Waaaaay back in april, I attended a workshop by the amazing Julie of Julie Paisley Photography. I’ve been meaning to do this post for so long, and finally found some time this week. The workshop was my very first workshop experience and I was nervous and excited all at the same time. Julie was so welcoming to all of us and put us at ease right away. Poor Julie had broken her toe before we all arrived so we went up to meet her in the room. She greeted us all with big smiles and hugs despite her injury. Our chairs were waiting on us with gifts from Julie personalized for each of us.

The first day of shooting it rained, but we ventured out anyway to shoot a Bride in downtown Charleston. I don’t do weddings and brides normally, but this was still something I enjoyed doing. I learned a very invaluable trick about lighting this day that I use all the time now. We headed back to the room after the rain decided to stick around and had some mellow mushroom pizza and more chatting and getting to know each other. I left day one with complete excitement for day two. No more nerves, just anticipation for what was to come on day 2.

We started day 2 with a senior session. Another one out of my element, but something I enjoyed soooo much. I loved watching the way Julie interacted with the senior, making her feel comfortable and like this was no big deal. I could tell she was putting our nervous model at ease.  I think some of my favorite workshop photos came from this session.  Walking around with Julie as she chose spots for photos made it feel like she knew my town better than me!  I was so impressed with how she’d see something, immediately have a vision and we’d all jump right in behind her.

We had some more ‘classroom’ time, aka fancy Charleston place hotel,  learning her techniques in lightroom, talking about sessions, making workflow easier, and so much more. Somewhere in there she treated us to a lovely lunch at Fleet Landing!

We ended the workshop with a couples session. We started at the battery and the sun came out! It was pretty neat to watch Julie interact with the couple, saying things to make them laugh, engaging them, and putting them at ease. We continued walking and she would find perfect spots with the most perfect sun and have us shoot the couple there. Again, I was amazed with how she was working the sun in my town, using spots I’d never really thought of.  We ended up in waterfront park where the sky was a perfect backdrop for a final photo. We all walked back to the hotel for our goodbyes, sad that it was over, but excited for the abundance of info we’d stuffed into 2 short days.

I wish I could have stayed the rest of the night, but I knew Julie was exhausted from walking all over Charleston with an injured toe and needed some real rest. I left the workshop feeling refreshed and excited for my upcoming sessions. I was ready to implement new techniques I had learned and try out something different in editing. I did fall in love with lightroom and use it all the time now. Before lightroom was just my means of turning my raw files to jpeg, and doing very very basic edits.

This was the perfect first workshop experience for me. It made me want to attend more and keep on learning everything I can. I think I would actually even attend another one of Julie’s workshops just b/c I loved the experience so much.

She is an amazing teacher, well spoken, easy to listen to, and has lots and lots to share.

Thank you Julie(sorry it’s almost 4 months later), but thank you for the awesome workshop you did in Charleston and for teaching me things that changed the game in so many different ways for me! I’m so grateful for the experience.