Nashville! Whoo hoo! Check that off the bucket list!!

With almost 14 years of experience under my belt, I like to think I know what I’m doing. Hahaha! But that doesn’t mean I ever stop growing. In fact, continuing to educate myself and learn in this industry is an extremely important part of owning a photography studio. I typically like to invest in a workshop or conference every few years. But with Covid throwing a wrench into things, my last conference was in 2019!

When ImagingUSA announced that they would be in Nashville this year, I jumped on it! Nashville has been a bucket list destination for me for quite a while.. and if you know me, you know I LOVE to travel! So win win right??!! Both work and play all rolled in to one!! Sign me up!

I was so happy when my fellow photog and friend, Deb of Deb Hanna Photography was also on board!

Are you ready for us Nashville??!! (Hahahah more like are we ready for Nashville, because you know… we’re not 20 anymore!).

After checking in to the hotel (the Gaylord! OMG!) and the conference, we were ready to grab some boots from the Boot Barn and hit Broadway! I kid about the boots… but we did have an awesome time listening to live music at both Nudie’s and the Stage.

Oh yes, we also ended the evening with some hot chicken from Hattie B’s! Because who goes to Nashville and doesn’t try hot chicken??! For the record, I had no idea this was a thing.. Deb told me!

Day 2

The next day we had an a jam packed schedule. An all day class about School & Sports photography and then tickets to the Grand Ole Opry!! When I went to book our tickets, the only time they had left was the 9:30pm show. After an all day class we weren’t sure if we’d make it to the later show (because as I said, we’re not 20 anymore!), but we didn’t want to go home with any regrets so we powered through!

Thank god we trusted our gut, because the Opry was AWESOME! Not only was it Dolly’s 77th birthday week, but we got to see the show at the Ryman Auditorium! Which is the original building and stage of the Grand Ole Opry – a 130 year old church with wooden pews for seating! Chris Young made an appearance singing “Getting You Home”, “I’m Comin’ Over”, and “Aw Naw”.

Day 3

The next morning we shockingly made it to our 8am classes and then the ImagingUSA official welcome and keynote speaker – Simon Bailey! Wow!! He was so so great. I loved listening to his inspiring words. He really knew how to kick off a conference!

After the keynote, we hit the Expo! And HOLY MOLY! Talk about sensory overload! It’s everything from software and gear to printed product samples and props. Getting to see and touch products in person was awesome though because I was able to pick out new professional quality products I’d like to offer to my clients.

That evening was the ImagingUSA welcome party! Drinks, food, music, and a photobooth! What more could our little photographer hearts ask for?

Day 4

I literally had not taken out my real camera yet up to this point. This is a photography conference right?? I decided to skip the 8am class and walked around the Gaylord Opryland Resort instead. This resort is unreal! It’s like a city within itself. The gardens are extraordinarily beautiful. I thoroughly enjoyed myself just walking around taking photos of the flowers and sights.

Made it to our 10am class and then we skipped out to head downtown once again! We booked the “Manager’s Special tour” with Joyride. Cliff, our guide, drove us all around Nasvhille in a golfcart to see murals, the city, a brewery, AND a distillery. I officially dubbed us the “pain-in-the-ass” tour because we kept making poor Cliff stop – Go get yourself a sweet potato cupcake from the Cupcake Collection! You can thank me later!

I think this tour was really the highlight of my trip! I LOVED seeing all the murals. They were so amazing! and some of them HUGE! I highly recommend this tour if you want to see more than just Broadway.

If you like breweries like me, go to Bearded Iris Brewing! I made Cliff stop so I could get a beer!

This was the mural I wanted to see the most and Cliff saved the best for last! Look how cute Deb is. Ha!

Day 5 and time to go home!

Womp womp. The party’s over. Time to head back to reality. We spent an hour that morning taking some more photos of the resort (and snapping a few headshots of one another), one last class and then spent some time at the expo before catching an Uber to the airport.

Snapped a few photos at the expo too!

All in all, it was such a fun trip! I’m so glad we made time to have some fun and see/do things in Nashville too. And I couldn’t have asked for a better travel partner either! Thanks Deb for putting up with all those stairs and my whining about the lack of vegetables! It was a blast listening to country music, drinking, and laughing with you! Thanks for the fine time Nashville!