I still cannot quite believe that just under a week ago, 11 amazing women joined me for 4 hours of learning about their cameras and even more so their creativity and using it for better images! It was a completely jam packed and wonderful day and I loved it- even if I did have more content planned than fit in our time (in my run throughs, it all fit! Now I know better, and should have already, about how a group of women together in a room don’t always get through quite as much as planned when there is chatting and learning happening! :-))!

The day began with a lot of final prep work and decorating for the styled shoot (coming to the blog Monday!) and the attendees to join us!  Don’t Michael’s cookies look delicious?! They were one of the first things that made me fall for him!!

My BFF Casey has a fantastically artistic mom who designed the covers for these notebooks-aren’t they gorgeous?! I keep hoping one day she gets an etsy shop and I can promote her to the ends of the earth!!

We started with a little intro time to get a bit acquainted, and then dove straight into learning about our cameras- where some of the most important settings were, and more importantly, how to gain some control back from “auto”. I was very clear in my advertising for the workshop that it wasn’t meant to be a course just to learn how to photograph in manual. We covered the topics for it- but I think that is such a larger topic than can be learned in an afternoon. That being said, many of the ladies in attendance knew so much more about their cameras than I anticipated and were more ready for this topic than I thought- so that was a very fun surprise!

We then moved into what to me was the most important content: style! How to get the images you want, how to get mature and beautiful images that really show what you experienced, and how to make those changes now! I told the attendees that I wanted them to be able to take their iphone, go in their back yard when they got home that night with their toddler, and take better images with the content they were taught- and I believe they could have!  With any camera, any time, any place. But especially with their DSLRs, using the info they learned in the previous hour! It was so fun talking about lighting, posing, capturing the story, and composition- these are the areas of photography that I get really excited about!

And then it was time to photograph! We spent 45 minutes capturing two sweet girls (coming to the blog Monday) in a last-minute-planned mini styled shoot (since we had rain- I so hoped that wouldn’t happen!), and it was so SO fun! Here are a few behind the scenes shots 🙂

After that, it was time for a little post-processing and photo storage chat, and Q/A! And of course, we ended with a group picture!

I cannot express how thankful I am that these 11 ladies (one missing in this group shot had to leave a bit early!) joined me for this day, and I am so sure that their capturing of their loved ones is going to dramatically change as a result! I can’t wait to keep tabs on them and see what happens next- some of their facebook feeds are looking mighty pretty the last few days!

These were mix of real camera and iphone images from the day- it is always embarrassing to post images of myself, especially teaching with my conductors arms- but I know sharing is an important part of showing what we did so that future ladies interested in taking this class when I run it again in July can see what it looks like! 🙂

I have to take a moment to thank these two as well…first, Sarah, my assistant, who is an absolutely incredible force behind the scenes for my business! I can’t wait to introduce her more and more here, but she helped a lot with the background of this workshop, and I am so grateful for her!

And second, of course, my Michael. I cannot put into words how he has supported and helped this dream of mine, and how valuable he is to my business and even more to me. Every crazy idea I have, his first question is “how do we make it happen?”…friends, if you haven’t been loved like that, I hope you are one day, because it is freeing and life-giving.