Scarlett & Stephen’s Wedding Photography Workshop: Review

So last Wednesday I got to attend the amazing Scarlett & Stephen Knuth’s wedding photography workshop. The workshop was hosted at Paul Ernest’s home in McKinney, Texas for the business portion of the class and then we went to historic downtown McKinney for the shooting portion of the class. The workshop was overall amazing!!! We learned how to do better in-person sales, anything & everything you need to know about SEO and how to increase your SEO (Stephen gave some great tips that I would have never thought of or found online if I didn’t go to this workshop!). We also learned how to achieve a fast album design with SWAT designer (Scarlett & Stephen showed a live demo of this and let’s just say I’m sold lol), as well as how to get published, different posing techniques, and much more! They even gave us some great recommendations on different kinds of equipment to get that isn’t necessarily brand name but it’s cheaper and better!

When we went out for the shooting part of the day, it unfortunately started raining, but Scarlett & Stephen still showed us how to rock it out even when the weather conditions aren’t exactly ideal. Near the end of the workshop, The Edmonson’s (who are one of the best wedding photographers in the world!!) stopped by and it basically turned into a Scarlett & Stephen/Edmonson’s/Paul Ernest workshop!! It was incredibly awesome to get advice from so many people that I admire and aspire to be like!! I may have even gotten kissed (on the cheek) by the Edmonson’s themselves! ;)

Scarlett & Stephen partnered with some great companies for this workshop that included: Kiss Albums, ActionRunner, Shootsac, ProPhoto, Shoot Q, PWD Labs, and Two Bright Lights. Everyone went home with some great discounts from these partners including 4 free months of Shoot Q!! Super excited to start using that! Along with these awesome discounts they also gave away a few prizes and I’m beyond happy to say that I was one of the lucky few who won!! I like to think I won the grand prize because it’s the one I wanted and NEEDED the most!! So I’m happy and excited to announce that I won a free website from ProPhoto blogs!!!!! That’s right, pretty soon I will be moving this blog over to my brand new more SEO compatible website! :)

I also left the workshop with a few new friends in the photo community and I’m excited to keep in touch with them! Overall, the workshop was incredible & probably one of the best investments I’ve made!! Or rather my mother made lol. If you’re a photographer and you get the opportunity to go to a Scarlett & Stephen Workshop, do not hesitate!! You won’t regret it!

Here is a picture of all of us at the workshop!

More pictures from the workshop to come soon!! Happy Wednesday! :)

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Weddings & Workshops

This past Sunday I got to second shoot my first wedding for Shayla J. Photography! The wedding took place at Winfrey Point on White Rock Lake in Dallas, Texas and it was so much fun!! The bride & groom were gorgeous, the décor was super cute, and the guests were basically rockstars! I couldn’t have asked for a better wedding to second shoot for my first time. I can’t wait to show everyone the pictures I took! However, I of course won’t be posting them until after Shayla (the main photographer) post them on her blog first. So be on the lookout for them sometime in the following weeks! :)

In other related news, in exactly 2 weeks from today I will be going to Scarlett & Stephen’s wedding photography workshop! I am beyond excited to attend! Click HERE to see my original blog post about it. For those of you who have been on the fence about going, there are still some spots left for their workshops in Myrtle Beach, SC & Dallas, TX. So if you’ve been wanting to go, be sure and buy your ticket soon!! And if that wasn’t enough to entice you, check out this awesome workshop review video!

Happy Wednesday! :)

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My Birthday Week + The Expodisc

As some of you may know, this past Monday was my birthday!! Unfortunately, I had to spend the day working, but my wonderful husband and family treated me to a fun filled weekend that included Sprinkles Cupcakes, La Duni, Kobe Japanese Steakhouse, and an awesome new toy for my camera! :) As my birthday present, Daniel got me the Expodisc custom white balance tool!! I have wanted this thing ever since Zach & Jody Gray introduced me to it back in January at their CreativeLIVE workshop. I’m so excited to finally have one and put it to use!

I took this picture using the expodisc :)

For those of you, who are unfamiliar about what white balance is, check out this article. They give a great explanation of the subject better than I probably could.

To give you an example of what the expodisc does, here is the exact same picture from above, only without me using the expodisc.

