THE workshop post!

Spread the Love was pretty much INCREDIBLE! I'm sorry it has almost taken me a full week for a real post but that's how life goes when you have a zillion people living at your house:)
Everyone: Justin and Mary(my workshop partners), Shyla(model/assistant during workshop), Andrew Smith(workshop videographer extraodinair), and Abby Smith(workshop attendee/amazing friend).....all arrived on Monday for a fun night of everyones favorite - Oberweis....those that aren't from around here may not know what I'm talking about but it's basically getting ice cream straight from a cow...that's how creamy and fresh it is!! lol! Pretty much changes everyones lives!

Tuesday was a fun day of planning and eating at the new all time favorite cafe, Honey. Then heading out for our very special welcome party to meet all the new friends that were coming to the workshop! We ate at an UNREAL place called Butterfly that served Thai AND Sushi...perfect mix if you ask me!

(wow this blog is all about food! lol!)

Onto the good stuff though! Wednesday we jumped right into the full two days of workshopness...it was both mine and Justin & Mary's first workshop and let me tell you... I learned a TON from Justin and Mary! They are quite amazing and no one would ever know that they have only been in business for a couple years! They are so well established in everything! It's awesome!

I did 3 talks over the 2 days and I was pretty surprised at how NOT nervous I was! I guess this teaching thing is really growing on me! Now it's a complete blast and I look forward to every new talk which is TOTALLY new to me! :)

We had several different photoshoots which makes it all the more fun for PHOTOGRAPHERS;)

The first shoot though Justin, Mary, and I shot and we had the students only shoot a little bit so that they could watch our style and how we direct and the second shoot the students had their cameras so we could assess how they direct! It was so fun!

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The gorgeous Shyla came to help out in any way and to look hot for pictures....plus my family adores her so any excuse to get her out here from Boston we would find it! :)

The oh so hot and spiffy Justin and Mary showing there moves.
My beautiful prairie friend all the way from Oklahoma Abby Smith! She is wonderful and is probably one of the sweetest people I've met.

My "David Beckham Physique" friend Steve who came to model on the second day. He was quite entertaining! He was very much into the shoot which was awesome because he is wanting to be a fashion photographer, model, AND stylist! So he'll be in this arena a lot! :)

We held the workshop at a SWEET studio in Chicago run by David Wittig and Nancy Beale! They are some of the funniest and most generous people! I love it! Here are the two of them....the second picture is an idea Justin had but turned out more hilarious than artful! lol! David and Nancy also were the test couple for mock client meetings that we did....and with every new student there would be a new wedding plan and some of them were HILARIOUS! Including a safari wedding with a grass dress, riding away on a lion, and David falling in love with Nancy after she had shot an elephant...needless to say...I was crying from laugher.

David also did a session for us on being DIFFERENT in the industry! Totally revolutionized my thinking! :)

My sister Natalie came to model on the second day.... she's WAY to much of a natural...It makes me mad;)
Our OHIO friends! These guys were a riot! And so genuine! :)
A group shot at the end of the last day... we totally forgot to take one when everyone was still there! So this is half the group.... but you can see the Ohioan's above:)
YAY!! What an incredible time! The last guests left on Monday which was sad but I know that I'll see them all soon! :) Video from the workshop will be coming soon TOO!! I can't wait to see it all!!

Hope you all have a wonderful night!

YAY! I can sleep!

lol!!! I'm SOOO sorry for not posting the past week!! I've definitely been a slacker:(
But for good reasons!
We just finished up last night the 2 day Spread the Love workshop!! It went incredible!! I'm really so pleased in how it all turned out and the incredible new relationships that I made!! This industry is the best!
The time was jam packed with talks between Justin and Mary Marantz and I and our host David Wittig, photoshoots and plenty of wonderful food! :)
I will post plenty more about the workshop tomorrow.... but tonight I am wiped out! A crazy day today of driving Justin and Mary to the airport(so sad!), veging, shopping and eating ice cream... pretty tiring I tell you! lol!
Ps...the top pic I stole from Shyla's blog who came in to model and just hang out with us for the workshop! I love her so much! :) The pic is of....Abby Smith, Me, Mary, and Shyla!! :)

Ahhh! Freedom!!

I can breath finally!
It has been insanely non-stop since I got home from the DR... and I just sent out the taxes this afternoon to a huge relief!
I don't know how things can possibly get so busy but they do! Now onto the next project but thankfully it's not as grueling as taxes and emails! It's the Spread the Love workshop!!! Exactly a week from now!! I'm sooo extremely excited about it!!! It's going to be unreal! And the sweet part is all the benefits are going to Habitat for Humanity which is all the better! Training people in photography while providing shelter for people! It's going to be SWEET!
Anyways....I just heard that we have two spots open up last minute!!! So get it while you can! Check out the website here - www.spreadtheloveworkshop.com - if you want any details or to sign up!!!
Hope to see you all there!
PS...the above pic is on my sister JuliAnna's birthday a couple days ago!! I made an outfit out of the streamers for a new style I'm designing;)

A LOVE story....

A little less than a year ago I decided to get away for a much needed retreat....I headed out to my cousins house out in the country and spent a couple days out there.

While out there I was laying in the grass one day near their pond looking up at the beautiful sky and just started dreaming....thinking of everything that God wanted me to do! All of a sudden after praying a little bit I had an idea!! A MUCH needed photographer's personality workshop!! No no no! I swore I would NEVER do a workshop...(I thought they were overrated...)

I then went inside and was reading in one of my absolute favorite books about how the author was considering not writing it because he thought there was an over abundance of books! So this one would just be another duplicate! NO! God had given HIM something specific that would help tons of people out and he had to share it and not back down! I decided then that I probably should run with it! I didn't quite know where to start though!

A couple months later my incredible friend Mary Marantz emailed me saying she had been thinking ALLL morning how we should do a workshop together! I emailed her back wondering what her thoughts were about it...like what we would want to cover and such...she emailed back and to my amazement covered the same things that had been put on my heart months ago plus some more! I knew her and her husband Justin were the perfect fit for this especially because of their incredible and infectious personalities!

SOOO we are doing it!! YAY!! Basically we are going to be covering a TON of areas...how to really show your love to your clients through: how to interact with them at the shoot, how to bring out their real beauty, to them becoming your friends, and how to fall more in LOVE with what you do...AND so much more!!
I think it was absolutely perfect too that 2 months ago right when we started planning this my friend DJ ran survey on the importance of YOUR personality on his forum and the statistics were incredible!! Check it out **HERE**
Also.....duh duh duh.....the BRAND NEW....SPREAD THE LOVE WEBSITE!!! www.spreadtheloveworkshop.com
....and HAPPY VALENTINE'S DAY!! I love you all!