good times.  I'm definitely going again next year.  It's a fabulous event and a great chance to connect with friends.

Stay tuned to see what changes happen around here!

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The Wonderful Wedding Show is on at full throttle!  There seemed to have been more people there this year than any other year prior!  Maybe that's just from where my booth was, but maybe the nice weather brought everyone out!

When we were moving in, with boxes and boxes of parafernalia, my friend Yoko said: "Man, I feel like a carnie".  And it's just like that! You move in one day, play for three and then you move out...  and it's like you weren't even there...  

But I was!  And here is the booth to prove it!  Colin, I know you're reading, so here it is, for you!  Thank you for lending me your gorgeous wife, Lisa for the weekend.  She was amazing and it's so good to have clients-turned-friends with me there, because they can tell everyone what the experience is like when they hire me for their wedding.

Oh, here's the booth.  Yoko drew it with chalk.  Of course!  The woman is genius!  Thank you also to Pauline Boldt, who also drew on the panels.  You are all talented,  and you saved me a lot of work this weekend.

This booth was just one in a series of many booths that Yoko designed as a part of the Green Street - eco friendly business of ecoLuxe .  Stay tuned for many more designs to come...

I also had the privilege of photography my good friends, Joel Ross, Trevor Brucki and Manuel Sousa standing by their banner at the Kiss for the Cure booth.   Last month, the trio called me and asked me to photograph them for an incredible cause (to raise money for breast cancer research).  They are giving away a $20,000 wedding package including all three of them photographing together and much more!  All you have to do is enter to win!  And the $5.00 ticket helps too!

The theme of the photoshoot was Il Divo'esque and we had a hoot!  The guys were hilarious and were bossing me around to no end and kept wanting to look in the back of my camera!  Il Divas is what I called them!

Here's the card and the final image that made the cut:

The guys printed a huge banner of this card and today I snapped a quick shot of them in front of their banner:

 I just love how tall Manny is on the banner!!!  To find out more about this endeavor, please check out the Il Foto website.

These guys have been my friends for a long time and now we're together on The W List.

What I love the  most about them and the other photographers on The W List is their willingness to give of their time to help other photographers become better at what they do and improve their business practices.

I'm really excited about all that is to come.  If you're a photographer and want to connect, learn and grow, please check out our blog and contact us!  

If you're a bride, please come see me at the Wedding Show at booth #725!  The one with the purple shag rug!

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I love cooking!  I love food!  And I love great ideas!

I'm always thinking of ways of engaging my clients in everything that I'm doing.  This whole new website was created in an effort to interact with you, whether you're a client, friend or even the competition.  I think that the more we learn together, the better this Wedding Industry becomes.

My good friend and web Diva, Alex, always tells me that you can only get something out of this crazy web driven world if you're willing to give something away.  Like Knowledge.

So last night as I was doing some Web Research, I came accross this website by Jamie Oliver.  I LOVE that man!  He's the Bono of food and cooking shows!  And he's so cute!

But he's doing something that no one has done before.  He's created a website and "Ministry" to help his country to cook better food and lead a healthier life.

The challenge is to PASS IT ON.  You learn how to cook and then you teach two people, who then each teach two and so it goes.

Isn't that cool?  I think of how my mom taught me to cook and I have two little ones that I can pass that onto.  But Jamie takes it to the national level!  If you go to YouTube and type in "Ministry of Food", you'll see that Jamie has been devoting months of his time helping people to cook better...

He's engaging his audience and giving away his knowledge.  What are they doing?  Learning how to cook and telling the whole world about Jamie Oliver! Yes, they're also buying his books!  

Brilliant.

I invite you to go to the website now, watch his video and sign up! Learn and PASS IT ON!

Then I want you to come back here and Comment!

Here's the website:  http://www.jamiesministryoffood.com/content/jo/home.html

And don't you forget to come back here and let me know that you did it!  Or that you at least looked at it!

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