Whew! What an exhilarating and exhausting experience at the Digital Wedding Forum convention in Tampa, Florida. I just got back and feel exhilarated.
For the past 3 years, the DWF convention has been in Las Vegas. For those of us in SoCal, that’s really awesome because Vegas is so close. This year, they decided to switch it up and have it in Tampa. Having never been to Florida, I thought it might be cool to go. But, I wasn’t prepared for the great experience I had there.
This is Amy Prutch and I at the convention.
I truly feel inspired after this experience. Many of those who spoke at the various seminars were extremely inspiring. I didn’t feel like I was being sold to or that anyone even cared about “selling” anything. There was a genuine willingness to teach and drive photographers to be better than they are today by looing inside and finding that something that pushes us one step further towards where we want to be. Tony Hewitt, a Australian based photograper, asked us, “Would the child you were be proud of the adult you’ve become?” That’s a pretty powerful question and one that requires an answer from all of us; not just photographers, but anyone reading this.
At any rate, I’m glad I made the long journey on a cramped little tin can of an airplane for 5 hours to visit this event, see some of my friends and associates from all over the world, make new friends, and find inspiration for what I do.
A special thanks to Jeff Caplan, owner of DWF, for making it all happen. It takes a tremendous effort to pull something like this off.