snap it pretty :: a photography workshop

Danni and I started planning this workshop in February and had a location picked out in March, but then life happened and we didn't have it until July! Thankfully, we had 15 wonderful ladies be brave enough to test out our first workshop ever and we think it went pretty well. We are so thankful for their emails and evaluations and now know what we did well and what to do better for next time. We are so excited to have another soon!

Our featured photographer who was sharing the know-how part of the workshop was Jennifer Young from I ART U. It is great to have someone who knows her camera, has great pictures, but is also very familiar with the blogging world. She was the perfect fit for Danni and me!

I think Danni and I were a ball of nerves, but super excited and couldn't wait to get the show on the road. We had one heavy crafting day and about 300 emails going back and forth between the two of us. It was pretty crazy for a couple of weeks; plus throw in my rascally 3 girls and her insane craft shows, and you just have two crazy ladies running around with our heads cut off. Our husbands are patient men (Thanks Ben and Nick!).

The workshop was held at the beautiful George Key Ranch and ran from mid-morning to mid-afternoon. Danni and I love making things looks pretty, hence our email welikeitpretty(at)gmail(dot)com, so we wanted everything to be absolutely perfect for all our guests! I hope they enjoyed it as much as we enjoyed planning and making everything perfect for them.

At the welcome table, we had handmade crepe paper flower pins for name tags, moleskine notebooks with a cute little camera stamp, pens, and a little program for the day.

For the "talk" of the day, the ladies sat on vintage folding chairs and we hung up a little backdrop on the trees.

After the "talking" portion, everyone had an opportunity to practice what they learned. There were various lighting conditions with the bright sun and shading for the trees that you definitely got to practice adjusting for the varying brightness.

We had a pretty table set up with all the lunch goodies. The sandwiches were from Rialto Cafe, cake pops from local baker Pop Culture Desserts, and macarons flown in from Salt City Patisserie, baked chips and drinks. We made fabric wraps to wrap the sandwiches and chips together; it was color coordinated depending on the type of sandwich they ordered. I must say, I loved both the cake pops and the macarons so much! But I am a dessert girl, so it ain't hard to please me in that area. We laid picnic blankets out for everyone to sit and everyone was chatting up a storm and usually it involved blogging. What more do you expect?!

After lunch, we had two stations set up with boxes full of props. We separated everyone into a Nikon or Canon group and they went at it styling their little table. Both groups did great and were so natural at it that I want them to come over and decorate my house now! After they styled their areas, everyone practice snapping away at those and just continued with the area surrounding them.

Danni and I could have not done this day without these two ladies... RJ and Linda. They are simply the best in letting us boss them around and doing everything with such a cheerful heart! We love you guys!!!

The workshop ended with some questions and Danni and me sharing our tips for taking good pictures. We don't claim to be pros, but we just shared the little things we do know and use for our own pictures.

Of course, we couldn't end the day without without raffling off some pretty cool camera goods. We had 4 big raffles: This Lisa Leonard necklace, a polaroid camera, a Ketti Handbags camera bag, and this bag from JoTotes. Seriously, such good prizes. If that ain't enough, anyone who didn't win a "big" raffle prize went home with an iMo camera strap. On top of that, we had a goody box for every single person to take home. There was so much goodness in those boxes that those boxes (and the raffle goods) will get its own post, just so we can outline each little goody. Seriously.

The best part of the day was getting to spend time with all of the lovely ladies. Making new friends is always a good thing. Everyone was so kind and sweet and it was seeing their excitement that makes us want to do this all over again!

Bloggers in attendance were: Cinthya from Lo Fidelity Love, Tiffany from See the Skyline, Katie from A Day with Kate, Kira from Her New Leaf, Bri from Hello I am Bri, Becky from Little Wickies, and Vivien from The Eclectic Life. If you check out these blogs you will also see their views and thoughts of the workshop. Sorry if I missed anyone, but just leave me the link in the comments and I will correct it.

And if the picture overload wasn't enough, well, here is a little video of our day (if you read in google reader, the video won't come up)...

Above photos courtesy of Jen and Danni. And a huge thank you to Salt City Patisserie & Pop Culture Desserts for sharing with us their delicious sweets!

Danni and I are definitely planning more workshops soon, so if you are interested be ready...