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WPPI 2019 Recap



Last week in Las Vegas was WPPI 2019, and I had the chance to check out some new software, some new hardware, and to make some new friends. If you have never been to WPPI, it’s a conference in Las Vegas focusing on Wedding & Portrait Photography. Before you say something like “I don’t do Weddings or Portraits” let me explain. While it focuses on those two specialties, the conference and Expo offer something for virtually any photographer. I’m a concert photographer and yet I always learn something to improve the band portraits or promo images I make, not to mention I always look for ways to improve my use of flash.

For the last few years WPPI has called Mandalay Bay home, and I find it a much better location than the past venues – with the exception of the old days at MGM Grand.  As usual, the conference had classes on a variety of subjects, from Wedding topics, to posing, lighting, and business practices. While in general the conference gets a great selection of instructors, there were some things I saw this year that I was not a fan of. In doing the video I was torn between really going deep into those areas that bugged me vs just pointing them out and moving on. I opted to go with the later. There were some instructors this year that honestly were not good, but I didn’t want this to become the “Presentation Critique” show. Critiquing someone else’s performance is a tricky thing, as I am sure people could rip me up sometimes after I have a done a presentation. I really don’t want the issues I do mention to take over the narrative here. Every conference has some issues, and the main takeaway for me is that WPPI is a very worthwhile conference. The social networking part alone is awesome. That said, if you are reading the majority of your presentation off of your computer then yeah…. you need some work. If the person I am talking about in this video sees it and realizes it’s them I am talking about – even though I do not mention names –  then please feel free to reach out. I’d love to share with you some tips for improving the presentation you did.

The Expo was big enough, and well lit, but did feel more crowded this year. The vendor selection was varied enough, but not as wide as past years, but as always some of the best instruction comes at the Expo. Every major vendor has a stage and some great presenters.

The best of any conference is the networking, and WPPI is no exception. I had the opportunity to run into to old friends, hang out with some great talent, and make new friends. If for no other reason go to WPPI for the social aspect.

This year I visited the Canon booth to chat about the new EOS RP Full Frame Mirrorless body, which started shipping the day I was there, and to talk about the Canon photo community RAISE. I am actually really glad I was there to talk about RAISE, because within a week of coming home a friend saw a complaint in another photo community and sent me a copy of that post. The complaint was about the Terms of Usage and shared a quote tha


Published on 5 years, 10 months ago






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