Spotted-Bird's Nest: Atlanta

Last week was a great week! I had so much fun in Atlanta and learned so much. My brain is still on overload from the week. I took tons of notes so I am going to have to go back over all of them in the hopes that everything will sink in.

One great thing about Atlanta that I was not expecting was the weather. I thought Atlanta was really hot and humid. It wasn't last week. The weather was perfect. It was in the 80's most days and one day it only got into the mid 70's. It was like heaven. The best part was that it rained everyday. I had totally forgotten what rain looked like and smelled like. Amazing!

You should defiantly go visit Atlanta. I flew in on Delta, which was fine except for the $40 they charged me for my bags. I felt like I was being nickel and dimmed on everything. We ended up flying Southwest home from Birmingham because Delta felt like ripping us off. Jaime's flight to Atlanta on Delta was going to cost $400. To change my flight to come home a little later was $500. I had already paid $200 for my original flight. It seemed like $1100 was way too much to pay to get to Atlanta especially since you can pay $600 and get to Hawaii right now.

I called Southwest and they were super friendly and took care of everything. I kept my original flight on Delta to Atlanta and then Jaime flew into Birmingham and drove 2 hours to Atlanta. Saturday we drove back to Birmingham and flew home. The drive from Atlanta to Birmingham was great. Everything was so green and pretty. The trees are huge and so amazing. We also passed Talladega Speedway. So cool. I will probably never go to a car race so that will do for me.

We stayed at the W Hotel in Midtown and it was amazing. Everyone was so nice and accommodating. The hotel was crazy busy everyday we were there. The first two days "Drop Dead Diva" was shooting there. It is crazy how much stuff and people it takes to shoot a TV show. American Idol auditions were being held there the final few days. I never saw any of the judges or Ryan, but I did see Chris Allen. I didn't know who he was, but I was told. I don't watch idol. I do watch Entourage, but I didn't see Jeremy Piven. Lots of girls in our group rode the elevator with him, but I was not as lucky.

Hotel patio

Hotel lobby

One of the highlights of the trip was that Jaime sent me the most amazing flowers. I walked past the concierge during lunch one day and saw the most beautiful arrangements of gerber daisies. Gerber daisies are my favorite and I considered stopping and asking if I could have them. Five minutes later there was a knock on my door and the concierge was delivering the flowers to me. I was so excited. Jaime is so good to me. The flowers still looked great on Saturday when we left so I brought them home. They traveled very well and are still alive sitting on the counter.

The conference was amazing and I am so glad I got the chance to go. I learned so much about photography and the business. I never imagined I would learn so much. I also met tons of great girls, some even live close. I can't wait to put everything I learned to use. I leave you with a few more pictures of our models.