Last month, I had the amazing privilege of attending a retreat with The Motherhood Anthology, an amazing photography education platform led by three phenomenal photographers, Jenny Cruger, Allison Craig and Kim Box. As I am coming up on my business’s five year anniversary, I’m working hard to always be improving. Whether it’s pushing myself creatively, fine tuning my art, learning about the latest innovations in heirloom artwork and prints or improving my client experience, there is always so much to learn.
It was such a privilege getting to tour and utilize Jenny’s beautiful studio and field in Franklin, Tennessee - she has an incredible space and an incredible heart and was a joy to learn from. We had two styled shoots that I’ve shared below - the first was with this precious family celebrating their son’s first birthday. I loved having the opportunity to get creative and think outside the box a bit, playing with double exposures, reflections and more.
Our second shoot was in the studio, and it was so helpful getting some guidance from Allison about her technique for achieving gorgeous backlit images. We had the most stunning maternity model for this session - she’s welcoming her rainbow baby this spring after years of trying, and she was seriously the most patient person as all ten of us took turns photographing her in three different outfits and set ups.
We also got to chat with Kim about her gorgeous albums {Indie Print Co} and view so many beautiful samples of all of their different cover fabrics and styles, and we got to spend time with Hope of Brass and Boxes, strategizing about SEO, blogging, social media and more.
But more important that all of the above, I connected with so many incredible woman, all mothers, photographers and business owners who are at many different stages in their journey, and together we sat and stayed up into all hours of the night discussing our challenges, our victories, our ideas and how we can better serve our clients and grow our businesses. We captured updated headshots for each other too, so I thought it would be fun to introduce you to my new work village.
Pictured from left to right: Ryane Rice based in Birmingham, Alabama, Esther Ziegler of Esther Ziegler Photography based in Springfield, Missouri and Bev Wade of Bev Wade Images in Memphis, Tennessee. Photos above taken by the fabulous Jen Godshall, pictured below.
Again, from left to right: Jen Godshall of Jen Godshall Photography in Sarasota, Florida, Lisa Tait - my roommate and co-pilot of our rental care - of Lisa Tait Photography in Toronto, and Jessie Roffer of Jessie Roffer Photography in Tampa, Florida.
And then below, from left to right: Heather Mohr of Heather Mohr Photography in Edwardsville, IL/St. Louis and Erin Davison Boring of Erin Davison Photography in Northeast Ohio. Not pictured is Brooke Hebert-Tennant of Petite Magnolia Photography in Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania.
It was such an incredible weekend with this crew in Tennessee. I can’t wait to see how we all grow and improve in the year to come and am so glad I invested in myself for this experience with The Motherhood Anthology.