"The best thing about the photo industry isn't the photography, it's the friendships."

My buddy Skip Cohen who hosted Skip's summer school in Las Vegas last summer said that quote and boy oh boy is he right!  I attended the conference not knowing anyone, eager and ready to learn as much as my little brain could soak up.

I met these two lovies at in-n-out on one of our lunch breaks.  Meet Hayley, and Sarah  They are semi-related (cousins in law I believe?), and came to the conference together.  After conversing, I found out they were from Utah!  Later on when Jon Canlas was giving his presentation, he asked how many people (out of around 250) were from Utah, the three of us raised our hands...and we were the only ones!  I was shocked because supposedly Utah is such a "saturated market" of photographers, and there were only three of us there.

We had dinner the next day and became fast friends.  We talked, and talked, and shared ideas, and brainstormed, and laughed and talked some more.  We couldn't wait to get back home and get together again and again. I can't even tell you how grateful I am that I met these two!!! There are two surprising dynamics to our friendship.  First of all, we are non competitive what.so.ever.  We each have such individual styles and differ in so many ways that Hayley's clients wouldn't want me, and Sarah's clients probably wouldn't favor my work either because they like their work cause it's suits them. You can tell by looking at each of our websites how different we are from each other.  And second of all, we are a group of thee girls (usually a toxic combo) that get along together so well!

One of us usually calls the other at least once a week with a photography dilemma, or question, or help, or idea that's worth sharing.  I'm usually like "Help! My client asked for this or that, how would you handle this scenario?"  or "Help! How do I do xyz in photoshop!"  It's so fun because each of us knows exactly what it's like for the other in the biz, and can be of great support.

We went to Moab together, almost died together, and did each others family photos this year.  Skip couldn't be more right that the friendships is where it's at!  It is so nice to have such a great little support system. Meeting so many incredible people from all over the country was worth the time, effort, and expense of going to skip's summer school last year.  I can't wait to go to more conventions this year (hopefully WPPI, and Skip's Summer School again) and meet more amazing and inspiring people.

photos taken with Hayley's camera by Sarah's husband Jake, and edited by Sarah.  It was a team effort! :)