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Wow…what a week! I’m exhausted!!! Last Wednesday Aaron (of Jolies Images) and I headed to Nashville for a week of classes, meetings, trade show, and rubbing elbows with pro photographers from all over the world. We went three days early for a class to help us prepare for a certification exam. We won’t know if we passed for three weeks…but here’s hoping! If I passed, the next step in certification is submitting a body of work to be judged. Getting certified is no cake walk, and in the end means nothing unless my client base likes my work and will continue to do business with me! So…whether or not I become certified has little to do with me as an artist….however, it is helping me stretch my wings and continue to grow both as a business woman and as an artist. I will keep you up to date on the process…of course, if I didn’t pass I will probably pout around for a while too!

By the time we took our test on Sunday morning, we were both exhausted and mentally drained. I don’t think I got as much out of the rest of the conference as I could have because I just couldn’t focus in. We did have fun walking the trade show floor and seeing all the latest and greatest in the industry.

We did see quite a bit of Nashville just by escaping the hotel and driving around. We got to see the Grand Ole Opry at the Ryman, which was really cool. Danny Goeke performed a couple of songs so it was worth it for me right there! We also got to see Little Jimmy Dickens who just turned 89 years young. Jason Michael Carroll and Kyle Petty ( yes, the race car driver who had never sung outside of his house til that moment!) were also fun to see. When Bill Anderson got up to sing, I was wishing my Dad was sitting there with us. I remember watching the GOO on tv years ago with him and Bill Anderson still looks the same!

Before we left town, we drove through downtown one more time and then went to find Music Row. Either we didn’t know what we were looking for, or Music “Row” is a little deceiving. We saw a big billboard that said, “Welcome to Music Row” and that was about it. We did end up driving through Vanderbilt University which was cool.

We were delayed several times on our flight home from Denver to Liberal…by the time we actually made it, we could have driven home and saved my nerves (seriously, have you ever flown on those little planes for 1.5 hours? NOT FUN!). All in all, it was a worthwhile experience even though I missed my kids terribly. They all survived, though, and Travis did a great job taking care of our family. I’m so blessed to have them all.

I didn’t take any cameras so no pictures to share, but wanted to share with all of you my week. I’m so thankful Aaron and I have formed a friendship and were able to spend a week learning more about our craft together.

Portrait sessions resume next week so you’ll see the blog start to pick up more then. For now, I have a lot to catch up on…starting with my house.

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