Blink Conference Recap | Washington, DC Lifestyle Photographer

Happy Wednesday!

I’ll get it together one day and actually have my blogs ready to go in the mornings like I plan, but until then… you can probably expect them in the afternoons lol.

I hope your day (and week) has been going well so far! I have a photo-packed post for you today so get ready for tons of pictures :)

A little over one month ago, I was in Nashville for the first annual Blink Conference! This was my first photography conference period AND my first time speaking at a conference so believe me when I tell you I was NERVOUS! I am super thankful to Ike & Tash for the opportunity and honored that they even thought of me!

A few days before I left, I was finalizing my presentation and packing up everything I needed!

I’m not sure what possessed us to do so, but Natarsha and I booked a 6:30a Friday flight to Nashville… So of course I didn’t get any sleep the night before because I’m a chronic procrastinator - _- Since we were headed west, we weren’t able to watch the sunrise but the skies were beautiful nonetheless :)

Once in Nashville, we drove to the hotel and met up with a couple of our fellow Blink attendees for breakfast! After that it was time for a serious nap lol.

DAY 1 FRIDAY 

Friday night was the mixer! I had such a good time meeting everyone and chatting with some of long-time admired creatives like Audrey Woulard, Alejandra Vidal, and Joshua Dawain. I was also super excited to meet all of my photographer friends from facebook and social media in real life :)

DAY 2 SATURDAY 

Saturday was the full day of workshops. The line up was Ike & Tash, Alejandra Vidal, Joshua Dawain, Audrey Woulard, Dawn Davis, and Zach & Jody. So much great information was shared and tons of goodies were given away! I unfortunately didn’t get pictures of them all, but here are all of the amazing sponsors: Black River Imaging, Photographer’s Edit, Colorvale Actions, Munaluchi Bride, Ike and Tash, The Music Bed, Shower Me Chic, Photo Pantz, Social Print Studio, Site House, Photography Blogsites, Sync Seniors, Rachel Brenke- The Lawtog and Senior Style Guide!

After a full day of learning, I opted for a low key dinner so I could prep for my presentation on Sunday. Sidenote: How amazing is it that Panera has a drive thru?? Lol I know you’ve probably seen it before if you live elsewhere, but in DC we don’t have them. I love Panera so it was a pretty big deal lol. If we had a drive-thru, I’d probably be there even more than I am now.

DAY 3 SUNDAY

Sunday was the big day! I was soo nervous lol. But ready to get things going :) Jeremy helped me set up and I was all ready to go! 

The presentation went well and I could finally relax!! I got lots of positive feedback so that made me feel much better about things and so did my post-presentation pep talk with Tasha :) Quick chill out in the lounge as things were wrapping up and then picture time with my DC peeps before we headed home!

Our Nashville weekend was soo much fun! But just as tiring as it was fun- probably because I didn’t get any sleep before I left lol. All in all I had a great time learning from some of the best in my industry and getting to know my e-photog friends better :) I can’t wait to see what Ike and Tash have in store for Blink in the years to come and I’m soo proud of them for putting together such a wonderful conference! 

Unfortunately I won’t be able to attend Blink 2014, but for those of you that are, you will definitely be in for many surprises and have a great time learning!

PS: For an even more awesome Blink Recap, please do yourself a favor and head on over to Terri’s Blog! Although I had it, I didn’t pull my real camera out all weekend, so she definitely has a better recap than mine lol.

That’s it for today! Let me know what you guys thought of the recap :)

-Danielle

November Happenings!

Happy Tuesday all!

You guys… It’s been a month since my last post! (sad face). This past month has been anything BUT typical and has definitely been my most exciting month since beginning DFinney Photography!

So what’s been going on??

At the end of October I was wrapping up my presentation for the Blink Conference and getting everything together for that, but also had both an engagement and mentor session the weekend before the conference- where I ended up dropping and breaking my beloved 50/1.4! Fortunately Tiffany (my mentee) shot Nikon as well so we were able to switch lenses for the practice session with our lovely couple.

The Blink Conference was the first weekend in November and it was great!! So great that they’ve already sold out for Blink 2014!! I’m so happy for Ike & Tash and really excited to see where they will take this :) I will be sharing an official recap of my first conference experience- especially about my presentation!! :D But for now, you can take a look at fellow photographer and conference attendee Terri Baskins’ recap HERE! 

The following weekend, I had a senior session and another fun mentor session.

Aaaand this past weekend I was in Cleveland to shoot an engagement session for one of my December weddings. Just a quick trip, but I had a great time! Here are a few sneak peeks from their session:

Whew! So as you can see, October and early November have been pretty much non-stop. Definitely looking forward to knocking out these December weddings and having a bit of relaxation in January :)

Full blog posts of the above sessions will be posted so you’ll get to see more from each.

Well that’s all for now, I hope you enjoyed the update- more goodies are on the way!

-Danni

On the move in 2013: ATLANTA! | Recap

You guys… I am way too excited about this post!! Lol you’ll soon see why :)

A few months ago I announced that we were taking DFinney Photography on the road and heading to Atlanta! Well the trip came and went and here is the official recap!

First let me say that I already loved the glam squad before this trip, but I really really love these girls! I don’t even think these pictures do it any justice in capturing how much fun we had. Everyone’s personalities meshed perfectly, all of our clients were so nice and personable, and the photos? Amazing! This isn’t to say I’m awesome lol, merely a testament to how awesome we are as a team!

