I recently got the amazing opportunity to attend the 2015 ShowIt UNITED Conference in Scottsdale, Arizona – and it was nothing short of AMAZING! I hardly knew anyone before showing up, and by the end of the first day I felt like I had already made a bunch of new friends.

My week started off with three days of the UNITED Conference, which was jam-packed with incredible speakers, break-out sessions, events and styled shoots. The day after the conference, I got to attend a Lighting Intensive taught by Justin and Mary Marantz, and then finished up my week with a one-on-one coaching session with Amy and Jordan Demos before heading back to Austin. Here is a little collage of a few of the people I got to learn from and new friends I made while I was there:

Top left: Mary and I before the Lighting Intensive
Top right: All dressed up for the Gala Night with some new photography friends!
Bottom left: My #demossandwich at the end of my coaching session with Amy and Jordan
Bottom right: New Austin photography friends!

Arizona is beautiful state! Central Texas doesn’t have the stunning dessert colors, mountains, palm trees and saguaros (those tall “emoji-looking” cacti – yep, learned that term while I was there!), so I was definitely soaking up the scenery. Here are a few iPhone shots from outside of my room at the resort and on my plane ride home:

Throughout the conference, I got to attend three different styled shoots. I’ll do full posts with more details later, but here are a few of my favorite images:

First Looks Styled Shoot with Abby Grace
Here is a fun group shot with the models and the other styled shoot attendees, courtesy of Abby:

And a few favorites from one of the model couples, Kristen and Michael:

Wedding Details with Natalie Franke

Sunrise Couples Shoot with Cassie Jones
I woke up at 4:30AM for this shoot – and it was TOTALLY worth it!

There you have it – a quick round-up of the highlights from my trip! If you’re thinking about attending the UNITED Conference next year, I fully recommend it. It was worth the investment and way more!!