Dinner with David Jay!

The highlight of the HOA conference was attending, meeting and going out to dinner with David Jay, a nationally known photographer out of Santa Barbara, CA.  DJ, is not only a great photographer, though, he is also a phenomenal businessman and his seminar was chock full of thought provoking ideas and strategies to take my business to the next level.  Here is a photo of DJ and myself taken after his seminar.

I later joined DJ and a group of other photographers including Shane and Erin Melenbacker, Geoff Johnson and his wife, Annie , and Julie and Troy Morris (click their names to check out their sites, their photography is wonderful) at Vivaces in the Old Market followed by ice cream at Ted and Wally's in celebration of Erin's birthday.  

It was a great time and I'm looking forward to the next time I can get together with any or all of them.

Ben

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Heart of America Conference April 11-15th

I attended the Heart of America Professional Photographer's Association Regional Conference this past weekend at the Mid-America Center in Council Bluffs.  It was an amazing experience!  

I started off the week by taking a wedding seminar to shake the winter rust loose followed by a business course to help me run the biz more effectively and efficiently and leave more time for taking photos.  I'm now a rustless, streamlined photographic business machine! :)

I met so many photographers, some just starting out like myself and others who have been running successful photography studios for longer than I have been alive!  The amount of diversity and knowledge present at HOA was astounding; my head is still hurting from the overload of shared information and ideas.  

And not only did I get to meet and know some of best photographer's in the region, but HOA also hosted seminars by several of the leading photographers in the industry who shared not only how they run their businesses, but also what drives and motivates them as people and photographers - it was very inspirational and moving to hear them speak about their passion for photography and for their clients.  

HOA, overall, was the most prolific experience I have had as a photographer from the business standpoint. I came away with some new friends, a TON of new ideas and information and the driving desire to elevate my photography to a new level; be on the look out for some new services, products and ideas from me in the next couple of weeks thanks especially to the HOA Conferences positive influence.

Ciao, 

Ben

P.S.  I could smack myself, I was so excited and overwhelmed by everything at the HOA that I didn't take any photos...

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