Last week, I had the opportunity to go to Susan Stripling’s workshop in Madison, Florida.  It’s seems like everybody under the sun is doing workshops and mentoring sessions these days.  However, there are few that I’d pay to attend.  Susan’s is the exception.  The big exception.  When I found out she was coming to Florida, I knew that I had to sign up for it and as soon as registration was open, I made sure I’d be there.  Susan’s work inspires me to no end and the two days that our group spent with her were packed full of so much valuable information.

There was no fluff at this workshop and I like that about it.  No particular product is pushed, there are no coupon codes or giveaways, no goody bags and no around the room introductions.  This was bare bones photography and how to make spectacular images in different lighting situations and less than desirable environments, if need be.

She’s very candid about what she does and how she gets her images.  No questions were off limits.  In fact, I found it quite refreshing that she seems to go against the grain with a lot of the typical photography advice that’s being peddled these days.  Within the first 5 hours of the first day, I felt like I had my money’s worth but lucky for me, I had another day and a half.  It’s not at all that I felt like I was doing anything wrong with how I’m currently shooting but how I can do it better, more efficient and how to work with any given situation and make it look amazing.

We didn’t have the sunshine that all of had hoped for but the rain cleared enough for us to have some hands on shooting time with the models.  Our models were great.  I love that she arranged for regular people to be our models.  No overdone makeup or over the top hair at this workshop.  They were real people and several who were past clients.  It’s really easy to take a model who’s had professional styling, makeup and hair in a gorgeous hotel and make them look good.  However, it’s another thing to take regular people in regular wedding attire in a simple environment and make them look amazing.  This was one of my favorite things about the workshop.  Wedding days are not always in our control and you have to be able to work with what you’re given.  All clients want to look amazing on their wedding day and it’s our job to take what we’re given, and make them look awesome.  Susan does just that.

Here are a few of my favorite images from the day:

I received my new business cards and stationary about a week ago.  This has been a project in the works for about a month or two and it has been worth every second of waiting.

Zida of Studio Z Mendocino is the person behind the beautiful creations.  I was referred to her by fellow photographer, Shari DeAngelo out of Philadelphia, whose business cards I thought were the prettiest I’d ever seen.  I was in the process of revamping my business materials and knew I wanted letterpress but also something beautiful and rich in texture.  It had to be classy and a little different than your average business card.  Zida had the perfect suggestion and from the first phone conversation with her, I knew that she was the person for the job.  I felt a connection with her and I knew she would put everything she had into making my cards and stationary beautiful– just for me.

With her permission, I’m sharing a little about her story in her own words:

“In my house, there were hardly any books or newspapers. I practically LIVED at the

library in our little town after school every day, checking out stacks of Nancy Drew

mysteries each week, but I never thought once about where printed things

came from, had no idea even what a print shop was, until I was twenty-six

years old. The first time I was sat down in front of a California case full

of lead type by my soon-to-be-mentor Al Moise and instructed to set a job, I

began (literally) dreaming about type and typography. He offered me a job

two days later and I worked for him for over ten years, the master printer

who changed my life. Having my own shop now for twenty-five years still

gives me a shiver of excitement and wonder every time I think of it.”    -Zida

PS

Hey brides!  Zida does letterpress invitations.  If you want gorgeous invitations for your beautiful wedding day, contact Zida.

This past weekend, I had the opportunity to meet up with some awesome photographers from Central Florida.  They planned a weekend retreat up to St Augustine for some shooting and girl time.  I was happy to be included in on the fun and it was great that they were in my neck of the woods so an easy commute for me to take part in the festivities.  Unfortunately, it was freezing with a capital “F” so it wasn’t the warm, sunny day we had hoped for.  None the less, we packed up our gear and headed out to the streets of St Augustine.

We had some amazing models who did a killer job in the cold weather for us.  Sonia Garza did an awesome job on makeup and hair.  For any of my brides looking for a makeup artist, check out Sonia’s work.  She’s super sweet and the makeup looked great.

I’ll share a few of my favorites from the day.  Thanks ladies!

Another one of my recent sessions is featured on the Florida Brides Blog.  Yay!

Jenn and Adam’s cool Atlantic Beach engagement session was selected.  This was one of my favorite sessions so I’m very happy that it is being featured.

If you haven’t checked out that blog, click here to take you there.  It is a really cool place for wedding ideas for the Florida bride.

Thanks Cassandra for having some of my work on the Florida Brides Blog.

Last weekend, I had the privilege of spending a couple of days with Zach and Jody Gray.  They are a husband and wife photography team from Nashville and I was super excited to host their Gray Photography Workshop in Jacksonville Beach.  After a few months of planning, we were able to make it happen and it came together perfectly.  Thanks to Gary Denman for allowing us to use his new store, The Photo Shop in Jax Beach for the workshop.  We had a really great group of photographers who traveled from as far as Minnesota, North Carolina, South Florida and some locals.  It was awesome to meet so many talented photographers and it was very cool that I hadn’t met a single one of them before the actual workshop.  The power of the internet is pretty amazing.

The two days were spent learning and practicing all kinds of valuable information that Zach and Jody taught us from shooting, to post processing to lighting.  It was definitely one of those “Ah-ha” moments for me and I’m sure I can speak for the others on that also.  One of the things I love so much about this business is the wonderful friends I have made along the way.  I had an awesome time and learned a ton!

We were also really lucky to have 2 awesome models, Lauren Rossi and Autumn Anderson.  Thanks ladies, you both did an awesome job modeling and braving the cold, wet, windy weather for the sake of education and art.    ha ha    

Thank you Zach and Jody for coming to Jacksonville.  I know everyone had a great time and I really enjoyed getting to know the two of you.

Here are just a few of the images from the 2 days.  I am so happy to have made new friends from Nashville.

Here’s a group shot from the Lighting portion of the workshop.  I’m on the bottom right.

Come back to Jacksonville any time!

To read more, visit Zach and Jody’s blog about the workshop here.