Friday, March 21, 2008

What happens when 20,000 photographers converg on Las Vegas?

Wow... I was so blessed to be in the presence of some of the most talented photographers in the world this week in Las Vegas. The annual WPPI convention brings in about 20,000 photographers world wide each year to Bally's and Paris for one of the best photographers conferences in the world! I met some amazing people and made many new friends.

My favorite presentation from the show was given by the wonderful Jesh De Rox. Jesh is extremely gifted and is one of the neatest people you will ever meet! He spoke about why building relationships is so important. He also spoke a lot about fear and what he called misplaced fear. As he describes it, this is the fear that holds us back and keeps us from doing amazing things.

Listening to Jesh was just what I needed, his words hit me with so much sincerity and inspiration causing me to reevaluate what is important in life. Thank you Jesh for sharing your soul with all of us who were fortunate enough to share two and a half hours with you. You are truly an inspiration and I'm sure your "Spiral Upward" project will be a huge success!

Here are some images from my time in Vegas and some of the friends that I met.

It's only fitting that I start out with some images of Jesh.

Here I am with Rhett Olson, Megan Reeder, Shellee, Kellee Smith, Stacey Young, Jesh, Amy Seely, Michelle Andersen and Joshua Gene.


This is the amazingly talented and funny [b]ecker!


Me and Kenny

There are many many extremely talented female photographers around the world... here are two that have inspired me and had a huge impact on my photography.

The SUPER SWEET Jasmine Star

and the SUPER SWEET Lori Nordstrom

This is me with the beautiful Barbara... she took good care of us at the Le Village Buffet inside of the Paris hotel.

Here I am with Lauren... I don't know who that is growing out of my right shoulder. Hahaha

Here are some images that we took at night just outside of the Bally's hotel. I must have thought I was pretty cool wearing sunglasses at night. Hahaha

Here are a couple of shots of me taken by my good friend Michael Lloyd.


Here is an image that I took of Mike.

Here is the very cool Rhett.

7 comments:

Anonymous said...

yay!! so fun!! glad you had a good time at wppi! me, too :)
it was so fun to see you. keep in touch ryan!!

Tiffany said...

You guys are awesome!!
Great shots~
See you at a PUG~ Oh and Happy Birthday Monday!! :)

erin kate said...

it was great to meet you and rhett in vegas! i'm sure i'll see you around SLC.

Michael Lloyd Photography said...

What an amazing experience we all had. It has really opened my mind to what I haven't tapped into. It truly is all about fear. We can fear everything we do but what good does that do for anyone? This is a question I constatantly ask myself. I have a completely new outlook on my connection to people.
Shooting down on the strip at 3a.m. was so cool. My new pocket wizards rock!
P.S. I'm really not scary, I promise! see the pick of me on this post :) LOL catch you all later.

Marcel said...

Ryan,
Love the pictures on the strip. The lighting is fabulous!

Anonymous said...

Ryan,

Ok, you were just hilarious! I can just picture you and Rhett out on the strip taking pictures of yourselves at night whilst wearing sunglasses. LOVE IT!

Brooke said...

IM sooo jealous you got to meet so many awesome people! and yes I would love for your advice as I am in my learning process! your stuff is GREAT! I will get there :) cant wait to see your shots aswell :) thanks for being so cool