Last year while still working the day job, I remember calling Jason to sweet talk a mini-trip to St Louis for a free educational seminar hosted by popular photographer Sal Cincotta. I played the wife card and mentioned the words free, vacation, and um.. well free!
My methods of wife persuasion were won and we were two of the lucky 500 attendees to the event which sold out within 3 hours of registration being open and the hotel completely booked within 5 hours of the block being available! Bring on April, now full time in the business and halfway through our pregnancy, we were still excited for the event, however the 13 hour car ride to St Louis was starting to become less and less desirable by the time we were halfway through Ohio. The one plus of driving sunup to sundown is seeing a gorgeous Midwestern sunset…and arriving at the hotel for some much needed sleep!
During the conference we took various classes, technical shooting and lighting techniques for Jason which of course he fell in love with the $2000 lighting rigs, and business and marketing classes for myself. The best thing about the conference was learning from so many national pro photographers and business folks, making the choice of what to adapt and further along our business extremely easy and motivational. Outside of the conference, we had some amazing real deep dish style pizza for the first time, walked the barren streets of St Louis (serious Walking Dead flashbacks when Rick first rode his horse into Atlanta pre-zombie attack), walked down to the arch for some fun tourist watching opportunities, and found the coolest collaboration boutique of creative professional wares.
Although the time zone change made our 13 hour drive feel like a 15 hour drive on the way home, we were happily greeted by Kooper and Rhiley, our lovable pups that we missed dearly… although the extra bed space for a few nights was nice:)
Melissa McClain Photography 