Archive for 'photographer workshops'
They can go from this:
To this:
I LOVE how she’s like an exact copy of herself, just a little more alert and a little more filled out! Never ceases to amaze me! She was our 2nd in-home model for the last workshop and oh boy, did we have a blast with her. I don’t know how her parents can get anything done with her around…I’d be too busy pinching her cheeks and working for that adorable little smile.
Apr 23, 2012
Can’t complain one bit about our last photography workshop! Perfect weather, a great group of women, and a peachy little baby boy, wrapped in blue, on a lovely red blanket.
First of all, I want to know who planned the weather out for this workshop? LOL. My word, it couldn’t have been a more dreary, rainy couple of days, but fortunately for me, there was a wonderful group of women in attendance AND we had a SUPER cute baby boy to work with.
Some behind the scenes pics (I always love these!):
And then I really lurve this snap from Bekah…
…mostly ‘cuz I think the backlight makes me look skinny 😉
By the way, we are *still* looking for a family in Austin that can do this for us on March 30th. We’ve received several applications, but we need options. You never know, you might get a free session from me! If you live in Austin and are expecting a baby within the next few weeks, PLEASE fill out this form.
I’ll be back soon with images from the in-home session and I also can’t wait to show you some pics that the attendees took (can’t wait to brag on them and how well they did during some yucky, yucky weather ;-).
Mar 13, 2012
I started shooting in 2006. That seems like eons ago when I compare my style back then to how I shoot today. I’ve learned SO much since that time, mostly through trial and error. But boy, it sure would have been nice if I had had a little more personal help along the way.
I decided to dig up what used to be one of my most favorite images of my middle bear cub. I loved his look…I loved how grown up he looked…lost in thought, but ohhhhh, if I had a do-over with this shot, I would have done so many things differently. The version on the left shows my editing style back in the old days ;-); the one on the right shows you how I would have edited the image a little differently (wish I still had the RAW file, actually, so I could edit effectively in Lightroom). I do think I chose a great moment to capture and a great focal length, but if I had the time to do so, I should have strolled him to a place where the background wasn’t quite so blown and more even to help him stand out a little better. Also, in the new version, I cropped out the bottom part of the stroller where the sticker was showing ;-).
This is the kind of critique participants in the Chic Critique Celebrity Critique can expect from me. I have another 4-week session coming up next month and we have a few openings left if you want to give it a try. It has been such a privilege to be on the outside, seeing images from a different perspective, and by giving just a few quick pointers, helping to turn images that seemed like coal into diamonds.
By the way, even with his overly-processed, neon blue eyes, I still love this image and always will.
Feb 06, 2012
AMAZING! The weather was spectacular, the ladies were kind and intelligent and creative and talented, the food was incredible, and the clients/models were outstanding. Everything operated like a well-oiled machine and I wouldn’t have changed a thing about it. (The girls are probably going to kill me for the butt shot up there, but I couldn’t resist 😉
Day one was lots of chatting and headshots…
Pretty group, huh?
Day two was PACKED full of events including our in-home family newborn photo session demonstration for the amazing photographer, Scott, and his sweet baby girl:
Behind the scenes….
Followed by an in-home family photo session demonstration for a dear client/friend:
Behind the scenes…
(Why yes, this would be where I made my “unlawful entry” as referenced today on Facebook 😉 Forgot to mention that I also thought I had locked my keys in the car and we all spent about 15 minutes looking for them only to find them in my camera bag where I had deliberately placed them. Must have been getting a bit loopy by then.)
Day two is not over yet…now it was time for the ladies to practice some of their new techniques…
(Families and models: I’m going to start sending out your pics soon…hang in there 😉
See? I told you Day 2 was a monster, but dinner that evening was simply wonderful and we all got rested up for our last day of proofing and wrapping up.
The workshops are equally exhausting and rewarding for all of us, I think. I love that we become such a close-knit group and stay in touch long after the workshop is over. I love the surprise of seeing the images the attendees create in my e-mail inbox–their work was absolutely amazing, by the way…so impressed with what they’re able to do under a bit of a pressure situation. I love that we’ve actually organized a reunion/charity project for the Pinkle Toes “Class of 2011” and I can’t wait to tell you all about that after the event! (Ladies of 2012…keep that in mind.)
