nicholeV photography [the blog]

A Wonderful Little Family

Well, this little family flew in from Bristol, England for the holidays and a session in the snow and also a few shots in studio . . . . and they could not have been more wonderful to work with. Their little 2-year-old was about the sweetest little thing ever, good as could be!

{life as art} workshops full

Well, it's official. My three workshops are completely full.  . . . I'm so excited to meet and get to know all the people who have signed up. As I work more and more on putting the workshops together and creating the workshop manuals, I'm getting so excited about it all. It's going to be such a fun filled, rich learning experience. I can't wait!

Also, I am considering adding another beginner workshop in June and another professional workshop sometime in August. Currently, the website is set up to allow you to put yourself on a waiting list for any future workshops. So sign up if you're interested!

{life as art} workshops website

Yay!

Now back to writing the workshop manuals . . . hahah . . .

Lost

Well, part of my new year's resolutions this year is to post regularly to my blog!

So over the Christmas break, I managed to visit an old ghost town here in Utah. This place was just amazing . .. incredible. Exactly the kind of place I dream about shooting in. I had this vision for a shoot with my daughter, evoking a feeling of lost melancholy. Something that would be reminiscent of a Dicken's novel . . . dark, grungy, forlorn, sad . . . So this is what I came up with.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

And for all those who may ask, her outfit here is just a hodgepodge of things readily available at popular stores. Her coat is from Baby Gap and the hat is from Gymboree.

Flourish Emporium in Cloth, Paper, Scissors Magazine

Well, everyone, I first want to thank everyone who posted a question for my last blog post. It's so nice to know what you all would like to learn about. And please keep posting questions as ideas come to you!

And on another note, I just had to give a huge thanks to Chrysti Hydek and the people at Cloth, Paper, Scissors magazine. Chrysti uses and apparently loves my actions and so discussed them in her article in the January/February issue of Cloth, Paper, Scissors. It's in the Workshop section of the magazine, if you happen upon a copy. I just so appreciate her taking the time to share my products with others! What a perfect way to start off 2009, I say.

And well, I wish you all sorts of happy, bright things for 2009!

Post Your Questions

Well, folks, in the middle of all this holiday madness, I've been thinking about how to improve my blog. So I'm working on creating a new blog for 2009 but I would also love to have a list of questions from you to use as blog fodder. So please feel free to post photography questions that you may have that you would like me to address in future blog posts, etc. Can't guarantee that I will get to every question, but I would love to know what you all would like to know! I'm determined to be a better blogger next year (ha, ha . . . . seriously . . . . it's a good new year's resolution, right?!) and a list of questions would keep me going!

Hope you're all surviving this last week before the holidays really set in. And I also hope you find some time for you! Cause let's face it, you really deserve a break!

Happy Holidays!!

Well, I'm kinda filled with holiday cheer today (must be the lack of sleep . . . sick baby+lots of client requests+holiday shopping=serious sleep deprivation), so I've put together a little freebie template for those who may not have done their own holiday cards yet.

Here is it without the photo so you can see the mask holly scrolly detail better:

The card is sized for 5x7 printing as a photo card, but you could easily use it as a press printed card too. Just use the card as in on one side and then delete the mask and have text and such on the back side. Just drag the template onto your preferred printer's templates and resize it accordingly. The text is fully editable. And here's the link to download it!

Download Template

So happy holidays to everyone!

And as further holiday cheer, I'm offering a coupon code to this group of an additional 20% off any Flourish purchase, so with the discounts that I already offer with actions and such, you could receive up to 45% off your order. WOW! I've never offered such a discount and I don't know that I will again, so use it while you can.

holiday120808

The code is good for this weekend only and will expire on Monday at midnight.

Whew! Thanks again and hope that you're all surviving this insanely busy time of year!

Woohoo!! First Professional Workshop Sold Out!!

Well, my first professional workshop on April 23-25 sold out in the first fifteen minutes! WOW!! I was surprised and a little humbled by the response! So thank you! It promises to be an amazing, creative, energizing weekend!

And in response to requests, I've opened a second professional workshop on May 7-9, 2009. All the details, location, everything will stay the same . . . . just the dates are different. So if those first dates didn't work for you, please jump in and enroll for this second workshop. It promises to be just as wonderful!