The first one looks a lot better doesn’t it? lol

If you're wondering how I made my images look good before, the answer is hours in either Lightroom or Photoshop. But hopefully with this tool that time will be cut in half! :)

Well, I have a busy weekend ahead of me that includes going to watch the Crowne Plaza Invitational at The Colonial on Saturday and I’m second shooting my first wedding for Shayla J Photography on Sunday! So excited! :)

That’s it for today, Happy Friday!!

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Behind The Scenes: Leslie Spurlock’s Workshop

This was my first week off since finals and fortunately I passed all my exams/classes and am on track to graduate this August!! :) I cannot wait to be done! However, I haven’t been completely off because I’ve been busy editing the photos from my past two weddings so I can finally deliver them to my clients. I just finished one of them the other day so now I only have one more to finish!

Anyway, since this week has been kind of slow for me (photography wise) I thought I would share some behind the scene images from the workshop with Leslie Spurlock. Enjoy! :)

Here Leslie is showing us the different things we can shoot through to get different effects.

Here is the result. Not quite sure what we were shooting through but it was some kind of scrap material.

Here is a picture of Todd Stricker, Leslie’s second shooter, holding up a piece of glass for us to shoot through.

Here is the result.

Here is a picture of Leslie getting our bride/model, Amy, ready for this next picture where Leslie taught us to find reflections that we might not ordinarily think to shoot.

Here is the result.

Here, Leslie and Todd are getting Amy photo ready. :)

Here is the result.

Here Leslie is showing us new and different ways to take boudoir pictures. Her daughter, Hannah, was our model and she was so awesome for getting in the dirty sink! :)

Here is the result.

I caught Leslie showing Mercy what she was getting in her camera.

And here is what they were taking pictures of out there..

Here are a few pictures of Leslie showing us how to shoot in the middle of the day with the worst kind of lighting conditions and how to rock it. :)

Here are some of the results.

We then had a couple of unexpected guest..

They then decided to attack our brides/models lol

They really wanted to be in the pictures lol

(At one point during the workshop Leslie took my camera to show me how to get a certain shot. So I’m not quite sure if I took the picture above or if Leslie Spurlock did, but I did tweak it in Photoshop.)

In the end, the puppies finally got out of our shots and we were able to get some decent pictures! :)

Happy Friday!

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Second Shooting!!

So I’m a member of this amazing community for photographers called Pixtus. This forum used to be called Texas Photo Forum but they have now opened it up to photographers all over. However, the community is still primarily made up of Texas members. Anyway, there are many reasons why I think this community is awesome!

1)    You can post your pictures on there and get honest critiques/feedback from local photographers.

2)    Big name photographers like, Leslie Spurlock, is an active member in the community.

3)    And last but not least, some photographers will occasionally post a thread that they’re looking for a second shooter/assistant/tag along. This leads me to the basis of this post…

I got my first second shooting job!!! I will be second shooting for the talented Shayla J.Photography on May 27^th, 2012 at White Rock Lake in Dallas, TX!! I am beyond excited and grateful for this amazing opportunity! I can’t wait to share my experience with everyone!

Well, this is the last week of the Spring 2012 semester at UNT and I still have 2 finals left. So I better get back to studying! :(

Until next time, Happy Tuesday! :)

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An Early Birthday Present!!

Happy May Day everyone! Finals are only a week away and you know what that means! Study, study, study! Yep, this week I will be taking coffee addiction to a whole new level lol. Anyway, just thought I would give an update on what’s going on with me and my developing business.

I am still working away on editing my past two weddings and I’m almost done with Teresa & Randy’s. I promise I will have some more of Barbara & Jim’s wedding pictures posted this week.

Also, I just signed up for my second wedding photography workshop in June hosted by Scarlett & Stephen Knuth of Scarlett & Stephen Photography! These guys are a husband & wife team based in Jacksonville, FL and they are coming to Dallas for this one day workshop. You may remember a previous blog post where I talked about this amazing online community for Christian photographers called The Prosper Community. Well, Scarlett & Stephen are the founders/creators of this site. The site is actually an extension of a book Scarlett wrote entitled, Prosper: A 40 Day Prayer Journey to Seek God’s Will for Your Photography Business, which I just recently purchased and plan on reading once finals are over! I am beyond excited to attend this workshop and it’s all thanks to my mom for giving me this awesome early birthday present!!! :) And for those of you who aren’t familiar with Scarlett & Stephen, here is a short little video clip about them:

Scarlett & Stephen from Scarlett & Stephen on Vimeo.

