It took me a while to figure out that these boats were actually taxis!

It ended up being pretty easy to find our hotel and get checked in. We wanted to get out and explore right away. I felt like I didn’t really know where to start first since I had not done a lot of research beforehand on the city. I said lets just go look at postcards and find out what sites there are to see.

We found out that there was this big piazza called Piazza San Marco. We tried to follow a map to get there and we also asked for directions, but it started to get dark and we didn’t know our way back to the hotel.

We thought we would follow the sun since we knew it was setting in the west, but once the sun set we still had not found our way back. At last we found someplace familiar and got back towards our hotel. We were sad that we never made it to Piazza San Marco.

We found a small restaurant to have dinner close to our hotel and decided we better not go too far or we might get lost again. Thinking back this was the best salad I ever had! Fresh salami, mozzarella, artichoke hearts, and topped off with fresh olive oil!

The food was just amazing! I had to take pictures!

Our last day in Italy! We took a little walk not far from our hotel to just take in a little more of Venice.

Italy you will be missed!!!! This was our last trip to Europe during Matt’s time at Delta. I don’t know when we will ever be back and I am sad to know that most likely it won’t be while traveling first class! I am going to have to just get used to it.

The Gates of Paradise on the Battistero di San Giovanni.

This is the Florence Duomo. A truly magnificent structure with so much history. Since we were literally stopping through Florence we did not have time to explore the interior of any of the places we visited. I can just image how amazing it looks inside.

This the the Baptism of Christ above the Gates of Paradise of the Battistero di San Giovanni.

I miss having all the great wine with our meals.

And I REALLY miss the salads in Italy. There is just nothing compared to their freshness of the veggies and cheeses. Also using the fresh olive oil, balsamic vinegar, salt and pepper is better than our thick, creamy ranch. MMmm!

And off to our last city … Venice, Italy!

We never got a chance to visit all five little villages in the Cinque Terre, but Vernazza was so beautiful I was happy enough there. We decided to take one of the hiking paths over to Monterosso on our first afternoon. We ended up taking the hardest path of the entire area. Let me tell you, for me, it was hard. It reminded me how out of shape I am. BUT it was sssooo worth it! The views from the top are unbelievable!! It still takes my breathe away. And we had a great reward waiting for us at the end!

Some of the path was literally 12 inches wide. And this was a one way path with people coming from both ways. It was tough to share the path when you needed to. At one point I lost my footing when I stepped on what looked like a bunch of leaves, but it was branches and my leg gave way. It didn’t go down much, but is shows that this path was not for the faint at heart.

We could see Monterosso from here. It wouldn’t be long now!

Ahh our much deserved reward! We climbed out to these rocks and swam in the crystal clear blue Mediterranean Sea! I even cliff jumped for the first time!

We wandered the streets of Monterossos and had some lunch before catching the train back to Vernazza. This is one of my favorite pictures! I just love the angles, textures, and colors of everything!

Our first night we went to a place that was recommended to us, but I still don’t think I ever got the name. We found it just by how the location was described. I had their homemade pasta with pesto sauce. This was to die for! The food here was just amazing!

On our last day we just enjoyed the town and did some shopping. Our last night we sat out on the pier, had dinner, and watched a beautiful sunset go down.

I hope that I can someday come back to this amazing area of Italy! Tomorrow Matt and I split off from his parents and finish our trip alone.

Our first activity for the day was to head out and see the leaning tower!

You know we had to do it!

Matt had a moped and one of his dreams was to ride one around in Italy!! So we found a shop where we could rent some and we road them out to Lucca, Italy.

The lunch wasn’t amazing compared to other places I had been in Italy, but it filled my tummy! Most shops were closed this day since it was Sunday so we didn’t get to much but walk around.

The mopeds were a blast to ride around! It was a little scary trying to read the road signs, but so so fun!

This is a view of Pisa from a hill we road the mopeds on. It is hard to see, but you could see the leaning tower from up here. It was so beautiful!

