IMAGING USA was great this year

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Toni & I just returned from the Imaging USA conference held in Austin—it was great. I got so many ideas of different ways to build my photography business and am stoked to get to work.

It was also pretty cool to be included as one of the speakers this year. My presentation seemed to go well, despite the massive head cold I was battling. To my surprise, the room was at capacity and about 300-plus people listened to my little presentation. I appreciated all the feedback people graciously offered to me throughout the remainder of the conference.

I learned so much from the various presentations I attended, but a few that standout are:

Gary Strain’s  award-winning high school sports posters are inspiring. His daughters, Jackie and  Brandy, play a big role in the success of this particular line. Check them out at www.gasphotography.com.   Ryan Romaguera’s overall tips on building a sports photography line (www.romaguera.com); and Sandi “Sam” Puc and Dave Junion talked about building a year-round photography business. But what made a big impact on the audience (not a dry eye in the place) was the charity work they do at local hospital neonatal wards, photographing preemies. It’s refreshing to hear of people giving back the way these two highly successful photographers do.

Toni and I also had a chance to meet with a friend of ours who used to live down the road from us in Colorado. Scott Jackson and his girlfriend, Crystal, live in the Austin area—Elgin to be exact. Elgin is known as the sausage and brick capital of Texas—those are two distinct designations, I don’t think they make the bricks out of sausage…

 Anyway we hit 6^th Street for some live music and a few beers. It was great to reconnect with Scott and meet the woman who obviously means a great deal to him.  We like her too!!