New Orleans, Las Vegas & Austin – Travel Update!

August is normally the quiet month for us. There aren’t a lot of weddings – it is just too hot in Houston this time of year. If you had asked me back in July, the only thing on my calendar for August was a trip to New Orleans for a photographer’s meet-up that I was helping to coordinate for a group on Flickr. It was otherwise going to be a fairly quiet month. Or so I thought…

Then the opportunity to go to Las Vegas for Skip’s Summer School came up. It was just too good to pass up, and so even though it followed right on the heels of my trip to New Orleans (I was home for 36 hours inbetween the two), I am SO glad I went – finally got the chance to see Bellagio in Las Vegas! I met the most AMAZING people this summer, and it has been a HUGE inspiration! Thank you to everyone that made that happen!

The trip to New Orleans was the perfect kick-off to the trip to Las Vegas. I joked that it was like I was in training. In Vegas, the Fast Track Photographer community was on fire! We kicked it all off with a fantastic meetup that my friend Lain from Lubbock put together. You can see a bit of it in the video below that Ray Pryor of Emotia in Chicago created. Can’t you just feel the buzz? It was so awesome! From there it was two solid days of school, where I got to learn from some of the best leaders this industry has to offer. As a bonus, there were only 360 or so people there – so everyone was so accessible!

The best part for me was all the people I met, by far – and the fact that Dane Sanders helped in his own magical way to bring so many of us together. You can just feel the energy in that video – and that was within hours of arriving in Vegas. Just imagine how it was after we had two days to bond! It was so moving to help out with the table after Dane Sanders spoke and getting to hear from so many people such awesome feedback! Dane is the MAN! If you get a chance to attend one of his workshops, I can’t recommend it enough! (You can check out the upcoming dates and sign up here – and use the code Christine_Workshop_New to get $75 off of the price!)

I’ve been home for a few days now, and Elaine & I went down to Galveston on Saturday for Melissa & Brandon’s wedding reception — not only was it fantastic seeing their family that were in Belize in July, but to meet the rest of their family & friends *and* get to see Elizabeth & Michael, one of our May wedding couples! It was a happy coincidence that we discovered a few weeks beforehand that Elizabeth & Michael are friends with Melissa & Brandon – we had no idea about the connection, and they didn’t even realize until after the fact that we were working with both of them on their weddings!

I’m hitting the road one last time now in my crazy, crazy August – it is off to Austin, where I’m going to help out with Dane’s workshop! There are still seats available, and it doesn’t start until tomorrow, so get in while you can if you’re interested! If you’re in the Austin area (or willing to make the drive over) and you can’t do the workshop itself, join us *tonight* for Dane’s presentation on Standing Out in the Crowd – FREE! (RSVP here.) Hope to see you there!