Blogher ' 12 Seattle : Day 2

Day 2 of the Blogher conference was a day I was really looking forward to because there were 2 photography sessions I knew that I could benefit from attending.

But if I thought my mind was swimming after the first day, Day 2's panel session with Elise Bauer of Simply Recipes and Jaden Hair of Steamy Kitchen really had my brain on overdrive. These ladies have created brands through their blogging, they are supporting themselves and their families with their blogs. I was overwhelmed and frankly inspired. This little food driven hobby could have some real potential if I want it to I suppose.

Not really sure what our next steps could be but my mind is pretty much spinning after listening to these 2 ladies.

I attended the first photography session that spilled over into a walking lunch tour of Pike Place Market. The intent was to use what we had learned in the session in an immediate hands on kind of way.

Our leader Taylor Mathis from South Carolina had a great idea that sadly was somewhat made impossible by the absolute tourist crazed venue that is the market.

If you can picture 50-70 women, cameras in hand, together, trying to capture a good shot while not imposing on the other 20,000 tourists.....Yeah, I gave up on that pretty quick.

I can come up to the market anytime and would do so on a midweek day if I really wanted to get some good shots.

So G came and met me for lunch. It was so crowded even narrowing it down a lunch spot was a chore.

But we settled on a famous Pike Place icon on Post Alley called the Pink Door.
We hadn't been there in years and we had never had lunch there.

We ordered a beautiful antipasti plate and a pizza to share.

 I unfortunately I ran out of time before the afternoon photography session so I skipped out before our pizza arrived.

Day 2: post snack lunch spread

The next session was on post process editing, another session that I really needed. It was so encouraging to hear that Brandy from Branny Boils Over spent months before ever editing her photos like I did myself. I remember hitting my head against the wall (well not literally only figuratively ) trying to figure out why my photos looked so crummy compared to all of the beauties on the Foodporn sites. Then I found out about editing.

Brandy and Bridget Ams from the Cookie Crumbles shared the most widely used work flow steps in food photography editing and the 4 free software programs they are fans of.

My heart sunk again remembering all the $$$ I dumped into my Lightroom software program & books on how to use it. It sunk even more that I gave up on it months ago and just stuck with the free Picassa editing program I 've become comfortable with.

 But after Brandy & Bridget's session I was motivated to download the more advanced free program GIMP. (I gave it a try last night and will definitely need to set some time aside to figure it out but maybe it will be the crutch that will lead into my Lightroom software eventually.) After the afternoon session I decided my head was full enough and I did a little downtown retail therapy to calm my brain down. I headed back to our room to meet G so we could get ready for the closing reception cocktail party.

Believe it or not this was a stretch for us. We aren't super comfortable at parties where we know NOBODY usually but hey this one was hosted Ree from The Pioneer Woman so even G was interested in checking it out. We had made dinner reservations at 9:00 so we decided we'd go have a glass of wine and check it out for awhile then go have our dinner out. And of course we were glad we did.

The venue was down in Sodo, rustic and very hip at the same time.

The buffet offered some pretty tasty treats including some very yummy crab cakes.

We tried a bacon chocolate martini made with bacon flavored vodka that was crazy good.

We started having a pretty good time, meeting some great people as well as taking in some fine people watching.

All of sudden it was 9:15, we missed our reservations, we were full, had our fill of wine and were satisfied with our night overall and decided to call it a night.

I feel pretty excited to be part of this new community of people with a similar interest and passion for food. And when else will I ever be surrounded by people all taking photos of their food...just like I do! It feels good to know we are not alone on this journey with loving food and all the aspects that surround it.

Blogher 2012 Seattle: Day 1

My first day at  Blogher Food '12 Seattle was a bit overstimulating. I now know what my new to America students must feel like when they enter their first day in the lunch room:

1. Everyone is speaking a different language =  at Blogher: blog talk
2. It's really loud in here = imagine hundreds of excited women, ( there were a few men but mostly women) all overjoyed to be there in one room
3. Things are different here than where I'm from = everyone so happy and friendly, introducing themselves, welcoming each other, passing out business cards to connect
4. Wow, I might be in over my head = these people are serious, like these people actually make $$ from blogging, some of them lots of $$

My analogy is not to downplay in anyway what an 8 year old experiences coming straight from Mexico to a Tacoma Public School. I know its life changing for them. But I do think anytime you are pressed out of your comfort zone an overwhelming sensation takes over and I definitely felt this at my first ever food blogging conference last weekend.And the experience could end up being life changing if I keep the inspiration guiding me.

I don't know why I was so surprised at the food spread included with the conference. I mean it was a "foodblogging" conference after all, right. But wow Blogher and their sponsors treated us really, really well. The food was not only impressively displayed but it tasted pretty phenomenal too. At a teacher or principal conference I feel pretty lucky if I show up to hot tea and a bagel.

Day one started with a Keynote by Diane Cu and Todd Porter of White on Rice Couple. I mean I was star struck a bit. The photo tutorials on their blog have taught me so much as a beginner. Their presentation was both motivational and touching. It really struck a chord that blogging is personal and it's the personal stuff that really keeps readers coming back.

I attended 3 good sessions that first day and enjoyed a fabulous lunch with some new Northwest blogger friends: Stacy from Seattle Seedling, Becca from Home is Where My Story Begins (who were both ironically teachers), Melanie from Nutritious Eats, and Joni from Portland Chronicles. It was so great to meet some other local bloggers.

My fav lunch item; deconstructed potato salad- so very Top Chef

It was a great first day and it left me craving more to come on day 2. I have been to a lot, wait let's make  that a ton of educational conferences in my 20 years in education and if I attend a conference that makes me want to come back for day 2 then I am at good one in my book.