The Giving Tree Workshop

So I was so incredibly blessed to get to go to Chea Lamb’s latest workshop.  (Merry Christmas to me, from hubby).  She is truly an amazing photographer and what I picked up in that four hours is just ridiculous.  (warning:  massive amount of pictures to follow)

We met at 8 am in deep Queen Creek.  Chea had an amazing family of eight, ready to model for us.  We talked about changing the white balance on our camera (!!), posing large groups, interacting with kids, and other fabulous tidbits.  Once we started shooting, I realized there were 6 of us trying to get the best shot.  We were civilized but you could tell we wanted to hip-butt each other out of the way.

 

We were then able to grab a kid and start trying some portraits.  That was when I made the only mistake I regretted for the morning.  I grabbed Porter, the 8 yr old cutie pie.  Exactly like my own two sons.  Totally in my comfort zone.  I should have snatched a teenager.  Haven’t tried that brand of crazy yet….



Then a hop, skip, and jump down the dirt road to an amazing abandoned factory.  The graffitti art, the light, it was ridiculously wonderful.  And a whole new crop of models to use, dressed appropriately of course.  I have to say, probably the biggest thing I’m taking away was how inspired I was by that location.  I really got kind of giddy and had never realized that a photography location could make you feel that way.  Great, now I’m really hooked.









I also realized I’m not naturally good at posing.  The other photographers in the group, all more experienced than I, seemed to create great poses easily.  This one above is a great example, wouldn’t have ever thought of that myself.  So, I stole a kid and tried some on my own.  (this kid should seriously be a professional model, he’d make bank.  so natural, it’s ridiculous)







Finally we ended up back at Chea’s house.  She reviewed all of our pictures and gave each of us some great tips and ideas on how to improve our shooting.  (biggest one for me:  better lens.  Can you say “Happy Birthday”?)
We finished out with a quick shot using window light.  This was the only shot I used some serious editing on, just because I thought it looked fun.  Amazing how when you shoot the dang picture right in the first place, very little editing is needed.


I also learned about spot metering, how I can’t do it on my camera, but there is a work-around.  Wish I knew the name for it.  Also realized that my 50 mm lens is more reliable if I manually focus, rather than relying on auto-focus.  Oh, the wisdom.  Such an amazing experience. 

PS.  when I upload to blogger, I’ve realized it really flattens and dims all of my photos out.  I tried to use Flickr but the code doesn’t work.  sigh.  You’ll just have to imagine these brighter and better.