A Month (and more) Ago - PartnerCon 2009

Dream. Create. Inspire.

Three words that, to me, hold such much life inside of them. And yet, I don't think on them, believe them, live them out the way I should. But sometimes, life puts you in an unexpected place with a lot of people you don't know, and gives you the greatest gift in the continual and consistent reminder that we all have something to offer but that it's a process.

A month ago, plus a couple of days, I hopped in an SUV with some of my good friends and employers Zach & Jody and fellow photographers Jessica McIntosh and David Molnar to ride eight hours to New Orleans for an incredible three-day conference put on by Pictage. Formally called Pictage Partner Conference, but known lovingly as PartnerCon, this event is a meeting of all sorts of minds and skills and styles in the photography world, which just so happened to be in a city (and state) I'd never been to and hadn't ever really done much in the way of planning to visit.

And it's a good thing I didn't plan anything, because for the first time ever I was at a conference where I didn't want to miss a thing. Instead of looking at a program and deciding between choosing something relatively enticing and sight-seeing, like I am used to, I was actually having to choose between sessions. Making the choice to go to sessions at any given time during the day was probably as complicated as anything I've done in the last three months of my life, including buying our first home. I mean really, you're really asking me to decide who I want to see when really I want to see everyone?!

But choose, I did, and for the most part I was pleasantly surprised - enticed - encouraged - and challenged by everything I heard in a matter of just a couple of days. From the art of photography to the nitty-gritty of branding, my world was rocked. Whether it was Jeff & Erin Youngren, Amber Holritz, Justin & Mary Marantz, or Jared Platt, words were spoken and lessons were shared over and over again which ring in my mind and heart as echoes, now. Reminders that the ability to capture life - for yourself or for art or for others - is a gift and that we all find our own way to make it work but that we truly have a great deal to learn from each other. And the each other part was key, because my whole world was opened up to new photographer friends all over the country like Jennifer Tai, Audra Bayette, and more!

And not only did I learn by hearing, but doing as well. Wednesday I participated in a workshop led by the Youngrens where none other than Zach & Jody worked as models. It was a new experience to take pictures of them, but a fun one for sure.

I managed to capture as much of the city as I could, considering how much of it I ended up seeing.

All I could think, with the announcement that PartnerCon 2010 would be back in New Orleans, was that maybe that will be my chance to see and to take in the culture the city is so famous for. And of course, to grab a couple more beignets because at least I got that much out of the city and that's enough for me, especially considering the overabundance of what I walked away with from the conference.