Tales from Vegas

Every year, WPPI holds a convention for photographers from all over the world to come and participate in workshops with some of the top names in the field as well as check out the latest products available. This was our first year attending and we had a blast! The following post is the story of our journey...

The Saturday before the morning we were supposed to fly out of Madison, the weather reports started saying a Winter Storm Warning starting at midnight. We immediately attempted to try moving our flight up to that night in fear we wouldn't be able to go to Vegas due to weather. Unfortunately there were no further flights left for Saturday, so we had no choice but to pray the weather would be good.

Sunday morning around 3:30am (30 minutes before our alarms were set to go off) the carbon monoxide detecter started going off. We woke to shut it off and discovered there was no power in our town, which is why the detecter was going off. Waking up 30 minutes early was a good thing as our flight was moved up 15 minutes earlier than previously scheduled. So with flashlights and toy night lights in hand, we woke the girls and finished packing in the dark.

We met up with my father who was coming with to help with the girls and went to the airport. Thankfully none of the snow or ice rain that was being reported earlier had started yet here in Wisconsin or in our connecting flight in St. Paul, MN. We ended up making great time!

^This was Aubrey and Ella's first plane ride. Aubs has been so excited for this moment for the longest time. Both of them were fantastic and we received so many compliments from others amazed at how well behaved they were.


^Toys, crayons, snacks, and silly parents helped keep Aubrey entertained for the long flight.



^Ella loves that toy Giraffe that seems more like a dog toy than a baby teether.



^Grandpa Dave was along on the journey with us to help with the munchkins. Thanks Grandpa!


^It was a super-long flight, but Nicole and I are very proud of our girls for being so well behaved.


After we landed in Vegas around 11am, we took the shuttle bus to the MGM hotel to check in. They informed us our two seperate rooms were not ready yet and wouldn't be until 3pm. This is not the thing to tell a family with two small children who have already been awake since 3:30am. But we made the most of it by having lunch in the food court (average McD value meal = $8). After we were done eating I ran off to my first MasterClass workshop while Grandpa, Nicole and the girls searched for the lion exhibit in the casino.


My workshop with Gregory Schrader was very inspiring. He provided insight on how he ran his very successful business in Michigan as well as his 7 secrets to how he approaches photography.


After the class, I was led on a treasure hunt via txt msgs on how to find our room which the rest of the family was finally able to check into. After taking the elevators to the 16th floor, I found the hallway to room 341. There was a long hallway... very long. And I feared our room was the last door at the very end. It was. It can be very discouraging to be so tired from walking all over vegas only to think you are about to get to your room only to find you now have to trek the never-ending hallway.


However, seeing that instead of a single door, there were double doors, with a security camera above and a doorbell perked my attitude right up. Turns out, they upgraded us for free to a suit (aka, big apartment with mini-bar, two full master bedrooms, and a jacuzzi! This was pretty freakin cool as we are not used to such expansive accomidations. Our view from the 16th floor covered all the way from the airport to the strip!

^Unless it is for advertising, I hate taking pictures of a room, building or landscape unless there is someone in the photograph to give it that meaning or personalization. So this called for a photo session with the girls!

^Sisterly love! Aubrey is the bestest big sister. Whenever Ella starts to fuss, Aubrey will dance for her which turns her cries of woe into histarical laughter and smiles.

We pretty much ate McDonalds the entire time we were there. It was by far the cheapest, quickest and one of the only things Aubs would eat (she is in the phase of not wanting to try new foods).

^To help keep Aubs entertained, we let her take some photos with the point'n'shoot. Here she demonstrates the best way to photograph a hot dog bun in her mouth.

^And the resulting image showing off Aubrey's artistic side of 'hot dog bun in mouth'.

^When the camera wasn't photographing chewed up food in her mouth, she would eventually take shots of us.

^Even with the stress of travel with kids and only being there a short time, we still managed to make memories and have fun together as a family.

Vegas isn't really for kids. There isn't too much to do for them as they can't gamble and we had sheild them from any Sin that happened in our travels. However Vegas does have one store that seems to have been made for Aubrey... ^Aubrey was smiling ear to ear when she saw the huge M&M store with its four floors of merchandise and chocolate yummies.

^Ella slept a lot of the time while we walked. Here she is giving her sleepy look having just woken up before we were leaving the M&M store.

^Mmmm, Krispy Kreme's...

^I loved being able to spend time with both my wonderful daughters! The trip alone is worth the memories it creates.

Even though Vegas was good bonding for our family, we were also there for the photography convention. On Monday, Nicole took Andy & Angie Wood's business class. She said it rocked. And on Tuesday before our flight I took a workshop on Lighting with Claude Jodoin - that rocked and was full of information I just soaked in. Thankfully we were smart and purchased a digital voice recorder before our trip, so we caught audio on all three classes and both can listen to what was presented.

^The convention had booths setup from all different vendors in the industry showing off their products, showing live demonstrations, and overall just sharing knowledge.

^My wife caught a glimpse of Jerry Ghionis, a very well known Australian photographer who is huge in the industry. He was super-cool and was happy to do a photo with Nicole and Ella (see facebook page for more photos)

Alas, Vegas couldn't last forever though. We were only there for a short two days. And the girls were getting tired. So we packed up everyone and started our journey home.

^Goodbye Vegas, thank you for the memories!

Note:
*All photographs were taken either the Rebel xti w/a Tamron 17-50/f2.8 or Canon point'n'shoot SD1300 (easier to carry these smaller camera's around w/the kids).
**Additional photographs of our adventure to WPPI can be found on our Facebook page.