The last couple of months have been flying by!  Seriously, it’s now 2011 and I feel like I barely blinked or slept!  But, before this all passes me by, I wanted to share an experience that happened a few months back.  It was sort of a big deal for me (lil ol’ Sarah), as it might have been one of those defining moments in one’s career.

Back in November, I decided it was time to do something I had been dreaming of doing for years.  It involved a few things that only some people can truly appreciate… 1) four nights in a hotel room with a bed ALL TO MYSELF… 2) traveling to New Orleans, a city that I LOVE and haven’t been to since I was a young 20 something and drove X-country… 3) leaving my family behind to do something for MYSELF for the first time in 6 years (woop woop!) and 4) getting the chance to open up my mind to new ideas, learn something different and grow personally and within my career.  These are all the things I expected or hoped to do, but I ended up walking away with so much more!

Those images were a sampling from a shooting workshop with Kurt Gerber on how to get “60 Looks in 60 Minutes”.  (Key to any wedding or fashion photographer for that matter.)  He let all of us shoot as much or as little as we wanted while we absorbed the rock star couple, their antics, his teachings, and all of “Nawlins”.  During my ride back to the airport to head home to CT, one of my workshop leaders (a.k.a “the hottie surfer” Mike Larson) asked me “what was the best part of the conference for you”?  For once, I couldn’t answer… and NO it wasn’t because I was blown away by his good looks or his CA surfer hair… it was because I wasn’t sure if one single moment really stood out for me?!!  I was possibly overwhelmed with all of my experiences in those few short days that I couldn’t pick just one thing.  I gave some lame answer like “I’m not really sure, it was all great”.  Blah.  But now I’ve had time to reflect.  Life is like that for me sometimes.  I need time to think, ponder over what happened or what I did, and sit on it.  Then sometimes I am able to look at the whole picture.

I’ve thought long and hard, and quite simply, I loved the whole entire conference!  Yup, I still have a hard time choosing one favorite and maybe you’ll see why.  It started with Jim Collins, the CEO of Pictage and his pushing us photographers to keep working smarter and to not give up in this economy – no matter how much competition is out there! Jim also shared some inspiring stories with us, and one about a young girl fighting to live that keeps running through my mind.  I thoroughly enjoyed hearing the Graziers and Sandersons speak about running a successful studio and out of your house no less, and with kids under the roof too!  I watched Mike Larson execute his style and vision in his workshop, and seeing his perspective while shooting a couple in love.  He let us shoot as well and here’s a few of mine that don’t hold a candle to Mike Larson’s images, but hey…that’s what learning and growing is all about! ; )

We also checked out some super cool places that I wanted to share if you happen to get on over to NOLA anytime soon.  The Old Absinthe House bar on Bourbon Street had hurricanes that were the bomb – seriously!  I had the headache to prove it.  And my favorite local spot for music and drinks, The Spotted Cat Music Club just off the beaten path on Frenchmen Street!  Grab an Abita beer at the bar and let your ears guide you while you sway to the groove of the old school jazz, and watch the Lindy Hop showdown on the dance floor!  (My heart is doing a flutter just thinking about it and the good people that grooved along side of me!!)  And lastly, make time to take a stroll to see the architecture and to have that delicious deep fried dough of a beignet, and check out A Gallery For Fine Photography on Chartres Street for more culture.  It is a history lesson and an art lesson in photographs, which you are sure to love and be in complete awe!  We sipped wine and stood there in all of our glory looking over the work of artists we grew up learning from and wishing we could be half as good as.

At the end of the conference a few of us jumped on the bus to Lafitte, LA, an area that was hit hard by Hurricane Katrina, Ike, Gustav, as well as the oil spill, and destroyed or devastated its homes and families.  We went with the sole purpose of providing hundreds of families with charitable mini portrait sessions to help make a difference in their lives.  I’m pretty sure that something like this has a way of enriching all of the people involved (myself included), not just the families.  I know I was honored to have been there and to have met so many amazing people and to have assisted in any way possible.  Just one of the many things that made an impact on me during the conference.

So can you see why it was so hard for me to choose just one thing?  I guess if I HAD to pick the single best part of the conference, I would have to say that it was connecting with so many of the other Connecticut and New England based photographers that I met and got to hang out with.  They took me in on day one and welcomed me like family, treated me like their own, and made me feel all warm and cozy!  (Thank you CT PUG groupies – Bruce, Leslie, Paul, Krystal, Carla, Danielle, Candice, Josh, Rebecca, Max, Hildi and others I may have missed!)  I realized after talking with many of them or listening to them speak, that it doesn’t matter how many years you are in business or how many weddings or editorial or portrait jobs you get each year or what everyone else is doing.  What matters is what YOU are doing for yourself, and what works best for you or your studio!  (I think I am still learning as I go, even after 5 years of doing it full time, but I am getting there.)

I do know that shooting 40 weddings a year is NOT what I want to do right now.  It’s good for others, and it works for them or their clients, and I am cool with that.  But for me, I don’t want to get burnt out and I need variety.  I want to watch my kids grow up and enjoy their summers at the beach while they bury me in the sand.  I want to be a wife, a good one, the kind that sometimes cooks a hot dinner and gets off the computer. ; )  I want to go on adventures, travel to new places, learn a new hobby, or read a new book (imagine – time to read!).  I want to embrace new technology and fine tune my photography skills, as I know I am far from perfection!!  I want to go to new workshops and learn at new conferences (so psyched for Inspire Boston 2011), and to keep finding inspiration in my daily surroundings.  I want to give back to my community.  I want to continue to find happiness in what I do, and bring happiness to others while I do it.  For me, it’s that simple I guess.  So until next time NOLA… Who Dat!