Members of Pinkle Toes 4 Photographers: there are only TWO openings left for workshops in 2012. That’s it. I’m currently not planning to offer any more workshops this year or next. Please visit this page for details.
Jan 15, 2012
For those of you who follow me on Facebook, you probably already saw that my attempt to take the kids to experience the Architects of Air luminarium at the Long Center yesterday was a bust (we ended up having fun on Soco, instead). But I really didn’t want to give up, so back we went today. For you workshop girls, you know that this is no short jaunt for us and I was really nervous the line would be too long again.
Well, it was too long, but we waited anyway. At least this time, I had my husband with me so we could hold our place in line and let the kids go run and play while we waited. But considering it was only a 1.5 hr wait, I think that’s pretty good in comparison to the the folks in line behind us because it got baaaaaaaaaaaad. Oi. At least the cash bar they set up (including goldfish snacks for the kids) made it a bit more bearable.
It was fun, though. I don’t think I would have wanted to wait any more than we did, however. Wish we could have done a weekday instead. (If you’re in Austin and want to see this, the 20th is your last day, I believe). If you’re taking pics, bring the widest lens you’ve got (I had to use my fisheye to get anything really) and be prepared for funky low light and lots of strange people in your shots, LOL. It was nice to spend this time with the fam.
Got some fun things coming up on here in the next few days, by the way:
1. Later tonight, I’ll be posting the gallery of our client selections for the 3rd Annual Pinkle’s Pic of the Year contest! I’m really glad to have relinquished control over the nominations to my clients…they have made some amazing selections and I am so excited to see who is going to come away as the 2011 Pinkle’s Pic of the Year.
2. Got some lovely ladies coming over in a bit to test out a fantasy make up idea for the .emme. boudoir sweetheart mini sessions coming up this weekend (I can still squeeze a couple of people in on Sunday if you can make it). Can’t wait to post a sneak of Katie’s creation.
3. And finally…a little peek at a project I’m working on for the workshop folks and for my clients. Interesting experiment looking at the print quality side-by-side from several different professional and general public printers. Wow! You can’t see/feel it here in a picture, but wait until you get up close.
Back in a bit…
Jan 08, 2012
…to me that you can get a group of 9 women together (me + my mom + 7 photographers from all over the country) and spend three days together and get stuff like this:
and still leave happy and looking like this:
Thank you to all of these beautiful and talented women who drove and flew out here to spend this time perfecting their craft. (Also wanted to point out that the b/w shot in the doorway above was spotted by a couple of the attendees…I would totally have missed that one if it wasn’t for them!) Thanks to Scott (an incredible photog–also took the first image of us above 😉 and his dear wife for letting us invade their home for our newborn session demonstration. (Oh, Amy…I’ll be blogging about your family session soon, too ;-). And thanks to Mee Maw for keeping us all well fed!
Spent today sleeping and recovering from our adventures, but this week, I need to gear up for the next workshops. We have just three openings left for the March 8-10 workshop and 3 for the March 29-31…and folks, that’s it for 2012. That’s most likely it for 2013, as well for that matter. If you were contemplating an intensive Pinkle Toes professional photographer workshop like this one, this is quite possibly your last chance. Don’t say I didn’t warn you ;-). Oh, and don’t forget, your last opportunity to purchase a Pinkle Toes 4 Photographers membership is THE END OF THIS MONTH. Now that’s a biggie.
Okay, back to smoochin’ on my family (boy, I missed them this week). Take care and Austinites…enjoy the rain we’re about to have!
Jan 06, 2012
Day one of the first workshop of 2012 was wonderful, wonderful, wonderful. Today, we’re going to be traipsing all over Austin photographing families and exploring our beautiful city. It’s going to be a loooooooong, but productive day!
[Upon further reflection after taking our group shot, all we could think was, “Wouldn’t our husbands/fiances just loooooooooooooove this?”]
