In case you missed the emails, Facebook or Twitter posts about our new & improved photography workshop name, website AND format, I wanted to share with you again!

My business partner & workshop co-host Jennifer and I announced back a few months ago that we changed the name of our workshop from Create Better Images Photography Workshops to Refocused Photography Workshops. We think the name better illustrates what we do and teach overall. Below you can read more about these workshops, including how to register. But if you hurry over to our Facebook page and “like us” – you’ll find a special coupon code inside that will save you some booku-bucks off the registration cost.

1. The Beginner Workshop is 3-hour interactive, hands-on class where we teach new SLR camera owners how to get the most out of their camera. Over the years we have had so many requests from people who had just bought new cameras with interchangeable lenses how to actually use them, or get the most out of them. So in 2008, Jen and I decided to start a workshop to show people how to take those cameras off the automatic setting and shoot a little more creatively by teaching the fundamentals of photography. Once you understand how light, shutter speed and aperture interrelate; you can pick up any camera with any lens and effectively manipulate the light to capture a look that you may want.

It’s about more than just asking “What button do I put my camera on?” – its about understanding the very core of photography. Other areas we talk about it are what lenses will produce what types of images (ie, if you want a lot of “background blur” so your subject really stands out and pops), how to find great light in and around your home, creative composition, how to turn off the automatic flash that always pops up if you want images that have more feeling and depth, how to adjust your settings to photograph in manual mode (and how to get to manual mode in the first place). Plus much more. Click here to get all the nitty gritty details and find out how to register!

2. The Intermediate/Advanced Workshop: Now aptly named the One Day Intensive, this workshop is a 9 hour very hands on and interactive learning experience. We have now taught over 100 photographers around the US, many of whom have gone on to become successful and busy photographers. Some had already started businesses and were stuck on certain concepts or styles of shooting, others were just branching out and wanted a roadmap on how to create the best images possible with the best gear possible.

• Several tips for lighting, creative composition, and posing
• How to work with subjects and clients before, during and after the shoot
• How to speed up your digital workflow and post-process more efficiently
• Recipes for successful portrait making
• (NEW) MARKETING (branding, networking, getting published, getting your name out there, setting yourself apart, social media, and more)
• (NEW) THE BUSINESS OF PHOTOGRAPHY (goal setting, effective workflow, post-processing, pricing your products and services for profit, paying taxes, setting up your company more)
• (NEW) ALBUM DESIGN (tips for fast and efficient album design, companies to use, and more)
• How to apply many of these concepts to a LIVE MODEL SHOOT!
• In addition, after the live model shoot, you will have the opportunity to process your images via Adobe Lightroom with Jennifer and Kim and then share them with the class.
• Both will offer hand-on guidance, and share useful tips for working with these programs.
• Lastly, we’ll have open Q&A time!

Click here to read more and register for this awesome workshop!

CASTING CALL!

For our live model shoot, we are looking for an engaged or married couple!

Are you a couple that recently got married but wish you had more fun/urban/trendy magazine style pictures of you? Or maybe you are just a super-cute engaged (or non-engaged) couple and want some new and fun images? Either way, this is your chance to get some free images by serving as models for a photography workshop!

Couples must submit a few low-res images of themselves (close up and full length if you have one – snapshots are fine) as well as the attire they plan to wear for the shoot. We need couples who are very comfortable in front of the camera and affectionate with one another.

The session will last approximately 45-60 minutes and be in Mesa on Saturday, Feb 18th in the late afternoon. We will provide more details on when, where and what to wear once you are confirmed as a model. You just need to be available on that date between the times of approx 4:00-6:15 PM.

To apply as a model, please email 2 low resolution images of you both together to info@refocusedworkshops.com

I’m super super excited for AJ and Paul’s wedding coming up this spring. It’s going to be beautiful and amazing!

I loved photographing both AJ and Paul. They are beautiful, as you can tell, but also super nice and sweet. I loved AJ’s laughs and their chemistry together.

Below are a few of my favorites that I can’t wait to share with you!!

Enjoy and stay tuned in a few months for their GORGEOUS wedding!

The Peregrin family is super super super sweet and I have grown to LOVE them over the years. This session is one of the older ones that I realized never got posted, but it’s such a good one that I had to share.

