Had a blast at the national SPE conference in Cleveland this year. I finally fulfilled my mission of introducing a few new students to SPE. Both had a wonderful time and gained so much from the experience. Hearing their thoughts about the experience echoed my own thoughts from attending my first SPE conference, mostly in the form of there are other people out there that love photography the way I love photography.

I also got some really great feedback and suggestions on my #metoo series. A lot of new ideas and a lot of ideas that affirmed some of the ideas I already had in mind so that was really great. I almost didn’t take this work to SPE because I didn’t really feel up to talking about it but I’m so glad I did.

My overall conference experience was pretty good considering I missed all of Thursday thanks to a mistake in booking my flight. I spent most of this conference sharing my work, talking to vendors about cameras and paper, and attending the evening presentations. The theme for this years conference was really heavy and while the work and talks were great at the end of the night I couldn’t help but feel really down. I’m hoping the next SPE conference won’t be quite so dark. Photography as a means of social advocacy is important but it’s not the only type of photography there is. In these dark days I think we are especially in need of using photography to add a little joy or magic in the world.

Cleveland, Ohio was pretty interesting. I didn’t get to see much of it but I wouldn’t mind going back from what bits I did see. The weather was cold and the wind was so strong it about knocked me over so I would want to go back during the summer time when the weather is nice. I walked around downtown a little bit and made some trips out to dine in the evenings. My group dined at Noble Beast Brewing Company Friday night and at Taza Lebanese Grill Saturday night. Taza was so good.

On Sunday, Madison, Abigail, and I walked down to lake Eeerie to see the frozen lake which had started to break up a bit. It was a really cool sight. We watched seagulls make all kinds of noises in an effort to guard their fish lunches. It was fun. Afterwards we visited the Cleveland Museum of Art. It was so large we only made it through half the museum, mostly the Asian collection which was really fantastic.

All in all it was another really great conference. Thanks SPE!

 

  • Abigail’s first flight.
  • Cleveland, OH
  • Train time
  • Tower City