Jan 01, 2012
I sat down to post the annual Year in Review slideshow, but instead, I’m finding my mind is still swirling from what happened yesterday. I need to explain to you just how grateful my heart is on this first day of 2012. As some of you may have seen on my Facebook page, I spent the very last day of 2011 worried sick over my baby sister in the hospital. She had been complaining of a pain in her leg since her trip to New York earlier in Dec. and she called me early yesterday morning saying she had just blacked out in her hallway. My first thought was a blood clot…and then immediately, the fear of a pulmonary embolism. [I want to pause right here and thank someone very special–she will know who she is–for unknowingly giving me a key bit of knowledge about this very dangerous condition and possibly helping to save my sister’s life. Thank you and my heart was very much with you during this holiday season.]
My first words were, “We’re going to the hospital..NOW!”
As she was going through the barrage of tests with so many unanswered questions and the very real fear that my sister could die, all I could think was how desperately I wanted the gift of another year with my sister. Just the day before, she and I watched this and marveled over his courage and peaceful outlook on life and death. While we were waiting in the hospital, we read this and this, pleased with how many of those we had done and vowing to check off the rest this year.
Turns out, she did indeed have a blood clot in her leg, but thank goodness her lungs were clear!!! She has started treatment, but now we have to figure out why the clot formed so we can keep it from happening again. She is so young and a very healthy, non-smoking young woman…this kind of thing just doesn’t make sense for her. As I’m writing this, I am actually glad to share this story with you in the hopes that should you or someone you know experience symptoms of DVT or a pulmonary embolism, you’ll know to get immediate medical attention.
2011 was one of the busiest years I can recall in a long time and I know that busy=blessed. I had the privilege of meeting and/or working with hundreds families and photographers from all over the world. (It’s funny how small my world has become thanks to Facebook ;-). However, to be honest right now, when I think back over the year as a whole, it’s pretty much a blur to me–the only thing I can really remember is yesterday.
But I feel it’s important to always acknowledge and thank the people who allow me into their lives and trust me photograph their most important family moments. I want to remind them how beautiful they are…how special their connections are…what a gift their families are. So, like I’ve done every year since 2007, I pulled just one image from each session to create the 2011 Year in Review…
(Google Reader users: you’ll need to click THIS LINK to see).
My sister, my mom, and I all had separate plans for New Year’s Eve yesterday, but all of our families ended up at my house last night. I couldn’t have asked for a more beautiful evening…cooking up an impromptu batch of homemade chili, all of us watching the 360º of fireworks in the horizon at midnight, listening to “Auld Lang Syne” on the iPod, toasting in paper cups, ringing in 2012 together. Grateful.
[p.s. Clients: I sent out the details on the 2011 Pinkle’s Pic of the Year contest to you all. If you had a session with me in 2011 of any kind and did not get this info, let me know ASAP so I can get you up to speed.]
Dec 29, 2011
I’ve known Carrie online for quite sometime now (actually, she snuck in a session with me a couple of years ago and managed NOT to tell me that we knew each other online 😉 until after the fact. I had the privilege of getting to know her even more when she attended a workshop last year and we’ve been planning this family session almost since then. I mean, a LOT of planning. She did an amazing job of pulling together some beautiful clothes for everyone and we had scored a DREAM location that was halfway between her house and mine. The day of, I drove out with my mom (aka – photo assistant). The sunrise was beautiful and the weather wasn’t nearly as hot as it had been. Everything was perfect. Except…
Oh, bless her little heart. I swear no matter what we did, nothing seemed to make her happy. Maybe she was tired, maybe she was teething, maybe it was just Murphy’s Law. We had all driven all this way to make this session happen and I gotta say, I was truly worried we weren’t going to be able to pull it off.
Somehow we managed. I think it mostly had to do with Carrie’s wonderful sense of humor and how she embraces motherhood and all that comes with it so gracefully. Those girls of hers are truly beautiful and when we finally discovered the secret to happiness (banging pots and pans in the kitchen), all was right with the world.
Carrie…I totally enjoyed our adventure that day and I’m so glad to know you!