workshops

milk time (vol V) & light+life workshop

in ,

The last two weekends in a row I've hosted events at our home. I like this act of inviting people into my personal space to be photographed or to learn, because I like to be human, and I like to keep things feeling personal and cozy, not stiff or formal. The downside: all the cleaning and preparation that needs doing the night before (yes, last minute, because we all know that cleaning the house sooner than that would be absolutely pointless, as the children would knock it all out of order again in about 1 hour). But I'm SO blessed to have a husband who is on my team, and who also happens to be amazing at accomplishing whirl-wind de-cluttering and cleaning feats. I couldn't do it without him. 

On the 15th, we had Milk Time at our house for those who had to miss the original date due to the crazy snow storm. Six women and their babes popped over for the event. Here's a little gallery of images from that sweet time. 

 

On the 21st, I had my 4th Light + Life workshop. All 5 spots were filled, and we had a lovely time cozied up all warm in the living room learning how to master our DSLRs and sharing life stories and perspectives while the temperatures outside remained frigid. Here are a few images of these lovely ladies at work shooting our "live models!" They did an amazing job. Don't they look empowered? They are telling their cameras who is boss! :)

These were some of my final acts as a professional photographer before beginning my maternity leave (except I still have one birth to attend!), and what a great way to wrap up an amazing year. I'm ready to rest, to take a little break from making photographs for other people, and instead to point my camera at my sweet baby boy, whose little face i cannot wait to see. I'll try to pop in here and blog a few images of him after he's here, and maybe even share photographs from his birth!

 

light & life workshop :: september 2014 edition

in

Teaching others -- especially women and mothers -- how to use their cameras has become a surprisingly delightful part of my job as a photographer. It's a great feeling to be able to humbly lay whatever knowledge I have on the table in front of them with open hands, so that their families can be blessed by the gift of a beautiful family history. It's as simple as that to me. I don't aspire to teach aspiring professionals, nor to do in-depth workshops on advanced techniques. No, I just want to sit around a living room with a handful of women to demystify the DSLR, cultivate a way of seeing their lives, and empower them to use what they learn for their families. 

The September cohort was delightful. Sara, Sherrie, Michelle, and Diane felt like the perfect cocktail of personalities, skill sets, interests, and humor. We had such a lovely time. 

This time around I added an element to the workshop that we've never had before: I invited two sets of live "models" to come be photographed for a half hour, so that the workshop participants could put into practice the technical and philosophical skills they had been working so hard to absorb all day. It was a great addition to the workshop experience, I think! So I'm sure I'll include that aspect in future workshops, too. 

Here's just a few shots from the workshop! (I thought I had taken so many more than this, but it turns out that I don't multi-task teaching, serving meals, AND playing photojournalist all at the same time).

I'm not sure exactly when I'll offer this workshop again, but if you'd like to be on a waiting list to be notified of the next date, you can email me at brooke@brookecollierphoto.com to tell me so. I'm thinking it will be in January or February, at which point I'll be great with child. :)

life & light :: a workshop

in ,

just before Christmas, i announced that i'd be teaching my first ever photography workshop. it was a workshop that would teach women how to use their DSLR cameras to their full potential, but also would include conversation and tips about family photojournalism, telling stories with our cameras. and all of this would unfold in my cozy living room around the wood stove with old quilts over our laps. we'd share meals together and root the techy talk in the beautiful messes of our daily lives. it was a beautiful dream in my heart. 

and within 12 hours it sold out. so i made a second group. 12 hours and that one was also sold out. that's when i knew i'd hit a chord. my excitement grew. 

the original "flier" for the workshop

the original "flier" for the workshop

yesterday, the first group went through the workshop. they were my brave and good natured guinea pigs. and they were wonderful. 

and the day was such a dream. we waded through all the technical information about exposure and metering and focal points and depth of field and ISO and all the rest, and as we did, light bulbs were going off over every head. which, i have to say, is THE most gratifying thing to observe whenever you're trying to teach something to someone else. we wandered around and practiced making images in manual mode, looking for beautiful light as we did. we trouble-shooted and gave feedback on one another's images. we talked about the beauty our lives contain and how to tell the story of our lives using our vision combined with our technical savvy. and so much more. 

the second group meets this upcoming weekend and i'm really ready to go at it again. 

if this is something you're interested in participating in, keep an eye on my FB page and on this blog, as i'll announce a summer date something in March. 

meantime, here are a few shots from the day.