BikeSnobNYC at Rapha

Shortly before leaving for New York I joked with a friend that maybe I'd get a chance to meet the BikeSnob. Back when I had a terrible customer support job I was kept sane by his blogging, so I thought it would be cool to see the man behind the keyboard.

In the back of my head, I sort of had a plan for meeting him, but it quickly fell through. So I pushed that to the back of my mind. Lucky for me, Rapha Cycle Club invited him to present a slideshow titled "Exploration of Epic" right while I was in town.

I even won a BikeSnob shirt for guessing how much a pair of Rapha gloves cost.

Anyway, it was a fun event and I'm glad I got to go out there. Shout out to Rapha for hosting and special thanks to BikeSnob for letting me shoot a few after.

BlogHer 2010! (Party Shots)

I really can't say enough good things about my time at BlogHer. People are great, the mood is fun and I felt like I left the event with 2,400 new friends.

Anyway, here's some party pics. I tried to link where I could.



Kirtsy put on this party as part of their Voices of the Year Gala and Art Auction.




Summer Fredrickson










I like this photo because of the way the woman on the far right has her hands up & out.

Greyson Chance performed a few songs.


For his last number Greyson, announced that he was going to debut a new song - one that hadn't been recorded for the web yet.

When he said that, every recording device in the house shot up.


Google "Greyson Chance BlogHer Performance" and I'm sure you'll find tons of links.



Sparklecorn.






CheeseburgHer was the last party of BlogHer 2010. What a way to go out. Waiters with platters brimming with cheeseburgers, a giant (custom made) cheeseburger shaped bed and a place to make your own McDonald's meal bag hat.

Yeah.


Justin shootin'.


This is Mishelle Lane. See the photo she took of me here.






So here are my last words: if you're on the fence about attending BlogHer, I say go. I got the chance to spend time with the staff behind the scenes. What I saw was a great group of women, who really believe in what they do, working very hard to make this event a meaningful success.

And if you were an attendee of BlogHer, I'm sure you saw the same thing.

I don't know exactly what San Diego will be like, but I'm willing to bet it will be awesome.

(Also, next time you see me I might have dreads again!)

BlogHer 2010! (Conference Shots)

 

Photos further down the page, but I wanted to say a few things first.

BlogHer was really, really fun. When Justin called me asking if I'd like to second shoot the event, I had no idea what I was getting into, but I'm glad I got the chance to go. I learned a lot, I shot a lot and I met a lot of cool people.

Here are some things about BlogHer that I really liked.

Women who go to BlogHer are smart. Often very smart. They way my shooting days were set up required me to go to lots of panels for 10-15 minutes each. I was always impressed with the conversations going on. The panelists and audience were contributing to a great discussion. Interesting questions, interesting answers.

The panels were set up to serve the audience. Discussions were moderated very loosely, insuring that panels were there to inform attendees. It was a very organic style of discussion, and I think it worked very well.

Everyone is genuinely interested in you. When people would ask about my work I felt like they actually cared. This was definitely not a place where you waited for someone to finish talking so you could talk. The women of BlogHer have fostered a community that is interested in each other. Whoa.

At BlogHer, it's hard to not make friends. Seriously. I can't tell you how well I was treated. Often I would sit down at a table to change lenses - and find myself with five new friends by the time I'd stood up again. People are just nice there.

I had a blast at BlogHer and I'm excited to be going back for BlogHer '11.

I hope to see you there.

Now, pictures!


At 6:30 AM I shot and ran a 5K. The run was set up for the charity Tutus for Tanner. Besides the blisters I got from running in Adidas, it was a great way to start the morning.


(More about Tanner here.)





Part of the fun of shooting BlogHer was sitting in on the panels.


Kimberly Blessing talking about how to get hired.


Liz Henry speaking about plugging holes in your security life.


Genia Stevens on bringing sex out of the closet.




The International Activist Blogger Scholarship Recipients Keynote. (I wrote a little about this panel here.)






 

Attendees.








At the tradeshow there was even a place you could get your hair done.

Tomorrows post is what happens after the panels (party time!)

A Brief Explanation

Before yesterday I'd never been told that my photography could end up causing the direct death of someone. So that was an interesting milestone.

Saturday mornings keynote featured the International Activist Blogger Scholarship Recipients. Anyone who was there will back me up when I say that these four women are doing great, inspirational things.

Those four women are also doing dangerous things.

So that's where the photography embargo comes in. Because of some of the activism that these women are involved in, it is imperative that they're not photographed. The organizations who would have them killed, do not know what they look like, and we'd like to keep it this way.

Shortly before the keynote began the situation was explained to me and I was introduced to the panelists. At that time the panelists, a staff member, Lisa Stone and I went over the ground rules of what would be appropriate. (Absolutely no photos of the women's faces, or anything that could easily identify them.) During the conversation someone did ask if it would be OK if I were to shoot from behind their backs. Lisa and the panelists agreed that they would all be comfortable with that idea.

OK, where are those photos?

Well, I took about 10 photos from that angle. Most of the pictures I took and BlogHer will be available on the Flickr shortly. I will not, however, be releasing the photos featuring the panelists backs. They will be sent to the BlogHer staff and they will decided if it would be appropriate to make those photos publicly available.

So that's the story. If you were a worried attendee I hope your fears are quelled. Feel free to contact me if you have any further questions or concerns.

(And Shannon, if I were in your position, I would have tackled me too.)

BlogHer, NYC

A few from yesterdays BlogHer Business. Today the real fun begins.

Pray for me.





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