All I Want is Everything: February 2011

I think the best way to remember your blessings in those moments when life seems impossible is to write them down. Thank god I have a blog :)

Just in case you aren’t my friend on Facebook and didn’t see the billion updates I posted, I had the opportunity to go to the Wedding & Portrait Photographers International (from now on referred to as WPPI) conference in Las Vegas this past week. I wasn’t exactly sure what I was getting myself into, but the chance to even attend was amazing enough. These are the kinds of experiences that shape who we are and who we will be. If my week was any indication of these things, I am one lucky girl.

I intern for a company called Songfreedom. In the photography and videography world, it is integral to be able to publish your work online. Your website is your key to advertise your work to the world. An important part of any slideshow or video is the music behind it. It can help tell the story just as much as the photos/videos do. The awesome thing about Songfreedom is that they have worked with the major record labels to make popular music available for use in these productions. I have always been ethical with the way I get music: ever since Napster was shut down when I was about 12, I realized the importance of artists getting paid for the work they put out. I’ve been an avid iTunes user ever since. I have opportunities to download music for free, but you’ll never see me taking part in that. I’d never want anything I produced to be stolen, so I can’t do that to any person who makes art (whatever that art may be). I fully believe that anyone putting a song to their creations should be in the same mindset. Give credit where credit is due. It has seemed impossible before, with only royalty free music being available, and sites like Facebook and YouTube pulling videos down left and right for copyright infringement, to publish work with music legally.

I am lucky to be working for a company that I believe in morally and ethically. I have truly felt that through my time at Songfreedom, their concern is the photographers and videographers. I talk up Valerie Martinez as much as I can. She not only works for Songfreedom, but she free-lances videography and photography as well. So, instead of working in a company that just adds whatever songs they can find, she researches. She sits and listens to the music and can actually see what sort of productions she could use out of it. Matt Thompson, President of Songfreedom, has worked for years to gain a relationship with the labels to make these popular, mainstream hits available for use, as well as indie artists and other music. They both care about what they do, and I am soaking every moment of it up. They have allowed me to take part in this amazing ride, and they have taught me so much that my brain could explode.

I can never thank Matt enough for allowing me to be a part of WPPI. He’s let me have some real-life work experience, which has given me a whole new perspective on what I want to do with my life. If I could spend my days working with the people I met over the course of this week, I would do it for free. Between working social media in ways that no one thought it could be worked, networking, and most important of all meeting the most amazing, creative, friendly geniuses in the photography business. I’m still in awe of the people I met and the work I saw. What a great community. When I told people I was going to Vegas, they told me how much fun I was going to have. I told them "I'm going for work and I'll be at a booth most of the time, I won't have any time for fun." Joke's on me, considering the most fulfilling parts of the trip were at the booth meeting everyone. I could have used another day at that booth. I loved every minute of it.

I’ve really been able to grasp the public relations and social media communities throughout this week and with my internship. Being able to shake hands and meet face-to-face as well as Tweet back and forth has just been eye opening to the way that social media is opening up businesses to a whole new world. Seeing something going viral first-hand, seeing people mention the company’s Twitter right after we met them, and being able to see what was going on at the conference with just a click of a hash tag has been overwhelming. I can sit in school for the next two months (May 7^th Commencement can’t come soon enough!) will never open my eyes and give me the experience the way WPPI has. I have to afford this experience to the amazing people we met along the way (Shout out to the Revolution Imaging and Design crew and 2Duce2Video J )

Sometimes I get so scatterbrained when I’m blogging, but what I am trying to say is THANK YOU. Thank you to the Songfreedom crew for allowing me to be a part of what you do, thank you to WPPI for the amazing experience, and thank you photographers for being the friendliest and most talented people out there. I have never been so excited for what my future holds. I owe the restoration of faith in my life and my career to all of you.

I am ready to get to work. May 7^th can’t come soon enough J