37 Frames

“If you want to live your life in a creative way, as an artist, you have to not look back too much.” Steve Jobs

WPPI starts NEXT WEEK! WPPI is an educational and networking experience like no other in our industry. We know there educational opportunities everywhere you turn these days for photographers, but WPPI has always been something quite different, unique, for us.

15,000 photographers and filmmakers, the most prestigious print & filmmaking competition, over 100 of the industry’s best educators, an enormous tradeshow with amazing companies – inspiration, motivation, education, networking and learning opportunities literally everywhere. There’s something for everyone at WPPI, whether beginner and starting out, or a long-time professional, there is truly something for us all. The photography industry moves so quickly, keeping up with technology, new trends and techniques… and things can be so overwhelmingly busy with clients and work, that to make time for our own professional development can be difficult. But to continue learning and growing and seeing what’s happening in other parts of the world, there’s nothing more valuable. And nothing more important in this rapidly changing industry. As Steve Jobs said in the quote above “you have to not look back too much.” WPPI is always about looking forward for us here at 37 Frames.

We do get very very caught up in the day to day running of a wedding/portrait business. This unglamorous but necessary part of a creative ‘business’ that takes up 99% of our time. We all left 40-50 hour corporate jobs, to work 80-100 hour weeks as business owners – why?… Because as Dieter F Uchtdorf reminds us, “the desire to create, is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” After a week at WPPI – we come back to work reset and ready, full of creativity and fresh ideas. After WPPI we are reminded of our ‘desire to create’. It truly is our yearly, reset button. And we can’t wait for WPPI 2015 to begin.

This year we are thrilled to have been invited back again to teach a new WPPI Master Class – WEDDING DAY CHOICES. Join us Sunday March 1st at 3pm – at the MGM Grand – We’ve got loads of ideas and plans to share, tips, inspiration and more. We cannot thank our generous sponsors enough – Lytro and Jonathan Penney Master Printmakers. Register here if you haven’t already.

“Join international award-winning photographers, Tracey Taylor & Dee Green of 37 Frames Photography as they present the WPPI Master Class, Wedding Day Choices. As wedding photographers we are presented with endless choices to make on the wedding day, before and beyond. Some of these will be the right ones, others a steep learning curve. Some may be so debilitating it’s difficult to get over. And we beat ourselves up – again & again. Moving on is hard, but we have to. We are consumed by making the right choices – on the perfect location, timing, posing, lenses, lighting… All under time contrasts and pressure). And the big one – whether to play it safe & go with what the client wants or take a risk and go for the big creative shot, giving your clients something beyond their dreams. So how do we make these informed decisions? What are some strategies for doing this and can we learn from our mistakes? In this practical discussion we will talk choices—how to be better prepared to make the best ones for you in the moment. How to plan for those choices you can predict and to be able to think on your feet when things inevitably go in a different (often chaotic) direction – that has nothing to do with you!! As they say in emergency management, do a hot-wash and grow from every choice you make!”

Having the tools to tell great wedding stories, shooting under the pressures of a real wedding day timeline are what will separate the good photographers from the great. We CAN’T WAIT TO SEE YOU!! And we have fabulous giveaways too from all our favourite vendors and supporters – Fundy Software Inc, Triple Scoop, Animoto, and more…

And then we have the WPPI Annual. One of the most prestigious print competitions around the world in our wedding and portrait photography industry. Entering is a huge opportunity to learn, to get feedback and just be inspired by so many different styles, different cultures and incredible talent! The WPPI 16×20 Pint, Album & Filmmaking competition isn’t about winning, regardless of what others may feel. For us it’s about seeing the calibre of where we fit into the industry around the world, it’s about seeing the way others see, it’s about having a chance to be creative, it’s about listening to and being accepting of the opinions of others, it’s about effort and it’s about learning how to create the ultimate print, image, album or film. Everyone has different stories of the Print competition. Some of them catastrophic. Two of our prints – a senior one from 2013 and last year’s 2014 Bridal portrait both created huge discussions and debate in the room. Luckily those ones came out one top – but so many others haven’t. We see the print comp a little like this quote “Success is not built on success. It’s built on failure. It’s built on frustration. Sometimes its built on catastrophe.”— Sumner Redstone. We don’t see that quote as anything negative at all. Because behind every single WPPI winner, there are many many failures. We guarantee it. Ask any of the winners. But it is truly one of the very best ways that we have learnt to get feedback on our work. And we’ve grown so very very much.

Please make sure to sit in on the live judging if you are in town. This year we’re truly honored that Trace is one of the invited judges for the WPPI Annual 2015 16×20 Print, Album & Filmmaking Competition. As a representative for Asia, and with accolades won across a range of categories (wedding, photojournalism, seniors, portrait, engagement, albums and landscape) she’ll be a great addition to the lineup of industry leaders heading into the judging rooms on February 28 & March 1. We cannot wait to see what creativity 2014 brought around the world … and we hear there are record number of entries this year!!

We’ll share the classes and photowalks that we ourselves are looking forward to in the coming days…with some of our favourite mentors, colleagues and friends. The list is long… Vegas is not all fun and games you know! Hahaha … Countdown’s on – 6 days, 18 hours!!!!