If you missed my first two posts about my Click Away journey you can find them here and here.

On the second day of the conference it was a little hard to get out of bed. I was worn out from late nights of chatting with the other ladies and long days of filling my brain with information. This day desperately called for a Starbucks visit. Luckily there was one in the lobby of my hotel. The line was always pretty long each morning but it was a great opportunity to meet new people. While I was standing in line on this day I ran into several ladies that I had met on the forum but never in person. This was a common occurrence over the span of the whole trip. I would see someone that I had had never met in person before, but because we knew each other from the Clickin Moms forum it was like we were old friends. On this morning one of the ladies I ran into was Melissa Stottmann. She is a wonderful photographer and teacher and I have admired her for awhile. We started chatting and ended up sitting together for the keynote speaker.

The keynote speaker for this day was Joy Prouty. If you have never heard of her, you need to check out her family’s story here. They sold everything they owned to travel the country in a trailer for 9months – with 4 little kids! Her keynote was so moving and inspirational. I cried like a baby and had to get up at one point to go find kleenex.

My schedule for this day was a little less crazy but just as exciting! Two sessions I was most looking forward to happened to by led by the same person – Danielle Hatcher. One was a class on capturing real emotions in couples and the other was a portfolio critique. It was during the portfolio critique that she said something that really struck me. She was looking through about 35 of my best images and she asked me this question “what do you really love shooting?”. My response was immediate – seniors and women! She told me that she knew that would be my answer because my passion for those images showed in my work. It was one of those Ah-ha moments! I knew I loved shooting seniors and women but when she told me that she could see it in my work it clicked that I need to focus on shooting what I love (stay tuned for more info on that later 😉 ) and that by doing that, my images will only get stronger!

My last session of the day was a shooting excursion to Saltair at the great Salt Lake. The outing was full and I was waitlisted, but I waited to see if there was room and I got in! We took a bus out to Saltair in time for sunset. There were a few models scheduled to be there for us to pose and shoot and one of the was the most adorable family. I had such a great time putting all my new knowledge to use and watching the sun set in the most beautiful setting.

 

By the time I got back to the hotel it was dark and I was hungry. I met up with some other ladies and we headed out to find food. It ended up being one of the best dinners of the trip. Not because of the food or wine, but because of the company and conversation. No one was in a rush to get home to kids or husbands. We didn’t have to anywhere to be or anything else to do. We were free to enjoy each other’s company and just talk! We shared what we had learned so far, our fears and hopes for our business, our role as mom and wife and finding that perfect balance in life. It was the kind of conversation that leaves you feeling refreshed and ready to take on anything.

Stayed tuned for my fourth and final post about Click Away coming soon!