January is a month that I am glad to see is over. Not that it was a bad month in any way, but it was very hectic. It seems like all of the professional photography groups and associations have learned that January is the time we have the least business so they plan all of their conventions and seminars then. This January was a little more hectic than most. I was gone to Nashville to a convention and the following weekend went to Las Vegas to another. Las Vegas was great as usual, until you have to return and deal with jet lag. This year that was compounded by the fact that I left the very next day to go to St. Petersburg, FL for another conference. At the end of the last one I was so ready to get home we drove all night and got into Winder at 4:30 AM, more jet lag! Now that we are all under one roof we are frantically working on getting some new things done, new samples, new techniques, new products and some new ideas on where and how we will be photographing some things. We have several sessions booked that we are going to concentrate on just those things, and I can't wait.
While in St. Pete I was honored to speak the opening night of the conference on our sports posters. It was a huge honor to have been asked to speak and it seemed to go over very well. The room was packed with about 500 professional photographers from all over the US and Puerto Rico. Luckily the lights were really bright on me and I couldn't see the past the first few rows!
Finally, before I show any photos from the travels, I have to say that our newsletters have been mailed and our Sweet 16 program is underway now. You can find more information on the Sweet 16 program at the new Belk in Winder and on our web page.
Now a few from my travels.
This is from my table at Paris on the first day, nice breakfast that day but we seemed to eat pretty cheap the rest of the trip – very cheap. Lets just say that my parking ticket to leave the Atlanta airport was almost the biggest bill I had on the entire trip. Rooms were only $49 a night at Harrah's!
I saw this across the street from Bally's, guess they aren't planning on going anywhere soon!
Have you ever seen the show "Pawn Stars" on the History channel? This is the place, open 24 hours – just not all at one time, they were closed when we went by.
The forum shops at Ceasers Palace, nice!
Inside the Casino at Ceasars Palace.
Bally's and Paris at night.
We got to St. Pete a few hours early, this was my only downtime!
This was from one of the workshops I attended at sunset on the beach.
Everyday I was gone we started at 8:30AM and the programs ended between 9 and 10:30PM! I was so ready to get home! You can only sit in a seminar for so long before it starts going in one ear and out the other, and those chairs are not the best for sitting that long either. Oh, but the things we learned – I have a full notebook of ideas for this year.