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"To Teach is to Learn Twice" ~ Joseph Joubert

I have always loved to teach. At age 7 I asked my parents to install a real blackboard in my room. It was huge and there was chalk everywhere. I would come home from school and then spend the whole afternoon teaching my mom whatever I had learned that day in school. Have I mentioned I love my mom? In high-school I was a private tutor for Junior High Students. In college I volunteered in the Math tutoring center. And after college, as a dietitian, even though I had a job at the hospital that I loved and it kept me super busy, I still made sure to get a job as a nutrition instructor in the evenings. I love to teach.

For a while now I have had a few friends and clients ask me to put together a class to teach them how to use their "fancy" DSLR cameras to its full potential. I thought it would be fun since I love to teach, but I didn't give it too much more thought beyond that. Until, a past co-worker of mine emailed me and said I needed to put something together fast! Her brother's wedding was only 3 weeks away and she wanted to put her camera to use and not be frustrated with the results.
Well... I guess I could put something together... How about a "Fancy Camera Workshop"?
I wasn't sure if anyone else would show up, but they did and it was super fun!
We spent the whole morning talking about how to properly expose images using the manual setting and discussed some of the many different compositional elements used in photography. We had lunch and then headed out for some hands-on practice with our model, Luisa. I asked everyone to shoot all of their images on manual and to pick at least 3 different compositional elements to work on.
When we got back inside we talked about post processing and then shared our images and had a fun group critique.
I didn't shoot much while we were out but here are some of my images (and my own homework):

Finding Patterns/Repetition:

Changing focal length (and I guess I cheated a little and changed my perspective a tiny bit):



Something unexpected:

Panning:
Foreground/Framing:

Wide-angle lens distortion:
Shadows:
Sun flare:
Changing perspective (from the photo above):
Here are Erin, Monika and Alicja practicing getting different perspectives of the same subject. I was cracking up when I saw this. By the way, Luisa is wearing shorts under her skirt :)
And here's a very happy me with my very pretty daughter:
A huge thank you to everyone who came. You are all amazing! I had so much fun and learned so much myself. I know I just started in my journey of being a professional photographer not too long ago and I have such a long ways to become the photographer I want to be. However, I want to make sure I fully enjoy every step of the way there and I hope that I get to continue to share what I know with anyone who wants to learn.
And while I am on the topic of teachers I would like to send a huge and special thank you to my very first photography teacher and major source of inspiration, Roy Pope and to Jennifer Bowen for being the first photographer who gave me an opportunity to see first hand what it was like to be a wedding photographer and to fall in love with it . I am forever grateful to you two. Thank you.

Irma & Braden

You can't meet Irma and not fall in love with her. She so sincere and kind. She's a hard worker and she's laid back. Irma and I worked together for a few months (as dietitians) and I would often forget my lunch. I know, I know, how hard is it to remember your lunch, but I was juggling a full-time photography business and a part-time job downtown Phoenix. Irma barely knew me, but she would often share her lunch with me. Her lunch that she had cooked with Braden the night before and that Braden had prepared for her. She would always say with a smile: "...really, Braden always packs so much food for me we can definitely share".

From things like this to other little glimpses I'd get about their relationship, I knew they were perfect together. And I was right.

When Curt and I were at the airport in Philadelphia coming back from Italy, I got a text message from Irma. She had gotten engaged! I called her back and we chatted a little. It was the 4th of July. Irma found out we were taking a cab from the airport in Phoenix to our house. Guess who showed up at the airport at 10 o'clock at night on the 4th of July? Irma and Braden. Braden is equally amazing and kind. Besides going totally out of their way to pick us up and take us home, they even brought us bottles of water! I am just in awe of what wonderful people they are individually and I am so happy that they will be spending forever together.

When they hired me as their wedding photographer I was beyond thrilled and honored.

We had so much fun yesterday during their session. And even though it was really really hot, they just smiled and laughed the whole time.


Irma has the best smile. Not only because it's beautiful but because it's always so genuine:



After a few fancy shots around town we drove to the desert. More precisely we drove to the exact spot where they went on their first official date together. They went hiking here:
I love it that their wedding colors are turquoise and coral. Check out Irma's necklace:







You two are amazing! Thank you for a fun session and a fun dinner.

Vanessa & Gabriel - Engaged!

Yesterday I drove to Tucson to meet Vanessa and Gabriel for their engagement session.  I arrived in Tucson a few hours early and met a past client of mine at La Encantada for lunch to catch up and see her now 4-month old baby Ian. Thanks for meeting me Vivi (and for reading my blog :)).

Hi Vanessa... Hi Gabriel... It's so nice to meet you! Can I please put my leftovers in your frigde?

Good thing Vanessa and Gabriel are so easy-going or they might have fired me right there and then. What photographer puts their left-over sandwich in their client's refrigerator?! Apparently I do.

The first location they chose was this really cool fast food place called Pat's. Both their grandparents live around this area so they grew up going there and have tons of good memories from this place. I LOVED it!
Oh, and how could I forget? This ball of energy is their baby Oliver :)

Vanessa is so incredibly beautiful!




They are so much fun!!
Dear Vanessa, you are beautiful.





You two are seriously amazing. Thank you so much for your kindness and for the great dinner. I am looking forward to some more fun times in Tucson in a couple of months :)

Luisa

Meet our daughter Luisa. Yes, I know most people start out with babies, but not Curtis and I. When it comes to parenting we skipped straight to adolescence. Not that we ever planned it this way but it just kind of happened.

One of Curtis' friends told us that there was an exchange student supposed to be coming here for her senior year of high school but her host family for the year fell through and she asked if we would consider taking her. I said "Sure!" and Curtis looked at me in shock: "Sure?!!? Are you crazy?" Me: "Why not? :)" And so one week later our daughter arrived. I wish babies were that fast too.