Image Quest 2010

This last weekend, I went to my first 3-day photography conference. It was held at the River Rock Hotel in Richmond, a 20 minute drive from where I live. Everyday I walked through the casino (which ended up being many times) to get from the parkade to the conference centre. I was so over-stimulated I hardly knew what to do. It was so crazy; the lights and the sounds. What was even crazier was that everyone was attached to their machines. Yes, little casino tracking credit cards were put in the machines, with a coil tether that was attached to each person. I do not frequent casinos so I had no idea what they were for at first. The only casino experiences I have were in 1994 when I was on a Mexican Riviera cruise, and in 2002, in Coober Pedy, Australia on a backpacking trip - the only underground casino in the world.

My friend, Anita, stayed with me for a couple of days, and every morning we would be up at 7am, leave at 8pm, for the 1st seminar that started at 9am. I love to take notes, but my problem is is that I never look back on them - they just sit hidden in a book somewhere. As I am on my computer A LOT, I decided to take my laptop (17" macbook pro) and take notes. It worked out amazingly!

Day 1

The first speaker was Dale Sanders (Victoria BC), a photo journalist who spoke on extreme photography. The second speaker was Dane Sanders (California). He was so amazing and had a wealth of information on business and interacting with clients. The famous phrase "Do or do not, there is no try (Yoda), came about that day. The last seminar ended at 10pm and we found our way upstairs to an after party after an earlier invitation. Oh the fun and learning from other photographers...and we left at 2am.

Day 2

Our speaker for the second day was Mitche Graf (Oregon). He spoke on 'Power Marketing'. He had so much valuable information to give us, that he not only held the platform for the morning conference, but the afternoon conference as well. He gave us such valuable information as well - I can't wait to implement that into my business. The seminar ended at 6pm, and a bunch of us photogs went out for dinner, and then back to hang out and party. Again, we left pretty late, 1.30am

Day 3

The morning speaker was Miranda Lievers, Blue Olive Photography (Vancouver - yay). The topic was Social Media & Marketing. Again, super valuable! We even got to chat about facebook and twitter :) I love that we had speakers from home soil! Last, not definitely not least, our last speaker was Jasmine Star (Orange County, CA). She talked about Branding Your Online Presence. All I can say is AMAZING! I really connected with her! Again, so much valuable information that I thought my head would explode. I can't wait for next year!!!!!

Dane Sanders & I
Jasmine Star & I