If after purchasing a flight to Vegas, coughing up at least $100/night for a hotel room, and emptying your wallet for each and every meal you still have some money to spare, you will buy a pass to go to the classes at WPPI (I was able to go for free as a guest of my mom and I’m still mourning the fact that I didn’t get a seat in Elizabeth Messina’s class).

If you don’t have that kind of money, or the inclination to spend it that way, you are like the majority of photographers who skip out on the classes and go for the more cost effective Tradeshow only passes (and for the networking of course!)

Speaking of networking, the business card exchange at WPPI reminds me of when I used to exchange and trade Pogs when I was in elementary school. It’s definitely the “in” thing to do at WPPI. People were even asking me if I had one! What would my business card have said (remember the photography thing hadn’t yet taken root yet): That Wife. Blogger Extroardinare. Read more about my cooking, my baby fever, and how I got really fat this one time at www.thatwifeblog.com.

My three favorite cards were from Leo Patrone, Bobbi+Mike, and Jonathan Canlas (all letterpress and all so beautiful)

These two images were on display in the “awards” section, and I apologize to the photographers for taking pictures of their pictures, but they were so hilarious that I wanted to share!

The tradeshow is absolutely massive. It filled up the biggest ballroom I have ever seen, and spilled over into another one almost the same size. The booths are made up of pretty much every kind of photography related vendor you can imagine. The big names like Canon and Nikon were in one room, and the smaller booths in another.

I’ve never seen so many canvas prints and albums. I can’t believe that so many businesses providing the same services can stay profitable. It made me realize the importance of shopping around before making such expensive investments.

I thought the orientation of this album was really unique. As you can imagine, it was also really heavy.

Many of the booths had speakers giving demonstrations on how to use their products.

This booth kind of made me laugh, which is probably rude of me, since pain is not a laughing matter.

Some of the booths weren’t trying to sell anything, getmarried.com and theknot.com were there to promote their real wedding features to some of the best photographers in the world.

The Boudoir Divas booth was one of the hot items, as boudoir shoots are starting to become more popular (and socially acceptable I think).

While browsing the booths I ran into 2 of the coolest photographers ever, Bobbi+Mike! Bobbi is really easy to find with that red hair. She made me realize I need some kind of “signature look”. Any ideas on what that should be?

Also I like Bobbi+Mike because they have icons similar to mine, except maybe cooler. Yeah, mine is cuter, but theirs is cooler. I told her I wanted her to know I didn’t rip her off, and I taught her about the TV show That Girl where the original wig icon actually came from (IMO).

I also ran into Justine, aka The Unbride. Please go look at her wedding dress and veil right this instant. Amazing right?

Lot’s of the booths were dedicated to backdrops and fake doorways (I never realized there was such a huge market for fake doorways. These damask backdrops were my very favorite.

Some of the products I saw were really different from anything I’ve ever seen before. This company specializes in putting your photograph onto square sheets to create a type of tiled image.

You can have your wedding day portrait turned into a rug.

I thought this metal picture frame was a unique take on the popular guestbook idea.

My personal favorite was the View-Master proof viewer. Who wants to see boring old 2d prints when they can look through one of their favorite childhood toys and see their images in 3d!

Remember how fun these were as a kid? Now you can see your wedding the way you used to look at the Winnie the Pooh story as a child. I did pick one up and look through it, and it’s pretty amazing, although a little bit gimicky for my taste.

My favorite innovative products were these canvas prints. I love how the circular pattern on the floor is mimicked a little bit by the rectangles around the square.

You can’t see it that well in this shot, but each of these rectangles that make up this canvas increase in size and height a little bit to add some depth. The company says it can do any print in almost any configuration you can dream up.

One of the very last things I did at WPPI was meet one of my photography “idols”. Not only do I think Anne Ruthmann’s work is fantastic, but she is a brilliant buisnesswoman. She thinks up ideas like the Las Vegas Wedding Project, and then she finds a way to network with her peers and make them happen. I admire her drive, and as I expcted she was a delight to talk to. I was sick that evening and so I was unable to meet up with her that night at the Lovecat party. I hope I’m able to attend WPPI next year so I can rock out with Anne in 2010!

I don’t know if I mentioned it before, but I was able to spend a few days with one of my favorite friends, Kelli Nicole. I like her so much that I even let her share a bed with me, which is something very few people have ever done since sharing my sleeping space is at the very top of my pet peeve list.

While I ended my WPPI experience sick in bed (the bad hip struck again), she was out partying it up at one of the best parties ever to hit Vegas, the BluDomain/Mammoth Men bonanza!

Yeah, when there are that many photographers in the area, what happens in Vegas most certainly does not stay in Vegas. I hope I’ll be back in 2010!

Also:

• Italy Panoramas
• 2010 in Review
• Kelly Moore Bag Review