I love cute and adorable families who let me have a ton of fun with them on the shoots! It’s always a good time!

The Joiner family is kinda special to me…. you see, Jamie is my sister, so that means that the kiddos are nephews and niece. I super duper LOVE them and told them that they needed new family pictures and I was going to take them for them:) My sister didn’t argue:)

I had such a great time capturing their growing and beautiful family. We started at their house because Josh, my brother in law, has put a lot of sweat and hard work into creating for them a garden in their back yard. They all love it and spend a lot of time out there, so we started with getting pictures of that. We then headed to some orange groves to do a few more.

My husband and Kailee came along as well and Kailee was my helper telling everyone to smile and passing out M&M briberies for all the kids, so of course I had to grab a few of her as well.

Family is super important to me and I’m so thankful for my relationship with my sister and her family.

On Monday I shared the first part of Darcy and Chuck’s wedding and I’m excited to share with you the 2nd part. If you would like to see the 1st part of this amazing event check it out here. This truly was an amazing event and I loved how the images turned out!

After the ceremony we headed out for a few more pictures and then headed in towards the reception. DC Ranch is already gorgeous, but when you add the amazing talent of Victoria Canada and Petal Pushers the place transformed into something totally amazing and beautiful! Man, I love what I do!!

Enjoy the images from Darcy and Chuck’s wedding! We’d love to hear what you think!

I LOVE getting crazy fun images of other vendors, and the guys at Bright Bokeh did not disappoint!! HA!

Thank you Darcy and Chuck for allowing me to be a part of your life! I truly enjoyed this wedding so much and have enjoyed you as well!

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As always, this event would never have happened without the amazing vendors that came along and made everything amazing! Thank you to the following:

Florist: Petal Pushers

Venue: DC Ranch

Wedding Coordinator: Victoria Canada Weddings & Events

Officiant: Mike Kennedy

Makeup Artist: Corinna Cooke

DJ: Mancini Entertainment

Videographer: Bright Bokeh

Linens: Southwick Linens

Lately our weddings have been so amazing that we’ve had to put them into 2 parts because I can’t choose my favorite images enough to narrow down! To me that’s not a bad problem to have, so hopefully you agree! The more images the better!

I just shared with you Darcy and Chucks Engagement session in Los Angeles last week, you can view that post here if you wish. It was such a great session and as I said I really enjoyed getting to know them.

This wedding was no different! Because of the great time we had at the engagement session I was sooooo excited for the wedding, and it of course made it even better that I was able to work with some of Arizona’s best vendors around!

The wedding was coordinated by the wonderful and amazing Victoria Canada and took place at DC Ranch Golf Club. We started the day at Darcy’s parents house in Scottsdale and then headed over to DC Ranch for pictures, ceremony, and the reception.

Everyone was a little on edge the entire day because of the weather. Arizona is known for it’s great weather and normally weddings in the fall have amazing perfect weather; however, this year was a little strange and different. The weather was totally out of control on a lot of weekends, which brought some thoughtful planning. This Friday wedding was one of those days, where winds were supposed to be up to 50+ MPH and it was supposed to rain ALL day. Victoria took all precautions and moved things around, including adding a tent to the outside reception. As always with Victoria, everything was gorgeous and turned out amazing. It did rain and we did get some crazy winds, but thankfully it held off until after pictures so we were able to get some amazing images.

Below is part 1 of part 2, Part 2 will appear on Wednesday, so be sure to come back and see the gorgeous reception images!

A big thank you to Elise and Lizzie for helping out with this wedding!!

Thank you to all the amazing vendors who helped with this wedding! It couldn’t have been more beautiful!

Venue: DC Ranch

Wedding Coordinator: Victoria Canada Weddings & Events

Florist: Petal Pushers

Officiant: Mike Kennedy

Makeup Artist: Corinna Cooke

DJ: Mancini Entertainment

Videographer: Bright Bokeh

Linens: Southwick Linens

My Family is so so so so so super important to me. My husband is AMAZING and my little 3 year old is the joy of my life! So, this Friday I thought that I would share with you one of my favorite things… My Familia!

