Growing Confidence with Jill Ann. A Photography Workshop for Moms.

First Growing Confidence Workshop SOLD OUT! Woot! Woot! I can not tell you how in awe I am to have this opportunity through Me Ra Koh to reach out to the Dallas area Moms to help them Grow their Confidence with their DSLR. To empower them to get comfy with their camera to be their family storyteller through imagery!

What an honor it was to meet these 6 beautiful women that attended my November Workshop! They all have their own story on what brought them to the Workshop, different skill levels and knowledge of the DSLR. The thing that they all have in common is the drive to be a better storyteller for their families!

One of these ladies filled the last spot THE DAY BEFORE THE WORKSHOP!!! You DO NOT want to miss tomorrows blog post about how God showed up and brought her there! Make sure you grab a box of kleenex and meet me on the blog tomorrow to hear her story! Whooooo, it's a good one!

We started off the day with a lil' SWAG! I had pictures of the SWAG bags I put together for the ladies and for some reason can't find them! Figures during busy season! So here is a little bit of what was included, a picture retake! Lol!

That jumps me right into the part of the day where I had a little mini panic attack. We were moving along so nicely. Happily going through the Workbook and learning all about the Magic 3 to prepare the ladies for a live session with the mommy/baby models. I kept looking down at my watch to make sure we were on track for the 1:45pm arrival of the models. Weeeeellll, kinda rushed my sweet ladies thru lunch in order to allow time to finish the material. Let's be honest, I felt like I quickly stuffed their faces so we could move on! Only to find out that, yours truly, forgot to change the time on her WATCH from daylight savings the prior week! OY VEY! We had an extra hour to spare, like daylight savings happened all over again! Yeah! Totally meant to do that to make the ladies laugh as hard as they did! Thanks for the support guys! 

The moms and babies arrived right on time and can I just say these ladies rocked their sessions and had some serious "A-HA" moments! I kept feeling like I was going to cry watching these ladies put to practice what they were taught through the day! Look at some "behind the scenes" images of the ladies at work!

It was soooooo hard to choose which images to share that these women captured! As they say in Texas, "Y'ALL" did AH-MAZING!  Here goes!

I'm going to start off with Marie! It was beautiful watching her confidence grow and the excitement she had in her eyes as she saw the images she was capturing! Take a look at this ADORABLE little boy smiling from ear to ear playing with his mama!

Marie captured this gem for mama! Mom is a HUGE Longhorns fan! I'm thinkin' her lil' baby girl is also going to be a Longhorns fan! What do you think? Love it!

What a sweet image from Ashley! Mom is just smitten with her boy, I love her presence in the image and how his smile just makes me want to smile! Great moment captured!

Ashley used the rule of thirds here and placed the subject to the left of the image, not only does that draw your attention straight to him but so do those bright blue eyes!!!  

My heart melted when Aimee shared this capture! Mom looks gorgeous and content and baby girl is giving us a lil' yawn or maybe a sigh that says "she loves her mama!"

Oh my goodness Aimee!! You captured an ah-mazing moment of giggles here! Love the presence of mom and the squishy button nose from giggling! So much to love about this capture!

Rachel did such a great job capturing the mom's joy here. Look at that sparkle in moms eye showing us how smitten she is with her sleepy cuddlebug! Placing baby on moms shoulder is a very flattering pose for new moms! Lovely!

I think Rachel has the knack for capturing moments with mom! Mom and baby have nothing but pure delight on their faces!

I just want to reach in and snuggle this baby! Jennifer rocked this shot with great composition, catch light in his eyes and those sweet lil' dimply hands to boot!

OH.MY.GOODNESS! This is nothing but a priceless moment captured between the relationship of this mom and baby! Way to go Jennifer!

I feel like baby is looking right at me saying "this is my mom and I can be in her arms all day!". A sweet content moment captured by Brenda!

The next 2 images are also captured by Brenda! Can I just say this lady swooped in with her 100mm 2.8 Macro lens that she never told me she owned and went after those "defining detail" shots to tell the story! LOVE that she did these!

Brenda saw this moment through her camera when mom went in for a kiss. She not only nailed it but she captured it using moms curls to frame the defining detail of the lips! I could hardly contain my heart when I saw this! It was bursting with joy to see the creativity in this shot! My cup runneth over!

Here is another defining detail shot Brenda captured. See how the focus of her story is babies hand holding onto moms thumb? It also shows how tiny babies hand is in moms hand. The other amazing thing about this image is how she included babies lips on the bottom right corner, I'd say it looks like baby is smiling! All around a well composed shot and a great storytelling image! Mom will say years from now, "I can't believe your hand was that tiny!" With this image she can relive that moment in time over and over again!

As I said earlier, it was truly hard for me not to cry during these sessions. Seeing these ladies "get it" and capture ALL of these moments in MANUAL just filled my soul more than I even imagined! When I partnered with Me Ra Koh I knew it was all part of God's plan for me but I guess I didn't expect to feel like I have arrived to his ultimate plan for me to use my gift. There is so much joy inside me from the day I had with these women. I am humbled and honored that they chose to grow their confidence with me as their mentor. I can say with complete confidence that these ladies are going to do nothing but SOAR from here! Their families will never be the same. The moments they capture of their kids will be more amazing than they could have dreamed. I am truly blessed to have had each one of these creative spirits touch my heart! Thank you for being apart of my first Workshop, thank you for being the first 6 women that I got the privilege of teaching. 

I am beyond excited to be apart of many more mamas lives out there! I can't wait to empower more Dallas women to be their families storyteller! Are you ready to grow your confidence like these ladies did? What an amazing gift to you for Christmas AND to your family for a lifetime! Will you be joining me at my next Workshop on February 8th, 2014? Arriving in the Store soon and open to 8 mamas wanting to fuel their creative spirit! Looking forward to meeting you in the new year! Watch my Facebook page over the next few days for a Cyber MONDAY DEAL you won't want to miss!  

I promise I will have the CORRECT time on my watch at the next Workshop!

DON'T FORGET! MEET ME ON THE BLOG TOMORROW TO HEAR THE AMAZING STORY OF THE "LAST SPOT"! You will not want to miss it! Grab some coffee and your kleenex in the morning and I'll see you there!

Want to send these lovely ladies some encouragement for a job well done, post a comment below!

Much Love, JA xo