In March I hit up Vegas for the 2008 WPPI wedding photographer convention, which made Sin City even weirder than it was before all us 12,000 photo geeks showed up. (12,000! That’s not a typo!). I cruised out there with John Heisel, enduring lots of stormy weather and perhaps the mankiest hotel room on earth in Cedar City, UT.

The convention was definitely an eye-opener — lots of inspiring talks by some of the movers and shakers in the industry, an out-of-control tradeshow the size of several football fields, lots of random photo shoots, and, of course, partys! Woohoo!

The convention took place at the Paris hotel and casino — the domed ceiling is actually painted like the city skyline, complete with clouds. The elevators up to the guest rooms had movie ads on them, so I took some self portraits with Jack Black, et al. I’m a dork. Sorry.

In that last post I mentioned I got to check out all the vendor booths at the trade show, and I signed up with a new online proofing service, changed around the album lineup a little, pestered the Canon reps about new cameras, started carrying Finao albums, got some new canvas prints made for some local hotels, picked up all sorts of camera stuff, blah blah blah. It was fun.

Toward the end, I cruised out on the Strip with a bunch of other Colorado wedding photographers, one of whom dressed up as a bride (kudos to Kammi at http://elegant-image.com!). We also had Brynn Hyatt along — she was in the cool blue dress. I brought my wireless flash setup (the same kind I use at weddings — pocket-sized and portable) and came up with some cool shots. Never done this kind of posed, faux wedding stuff before, but it was kind of fun. Also a bit of a scene, but whatever.

Check out the last shot, taken by my friend Kevin Bergthold — he borrowed my little flash transmitter and snapped a cool pic of me breakdancing. (Note: I don’t actually breakdance. I only pretend to. I’d love to learn.)

Word to the wise: if you ever see someone dressed up as a bride in a really weird place, without a husband, and surrounded by six to ten photographers, she’s probably NOT a bride.