I owe you all posts about weight loss and more pics of Addy’s modeling session, but before I get to any of that I need to share with you all my experience this past Friday and Saturday.  I had the pleasure of attending the Paper to Print Workshop – the first of what I am sure will be many successful workshops taught by Michael Howard.  You might remember that Michael is the photographer who shot my wedding almost 4 years ago so pretty much he can do no wrong in my eyes.  Hiring Michael was hands down the best decision I made in my wedding planning and being given this opportunity to learn from him was a dream come true.

I don’t really even know where to begin.  We did go over the general ISO/Aperture/Shutter Speed bit that you would expect from a photography workshop.  I also feel like I FINALLY have a good handle on my off camera flash set up that I’ve been working on learning for almost a year.  But more than that I got a reminder that I shouldn’t be comparing myself to the 1,000s of other photographers out there, I learned how to critique my own photos, and I was reminded of the importance of taking the time to create photographs for yourself and not just your business.  It was a remarkable experience and one that I am still mulling over days later.

As an added bonus to all the learning that went on this weekend, I was also blessed to make some wonderful new friends.  I bonded so quickly to my table mates Rhiannon (we had so much in common), Lori (same name as my mom and red hair too!), and Grace (could totally be my friend from college Christy’s sister) – truly a rare thing to someone as socially awkward as me!  I am looking forward to staying in touch with them and seeing how we all grow as photographers as a result of this experience.

And now some photos from the workshop.  We started out photographing a model Michael brought in and then wrapped up the shoot by photographing each other.

Michael in the midst of teaching

Some pics of our beautiful model

My beautiful new friend Lori

And the lovely Rhiannon

And the gorgeous Grace

And despite the fact that this photo did not hold up well in critique, I’ll share it anyway since it’s one of the only off camera flash photos I took that I like – Lori is staring in this one as well.

And as a bonus, here is one that Lori took of me!!  If you want to see the one Grace took of me doing a Zoolander impression, you’ll have to go find it yourself on her blog, LOL!

Thank you Michael and all my new friends for the wonderful weekend!!