A Shout-Out for the The Photographer Within’s Lifestyle Workshop

(Not that at the time I took this class Ashley was offering it through a different forum, but she has since moved to The Photographer Within, where I am now working too as a Mentor. We’d love to have you join us there, where the class is now being offered!)

I have been meaning to type this post for some time now, but with Emily out of school for the summer, my time on the computer has been significantly diminished (in a good way!). But at the end of the school year, I took a fantastic workshop, this time on For the Love of Lifestyle, which I haven’t felt confident in but REALLY want to learn.

Ashley breaks down for you just what makes a lifestyle image and how to go about shooting those wonderful images in the context of your own home/life, so you can document and preserve that amazing journey of your child’s life. She discusses storytelling with your images, working with kids, working with light in challenging situations, finding inspiration, understanding what to include in your frame—and equally important, what to EXCLUDE—and even touches on some processing, such as when it is especially appropriate to convert to black and white and her technique for doing so. I am so grateful that I took her class, and for her (and her TAs’!) kindness and generosity with all the time she clearly spent developing and running the workshop. In her class I learned techniques that will help me forever, and I am so grateful and excited to embrace a whole new facet of photography that has always eluded me!