I first want to start off with saying a few words about Winnie and getting to know her on a personal level. I have never really had good luck with friendships in this business. Sure I have had a few friends that I could go to sometimes and shop talk with, but I have never met a person so passionate about helping other photographers like Winnie. She has made me fall even more in love with this business. She has pushed me more than anyone else I have ever met in my life to go further with myself and my business. I always know that she has my back. She respects me as a person, as a business owner, and as a friend. In this industry this is a very very rare find. I have never had someone that has believed in me so much like Winnie does. She truly makes me see the value of my work and never lets me doubt myself. She is not only a mentor to me, she has become family. She has seen me at rock bottom and has always been there for me. "Thank You" will never be enough to thank her for everything she has done for me and my business. She genuinely wants to see people that have "it" succeed and will light a fire under you so hot that you will go leaps and bounds in this business.
Ok enough of the sap -- Let's get down to the nitty gritty of this two day workshop!
She entitled it "Bask in the Light" simply because that is exactly how Winnie shots. She finds these dreamy pockets of hazy sun and places her subjects perfectly in them causing for soft dreamy light that just takes your breath away! She also focused on editing; going through her process, workflow, organizing, and developing and editing images. Enhancing and finding the beauty of what's already in the image is what she truly wants you to achieve out of each edit! And Winnie also touches on business tips, but the main focus is enhancing your image, from location, to clothing, to editing, to delivering your images to your clients.
Winnie took six fellow photographers (myself included) under her wing for her flagship workshop! Of the six attendees, none were at the exact same place in their photography journey. There was even an attendee who hadn’t started a business yet and some that had been in business for years. Everyone had something to give and something to learn.
:: Day One ::
Myself and the other five attendees all met at Winnie's beautiful cozy home. We did a little meet and greet, chatted a bit about where we were in out photography journey, what got is into this business, what types of images we are drawn to and one thing we would like to improve upon. We then drove into the handy-dandy workbook that Winnie had printed off for us. Day one we talked mainly about the business side of photography which included things like; pricing, booking appointments, products, organizing your business, giving your clients an amazing experience, social media tips, and she even includes a list of her favorite vendors with a few discount codes to use! You really do not even need to bring a pen! Everything is in the workbook!! EVERYTHING! She hides nothing from you which is amazing! But just in case, she even leaves you some blank "Note" pages at the end to write down anything extra :)
We then all loaded up in the cars and headed out for the first shoots of the workshop! She had an AMAZING styled couples shoot -- Styled by the fabulous Blackbird Vintage Market -- With an amazingly beautiful couple! There were two setups; one a simple picnic style setup on a vintage quilt and another more fall setup with pumpkins and a vintage bench. Simple, beautiful, but still just enough to make the session pop! We each took turns with each pose getting our shots. Winnie walked us through how to do her "go-to" couples posing and even showed us just where to place them in that soft dreamy hazy light that she is known so well for! We shoot the couple for about an hour and then we moved on to our two high school senior girls! These two beautiful young ladies totally rocked our worlds! I loved this part of the day just because I have not yet really broken into the high school senior market but I defiantly could see myself doing a lot more down the road! Again, Winnie walked us through all of her "go-to" posing and how to play with that dreamy light! It was such an amazing experience to see her in her element and watch how she works her magic with her clients.
We ended that day back at Winnie's place stuffing our faces full of yummy Chinese food and talking about our experience how excited we all were to get home and edit some of our amazing images from the day.
