Tips from PDN PhotoPlus Expo & WPPI NYC

What a fantastic week at PDN PhotoPlus Expo and WPPI NYC! It was my first time attending any photography industry conference and I think my head is still spinning from all that I learned, people I met and the new fun toys I checked out. First I want to give a huge shout out to the numerous creativeLIVErs that I met! Putting faces to your chatroom and Twitter names was super cool. Thank you for sharing your stories and enthusiasm about how creativeLIVE has impacted your journeys. I’ve come home with an even greater understanding of the diversity, wealth of knowledge and spirit of our cL community.

My primary goal for the conference was to scope out and meet potential instructors for creativeLIVE, so I spent more time in seminars than on the trade show floor. Here is just a taste of my takeaways from a handful of instructors.

Jerry Ghionis
Wedding photographer Jerry Ghionis explained that his goal as a teacher is to “train people to see what they need to see. Anything can be a light source.” He closed his presentation saying that during his 17-year career he has found that the “one thing that will make you a better photographer is to be a better person.”

Me Ra Koh
Of the pages of notes that I took during Me Ra Koh’s social media talk, my favorite tip is to use your blog to feed your clients information about the things they love and help them love those things even more. For example, grandparents love holiday photos. Me Ra suggests blogging to help her target clients—moms with cameras—about the holiday photo gifts grandparents will love most this year.

Jack Hollingsworth
Jack Hollingsworth LOVES his iPhone. His enthusiasm is contagious and I was inspired to primarily shoot with my iPhone in NY instead of lugging around my DSLR. My favorite Jack quote is “Flickr gave iPhoneography its roots, Instagram gave iPhoneography its wings.” Jack’s #1 book recommendation to boost your business is the Little Red Sales Book of Sales Answers by Jeffrey Gitomer.

Bobbi Lane
During Bobbi Lane’s Portrait Lighting Techniques seminar, she said that when it comes to getting the right exposure, “Everything depends on everything.” Your settings, ratios and modifiers all depend on the factors of the particular set-up and what you are trying to creatively achieve. There is no one magic formula!

Joao Carlos
I had the pleasure of listening to photographer & visual artist Joao Carlos give a pep talk and sound advice to one of our dedicated creativeLIVE participants Shannon Adelson. Joao is full of brilliant ideas, but I love his sentiment that instead of trying to think outside the box or think creatively inside the box, just think there are no boxes! 

Check out my behind the LIVE photos on Facebook! I tried to take photos with as many creativeLIVErs, past instructors and photography educators as I could to bring all of you along with me. For those of you in the photos, please tag yourself! Hope to meet many more of you there next year!

For those of you who were also at PhotoPlus, what were your biggest takeaways and what was the most exciting new toy you saw? Let me know in the comments!

~Kenna Klosterman