Photographer FAQ - How to Win Friends and Party With People

this morning, i got an email from a new friend of ours, sarah frenzel, and in her excitement regarding the up and coming wppi trade show, she noted "we'll catch up with you guys at WPPI. did you go last year? any tips for a newbie?"

what started as a quick response from the perspective of my opinion, really stopped me in my tracks and made me re-think the choices i made last year as a "newbie." and, in my humble opinion, whether you are a first year amateur (in the fast track photographer sense of the word) or a seasoned pro, we can all find value in asking ourselves a few questions to direct where we might spend our time & money.

if you are going to vegas, or any other work shop, or trade show for that matter:

do you want to come home with new contacts?
do you want to come home with new information?
do you want to come home with a new camera?
why are you taking the time to go?
what is it that you are hoping to receive from that investment?

if you know what you want to come home with, how to spend your time & money will become more clear. if you aren't clear on those things, it can become overwhelming pretty quickly, and other people will dictate where you should spend your time & money.

for carlie & i, at last year's show, we were most interested in meeting people who were starting out, just like us. so we spent our time talking to people, going to parties, having crepes & coffee with our new friends, and hanging out on the trade show floor. we also knew that we wanted to find a good deal on a rolling camera bag and a well balanced set of photoshop actions (having a "shopping list" before we got to vegas, saved us thousands of dollars no doubt). so, every category is fair game. just ask yourself, "why am i going? and what is it that i want?"

don't be afraid to be selfish, in a business sense. but also take the time to realize, that there are tens-of-thousands of other individuals, all rolling into vegas at the same time, who will be asking themselves the same questions and who are also looking out for number one. and since none of us live in a vacuum, my encouragement would be to see if you (and i) might be able to help a handful of folks leave vegas with what they were hoping to go home with... not necessarily out of any benefit to ourselves, but because you & i have a genuine interest in people.

i hope that helps.