Photos by WHO?

Well...me.  

With lots and lots of help from a totally cute girl named Emilie who owns Photo by Emilie here in Salt Lake.

I have been wanting to take one of her classes forever.

Ok, more like since I got this bad girl for Christmas:

 

 So so pretty!  

BUT - pretty is as pretty does and I could not get past auto on this thing!  I was so scared.  And auto was just easy and better, right?  

WRONG!!!

Emilie is SO talented!  She took these darling pictures of my minis for Christmas this year:

Emilie offers some great classes so I waited until one fit into my schedule and budget.  Last weekend I headed over to her place with five other Etsy owners/bloggers for a little workshop.  
I was beyond excited.  
(And glad there were no grades being handed out!)

It was really TOO MUCH FUN.  She is so sweet and nice and just makes everything SO easy and simple!  After some note taking we had a little hands on practice session.  

Want to see?

 Oooooh.  Ahhhhh.

 The light!  Let there be LIGHT!

 Look at this one - I am totally professional now.  

I'm sure Emilie is wanting to offer me an assistant job but she just can't find my phone number. ;)

 I tried out my new manual skills at breakfast Sunday morning.  This turned out way too dark. Yuck.

 A few flips of my settings and ta-da!  Light!  Cute bows!  Chubby cheeks full of cinnamon roll!

Joking aside I have a LONG way to go getting to know my camera.  BUT - I was so happy to spend 3 hours with Emilie learning about where to start and what I should do to get a great shot.  It gave me the confidence I needed to really get in there and learn what my awesome camera can do!  

If you are looking for a jump start of your own in photography, Photo by Emilie is the girl to call!  Even if you don't live in Salt Lake - she has 1-on-1 online classes and her website/blogs are awesome.  Tons of tips and tricks to be had! 

Thank you Emilie!