If you’re a photographer who would also like to attend one of Scarlett & Stephen’s Workshops, you can check out the Dallas, TX one HERE and the Myrtle Beach, SC one HERE. There it will give you more information about what the workshop is all about and how to register!

That’s it for today. Happy Tuesday! :)





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Leslie Spurlock’s Workshop Part 2

First off, I want to say Happy Good Friday to everyone! Today is the day we remember the death of our savior, Jesus Christ, who died for our sins. And if you’re Catholic, like I partially am, then this also means no meat today! Why is it so much harder when I’m told I can’t!?lol

Anyways, I posted a week ago part 1 of my experience at Leslie Spurlock’s Workshop in March and today I’m finally posting part 2. As I mentioned in the first post, this will actually be split into 3 parts because one of the brides isn’t getting married until next weekend and out of respect for her, I’m waiting until after the wedding to post her bridals.

So the second day of the workshop was all about editing and the business side of photography. We mainly worked in Lightroom but used Photoshop for textures. Anyways, Leslie gave us her set of presets for Lightroom which is awesome! And I would have to say my favorite new tools that I learned to use in Lightroom are the gradient tool and the magic brush tool. It was a halleluiah moment lol! As for the business part of it, I am getting a business degree, so I pretty much know all of that stuff already, but it was great hearing it specifically relate to photography. The business side was taught by Maria Leinen of Maria Leinen Photography and let me tell you, I’m really picky when it comes to photographers teaching the business side of things, mainly because they only tell you one part of it or don’t give you all the correct options, but Maria really knew her stuff!! I was VERY impressed!! She also gave us some great information about SEO and websites that I was not familiar with before.

Overall, this workshop was amazing! I can’t tell you which day I enjoyed more because they were both just packed with information! I also enjoyed meeting and connecting with some other great photographers that I hope to stay in touch with! With all that said, I can’t wait to go to my next workshop!! I have a feeling that I won’t have to wait too long though! ;) Below is a picture I took on day 2 of the workshop with my camera phone. And no, I didn’t edit this picture.

In some other related news, I made my first money from my work as a photographer! Last week, another photographer contacted me about purchasing one of my prints and I sold them a High Res copy!! I am still unbelievable flattered! :)

Well, that’s it for today. Until next time, have a Happy Easter Weekend!!

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Colorado & The Fix Part 1

I know I’m a little late on this, but this past week has been surprisingly crazy busy. So anyways, here it goes. This past weekend was our road trip to Denver, Colorado to see Jasmine Star in her tour of The Fix. My hubby completely surprised me with this trip after knowing how upset I was that I couldn’t go to her one here in Dallas. Colorado was so much fun and Jasmine was definitely worth the trip up there! :) We left on Thursday afternoon and stayed in a little town called Dumas, Texas, which is about 6 hours from DFW. We then got up bright and early the next morning to finish the drive to Denver. Along the way, we stopped at the Capulin Volcano National Monument in New Mexico and climbed to the top. (You know, your normal road trip rest stop lol) Luckily we made it to our hotel, The Ritz, holler! ;) With literally 2 hours to spare till the event started.

The Fix was held at the Artwork Network in Denver, which was nice minus the fact that there was nowhere to park, but we won’t get into that little stressful moment lol. Anyways, Jasmine gave an amazing 1 hour presentation over struggle, change, and making friends along the way. It was a very powerful presentation. Jasmine made me laugh, cry, and realize that I am not alone. The presentation was followed by some brief Q&A and then a reading from her book, Exposed. It was a great night with free drinks, and at the end I got to go up and meet her and have her sign my copy of Exposed. (I was beyond nervous! Lol) Oh, and for those of you who don’t know, this was my first ever photography event!! I was so nervous about it, but everyone was so nice and I made a bunch of new friends in the industry! :) Too bad they live 14 hours away. :(

Any who, tomorrow I will be posting part 2 of this post. I will also finally be announcing the exciting news I talked about a couple of post ago! So stay tuned for that! :)

Below are some pictures from the road trip as well as some pictures & a video from The Fix. Enjoy!