Also, if you're having trouble getting the registration page to show up, it's most likely because flash has cached the page. You can either dump your cache or just use this link to access the registration for the Professional Workshop:

Professional Registration

So thanks again to everyone! Please email me if you have any questions!

{life as art} Workshops website live!

Well, the {life as art} workshop website is now LIVE!! You can see it here:

{life as art} workshops

Registration for the workshops starts tomorrow morning, for those who are interested. I will most definitely open more dates if the first dates fill up.

I don't have any plans for taking the workshops on the road here in the US, but I do plan on making some of the materials from the workshops available for purchase separately.

Thanks again to all of you who regularly stop by here! I so appreciate it!

[life as art] workshops

Oy vey, have I been MIA or what?! Moving and my busy Fall schedule have about killed me, I swear. But I feel like I'm finally getting my life back together here and back on track!

So, I'm pleased to finally announce my [life as art] workshops. The workshop websites and enrollment will be going live on November 8th and I just booked the venue this morning, so woohooo!! I've spent a lot of time putting this together and I'm just so excited about it all.

So here's some of the basic details, for those who might be interested.

I will be offering two kinds of workshops: a one day workshop for beginning photographers on March 7, 2009. And then a 2.5 day professional workshop (for those who are just starting or have been running a photography business) on April 23-25, 2009. Enrollment for both workshops will be limited to 25 people per workshop. I won't go over that 25 limit, but will open more dates if there is more demand.

The Beginner workshop will cover the basics of aperture and shutter speed, as well as giving a basic discussion of composition, shooting techniques, and general photoshop work. It will include hands-on practice and interactive learning, not just lecture. The workshop will NOT cover anything about starting or running a photography business, or any more advanced discussions about photoshop or photography. Basically, it's a workshop for someone who wants to get started learning how to shoot manually, compose photos, and edit them in Photoshop. Those who attend the workshop will leave with a solid knowledge base to continue to develop their photography skills on their own. The workshop cost will be $275 and each attendee will receive a $50 gift certificate to my Flourish website.

The Professional workshop will start Thursday at 5:00pm or so and go until Saturday evening. The theme of the workshop will be creativity, focusing on my business tag line "life as art." I will be discussing all aspects that relate to creating beautiful, artistic photographs . . . in-camera metering, settings and histograms, the interrelation of aperture and focal length, classical composition and theories on creativity, advanced editing in both Photoshop CS3 and Lightroom, as well as RAW workflow and competition editing. I will also cover some basics of client marketing and workflow management. The workshop will be held in Salt Lake City, UT and the cost of the workshop will be $950, but I'm offering a $75 early payment discount. The cost of the workshop will include a $100 gift certificate to my Flourish website, a personal portfolio review, meals, and a ton of materials . . . new actions, templates, professional forms, contracts, etc. that I've never offered before. Basically, if I use and love it, I'm going to be giving it to you at this workshop! This Professional workshop is for those who already have a basic understanding of manual metering, aperture and shutter speed and will include on-location shooting.

I still think it's kind of funny that I've taken this long to put together a workshop. I'm a teacher by trade and a photographer almost by accident, if that makes any sense. I love teaching almost as much as I love taking beautiful photographs and I'm so excited for this chance to merge my two passions together! I think I just had to wait until I felt I had something original to say. There are many wonderful workshops already out there, and I didn't want to do a workshop just to do one. I wanted mine to be somehow unique. So I will be focusing my workshops what I feel I do best: taking everyday life and turning it into art for my clients.

Anyway, stay tuned next week as all I'll announce when the website with all the details goes live!

Sessions in Boston

Well folks, I'm going to be on the East Coast in two weeks and was wondering if anyone would like a session in the Boston area on October 20 or 21. I know it's a Monday and Tuesday, but those are the only two days that I will be in the area. I fly home on Wednesday. I will staying near the Old North Church there in Boston and I know there are some amazing places in the area for photosessions. Sigh. I so love Boston. Anyway, if anyone is interested, please just email me and I'll send over my pricing and such.

That's all for now . . . just trying to get settled in my new place. I swear, I'm NEVER moving again. So I had better like this new house, cause I think that I'm going to stay here regardless. Moving is just too much hassle!