showit united | arizona styled senior session

ooosh, it's been a long time coming getting back into the blog seat again. :)I have so many thoughts piled up I've even had to list them to begin to sort through them...not a bad problem to have, I think. :)I'll start with a few of my thoughts on community.that has been a hard topic for me these last five or so years.in the beginning of this whole photography journey I didn't know any betterand I was so focused on just doing what I was doing that I didn't really stop to look aroundand see if anyone else was doing what I was doing and/or if they needed community.I had my sister to bounce ideas off of, and my husband/cfo to bounce equipment/financial/business ideas off of so I never really had a giant need for creative community.if I'm being really honest, I had a few bumps in the community category from a few overly competitive people early in my photography business journey so I sorta just avoided that whole category as a whole...it just seemed simpler in my mind.***enter the united conference***two years ago, a friend contacted me to see if I was interested in volunteering at the showit united conference.  showit is my website platform that I've built my website on...showit is simply the best in the industry and geared towards creatives like me.the showit united conference is an annual conference where speakers from all over the worldcome to speak and encourage creatives/photographers.I was flattered to be included in the list of volunteers and honestly had no idea what I was getting myself into.just. freaking. wow.I was absolutely blown away by this amazing conference.this conference hosted hundreds of creatives who were experiencing a lot of the business/creative experiences I was but there was no weird competiveness that I had previously experienced with a.n.y.o.n.e. there.honestly the only weirdness I experienced was the exorbitant amounts of hugging (it's a showit thing)which I ended up liking anyways!  (a handshake is fine, but a hug says hi - you're welcome here...yes, I'm a believer now) ;)I was inspired by the encouraging/motivating words the speakers broughtas well as the practical wisdom the breakout sessions provided as a business woman.fast forward to THIS years conferencethey asked me to volunteer again and it was all of what last years experience was and even more!this year they asked if I would lead a styled shoot for senior photographers...just what?!I LOVE shooting high school seniors and this year I got to teach/lead a group of senior photographersin an arena that both excited and pushed me a little bit outside of my comfort-box.I. freaking. loved. it. (yes, I say freaking a lot - #sorryImnotsorry) ;)26 photographers who were excited to build their portfolios and learn from me showed up for my session and it was a blast!in planning this session, I wanted to make sure to give the attendee's as much portfolio variety as I could, so I included corrine - a college soon-to-be-senior, lauren - a high-school-senior, and maddie - a soon-to-be-sweet-sixteener.the styled session photographed beautifully and I loved the variation in coloring of the girls.yep, I loved this afternoon and I so appreciated the girls that surrounded me as my "team" for the day...and such a huge thank you to the girls listed above as well as the massively talented steph + emily!  thank you!here's a few from my perspective from my senior styled shoot!venue | phoenix marriott tempe at the buttesmakeup artist | steph - phoenix makeup collective agencybraid stylist | maddie jessieclothing | free people + lizard thicketmodels | corrine wruk, lauren mohan + maddie jessieassistant | emily johnstonalso, one last look at ALL that went on this week - I CANNOT wait until november 2018!Showit United 2017 Highlights from Showit on Vimeo.