Since flying stand-by we started to get used to our first class treatment. I am sad to know that is over! It was fun to be able to bring family along to enjoy the experience. There is just nothing like traveling first class to another country. The service, food, entertainment, and room to stretch your feet was amazing. Good thing we were able to take advantage of the opportunity to sleep since little did we know we were in for a long first day.

We arrived in Milan, Italy around 9AM (1AM at home). We were able to find a restaurant open around 10AM so were could have some lunch before heading out on our travels. We have been traveling for over 8 hours now.

One of my favorite pizza’s in Italy!

This was our first experience using the trains in Italy. It took a while to figure out the routes and read the signs, but we were masters by the end of the trip. Our first train was heading for La Spezia but we were stopping in the Cinque Terre to find rooms for a couple nights. We didn’t have any hotel’s booked (you will find out later we regretted that decision).

AAhh we arrived in Vernazza, Cinque Terre to find a hotel. Matt and his dad went on foot to find a place for us to stay while Mary and I enjoyed a little gelato and time to relax.

We were all very disappointed to find out that there were no rooms in Vernazza and we were probably not going to find a room in any of the other small towns nearby. Our next best chance was to continue to La Spezia to find a place there. At this point we still had our luggage (carry-ons thankfully) and we had been traveling for nearly 14 hours. So we said good-bye to the Cinque Terre for now with plans to head back tomorrow.

After walking around in La Spezia until dark we ended up not finding a hotel there either. We tried getting online and the closest hotel we could find was in Pisa. So we booked it online, went back to the train station, and of course had to get some McDonald’s. Nothing else was open. Shortly after we ate they closed and kicked us out. It was about 11PM when we found out the train was canceled because of a strike and we would have to wait until after midnight.

Finally we arrive in Pisa, Italy! We trekked on foot to our hotel and came to find the town was surprisingly busy at 1AM.

As we were wandering the streets to find our hotel we came around the back side of the park that the Leaning Tower is in. We had not expected to see it while we were walking. It was a magnificent sight to see in the light of the moon! How amazing to think that not many people see the tower at nearly 2:00 in the morning! At this point I could only laugh … and take some pictures!

After a long day and a little frustration we finally made it to our first hotel. Got to bed right away and planned to figure out the rest of our trip in the morning!

I never regretted my choice to go to WPPI.  I learned so much, but I also created some very important connections with other photographers who I would now consider my friends as well as reconnecting with some I had not seen for a while.  I also opened up a few great opportunities for myself just by, again, putting myself out there.  The biggest event and most attended I would say is the trade show.  This baby takes up not one but two convention floors.  If you thought you were done with the one room, out there is still another room to tackle!  You can spend well over two days going through booth after booth of great information.  You might also run into some great photographers a long the way that you have wanted to meet or maybe wanted to learn more from.  Many of the booths have a schedule of events where throughout the day they will have various speakers, who are not always photographers, that will talk about anything under the sun related to this industry.  If you are smart you can get a list of these schedules since often times they will have small sheets available with the schedule on it and then plan out your day around that schedule depending on who you are interested in hearing from.  Remember these are always free to anyone attending the trade show!  You can get a lot of useful tips just from being on the trade show floor.  I would also recommend printing out a map of both trade show rooms and highlighting each booth that you want to get to and writing their name in the box so you know who to look for!  Some booths you can easily skip over because either they don’t apply to your type of photography or it is just something that you are not interested in, but if you don’t have a thought out plan you can very easily get stuck going to these booths and take up a lot of your valuable time.  Also beware that every booth is going to want to scan your badge and then they might drag you into their talk about their product.  If it is really something you are interested in then that might be okay.  You will get a lot of e-mail message from those vendors later.  But you also don’t have time to talk to everyone.  So kindly say thanks, but no thanks if it just isn’t worth your time.  However, you will find a lot of booths that are of interest for you and you will be given a lot of brochures, books, dvds, samples, and other various things to look at so bring a medium sized bag that is slim so you can slip those paper products in the bag and into your suitcase.  Make sure you sort through the ones you can toss so you don’t go over the 50 pound weight limit.  Believe me you will get a lot of stuff!  You can even plan to bring a flat rate USPS box to ship everything back home to you.  Lastly if you are attending the trade show watch for special contests and games that the vendors might play for your chance to win prizes.  Here is one that I am participating in so if you see me say HI!

