PHOENIX, ARIZONA
Earlier this month, I attended my first industry convention in Pheonix, Arizona. It was such a great experience and I was glad to have made that last minute decision to drive solo for six hours for the event!
In the three days that spanned the expo, here are some things that I’ve learned after being surrounded by 10,000 fellow photographers and listening to great industry leaders:
1. Things happen for a reason. Out of ten thousand people, I sat in a table with four other people during the Opening Ceremony dinner. I didn’t talk much, as I can be quite the shy person. Coincidentally the next morning, I bumped into one of the photographers from that table in my hostel’s dining area! There were only four photographers staying in the hostel and I ran into someone from my dinner table. Fate, I tell ya. By the way, her name is Tamara and she runs Thirty-Three Photography, based in New York!
Another crazy coincidental thing was that after being closed for a year for renovations, the popular Camelback Mountain became open to hikers on the last day that I was in Phoenix! Lucky, or what!
2. Downtown Phoenix, Arizona is eerily a very quiet place. In the middle of what other metropolis cities might experience, Phoenix’s lunch rush is somewhat non-existent. There were barely any cars driving down the one-way streets, or any pedestrians for that matter. I was not expecting that at all.
3. Photographers are too shy to whip out their cameras among other photographers. Myself included, haha. This is why you’re only seeing photos of nature and not the expo itself, by the way.
4. I rediscovered why I became a photographer. This past year, ever since Paper Ban Photography became a legit business, I stressed out on all the things that, on paper, makes a business successful – profit, clients, marketing, etc. I attended a couple of lectures that reminded me why I even went to this line of work in the first place. I wanted to create things, memorable things, and I really needed to start being more proactive with this by doing more personal work – where my imagination is the only thing stopping me.
5. Driving long distances solo is easier to do when listening to the Rooster Teeth Podcast. Or any podcasts you enjoy, really, and for a couple of reasons. One, podcasts are long. Two, the hosts become those friends roadtripping with you. Really, they’re like the friends that you drag along for conversation, only the podcast hosts really do stay awake and talk with you instead of leaning back against the chairs and falling asleep on you.
6. It’s just like climbing a mountain. And by ‘it’, I mean anything and everything. We start from the bottom and work our way up to the top of the mountain. During our climb, there are obstacles, and so many of it. But if you have your goal in mind, and you push through any pain that may come your way, you’ll get closer and closer to the top. Sure, some old guy who has worse knee pains than you might zoom past you as you’re climbing those rocks. But that doesn’t matter. The only thing that matters is you and your climb.
We made it to the top of the mountain!
