It’s All About Light Arizona Family Photographer

Photography… it’s all about light! Up until now, I’ve felt pretty confident when photographing in nice, safe, even light. However, I really struggle when thrown into full midday sun or strong backlighting. Lucky for me, living in Arizona, (the state with never-ending sunshine) I have endless opportunities to practice! (Insert a little bit of sarcasm there!)

This summer I decided to take some online classes to challenge myself in my photography. The classes I signed up for were through an incredible online learning community, Click Photo School. Click Photo School offers a wide variety of workshops and breakouts from some of the most amazing and creative photographers. Through the years, I’ve enrolled in several of their Breakouts (a set of material you download and  interact with other participants in a forum) but had never registered for a Full Participant Workshop. These workshops are multi-week, interactive classroom experiences in which you receive your course materials and interact with the instructor(s) as well as other participants. You are given a variety of weekly assignments and receive feedback from your instructor.

I cannot begin to tell you what a great experience it was to take Tarah Sweeney’s workshop, The Illuminated View: Manipulating and Exploring Light. This particular course helps you to begin to use natural light in new ways. We covered areas such as: direct light, backlight, dappled light, reflected light and how to control them. Each week was packed with so much information and challenging assignments. One of the aspects I loved most about this workshop was our assignment reviews. Tarah would create a short video to critique each participant’s weekly submission. I am such a visual learner and this format provided such a great learning opportunity! I also loved Tarah’s truth and boldness while giving your critique. Although she always looked for opportunities to encourage and give a thumbs up when mastering the elements being taught, she definitely didn’t hold back when pointing out areas that fall short! For me, I soaked up the constructive criticism and feel it’s the best way to learn! I had so much fun taking The Illimunated View from Tarah that I also took her In The Zone: Family Photography Uncovered (Study Along) and Boom! The Simplicity of Editing in a Big Way (Breakout Session).

If you are in the market to challenge yourself as a photographer, I highly recommend heading over to Click Photo School and be inspired!

It will take me a lifetime to continue to improve and perfect my photography but I believe we are created to be lifelong learners! I’d like to share a few images I took implementing some of the concepts learned in the course.