![\"\"](\"http:\/\/foodiddy.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2011\/11\/IMG_6827.jpg\" "\\"IMG_6827\\"")
<\/a><\/p>\nEven though I looked at the mileage, it seemed much further in ballet flats.<\/p>\n
There is just something about the energy of a city… lots of friendly runners and walkers were out Saturday morning.<\/p>\n The main event space was set up and ready for my first session – A Featured Panel Discussion – Taking Your Blog to the Next Level. Federated Media provided a light breakfast buffet.<\/p>\n I stopped at Starbucks and grabbed a green tea… and then grabbed a small plate.<\/p>\n Fruit and some spiced pumpkin bread. I wasn’t feeling too hungry, just wanted to start the day.<\/p>\n The “Taking Your Blog to the Next Level<\/strong>” panel consisted of:<\/p>\n Jessica Merchant – How Sweet It Is<\/a> I’m very familiar with Kath, Sarah and Joy’s blogs – so I was excited to hear what they had to share. The cool thing about blogging is that you create your own voice and vision. The panel all had very different styles. Some blog multiple times a day, others focus more on engaging their readers. All panelists felt that photos were an important part of blogging – photography engages your readers within the first 5-10 seconds. I don’t post daily or multiple times a day, but I do take my time and feel like quality is much better than quantity – but then again, I don’t blog for a paycheck.<\/p>\n My take away items – I’m glad that I blog for fun – less pressure and criticism from the masses and I pretty much want to be Joy’s BFF – she is freakin’ hilarious! I think I am even more in love with her blog now that I’ve seen her in action. She also talked about HomeFries<\/a> and her podcasts.<\/p>\n I’ve been reading Peas and Thank You for years – when Sarah talked about her book – she also mentioned that she had some of her famous dough balls with her. I had exchanged comments with her on her blog – letting her know that I was going to bring her book in hopes that I could get her to sign it.<\/p>\n She was more than happy to sign it – she grabbed the book and didn’t even ask me again for my name or how to spell it. She really does make an effort to engage with her readers and I appreciated that.<\/p>\n … and she had dough balls… I tried the Vegan Pumpkin Molasses Cookie Dough Balls<\/a> and they were super tasty!<\/p>\n My next session was “The DSLR Free Zone – Taking Gawk-worthy Photos<\/strong>” – I was kind of bummed that it was the only session left when I registered, but it ended up being a great session.<\/p>\n The presenters were:<\/p>\n Greg Henry – Sippity Sup<\/a> The main message was that it’s easy to get tied up in the technical aspects, but the main goal is to visually connect your readers. You need good light – it doesn’t matter how amazing your camera is, if the lighting source sucks, so will your photos. Greg mentioned some key words: simplify, narrate, compose, refine… he talked about using the color wheel when composing your shots. Everyone connects to color and has a reaction to it – use that. He also mentioned using simple props.<\/p>\n Chuck talked about using his iPhone camera. His presentation was cool – he basically showed different methods of using your iPhone for restaurant photography when the lighting was good or bad.\u00a0 Marc Matsumoto from No Recipes<\/a> was in the audience and he suggested using a paper napkin to diffuse iPhone flash light. Chuck recommended Filterstorm as a good iPhone photo editing app. He also mentioned Photoshop Express, FX Photo Studio and Snapseed – when asked about photo editing apps from an audience member. He is a huge Instagram fan.<\/p>\n Angi talked about micro four thirds digital cameras. She talked about some of the advantages (Smaller size – more portability, smaller sensor size gives deeper depth-of-field) and the disadvantages (sensor is smaller in area, increased levels of noise in lower light, no through-the-lens optical viewfinder).<\/p>\n My last session of the day was “Effective Social NETworking<\/strong>” with Irvin Lin – Eat the Love<\/a> and Stella Parks – BraveTart<\/a>. I stopped taking notes because I got distracted by the humor. What not to do on Twitter was LOL. I wasn’t following Irvin or Stella on Twitter before the session, but I am now and the humor continues.<\/p>\n Buses were waiting outside the Federated Media building. They took us over to City View at Metreon for the Tasting Pavillion<\/strong> event.<\/p>\n Lots of hungry bloggers and table after table of amazing food and product vendors.<\/p>\n Now for one of my favorite parts of the entire festival… I was walking by the Alexia booth and an Alexia rep stopped me to chat about their product. I happen to really like their sweet potato fries… garlic baguette had just come out of the oven, so I tasted that too… not too bad as a quick\/frozen option. She then asked what I thought of Tyler Florence… my answer – “He’s Hot!” – she laughed and asked if I watched his Food Network shows. I do – so we talked about that for a bit. Then she suggested that I stay right where I was standing because he was on his way to the booth for meet and greets and to sign books. They only had 30 books… so I jumped at the chance.<\/p>\n OMG – Tyler Florence, Tyler Florence…. there he is! Yes… that dialog went on in my head \ud83d\ude42<\/p>\n Last minute instructions before the book signing started…<\/p>\n I handed my iPhone off to the gal behind me – she wasn’t comfortable using my Canon…<\/p>\n Why hello foodie boyfriend… total highlight of my day.<\/p>\n I pretty much floated back to the hotel. A nice brisk walk, a nap, some TV, a latte… and then it was time to get ready for the gala dinner. Day 2 started with sleeping in a bit – The blogging session programming didn’t start until 9:00 a.m. – I usually am up by 6. We were on our own for transportation, so I decided to walk. Foodbuzz – Federated Media Headquarters was entered into my iPhone and I used the walking directions to get … <\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nKath Younger – Kath Eats<\/a>
\nSarah Matheny – Peas and Thank You<\/a>
\nJoy Wilson – Joy the Baker<\/a>
\nTracy Benjamin – Shutterbean<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
\nChuck Lai – Foodgawker<\/a>
\nAngi Chau – Rice and Wheat<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n<\/a><\/p>\n
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