San Diego with Blue Lily - Day One

The weekend was absolutely phenomenal for me in mind and soul (not necessarily body, as I ate more junk than I would care to recount).  I was surrounded by others who love photography and just as filled with an intense desire to learn more about photography and successfully running a photography business.

There was a lot of learning that took place inside the beach house, but we went out Friday afternoon for a family beach shoot.  It was a cold and windy day, so I was thankful every member of this family was a great sport at coming out and freezing with us.

There were nine of us in the workshop, so it was a bit crowded at times to get in and take pictures.  I'm not very good at being pushy (unless of course I hear one of my friends is going to NYC and then I have no problem inviting myself along) and stayed near the periphery during much of the time.  Which was fine, I was more intent on seeing how Blue Lily ran their photo shoot and how they helped arrange their clients.

Amazing people were in this workshop with me, like Crystal B.  Everyone was so willing to stand and pose for the others.  We all took turns.

Dana was our Northernmost attendee, coming all the way down from Alberta, Canada.  She's still stuck here belly flopping on hotel beds while waiting on UPS to deliver her birth certificate.  Boo hiss to lost passports.

Over the weekend, I learned how to use Lightroom better for editing (as opposed to iPhoto, which has been my primary editing program for years because I mainly just crop). 

I also started shooting in RAW (as opposed to JPEG), which makes for easier editing in Lightroom if my exposure needs tweaking at all.  So many good things I learned how to do and am already putting into practice. 

This is my girl Nikki.  She was the only other Nikon shooter there and we stuck together.  It was really cool being able to talk about our likes/dislikes of our cameras (she has the same camera that I started with and wants to upgrade to the camera I have now).  Nikki has been a second shooter at weddings and is just now beginning to charge others for photographing their families.  She is where I want to be.  Seattle is also too far away.  I wish I could continue getting to know her better in person.

I want to get a hat for my boy child like this, but I don't think he'd be willing to wear it for me.

Doesn't he have gorgeous brown eyes?

Trish flew out from Michigan to join us.  I am loving the photographs she took and has posted to facebook, but am also coveting her paper birthday cakes she sells in her Etsy shop.

 I love people who laugh so easily, everything is just so much more fun.  Wendy and Tyler are AWESOME and totally wonderful teachers with only positive things to say in encouraging us to look through our viewfinder differently.  It was a good first-hand reminder that encouraging my own children to do better is so much more effective than pointing out what went wrong.  Hooray for excellent teachers!  And don't let Meg's smile fool you, she is a cut throat player when it comes to a game of Spoons.  I had never played before and had a blast!  I don't remember the last time I laughed so much.

Day one ended with me fighting to stay awake on the couch, but I crawled down to my bedroom by 9pm.  My head was spinning with everything we discussed during the day, the fun new people I had only just met and the new techniques I couldn't wait to begin implementing in my own photography.

See my Day Two with Blue Lily here.