Nashville

Well, this post is less about Nashville itself and so much more about the incredible time I had there. As a member of two ridiculously awesome professional photography organizations (DWF & PPA) I was invited to attend their annual convention – hosted this year in Nashville, Tennessee. Here’s what my last couple of days looked like (if you aren’t on my blog, make sure you go to the post to see all of the videos! :

Saturday. I arrived in Nashville around noon at the same time as super de duper Canadian Brian Tao.

I watched the Cowboys pound the Eagles silly at the Loews Vanderbilt Hotel bar and Joe Prezioso gave me some tips on using the video on my 5D Mark II. (This is where I admit that I’ve had that camera for almost a year and have not used its video functions.) Technical note: 35mm 1.4 lens. Yum on a stick.

Bill Cullen, from Ottawa, was there to help me cheer on the Cowboys!

And here is our lovely Joe.

Sunday. I spent the day modeling for David Beckstead. There is truly no one like Beckstead in terms of composition and seeing the creative. Read that sentence again because I mean it. There is truly no one like Beckstead in terms of composition and seeing the creative.

The images from this shoot are still trickling in, but I believe I was shot by something like 200 photographers that day so I CANNOT wait to see (and share!) the results! I threw my name in the hat to model on a whim. I figured it would be a fun experience but it was SO much more that I just cannot put it into words. It was truly amazing.

Monday. We started with some yumminess at the Pancake Pantry. That’s raspberry pancakes on the right and pigs in a blanket on the left. YUM.

Brian & I were part of Jason Domingues’ polaroid project.

We made a quick run to the trade show at Imaging USA, where I picked up my newly cleaned camera (thanks Canon, smooches!). Then it was off to spend the afternoon with convention speaker Cliff Mautne – more amazing than my ridiculously amazing pancakes.

And then there was that incident with the gross Cosmo. The transcript with notes, follows.

Warning!!! This video has bad words in it!!!

Technical specs. Shot on an iphone, lit by three other iphones.

Ryan: “Ok … drink that sh!t”

Lynn: (laughs and mocks) “drink that sh!t” (whole table laughs)

Ryan: “No, this is all video now”
*insider note: I believe this is in response to the question of ‘are you taking pictures?’ from another person at the table.

Ryan: “O, now it’s blue. O my G-d this is amazing” (more laughter)
*insider note: one of the people at the table had an iphone app that works as a colored flashlight. What was amazing is that we were lighting this dark restaurant with iphones.

Ryan: “This is the best drinking video ever” (even more laughter)

Lynn: “Yes, ‘o my G-d this is amazing’ as Lynn …… O my G-d this tastes like sh!t”

*insider note: the whole sentence was meant to start as me mocking Ryan’s words ‘this is amazing’ and adding “as Lynn drinks her cosmo on video.”

Tuesday.
We were WOWed all day by convention speaker Jerry Ghionis.
Our minds were full and tummies screaming for steak so we went to Ruth’s Chris for dinner.

That’s Michael Moss on the left & Brian Mullins on the right, lit by candlelight and photographed on my Olympus point & shoot.

Wednesday. More convention goodness followed by more modeling. I reprised my role as a Beckstead model (tee hee) as he needed some images for a commercial shoot. Since I was dolled up already, I asked if anyone wanted to do any additional shooting.

Shoot by Brian Tao of Luxography in Toronto, Canada:

Shoot by Brian Mullins  of Brian Mullins Photography in Raleigh, North Carolina.

Thursday.
I had an early flight and was trying to summon brain power even though I was working off of two hours of sleep. Don Mears was on my shuttle to the airport and he had in his hands the new Canon 1D Mark IV. This was the pinnacle of all yumminess & happiness for me. Both images were shot with my 35 1.4 lens while  driving down the highway, both were ridiculously crisp at high ISOs. *drool*

Notice the first image that I shot was of the “World’s Largest Adult Gift Store”. That’s hilarious, I was just aiming the camera out the window and it was too dark to see what I was shooting 🙂