What I've Learned {Day 5}

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What I've Learned {Day 4}

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What I've Learned {Day 3}

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What I've Learned {Day 2}

What I've Learned {Day 1}

so many things, but for now I will leave it at this ~

check out www.snapshotsofagoodlife.com.  Registration for the January 2013 Photographers Workshop begin on October 15th.  If you want to learn about your camera, lighting, focus, ISO, aperture, shutter speed and make some new friends along the way, check out this class.  You will not be disappointed.

Nothing short of {Amazing}

It was a normal Friday afternoon and I was checking emails when I got home from work, there was an email from my favorite photographer, the email was titled "3 Things".  I can't remember what the first 2 things were, but the 3rd one made me jump up and down, squeal and do a little happy dance.  The 3rd thing on the list was about a "Hometown Workshop" she was putting on in September, and there were only 9 spots available! I responded to her email without a second thought, without running it by my husband, without knowing if I had anyone to help with my kids!!  Can I just tell you how happy I was that I read my emails that afternoon when I did, otherwise I would have missed out on one of the best experiences of my life!

I have stalked  followed  Karen's blog for quite a few years.  It was one of those blogs that I book marked as soon as I found it and spent hours reading back and check daily.  Her stories and photography drew me in. She documents her life through her blog the way I want to but never do, she writes about the good and the bad, the funny and not so funny things that life throws our way.  She is real, she is honest, and what you see is what you get with her.  After following her blog, when I did finally get to meet her in person a few years ago at a 1-day Photography Workshop, it felt like I had known her for years.  In January 2011 I finally was able to audit in her online Photographers Workshop and I learned so so much!  Karen puts 110% into everything she does, her on-line class is completely worth the investment in your time and money. 

I'm pretty sure I made my family crazy between July and September,  I was so excited for this workshop!  I was so excited to hang out with Karen, meet in person a few friends from the online workshop, get away for a little me time.  These 5 days were everything I could have imagined and more.  It is so hard to put into words the instant bond that was felt between 12 women who didn't know each other before we arrived at the beautiful historical Hanna House, but had the love for photography and Karen that clearly bound us together.

And one of the nicest surprises was when Karen's "acquaintance" arrived to drive us to our shooting location.  I thought it was an interesting choice of words and I also thought it was interesting the group was  the 4 of us from the 2011 class, we joked we were being voted out of the Hanna House!  Imagine our surprise (especially Lisa's!!!) when Jules, from our 2011 class, showed up. Soooooo much fun!

Our days were full of learning, shooting, eating, more learning, more shooting, more eating, and in between tons of laughter and even some tears.  I told someone as I was laughing so hard my stomach hurt how amazed I was that there could be such an extreme range of emotions in such a short amount of time, clearly we didn't do well staying between a 4 and a 7 girls!!!

As the family photographer there are not many photos of me, (I even had to ask Steph if she had a cute photo of me for one of my class assignments!) mostly I like being on the other side of the camera, so that works out ok.  And if I do hand off my camera I usually don't like the results of the photos, so I just stay behind the lens.  This workshop made all of us come out of our comfort zone, and be the subject instead of the photographer.  It was quite interesting have 3 or 4 lenses pointed at you all at once!  I haven't seen many of the photos of myself as they are on my friends cameras, but I did get this one and am happy to have a pretty photo of myself.

I feel blessed to have been a part of one of the first Hometown Workshops.  I have made 12 new wonderful friends and we are already working on a plan for yearly reunions! 

Karen, I hope you realize that it is because of you and your love of photography and your willingness to give so much of yourself to your students, that we have all walked away from this workshop changed.  God is using you in an awesome way in everything you do, don't forget that!!!  I know it was difficult and I know it took you away from your beautiful family and I feel so happy to have been on the receiving end of Gods blessings. Thank you . . . for or taking a chance, for sacrificing your time and family, for all of your creative goodness, for sharing all of your photography knowledge so willingly with us, for sharing your family with us!  It was soooooo worth it, completely amazing . . . and I sure didn't walk away wishing I had spent the money on a new lens!

{Mustard Flowers}

I can't believe that I didn't blog these!  My sister was here at the end of March, just in time for my favorite time of year . . . the Mustard flowers are blooming!