View from the top of the Capulin Volcano.

Some cows with the Capulin Volcano in the background.

A River of Lava Turned to Stone...

The long road ahead...

Jasmine Star speaking :)

Jasmine Star reading a page from her book.

Below are pictures of me meeting Jasmine. Both pictures were taken by Jasmine's Fix crew. You can view the rest of the images from this event HERE.

And finally, below is a video of me actually meeting Jasmine Star!! Shot by my wonderful husband, Daniel. :) I think you can tell how nervous I was lol.



 

Happy Thursday! :)

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Road Trip!!!

Ok, so last week I mentioned that I had a couple of really exciting things coming up but was keeping them a secret until they were confirmed. Well, as some of you may know from my post on Twitter and Facebook, one of those events was officially confirmed and I am know announcing it on my blog! :) So in one week from today, Daniel and I will be road tripping it to Denver, Colorado to see Jasmine Star’s The Fix!! I am beyond excited! Knowing how upset I was that I couldn’t see Jasmine while she was here in Dallas, my husband completely surprised me with this trip. He is way too good to me. Also, a couple days ago he surprised me again by getting a ticket for himself as well. So now I will be able to have and share this experience with my partner in crime lol. ;) Anyways, I can’t wait to share my experience with everyone and I will of course be posting lots of pictures from the trip! :) As for the other exciting news, that will have to stay a secret until it’s officially confirmed. I know, I know, but hopefully you won’t have to wait too much longer.

In other photography related news, I discovered this amazing community started by Scarlett & Stephen, called The Prosper Community. The community is an extension of Scarlett’s new book, Prosper: A 40 Day Prayer Journey to Seek God’s Will for Your PhotographyBusiness (Which I can’t wait to buy!). The Prosper Community is a photographer community of believers who encourage, uplift and pray for each other, and I feel very blessed to be a part of this amazing community. If you’re a photographer and think this is something you would like to be a part of, just click the link below to join me and a bunch of other amazing photographers in this community:

Visit The Prosper Community

That’s it for today. Until next time, Happy Thursday! :)

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Update

Happy March 1, 2012 everybody! I know it’s been a little while since I last posted, I ideally like to try and post twice a week, but there hasn’t been too much going on with me in the photography world. My main focus right now is finishing school. However, I’ve been looking for any opportunity (that doesn’t conflict with my classes) to build my portfolio, expand my knowledge on photography, and find time to work on my business plan. Last night Jasmine Star came to Dallas for her tour of The Fix, and I unfortunately wasn’t able to attend because I had my 3 hour night class, which ironically was Business Ethics so it wouldn’t have been very ethical of me to miss it now would it? Lol Anyways, since I wasn’t able to go, I did purchase one of Jasmine Star’s CreativeLIVE videos yesterday entitled “BuildingYour Wedding Photography Business.” I can’t wait to sit down and start watching it! I also purchased yesterday an eBook from Photography Concentrate called Simple Wedding Photography by Lauren Lim. This eBook is 201 pages of awesome with 6 worksheet bonuses and a video commentary on album design. I have only skimmed through it but I will definitely let y’all know what I think when I’m finished. :)

A few other things happening…

A couple of weekends ago, Daniel and I went to an antique mall in downtown Fort Worth and came home with another old camera! Nothing fancy, I just thought it looked really cute so Daniel got it for me. He’s so sweet! :) Anyways, it’s an Imperial Mark XII Flash in green. Picture below:

Last weekend I watched SandyPuc’s Bellies and Babies on CreativeLIVE. Even though my main focus is wedding photography, I am also interested/curious about newborn photography. It was a great workshop and I learned a lot! Sandy was so generous in giving away tons of freebies to everyone watching. This weekend I will be watching another CreativeLIVE workshop called Glamour photography with Sue Bryce. I am super excited for this one because Sue knows how to pose ever type of woman to make them look absolutely gorgeous! Hopefully I can learn some of her tricks! If you’re a photographer who would like to watch this workshop as well, it starts tomorrow at 11am central. You can click this link to watch live.

I have a couple other really exciting things lined up within the next couple of months, but for right now they’re a secret until they are confirmed. But I can’t wait to share the exciting news with everyone!!! :) So be sure to keep coming back to get the scoop!

That’s it for today. Until next time, Happy Thursday!

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