Weekend with Blue Lily in Deer Valley, Utah

I flew out to Salt Lake City last Thursday and was so happy to see the mountains again.  I have missed them so much!

I lived at the base of these mountains in the second grade in the neighborhood to the right of where I shot the above photo.  I would not want to go back for the winters, but the summers are gorgeous.  Even if the sunflowers do become a little shriveled.

My girl Marti picked me up at the Salt Lake City airport and then we drove down to Sandy to visit a scrapbook store before driving into Cottonwood Heights to see the house I lived in.  Then we took the scenic route up through the mountains, driving by Solitude and Brighton ski resorts.

We stopped over a dozen times along the side of the road to check out the stream, photograph flowers and do a little hiking.  And of course, admire the gorgeous views.

Before we even reached the top, we knew we would be stopping here!

We hiked to the top of this hill, which felt much steeper than it looked.  And it looked pretty steep!

But the view was worth the long climb and being completely winded by the time we reached the top.

We reached Deer Valley after 7p and drove into Park City for dinner (DeLiCiOuS!) and a little grocery shopping after we unloaded our bags.   A killer game of spoons ensued around the large dining table after we returned as most everyone had arrived.  It was after midnight Mountain time when I crawled into bed.  I was beat!

The next morning was laid back, with a late breakfast, a fun Q&A session and then we drove out to a Deer Valley ski resort.  We took two different ski lifts and hiked up a little hill before finding this great location.

In the evening, we drove out to Kamas to photograph a bride and groom.

They were fabulous!

How lucky are they to now get such great location shots?!

Saturday morning started off with a newborn shoot. 

This baby was an amazing sleeper! 

Saturday afternoon, we drove out to Heber and played with Hindu holi powder.

The models didn't show up, so the photographer participants became the powder fight participants.  It was awesome.

I'm not sure if it was more fun behind the camera or pelting each other with the bright colors.

Wendy is totally tribal, screaming and jumping.  I love this woman.  She does everything 100%.

After an intense 30 minutes of shooting the powder fight, we photographed a couple of families with piglets, bunnies, chickens, Don King ducks, ponies and goats.

Mandy loved this piglet.  He was so cute!

See?  Don King duck. His afro matched Sandi's before she pulled her hair back when cleaning up from the powder fight.

Saturday night ended with a glow stick group picture and then morphed into all glow sticks getting wrapped around Sandi.

And then she danced for us.  And it was awesome.

I love the Blue Lilies.  Wendy and Tyler are some of THE most positive people I have ever met.  Not only do they attract more of the same, it seems they generate that positivity and encouragement exponentially.  And boy do they know how to have fun.  I had an absolutely fabulous weekend with them and came home so inspired and content.

I will be posting more photos on my photo blog this week, but now I must go to bed.  I am still recovering from late nights in Mountain time and a Monday morning alarm clock that buzzed much too early.

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Blog posts from other participants are linked below (as I see the posts) :)
Crystal ~ Friday and Saturday
Meg ~ Friday and Saturday

San Diego with Blue Lily - Day Two

Day One was epically wonderful!

Day two started off with discussions on editing techniques in Lightroom and Photoshop.  There was a break before lunch to shoot in a studio setting with flash equipment, before going back to more information on editing.  I learned so much about Lightroom and now feel comfortable moving around within this program.  

Before sunset, we drove out to Carlsbad and met Mandy and Ken on an abandoned bridge.

Mandy was absolutely stunning in a simply gorgeous dress.  I also want her beautiful hair and wish mine had looked half as wonderful on my own wedding day.

The light was awesome and I loved the surrounding hills.

Blue Lily definitely knows how to find great locations for shooting.  They also find wonderful models to come out and pose for us!

Nikki is checking out one of Cameron's shots.  Cam was the only dude in our group.

Did I tell you that Nikki was my girl?  I never saw her not smiling.  She also had the sweetest hair accessories from Anthropologie.

Although I don't have any interest in wedding photography, I was thankful for this experience and know I will be able to apply so much of it to just shooting families or couples.

I somehow did not get pics of Debbie or Cynthia...I'm sorry ladies.

Being the only guys, Cam and Tyler had to show us just how close they got over the weekend by sharing a scarf.

Tyler has mad balancing skills!

We got a group shot before we left the bridge.  Both Blue Lilies have mad balancing skills.

Then we went out for Mexican at a restaurant called Norte.  The food was dee-lish-us!  On our way, I couldn't resist pulling out my camera for this quiet moment where Tyler reached over to hold onto his wife.  It made me a little homesick for my own honeys and realized that I don't take his hand-holding for granted as we walk to/from our car through parking lots when we are together.

Spending time with them during this two day workshop only served to reinforce what path I want to follow in my life and that I may do okay with photography.  Next steps for me are finding a name to associate with my photography and build up experience (and a portfolio) in photographing families.

I was more than a little bummed to be leaving this beach house and a world of fun so soon after arriving on Sunday morning.  But I was also excited to begin using all the new skills I had learned from Wendy and Tyler.  They are planning a reunion weekend for all previous workshop attendees in Park City, Utah in August.  I'm so there.

Links to the others' posts about our weekend together:
Cameron
Dana
Debbie
Megan
Nikki
Trish

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.