This was our third photo shoot with the girls and I do think it is getting a little bit easier since the first time, man did I get a work out in 2009, Meghan was 5, Cayden was 4 and Aida 2 1/2.  In 2010, they all definitely had their own ideas and I ran around after them like a crazy Mom & Titi and after all that I wasn't thrilled with the way the photos came out.  I can't believe how much they all have changed and grown up so much.  Hoping we are still doing this until they are married!

Needless to say I was so happy that I found a perfect field filled with yellow flowers!

 

The girls play a game that they are picking Wedding Flowers, I at least got them to WALK and pick their flowers this year instead of running away from the camera as fast as they can, which is what is usually happening!  Once they collect a handful they stand together and we throw them up in the air, it's pretty darn cute!

The sun went away very quickly that afternoon and Mom & Gina were freezing!  I on the other hand was not!  I was very pleased with the photos this year, I think my new lens might have helped a little too!

Stuff

I've somehow managed to miss another entire month of blogging, , sheeesh, I started out so good! We are getting ready for spring break over here, although the rain has finally decided to appear so I'm hoping it's not a rainy spring break. I'm taking some days off and we are excited that our Oregon cousins are also going to be here visiting, so I'm really hoping for some more mustard flower photo shoots and mom wants some photos of the girls in her old Mexican dance outfit ~


Meghan brought home her progress report last week. She is doing very well in 2nd Grade, but I have to say it was the last sentence in the comments left by her teacher that cracked me up! She said "I would like Meghan to work on being more organized and clean at her desk." Have I not been saying that for, uummmm, forever?!


We are working on ways that she can keep herself a little more organized, I'll keep you posted on how that goes!

And today was picture day, again . . . you know how I just love those school pictures that I feel completely obligated to buy! Anyway, since Meghan and I couldn't agree on what to do with her hair, we asked Kaitlyn to come over and do it for her, she is just so much better at it than I am! She looked so cute . . .


Well, off to figure out how to work my new pressure cooker! I figure it goes perfectly with my love of mason jars.

School Pictures {Flashback 2011}

School pictures. Never really happy with them, I would prefer to just do my own, but for some reason I can not let a year go by without purchasing them!

Trevor - 9th Grade

Trevor's Football Photo

Meghan 2nd Grade

Photography {Before and After}

Back at the beginning of January I reflected on 2011 and all of the things that I did NOT accomplish. What I didn't give myself credit for though was all of the time I spent with my camera last year. I feel like I still so much to learn and that there is so much I don't know, but when I sat down recently to edit Meghan's b-day, Christmas and Trevor's b-day photos I was pleasantly surprised at the difference in my photos between last year and this year.


I had my eye on this on-line class for a long time, it's a little pricy and I just couldn't justify spending that amount of money on myself, so I started saving any photography money I earned doing little shoots for this or that so I could sign up for the Photographers Workshop over at Snapshots of a Good Life guilt free. I had taken Karen's one day in person class a few years ago and I learned so much, I couldn't really imagine what else she could teach me for 8 weeks! Well, let me tell you, there was more, a lot more!

I only had my new 7d for a few months so I knew there was lots on the new camera to learn, but the class went into the details of composition, equipment, shooting modes, the exposure triangle, depth of field and the list goes on. Karen's teaching style makes all of the confusing stuff so understandable and then she is available on the forums every weekday to answer questions. She is the most active instructor I've ever seen in an on line class, I was so impressed with the amount of time and energy and thought that she gives to every answer she gives. There was so much information the first time around that I audited the class again in September which really allowed me to focus on some of things that I didn't quite get the first time around. All that to say I guess 2011 was quite as bad as I first reflected!

Trevor's B-Day 2011 - images are all straight out of camera

Love that lovely yellow color-cast and the motion blur of Daryl moving in the background!

Trevor's B-day - 2012 - images are all straight out of camera

Look! No yellow colorcast! I can't say enough how much a custom white balance has done for my photos

Not to bad for my oh so dark family room

I have also met some of the best on-line friends in this class. We hang out with each other on our Snapshots facebook page and follow each other on Pinterest! I can't wait until we can meet up sometime and meet in person!