Just briefly… well that’s probably nonsense at this point because NOTHING about this post is brief lol. I just want to send a HUGE THANK YOU to all of my lovely clients!! 4 of the 7 people we shot drove 2 to 3 hours to meet us in ATL! I can’t tell you how much that means to me!! I loved working with you all and I can’t wait until our next trip :)

Well let me stop gushing and get into the recap lol.

—fair warning: this is a LONG post—

FRIDAY
We all had fairly early flights to get to ATL by late morning/early afternoon and by the time we did, we were exhausted! The weather for ATL was forecasted to be rainy all weekend so I was praying and hoping we’d get clouds instead of rain! When we got there, it was cold and drizzly with a foggy mist that made it look like the buildings were evaporating. That plus the crazy Atlanta traffic (which I had no idea was worse than DC!) kept us inside for our Friday shoots.

We made it work though and ended up with nothing but fabulousness :)

SATURDAY
We had so much fun on Saturday! Both sessions were shot in Little Five Points (thank you Taylor for telling me about it!) which is such a cool little area. Lots of colored walls/art/murals/graffiti… everything I love to shoot! And apparently every other photographer because there were tonss of photographers out and about shooting as well. 

After our sessions, we looked around in a few of the shops then headed back to get ready for dinner. You guys… Two Urban Licks is AWESOME!! I know I’m not the first to come to this conclusion because that place was packed lol. We had to wait for an 11pm reservation but it was soo worth it! EVERYTHING was good! Definitely make reservations and check it out if you’re in (or will be visiting) ATL.

Little Five Points is such a cool indie area… we even had a few folks who wanted to jump in for some photos lol.

SUNDAY
Sunday Funday! Kind of lol. I was a nervous wreck on Sunday because I was worried about my shoot! I now know how my clients feel when they’re getting ready for their shoot and I so appreciate them even more now for trusting me. It was so hard for me to relax and I know Latara had a time trying to get nice photos of me lol. Thanks to Denyelle for doing my makeup- she did a fabulous job and Stephanie did a great job on Latara’s! It was so nice meeting and working with Latara! (aka Elle Danielle :)

Here are a few sneak peeks of Sunday’s sessions. So happy we at least got one sunny day while we were there!

MONDAY
Monday we were able to spend a little more time shopping/hanging out after our first and only shoot with Ebony. She was so easy to photograph and Stephanie did a beautiful job on her makeup which made my job even easier :) Ebony is so sweet! She made me this beautiful custom bracelet and I absolutely love it!! I’ve been wearing it almost every day since lol.

A few previews from Ebony’s session.

TUESDAY
Tuesday we wake up to a cold and rainy day… what a way to welcome and send us off Atlanta! lol I guess it worked out because it prepared us for the cold and rain that awaited us back home.

Well that’s it for the recap!

If you’ve made it this far congrats! You have a long attention span lol. When I started putting this together, I didn’t realize it would be so long, but I just rolled with it. The instagram pictures are from all 4 of us so they help tell a complete story :)

I hope you enjoyed the recap!

-Danni

Sunday is the big day! | Alexandria, VA Creative Lifestyle Photographer

Happy Thursday everyone! I can hardly believe this week is almost over… it will be Sunday before you know it! And what happens on Sunday you ask? Oh, just a little event I’ll be participating in lol. Sunday is the Koils by Nature “Natural is Not a Fad” Event!

After seeing the photos I took of Mae “Natural Chica” , Pamela (the founder of Koils by Nature) contacted me to take participate in the event and I couldn’t be more excited! 

As a sponsor, I will have a booth set up where folks can come and learn more about DFinney Photography, enter for a chance to win 1 of SIX possible FREE on-the-spot makeovers with my fabulous makeup artists: Makeup Art by Denyelle and Runway Ready Makeup Artistry, have their photo taken (which may end up on Essence Online!), sign up to win a FREE styled photo session, and tons of other goodies! 

Here are just a few things that have been delivered so far for the show :) I’m getting a package delivered almost every day it seems and I love it! lol

If you’re interested in attending, tickets can still be purchased here: http://KBNevents.eventbrite.com/ but FRIDAY (tomorrow) is the LAST day to purchase $20 advance tickets! If not, tickets will be available at the door for $25 so you’re still more than welcome to come to the Westin Alexandria for the show on Sunday!

I’ll be posting photos from the show on instagram throughout the day so make sure you’re following me @dfinneyphoto for all the behind the scenes photos :)

I can’t wait to see some of you there and I’ll definitely share how things went next week!

The Weekend in Photos | Instagram Goodies

Good morning and Happy Monday guys!

Things have been a little quiet on Facebook and the blog for the past few days while I finished up a couple projects and took on some new ones, so I just wanted to pop in and say hello :)

I will have lots of goodies for you on the blog this week… most notably: the Neon + Neutral Wedding Editorial I shot last month! I planned to share it last week but time got away from me :/ So this week it is!

In the meantime, I will leave you with a few shots of my weekend :) I had a great styled senior shoot with Cindy on Saturday and attended the beautiful wedding of my friend Glenda on Sunday. I hope you enjoyed your weekend as well! If not, no worries… let’s make it a good week :)

Are you on instagram? Follow @dfinneyphoto! :)