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A week of discovery in the Big Easy
Two years ago, when I first started seeing The Family Narrative pop up on my social media I was intrigued. A small conference with mostly women in the city of New Orleans, it sounded perfect. Add to that, it focuses mainly on family photography, especially lifestyle and documentary. Soon it became a must on my conference list and in July of last year I decided to pull the trigger to buy my ticket.
My hopes for this conference were twofold. One, I wanted to discover tools to help me expand and improve the family photography side of my business. Two, I wanted to connect with other photographers who approach this creative pursuit in a similar way to me.
At The Family Narrative I found this and so much more. Before I even arrived at the conference, I was invited into a facebook group full of supportive and welcoming people. As we got closer to conference time, it felt like I knew people before I even arrived. I even had a small crew to eat breakfast and explore the city with the morning I arrive. As the week went on friendships were forged, insights were exchanged, and we all left feeling full of inspiration and a new found connection. Surprisingly, I even met a handful of people also from the Bay Area and now have a whole new photographer group here as well. I had to travel across the country to connect with more Bay Area photographers, go figure.
Our beautiful home away from home for the week, The Pontchartrain Hotel. Those were actual antique medicine bottle in the bathroom cabinet!
The food! Top left photo, my attempt at some vegetables. I ordered a side cesar salad. It came with 2 cups of dressing. I use 1/4 of 1. Also included, great restaurant art.
Day 4 was demo day! (But not the kind you see on Fixer Upper.) We had the opportunity to watch 4 different instructors shoot and even had live instruction on our video attempts on a video walk that morning.
A few highlights from my experience: I love that the teachers are present and engaged with all aspects of the conference. They they accompanied us to lunch, dinner, evenings out around town and they actively participated during the day, asking questions and learning alongside us during other speaker’s talks. One of my favorite aspects was being able to go pick the brain of the instructors after their talk. Some of my most valuable takeaways from the week came from asking questions to help specifically tailor their advice to my business.
The last night in New Orleans and I decided to go out without my camera. Mistakes were made. I have to settle for these phone photos of the talented musicians we encountered on Frenchman Street.
Safely home again, finding photos while I wait for the Airporter bus.
