Last week I had the privilege of attending a Click Workshop.
My friend Kent introduced me to them months ago, and I tucked it away in my “Cool Things to Accomplish In Life” mental file. When I spotted a 50% off coupon for the class on Groupon, I snagged one up and told my husband he’d just bought my birthday gift. Thanks babe! Love you and love me some Groupon.
The week before the class I was shocked to find out that Lori, one of the teachers of the workshop, reads my blog (hi Lori!!) so I spent a little time stalking both Lori’s and Jody’s websites. Seeing their beautiful photos made me even more excited to go to the class and soak up all that juicy knowledge. I knew this was going to be right up my alley.
I was not disappointed.
The workshop was just incredible! The whole day was jam packed with great food and helpful information about aperture, shutter speed, ISO, white balance, metering and all the other necessary but confuddling things that go into making a picture pretty. By the time they were done talking we were all shooting in Manual mode! I’ve always been scared to death of Manual mode! But these ladies helped me see there was nothing to fear.
In the afternoon they brought in four cute girls to be our models. Amazing little girls who did things that my son would never in a million years have done…like sit still and smile and at the camera and patiently wait, posed and still, while we all fiddled with our camera settings to get things just right.
Here are some shots I got at the workshop that I really liked:
The funny thing is I felt that some of my better photos were not of the pretty little posed models but other events, like Jody showing us some pointers on composition.
And the waitress bringing sweet tea.
And PIE!! Who doesn’t love pecan pie?
Every photographer has strong points. Some are great at portraits. Some are great at landscapes. Apparently I am good at food shots. What can I say? I love food and food loves me.
I left the workshop all pumped up, ready to take on the world with my 50 mm 1.8 lens. But man oh man it was a different world once I got home! It all “clicked” while I was at the workshop but then I got home and it all flew out the window.
Garrett is not going to sit still like those pretty little models. He is go-go-go all the time. Just when I would get my camera pointed and focused and set right, he would move and POOF! There went that great shot.
Photographing boys is hard.
I decided to catch him in a slower environment where he couldn’t run away so fast–the swimming pool. Call me crazy for taking my camera in the pool, but it did help keep him corralled in a place where he was happy so I could try to snap some good shots. Unfortunately the blue from the pool cast this Smurfy glow on him so the pictures didn’t turn out as well as I’d hoped. I don’t like how his face is a bit dark in some like this:
In others he’s kind of a weird pale looking color with those “dead eyes” that Lori talked about avoiding. I have really got to work on finding the right light. That’s one of my biggest weaknesses.
When I posted my photos for Lori to critique, she took the images and did a little bit of post processing on them. What came back was simply beautiful! Look at these!!
Now that, friends, is the difference between an amateur mommy blogger and a professional. Love it!
I’ll keep practicing though!
I knew I would regret not buying that Groupon. Ugh. This post has made me sad. I don’t really blame you, just your better decision-making skills.
Oh how cool, I just took this class back in July 2011. I absolutely loved it! 🙂 I have a very active 2 yr old at home too. It is hard to practice all that I learned with him running around. The histograms are the hardest to me! Have you taken the advanced class? I want to sign up for it next! Waiting for the next groupon to roll around! 🙂