Posts Tagged: photgrapher
My Bliss Bubble
Wow.
{one word.}
Wow.
I am so amazed at the weekend I just spent. Not only did I get to meet some of my best internet friends and get reacquainted with ones I had already met, I made new ones too. And not only did I make new ones, I fell in love with them. It was an amazing weekend. *I can’t even begin to link and name names. That would be insane. My hope is that I reached out to as many people as possible. Not only with my camera, but with my spirit and voice. That’s my hope.
The weekend started when I woke up at 5:00am, on Friday, to get ready to drive from my home town, northeast of Atlanta, to Nashville. I left early because I am notoriously late. That day I was going to be early, dammit. And I was. I got there and had time for a quick bite of breakfast and some iced coffee. Then I went and registered. Then I pulled out my camera and started clicking. I got some great mingling shots and was feeling pretty good. I kept checking to see if my room might be ready early so that I could put on my pretty outfit, but it wasn’t. Then the third time I had checked, the front desk gal sent me on my way with a key. Thrilled; I was beyond thrilled.
I gathered my million things from the van, ran into some awesomeness in the parking lot, and proceeded to get to my room. I was fully prepared to fall into my king sized bed for half-an-hour and then put my face and my outfit on. However, I got up to my room (315, whut-whut) and it was a mess. The bed was slept in, there were towels on the floor, coffee cups were on the nightstand, and the ironing board was still out and plugged in, though off. I called to get them to come remedy it, but wasn’t about to leave my stuff there. I just got online and chilled. And I tweeted about the state of my room. Little did the hotel know my little tweet would pale in comparison to the tweets of The Elevator Incident with the Elevator 13 (a/k/a #elevator.) I was paid a little visit from a new bloggy pal, too. It was really nice to chat as I got dressed and ready to go.
Little did I know that as I started to shoot Friday’s events I would feel majorly inadequate. I don’t know where these feelings came from other than some bad shots with the really bad lighting. Honestly, my confidence level dwindled and soon it was non-existent. I was a total wreck. Luckily I shared my feelings with a few of the right people. A few “right people” who have become some of my “favorite right people.” I went upstairs, had a reality check, and returned to do the fine job that I was called upon to do. I walked between sessions, then attended a dressed up cocktail party, then partook in some camera jabbering in the lobby, and then was completely surprised. Michael showed up a day early; it was awesome. We caught dinner and then went up to our room. Bow Chicka Bow Wow.
I woke up on Saturday, got ready, and headed down to the breakfast and special screening. It was awesome, to say the least. The special surprise, that morning, was that two of Yanni’s Voices were there to spend some time with us. It was dazzling, endearing, funny, sexy, wonderful, and just a great experience. Everyone was more than happy to wait in line to get autographs and a picture taken with Nathan and Ender, too. The line was deep but I loved taking every single picture. What I really loved was hearing what women were saying to the guys. From “I felt you in my bones” to “you made my eyes well up with tears,” I heard all the comments and felt the love, gratitude, and excitement.
The rest of the day was spectacularly fantastic. My mojo was definitely back and I worked that camera. Then it was time for my panel. Michael came and took over snapping while I was up on the panel with Leslie, Deanna, and Jenny. I think it went really well, too. Deanna, Jenny, and Leslie are just so awesome. Afterwards I made some more connections with bloggers over lunch. Then it was back to work. Before I knew it the day was at the end and I ran into my boyfriend–errr–Chris Mann! What an awesome guy. I’m so happy that I got to be among one of the first to shake his hand.
In the midst of all this my girlfriend Maggie showed up. The hug! Oh Em Gee, the hug, it was awesome! Maggie and her man Tom drove from Oklahoma and we planned to hit the cocktail party for a bit and then dinner in Downtown Nashville.
Jen Lancaster, the key note speaker, was the grand finale and the conference day was finished with some raffle prizes. I experienced so much love, generosity, more love, happiness, and even more love. It was BLISS! I got to take some pictures of Chris with all his Twitter Boos and his new Blissdom Boos. Then I rushed upstairs to get my dress on to make it to the cocktail party. Michael was ready to go and thank God the knee highs didn’t leave extremely bad marks on my legs.
I totally missed singing some Karaoke, but it didn’t matter. I got to see some of my new pals sing and I got to mingle with the best girls of the blogosphere. I took a ton of pictures of the dance floor, which was flooded with hot babes who were dancing and singing their hearts and souls out.
Shortly thereafter Maggie, Tom, Michael, and I headed out. We piled into our mini-van and made our way to the Big River Brewerey for dinner. The company was perfect. Conversations flowed and it just felt so good to be in the company of friends.
New friends.
Awesome friends.
Good times.
Good people.
My Bliss Bubble.
Please never pop.
After we ate and drank we headed back to the hotel for a night cap. At this time I got some requisite dancing in, too. We closed the Pink Slip bar out by sitting around laughing, drinking, telling stories, and enjoying each others’ company.
On Sunday morning I was accompanied by a special bunch of women on a Photowalk of Downtown Nashville. It was so relaxed and wonderful. We all walked and talked and learned about each other; it was just a dreamy way to end the Blissdom09 weekend.
Even now when I think about it I can’t say much other than this:
Wow.
{one word}
Wow.
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*I apologize for the lack of links. I’ll work on it as I can. Now I’m off to get the 1200+ pics that I took, weeded and perfect, uploaded to the Blissdom09 Flickr Group!
