I discovered Sarah Robertson of Image Bearers Photography through a Facebook newsfeed 2 years ago. She had taken the wedding photos of my husband's classmates. I was simply floored and deeply moved by the quality of her artistry, the depth of emotion, the unique composition and the varying degrees of energy in every one of the pictures she took. I asked my husband if we could hire her for our adoption pictures. Since we would have no pregnancy pictures of our baby, we decided that this would be our way of celebrating his/her birth (we hadn't known what we were getting yet). The long and short of it being that she took our pictures and preserved our first meeting in a very moving and breath-taking way. I will never forget the first moment I met my son nor the feelings I felt because of her work. I always tear up with images of those pictures in my head. Thank you, Sarah!
Fast forward to a year later and I purchase a new DSLR. I have always wanted to explore photography, especially photojournalistic photography as Sarah does. So I started this blog. I have taken as many photos as I can. I am following the whims and meanderings of my heart to capture life around me. I am fine-tuning my philosophy on portraiture, architecture, nature and photojournalism. These are hefty goals to say the least and a life-long journey, to be sure. But the goal is that I continue to grow and evolve as a photographer.
Sarah with her colleagues Rosina, Kellie and Molly decided to help other new photographers like me to develop our own personal vision and art through a workshop called Soul Shooting. It is simply learning to shoot in a way that reflects the dynamic of your soul and that of your subject. It is capturing life in a way that reflects your past, present and future as a photographer and not as a carbon copy of other photographers. It is learning to craft your soul into the body of your photographic work.
The workshop consisted of personal exercises, answering questions, an exercise in developing a rapport by taking portrait shots of one another, the teachers' critique of everyone's personal photographic work and then an actual photoshoot of a family and a couple, all under the guidance of these 4 fantastic photographers. In this post are the moments I captured of the workshop. The next shall be of my classmate and new friend, Sally, the family and a couple.
Our teachers then critiqued our body of work. In this shot is my friend Sally responding to Rosina and Sarah.
Fast forward to a year later and I purchase a new DSLR. I have always wanted to explore photography, especially photojournalistic photography as Sarah does. So I started this blog. I have taken as many photos as I can. I am following the whims and meanderings of my heart to capture life around me. I am fine-tuning my philosophy on portraiture, architecture, nature and photojournalism. These are hefty goals to say the least and a life-long journey, to be sure. But the goal is that I continue to grow and evolve as a photographer.
Sarah with her colleagues Rosina, Kellie and Molly decided to help other new photographers like me to develop our own personal vision and art through a workshop called Soul Shooting. It is simply learning to shoot in a way that reflects the dynamic of your soul and that of your subject. It is capturing life in a way that reflects your past, present and future as a photographer and not as a carbon copy of other photographers. It is learning to craft your soul into the body of your photographic work.
The workshop consisted of personal exercises, answering questions, an exercise in developing a rapport by taking portrait shots of one another, the teachers' critique of everyone's personal photographic work and then an actual photoshoot of a family and a couple, all under the guidance of these 4 fantastic photographers. In this post are the moments I captured of the workshop. The next shall be of my classmate and new friend, Sally, the family and a couple.
We all gathered around the fireplace.
We wrote about ourselves, trying to take a journey into our past, present and future.
Then we prepared for our photoshoot of the family and couple. Molly and Kellie started indoors taking photos of the family.
The family wanted to go outside to the beach, so we followed them. Kellie was so courageous in braving the waves!
Rosina and Sarah started outside taking photos of the couple seen above. Do you see Kellie taking pics on the bottom left?
We then moved to them as Rosina and Sarah took pictures of this couple and talked about what they were doing.
We then returned to the beach house to re-group.
Our teachers then critiqued our body of work. In this shot is my friend Sally responding to Rosina and Sarah.
The beach was an amazing place to host the workshop. It was so easy to feel relaxed and absorb everything that was being taught and done. The only painful thing had happened before the workshop, when it took me 1 hour and 15 minutes to reach the beach and another 20 minutes to find parking. Ouch. Yikes.
But once you see that beach, hear the waves and slow down to the rhythm of that sunset, Southern CA traffic and parking can be forgiven!
Saw your tag of Rosina on facebook. Sounds like such a great time! A bit jealous of your time there! =) I also have to say that the adoption pictures are absolutely beautiful!! My husband & I are in the process of adopting through Bethany from Colombia!! So though time has passed, congratulations on such a beautiful little baby!! =)
ReplyDeleteRachel.
So excited for you, Rachel! I loved my experience with Bethany and would do it again if I ever have the money again (my 3 children seem to be very good at draining the funds but God provides). And yes, my son is so precious and beautiful. The only problem now is the he screeches, punches, and likes to eat everything he finds on the ground including water balloons and dog poop. Oh the joys of raising a little boy. It's been an adventurous transition. But we are all madly, deeply in love. May God be glorified in bringing your adopted child into your home. Hugs.
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