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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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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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 3

Ok. So remember that workshop I went to a couple of weeks ago? If not, check out part 1 and part 2 of this post. Anyway, I mentioned that I still had another brides pictures from the workshop to post but couldn’t until after April 14^th, her wedding day. Well, it is now April 19^th and I’m finally able to post her pictures!! The bride, Alexa, was so great! Not only is she beautiful but she got down and dirty for us lol. She even got attacked by some adorable yet muddy puppies. She was definitely a trooper! Alexa, congratulations to you and your new husband! I wish you both nothing but the best in your new life together! :)

 

I will be posting more on my Facebook page so make sure and friend me on there to see more pictures I took from the workshop!

Also, If you're interested in Leslie Spurlocks work or attending one of her workshops, you can visit her site here or "like" her Facebook page here.

That's all for today. Until next time, Happy Thursday! :)





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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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Leslie Spurlock’s Workshop Part 1

So I may actually need to split this post up into three parts, because one of the brides I photographed at the workshop isn’t actually married yet and won’t be until April 14^th. So out of respect for her, I won’t be posting her pictures until after that date. Anyways, the two day workshop with Leslie was amazing and I learned so much! The first day was all about shooting, which is what part 1 of this post will be about and the second day was all about editing and the business stuff which will be in part 2.

Day 1 of the workshop was located at The Trinity Institute in Tehuacana, TX. This place is amazingly beautiful and so much fun to shoot! The 6 hours we spent there just wasn’t enough! There were so many other spots in that one location that I could of shot! Anyways, there are so many things I learned from Leslie in just that one day alone but the main things I took away were:

1.       How to use off camera flash

2.       How to shoot in the middle of the day & where to find the best light, and..

3.       Normally I overexpose my images and she taught me when & how to underexpose my images to give them a different look & feel.

 Below are some of the pictures I took at the workshop. You can see more on my Facebook page.  There were 2 brides and 1 boudoir session. However, like I mentioned I will only be posting one of the bride’s pictures until after April 14^th and I won’t be posting too many of the boudoir, because I’m mainly interested in photographing weddings, brides, and engagements.

Stay tuned for part 2 & 3! And have a great weekend! :)





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