Day 2 started with a writing exercise about what had shifted for us since Day 1. We took about 5-7 minutes to write - what ever we were thinking... what ever came up....
Some of the amazing women shared what they wrote and we laughed and cried along with them. One woman was frustrated that she thought she knew her camera better and was dealing with remembering a miscarriage and another woman was wondering who she was - deep down. She has stayed home for the past 6 years and had never been away for a night without her kids. I was crying along side her, sister! Who I am is in such flux right now - with being laid off. You'd think that your work doesn't define you.... until you get laid off. I saw Lance go through it and now I can see myself going through it. Who AM I? What do I want? Is THIS what I want? How do I get there?
We then worked on metering and flash work, and then quickly went to a university campus nearby for an outdoor session with a family! This session was so much fun! Me Ra SHOWED us how she works with a family and her strategies (usually working with group shots before kids get tired of sitting still, then let them go and see what fun photos you can get of their personalities!).
See - here are the posed shots of the family - the must have shots for any family shoot!
And here are the some of the fun shots!
Then it was our turn...
I shared a family with 4 other fabulous women and we had a wonderful family with 2 girls and 1 baby boy. This little girl was lit up and loved the camera! And Ohh those curls!
We snapped some lovely shots of them sitting on the steps hugging each other. I can just imagine them years from now (many many years!) loving this picture of them as youngsters.
And a more intimate hug... Ahhh - how cute!
After all that and lunch we talked about post-processing (in film days this would be the dark room but these days its on the computer), starting a photography business, marketing. Whew! It was a long day.
What I learned this weekend is that I can better control my camera - how I choose it to be done. I have the ability to master this - it just takes practice, practice, practice. I also learned a lot about fear - my fear of signing up for a photography workshop was conquered, my fear of not knowing anyone at this workshop was conquered, I even met new friends and it was fabulous! Fear can sometimes be something that keeps you from doing something that isn't really scary at all. Like starting a business for the fear that you will fail. I think this was my biggest moment of the weekend was that if you don't even start - then you can't fail. But if you just start, then you may just succeed. She also talked a lot about being an artist (not just a photographer) and how we all "see something shimmering in us that wants to be creative and create" (or something like that) and it really struck home for me. Being a scientist - I didn't think I was "creative" until a couple of years ago and I learned that I loved ideas. I loved coming up with tons and tons of ideas. It was then that I realized that I was creative and I've been trying to become more in touch with that everyday. This is just one way I'm doing this for myself.
Alex and Daddy had a lot of time that weekend to be together and have some quality time. He did great, but when I got home on Sunday night and took him to preschool on Monday morning - I could tell he missed me - and I missed him. It was difficult to leave that morning and he started acting out. I think it was that he wanted more attention from me so I've been making a particular effort to give him more undivided attention. He just soaks it up!
Overall - a wonderful weekend. I would highly recommend her workshops to any women out there!
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