Laurel McConnell Photography » Announcements, Products, & Chat

Pinch me, I think I’m dreaming.

The makers behind the lenses, flashes, and cameras I’ve loved and been loyal to since I first started this photography adventure over a decade ago are taking me to VEGAS. That’s right friends, I’m a Nikon shooter and can’t be happier with my choice of the rock solid D3, 14-24, 24-70, 50mm 1.4, 105 macro, 70-200, and sb-800’s. And now they’re sponsoring Laurel McConnell Photography. Pinch pinch pinch!!!

Random sidenote… did you know my first camera was the cute little N-65? And my first professional camera was the workhorse F-100? We’ve come along way, baby!

Anywhoo….

The Wedding & Portrait Photographers International conference attracts around 10,000 photographers, bloggers, technophiles, and weekend warriors from around the WORLD each year about this time.

Nikon has set me up with some grrreat bodies and lenses to shoot with, review, and learn inside and out while they usher me around this huge conference with them!

For the next week, you’ll be seeing a series of posts, tweets, and facebook updates about my travels with Nikon and WPPI, while I listen to world renowned photographers speak, while I shoot, while I learn, while I browse, and while I rub elbows with some pretty heavy-hitter shooters.

You’ll see blurbs about speakers, about knowledge gained. About tradeshow finds, about long lost friends. About Nikon lenses, Nikon bodies, Nikon flashes, Nikon photographers. About parties, and socials, and silly shenanigans, no doubt.

Bottom line, this is a GREAT conference for anyone interested in the art, business, and technology of photography. A necessary experience for any photographer in the wedding and portrait world.

Follow my tweets HERE: http://twitter.com/laurelmcconnell

Follow my facebook HERE: http://www.facebook.com/pages/Laurel-McConnell-Photography/340089440232?ref=mf

Follow my articles HERE: well, yeah, right here, obviously :)

I hope that if you’re not able to attend this year, you’ll find this next week’s series interesting, informative, and inspiring.

And if you’re NOT a photographer, then I humbly apologize… it’s about to get REAL geeky in here!

Cheers, and see you in Vegas!!

Special thanks to Junebug Weddings, for without which this opportunity would not have come to be!!!

We’re on Orcas Island right now, and we just got through shooting Ben & Aisling’s beautiful island wedding.

But first…just wanted to share with you guys who were following along with the tweets and facebook status updates… We did indeed, on a whim, board a whale watching boat while scouting some quirky locations for tonight’s wedding.  Little did we know it would be a four hour tour, taking us all the way to Canada!!!

It was a super rare sighting of a Super Pod- three pods combined to hunt as one.  It was estimated that 85 whales were in the vicinity.  The one above was doing a tale slap to stun the fish (but we like to think he was playing!).

I pesonally think that the kayaker pictured above was peeing his pants.  He was SO close to the two whales (there’s a fin just to the left of his boat)!!!

Mom and baby? What a treat.

One whale spy hopping, taking a looksee about!

Um, the Northwest is BEAUTIFUL. Right? Yep. The tallest fin belongs to a male.

Anyone see Shamu as a kid?

Wowsas.  Gorgeous.

And for good measure, an image of Bull Kelp.  it grows 8-12 inches PER DAY. This stuff is huge… the pods are the size of softballs!

Some of you know it as a “Trash The Dress Shoot.”  I like to call it “The Day After Session” with a bit of a fashion flair.

This last week while we were in Vegas for the WPPI conference, Steve, Bill & Erin, and I were lucky enough to have Amy and Bev indulge in our photographic whims while we dragged them all over Vegas’s famed Neon Boneyard Museum.  This is an AWESOME location that photographers look forward to booking shoots at every year come conference time.  It is where all of the neon signs of decades past (mostly circa 1950’s) go to retire their bulbs.  Sadly, it has been subject of entirely too much vandalism over the last few years- everything from graffiti to fire, but is still a unique place nonetheless (but it’s not a bad idea to be up on your teatanus shots before you go!!!).

A huge thanks to our showgirl Bev and my lovely friend and sometimes assistant Amy for getting all dolled up in the wee hours of the morning (check out her work, she’s got a great eye!), and a sincere thanks to Jodell at Bella Umbrella for trusting me with the newest addition to her vintage umbrella collection (it’s not even cataloged yet!)!

Contact us at info at mcconnellphoto dot com for info on your very own Day After Session.  It doesn’t necessarily have to be the day after your wedding, but it’s a great opportunity to get the portraits you couldn’t get on your wedding day!

For Stacey and Darryn’s engagement/Getting To Know You shoot, we had the whole day planned out. Just an hour before I was supposed to meet them over in West Seattle, Stacey called to see if we could just shoot around while they did normal Saturday afternoon things: they love to cook and invite their friends over to share in their homecooked meals and great wine and yummy cheese. This is what they do every Saturday night- it’s a grand potluck of sorts. I had a great time with their fun friends and family that night as they brought me into their group and shared really funny stories and jokes- that MAY have been the longest engagement session I’ve ever done (I think I strolled on home at about 1 am?!).

We started by taking their super cute boxer on a walk (my mom has a boxer- they’re so much fun and have such funny quirky personalities!), then proceeded to open some of Darryn’s wine (he’s a winemaker) while he and Stacey made some yummy homemade pasta. Once their friends and family all arrived, we all just hung out and spent the evening drinking Dom, telling stories, reading the cute little love notes Darryn leaves for Stacey all over the house, and deep frying everything in site (pickles! Who woulda thunk it!).

Their wedding is just around the corner (next weekend!) at the Dome Room in the Arctic Club Hotel (LOVE that hotel! We had our Get Hitched, Give Hope bridal auction there last year!). Can’t wait to see the dress, Stacey, not to mention the funny funny favors you picked out! (I don’t want to spoil the surprise for anyone who doesn’t know yet, they TOTALLY speak to Stacey and Darryn’s fun loving attitude!)