Photography Conference in Nashville
I haven’t been to a photography conference in 4 years! I was so excited to get back out there and learn and inspire myself again. First let me introduce my travelling partner- Alison of Alison Marie Photography. I shoot a few weddings a year with Alison, and we always have a good time. We have been to photography conferences together in the past as well. And we both were missing the experience. So when we saw that Imaging 2023- one of the largest photography conferences would be held in Nashville at the Gaylord Opryland Hotel– we jumped at the opportunity! These pictures are a combination of cell phone and real camera pictures.
Let me start first with the Gaylord! It was an amazing venue- and HUGE! Like you were inside a big dome. Honestly it was so cool staying there.
Neither Alison or I had been to Nashville before so we made sure to build in some site seeing opportunities. We arrived a day before our first classes and hit the town on Friday afternoon. Now if you are familiar with Nashville you know I mean Broadway. It is bars lining up and down the streets and every venue has a stage for live music on every floor- EVEN Taco Bell!
We enjoyed a few different shows at a few different bars. And then made sure we got our Hot Chicken- cause apparently you can’t go to Nashville and NOT get Hot Chicken
I’m old and we were tired from travelling so we left downtown before it got too crazy! Our Uber drivers were telling us about how they will often block off the street and it just fills with thousands of people at night! Nashville has become the Bachelorette Party capital- and that was obvious! Between the pedal bars and the buses with people dancing inside- it was party central down there.
Saturday was our first class- about school and sports photography.
Saturday night we bought tickets to the Opry- cause you have to go to the Opry when you are in Nashville, right? We were originally disappointed that the actual Opry, right next to the hotel is under renovations and our tickets were for the Ryman in Downtown. But in the end we loved that we saw a show at the original Opry- sitting in church pews and all!
Sunday was the official opening of the conference. Keynote speaker, more classes, the opening of the Expo floor, and the opening party!
At the party they had this very fun booth and we couldn’t resist!
Monday was more classes in the morning and then we we decided instead of going to the expo again we were going to go on a mural, distillery and historical tour of Nashville… in a golf cart! It was CHILLY- 45 degrees. But our driver Cliff was kind enough to supply us with blankets! It was just the 2 of us on the tour and Cliff was awesome!
Cliff kept saying that Nashville was coming Mural City more than music city lately- I doubt that, but it was fun seeing them all!
And of course I had some fun posing with the murals…
Tuesday was our last day. In addition to a last class or two Alison and I went around the hotel and took lots of pictures. Pictures of each other and of the beautiful gardens. I won’t share all of them now, I will share some later- but for now this is your reminder that photographers are the WORST subjects! ha ha
We had such a great time. But more importantly we came back excited and energized to make changes and grow our businesses in new ways! And we are already trying to decide where we are going next!
