Back at the end of June, I had the honor of attending Nichole Van’s lighting workshop in Utah. I had never been to Utah before and let me tell you, it’s very tempting to pack up everything and move out there right now.

The workshop was wonderful and I learned so much about using off camera flash. Nichole is a very talented artist and teacher. So much to take in and I’m trying to force myself to practice it whenever I can. Truth be told, it makes me very nervous to try something new with my clients, but at the same time, I’ve got to constantly grow and challenge myself or things can get stale. I’m proud to say that I’ve used off camera flash at two of my sessions this week and I hope to incorporate it more as I can.

But perhaps the coolest thing was that I attended the workshop with a group of online friends from all over the country (and Canada)–only one of whom I had ever met in person and another who I got to visit with again just this week. We all started our journey into photography at about the same time and most of us gathered together on Flickr to share ideas, garner information, and learn from each other. In this day, a photography business can be very “online”…most of us work from our homes and depend on the internet to get our “water cooler conversations.”  I had an absolute blast with these ladies and they made that trip so much fun for me. What a great opportunity to talk shop with some good friends, share stories, and laugh, laugh, laugh! I really hope we can all work together again someday.