My First Time at PPA’s (Professional Photographers of America) Big, Colorful, Buzzing Conference in Nashville, Tennessee
I just attended PPA’s Imaging USA 2026, and whewwww.. If you’ve ever been curious about what happens when thousands of photographers gather in one place with caffeine, cameras, and a shared obsession with light… it’s basically a creative overload in the best way.
Mystery Adventure Not Knowing What to Expect
As a first-time attendee (yes, yes, thank you), I walked in slightly overwhelmed with a fear of discovering I’m actually a complete dolt in my field, but walked out feeling confident and charged. The levels of information at hand was borderline absurd. Business strategies, marketing sense, posing yay’s and nay’s, creative lighting, workflow goals (hire someone to do the things you don’t want to do), storytelling, branding, pricing… it was like being drenched with a firehose of photographic goodness. A very fun, very caffeinated firehose. And, apparently I’m not the only ‘tog that is full of physical aches and pains, because there were 3 booths in the expo area offering massages from weird stick-on-your-body devices. Personally, I did NOT like that thing!
Likeminded Hive
My favorite part? Simply being surrounded by people who appreciate photography on the level that I do. My kids just don’t care enough to humor me when I nerd out on the focal length of a lens, a shadow falling in the most amazing way, or that I got a killer (in a good way) review on Google. Attendees of Imaging USA were there because they wanted to grow, super-charge their business, and create something meaningful with their passion.
No Real Photos Here This Time
So, it’s established that I’m a photographer, Pure Magnolia Memories, which may leave you wondering about the photos in this blog post…
They say don’t marry a plumber if you want your toilet to run, well I am a professional who is dumb about taking decent photos to document my own life. My kids? Gone as soon as my alzheimer’s sets in. My vacations? Blurry snapshots on my phone. My first PPA conference experience? Quite undocumented except for a few selfies on my phone that I took to send my boyfriend as proof of life.
So the images in this post are *GASP* AI-generated from my “no eff’s given” snapshots. I know, I know… Posting AI images in a blog about professional photography might earn me some side-eye, but I’m okay with that. I can use AI as a fun tool rather than a replacement for the real, obsurdly beautiful human moments we shoot with our cameras. AI can play in the sandbox while we keep doing the heart-work and utilize it appropriately.
I’d Like to Attend Again!
Imaging USA 2026 has left me losing sleep due to a brain full of ideas, and a refreshing amount of encouragement that my work is moving along in the direction I’ve been nudging. At the end of the day, your experience as a client is what matters most to me, and if I can stick around to continue giving you my heart and art (haha), then I’ve won!
Next time I attend Imaging USA, I’ll try to take my camera out of my bag, which was on my body at all times. Baby steps!
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