Workshop Weekend..in a nutshell

All right, so I am somewhat rested, still processing information. I am so excited to start taking some more pictures to build up my portfolio! This weekend was absolutely amazing. For those that don't know, I went to MeRa Koh's photography workshop this weekend. Friday night was a meet and greet at the B&B Villa in Tacoma, which is STUNNING, which is where the workshop took place. On a side note, I have been following MeRa's blog for some time, so she is kind of like a celebrity to me. I walked in and met some of the other gals, but when MeRa and her husband Brian walked in, I got really nervous. Here they were, right in front of me, and they brought their kids, who are on the blog quite a bit. She came around and introduced herself to everyone. It was crazy. I was a bit in awe. Anyway, I stayed for hour and a half or so, I cant remember what I said to MeRa, but remember spitting out a couple of sentences. I did talk to her husband Brian for awhile and even got to have a conversation about Christmas lists with their adorable daughter. On to Saturday...

I got back to the villa at 9am and we all gathered up. We went around in a circle to introduce ourselves and answer some questions about our level of photography, what we were hoping to learn, etc.. I was SO nervous! I kept thinking in my head, "what the hell is wrong with me? Pull it together Brooke!" It was that famous thing I guess. When it finally came to my turn, I was sure I would pass out, but blabbed out something, honestly I don't remember what, but I do remember MeRa saying, "OK", and then moved on to the next lady. Ugh...what the heck? Could I have not said something charming, or witty..nope. So after that we dove into learning all about our camera's and stuff. Brian and MeRa had set up some babies and moms to come in so we could practice. That was fun and challenging at the same time. It was a beautiful location, so I was thrilled, but it was definitely hard taking someones picture at the same time as 5 other girls. In the end we were suppose to pick 3 of our best photo's unedited to bring back the next day for critique. So we learned a ton more that day and even had dinner at the villa with MeRa and Brian. They were very open about everything and were willing to answer any questions we had about anything! On to day 2..

So we went on to learn MORE...I wont delve into everything...but got some wonderful information on lighting, metering, flashes, lightroom, lenses, photoshop, etc. But one of the biggest parts of the day was the critique of our photographs by MeRa. I was so nervous! I sat on the floor in front of the projector, my hands were shaking like crazy waiting for my pictures to come up. I couldn't believe that MeRa and Brian were going to tell me what they thought of my photos. Thank God it went in alphabetical order and my name starts with a B or else I might have thrown up waiting. She was so kind and told me she loved my photo's and was happy to get some oohh's and aahhh's from the rest of the gals. Oh yeah! I was on cloud 9! They were nice enough to finish up the day with questions and answers about starting a business and all of that good stuff.

I definitely encourage anyone with a passion for photography and who wants to learn more, this is the class to take! I can't say enough good things about it. Not only did I learn so much, but it was inspirational and although it may sound silly, I learned a lot about myself going to this. Maybe it was the 2 days of doing something entirely for me without having to worry about anyone else.

Here are just a couple pictures that I was able to take this weekend.

If anyone has any questions about the workshop I would love to talk about it, just ask!