I have so many pictures to go through from my trip to Vegas, so I’ll parcel them out in sections. My Vegas adventure wouldn’t have been near what it was if it weren’t for my LLV pals! Not to say that the other wonderful people I met or roomed with weren’t amazing themselves (because those pictures come next), but the Vegas trip for me was about so much more than just the WPPI convention, it was the culmination of months of planning and organizing a workshop with five other people who became my instant and dear friends. They are, by far, as great in person as you could image they would be: Mark Eric; Jason Domingues; my rock, Sofie Louca and her amazing husband Paul; and the well-adored Ross Tanner from Flosites. We turned quite a few heads around stores with our collage of accents when we were all got together: Paul is from Cyprus, Sofie is from the UK, Mark has a southern twang on occasion, Jason has a Boston accent, Ross’ wife is from Moldova, but has a very strong Irish accent, and Ross sounds like a mix of a British Irishman. Throw in my “Californian” accent (which I don’t hear! LOL) and we were quite the mixed cocktail of sound! I could listen to them all day long and Paul’s Borat impression makes you laug ’til it hurts!

Here are just a few fun ones of us goofing around, working hard and enjoying each other’s company. More to come.

Playing around at the Boneyard: Mark, Sofie, Ross and Leysa.

Paul, Mark and Ross at work

The fabulous Jason Cohen – after being called Mark’s “reflector boy”!

The beautiful Sofie!

This was taken by Paul, my favorite Cyprinian! Sofie, Monica and Ed Pingol, Mark and me

This compilation was put together (and stolen with permission) from my buddy Jason Domingues. Check out his blog, he and Allison put together quite a few good ones!

Paul, Jason, Ross and Mark

My favorite!

I’m back from my very long Vegas trip – safe and sound.  I have yet to go through my 10 gigs of pictures from the week,  but I did want to briefly share this one.

This picture was taken by the awesome David Baxter of Sdohana and it perfectly captures the joy and closeness that I feel around these three people who have become such a huge part of my life the last few months: Sofie Louca of Amorphia Photography; Jason Domingues and Mark Eric.  Leaving Vegas was easy for me – I can do without the smokey hotels, crowded streets and expensive food – I missed my family and was ready to leave.  However, I didn’t realize how hard it would be to turn and walk away after saying goodbye to these three - needless to say, anyone who knows me knows that I teared up.  These three (including Sofie’s wonderful husband, Paul) have forever etched their place in my heart and my life and knowing them, laughing with them and becoming their friend has made me a better person.  I can only say that I treasure this friendship more than you know and that I love you all!

Well, the time has finally come – and I’m off to Vegas this weekend! I’m so excited for all of the fun things I have planned – I’m almost thinking I’m going to need an extra surge of energy to catch-up with my own schedule! I’ll be arriving on Sunday and meeting up with the LLV gang to scout out the best places to shoot at the LLV Ranch; I have amazing roommates and we’re staying at the Paris hotel which will be fun just in of itself. During the week, aside from the great speakers and tradeshow, I’ll be shooting a lot. I’m doing headshots on the strip; I’ll be shooting at the famed Neon Boneyard; I’ll be shot at the Neon Boneyard; I’ll be shooting a wedding and mostly importantly – we’ll be ending the week with our Leavin-Las-Vegas workshop. I have to say, after all the hard work and meetings to get the workshop planned, I’ll be sad to see it end. But, if it goes well, we’ll just have to think of our 2nd annual event!

Then, after a full week I will more than miss my sweet family and I’ll be hopping on a plane back to their arms! I couldn’t do this entire week without Scott, so I just want to say thank you love, you are amazing in so many ways!

To my clients, I will have only intermittent internet access and will return all emails when I return on the 22nd. Thank you for your understanding.

If you are going to be in Vegas, leave a comment – I’d love to meet up with you! Viva-Las-Vegas!!!