A few months ago I called up some friends and photographers of mine, Nate and Amanda with Turtle Pond Photography. They are amazing amazing photographers that I met almost 7 years ago in Indiana. I asked them if they would be willing to take my family pictures when we were in Michigan for Thanksgiving visiting my husbands family. They said yes and I was super excited! I LOVE their work and was so excited to get pictures taken in a field of wheat or something other than Arizona! So, we talked and planned and planned and came up with the perfect date and location for the pictures.

All week before the shoot I kept looking at the weather, hoping and praying that it would be perfect… but all it kept saying is RAIN!!!! NOOOOOOOO!!!!!!!! I prayed and prayed and hoped and hoped, but the day before our shoot we realized the inevitable, the shoot was not going to happen. I was so distraught and sad. I called Nate and Amanda up and we racked our brain to figure out what we could do. Our schedule was so filled up with family and plans and thanksgiving that there wasn’t much wiggle room and theirs was too! Not to mention that we were going to have to drive 3 1/2 hours from where we were for this session anyways, so it wasn’t just a quick little trip to get pictures.

After much rearranging of schedules, hotel rooms, meetings with friends and family, we decided on another date (all while crossing our fingers for no rain). We drove out to Indiana with my father in law and his wife, my mother in law and Jamie’s stepdad, my sister in law, and my family. The day of the shoot was PERFECT and amazing!

I want to say a huge thank you to Turtle Pond Photography for capturing some of the most amazing images.

I make it a point to get pictures done every year because I know how important they are and am so thankful for the chance to be on the other side of the camera (even though it makes me go crazy because I get so nervous). I love how these turned out!!

So enjoy a little sneak peak into my life:):):)

What can I say about Darcy and Chuck? One of the coolest down to earth couples i’ve ever met. When they asked to fly me out to California for their engagement session I jumped at the chance, I mean who wouldn’t want to go out to LA and take pictures at freaking cool locations?

We started in downtown LA and hit up a few different locations, making sure we stopped at the Library since Chuck and Darcy love to read.

We then headed over to the Walt Disney Concert Hall for some great pictures.

Of course we couldn’t leave Sophie out of the pictures, so we made sure that we included their pride and joy in some of the pics.

Lastly we headed to the California hills and wandered around! I even got to see the Hollywood sign closer than ever before. Super fun!!

I have so enjoyed getting to know you both!! Thank you for hanging out with me!

Steven and Desiree have been together for over 10 years. Still madly in Love they decided to tie the knot in October at the wonderful Villa Siena, in Gilbert, AZ. The wedding was gorgeous and very heart felt. I’ve so enjoyed getting to know Desiree and Steven through this entire planning process of their wedding. They truly are an amazing couple and perfect for each other. We had a ton of favorites from this wedding, starting with Desiree getting ready at the Phoencian in Phoenix,  Arizona and ending with with a wonderful sparkler exit. A huge thank you to Elise and Emily for helping me out with this wedding!!

Enjoy a few (or a lot since this is a long post) of our favorite pictures! Desiree and Steven… it was gorgeous and we are soooo happy for you!

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Thank you to all the vendors who helped make this wedding amazing!!

Venue: Villa Siena

Florist: Endearing Flowers

Cake Artist: La Dolce Pesca

Hair Stylist: Salon Sandoval

Makeup Artist: Saks-Nars

DJ: SKM Entertainment

I can not believe in a few short days it will be 2012; this year flew by so fast and I’m still in shock! It feels that every year as we grow older it goes faster, anyone else feel that way?

Even though it went by super fast, it was a great year. We had some of the most amazing clients this year and are so thankful that we were able to be a part of their lives!

We are heading up to the Mountains in a bit to enjoy the snow for New Years and I’m excited to spend some family time before the new year begins. It’s always good to look back and reflect on what the year has been like and then to look forward and plan for another great year. This next year will be filled with even more goodness as my family grows and my business grows. I look forward to 2012 with much anticipation and am so excited for all the amazing clients I will get to work with this next year.

Thank you for allowing me to be apart of such important memories.

Have an amazing New Year!

To Celebrate the New Year we thought it would be fun to do a 2011 Recap of all of our weddings and portraits we did this year. ENJOY!!