Jodi and I had a great time in St. Louis the past 4 days.  We are both a little worn out but it was an awesome experience for the both of us and we can't wait for next year's event.

We left before dawn on Monday morning and arrived downtown around 10:15am, which gave us time to park and get to the hotel lobby which was the meeting place for the group shoot I had set up.  The event I created was prior to the start of the conference the following day but we wound up with 20 photographers and 6 models.  I divided us all up into groups and we went our separate ways, meeting up every half hour or so to swap models.  It was a fun shoot as we shot around Busch Stadium, the old Courthouse and some city buildings.  We finished on the roof of a parking garage and used the Gateway Arch as a backdrop. 

Later that day, after we registered and checked in to our hotel, we went to Forest Park and joined another photo shoot at the Jewel Box. There, we photographed about 6 more models before heading back to Union Station and spending some time socializing in the bar and eating Imo's Pizza.  We met a photographer from Tennessee earlier that day and spent quite a bit of time with him throughout the conference.   I shared with him some of our successes and gave him some ideas to consider incorporating.  He said one of the ideas I gave him was worth the entire trip to St. Louis for him. 

The next morning was the kickoff of the conference and it was an inspiring two hours of fun and information.  We then headed out to our first classes of the day. I went to a studio lighting class and Jodi went to a photo retouching class to see if she could pick up on anything new.  She did and was glad she went. 

We spent the balance of that day and the next shooting, going to the trade show and even got up early on our departure day to photograph more models after the conference had ended.  We were able to pull out of the hotel parking lot around 10:30am and headed West. We stopped at my mother's house for a visit, taking her a Lion's Choice roast beef sandwich, which she had not ever had and she liked it.  I opted for my White Castle lunch and it was mighty tasty. My brother Doug stopped by while we were there and we had a short visit with him prior to him heading out to run his errands.  After leaving my mom's, we went to meet Jodi's step dad who had Jayson's Easter presents for us to take home.  A new Molina shirt and some candy found their way home with us and Jayson enjoyed getting them.

All in all it was a great trip and the images we were able to get are going to be fantastic.  I found  it awesome to work with models, who moved at every click of the shutter versus having to instruct them what to do like we have to do with our seniors.  I also decided on about $8000 worth of new gear for the studio, thanks to the trade show!  At this time, Jodi has only approved about $2500 of it so I'll be working on her a bit as these next few months pass.  The video class I took has inspired me to really dig in and learn how to shot and edit video.  Big things coming ahead for us.