In my experience last year I cannot tell you if the classes that are offered to full registration are beneficial since I chose not to attend those classes, however, I can tell you that I was kept plenty busy and learned a TON without going to a single class.  There is so much going on during WPPI such as workshops, classes, and networking events that other professionals host that you can learn so much without taking a single class.  I also feel like I learn more in a smaller setting with people that I can really interact with.  There are a lot of people in a single room listening to one photographer all coming out with the same ideas.  I am sure the classes are great and can help a lot of people, but last year I decided to invest in other means of learning.  I am actually planning to attend some of the classes this year since I was able to get a free registration, but I don’t feel like I would be getting anything less from my experience if I decided not to go to them.  It is all up to each person.  So last year I did get involved with a couple planned photoshoots.  There are some that are held right on the strip, some in downtown, some out in the desert, some at night, and some at sunrise!  You will be able to have the opportunity to photograph in conditions that you are not used to and get feedback and encouragement from others around you.  It really helped me get creative and I was so inspired working along side the rest of the groups that I was with.  Here are some photos that I took last year.

The last thing I want to talk about and the most important is the networking opportunity that you will have while attending WPPI.  Last year I went to the Blu Domain Party, the [b] party, and the Pictage party at Studio 54, I participated in two or three various photo shoots, and shared dinner with some great people.  At the trade show I also met some people who I have followed in the photography/blog world.  If you see someone that you know in this industry don’t be afraid to say HI!  I remember seeing some artists that I “blog stalked” and loved their work.  I saw some of them while walking the trade show floor and gathered up the courage to walk up to them and introduce myself.  I know how everyone feels so stupid to say I follow your blog.  Yes I am a “blog stalker”!  But everyone is so real, nice, and won’t run away if you just want to say hi!  In the end we are all on the same level, no one is better than someone else.  You might feel your heart drop into your stomach and get all sweaty and nervous and maybe forget what you are going to say.  You might even make yourself look stupid, but don’t worry just do it!  Get out there and say hi to someone!  You have no idea where it will lead.  At the parties that I went to I had the opportunity to meet so many great people.  At the Blu Party I reconnected with the Love Affair gals and they were more than happy to share a dance with me on the dance floor.  I spent some time with my Minnesota friends and had a blast!  I also got to see other photographers such as Jessica Claire, the Lyons, The Image is Found, Bobbi (bobbi+mike), and Heather Cole.  One of my most beneficial and, I would almost say, greatest opportunity was at the [b] party.  I was nervous about going because none of my friends wanted to go.  I ended up having to take a cab to the hotel alone and walk into this party without knowing ANYONE!!  I think some people could tell I was nervous and didn’t know anyone because someone immediately came up to me and said hi!  As the night went on I ended up meeting a few people from Minneapolis, but the best was meeting a couple people from Oklahoma City!!  I knew that I would be moving down to Oklahoma the following fall and it felt so good that I had some connections down there.  These were people that were totally willing to get to know me, connect me with other photographers in Oklahoma, and genuinely wanted to help me!  I have been able to connect with them now that I am in Oklahoma and will soon be able to get into a group of creative individuals here in OK.  So go say hi to people, go out to dinner with people, go to a party alone and push yourself to meet people that you don’t know!  You will meet some of the most amazing people from around the world and might even meet someone who might change your life!

Blu Domain Party

Bobbi from bobbi+mike

Love Affair Gals minus one

My lovely roommates!

Ra Sushi on one of our last nights!  I will be there again this year!

I hope this post has helped those who are new to going to WPPI or even those who are veterans!  It isn’t for everyone, but it is good for people to realize that there are so many opportunities depending on how much you want to or can invest in your experience.  I think everyone has the opportunity to go home with more than when they came!  If you have questions about it, let me know!  And if you are lucky, maybe you will get to meet this dude: