Prizewinning Photography 2009.

On Sunday I returned from a 6 day trip to Dallas, TX to attend Prizewinning Photography.

It was a week full of photography instruction and learning new things about my camera. Despite having owned my D80 for 6 months, I was surprised a the number of functions I had not yet discovered my camera capable of!!!

I was blessed with the instruction delivered by the 4 talented instructors; whose qualifications lay not in their galleries of stellar images captured worlwide, but in the undying passion they had to glorify the Lord with all that they do, and the desire to train godly photographers.

Though I'd been up in the air once previously, this was my first commercial flight. (I watched for you in Dallas, Uncle Bernard!!)

Our class consisted of 23 students, and 4 instructors.
The first day we had a photo-shoot in downtown Dallas. There were hundreds of things to photograph, but we were limited to 24 images-- and absolutely no review!! Talk about a challenge!! :) We had three contests that day-- The Concept Spring, RED, and Picture of the Day.

--- Some of the buildings had very fun paintings!!---

My fabulous shooting partner-- Abby!!

--Two of my fellow classmates posing for me--

At the end of the day, our class split into small groups and each with an instructor. Each student received individual critique on their images.

On Wednesday, we went to the Farmer's Market!! What a busy place!!

I took a different approach to capturing the images on Wednesday. On Tuesday, I wandered around finding things to take pictures of that fit the assignments. That night, I had a handfull of pictures that fit the assignments perfectly, but yet had little or no other significance. They weren't pictures I would want to look at over and over again. So on Wednesday, I made a quick sweep of the area, camera in hand. Occasionally I would see something and instinctively raise my camera. Then I would make the picture I wanted to take fit the assignment.

Our three contests for the day were 'Blue', 'Commerce' and Picture of the Day.

---Oranges---

---Tomatoes---

'Blue' Contest winner.

On Thursday we went to 'Pioneer Plaza' to shoot the Cattle Drive there. This was the most challenging shoot for me. Wednesday afternoon, our instructors had unlocked the world of shutter speed, aperture and ISO and how they work together to create a really good picture or a really bad picture!! Experimenting with the newly learned concepts created some very interesting images, to say the least!!

Our three contests were 'Shadow', 'Texture' and Picture of the Day.

--Learning to blur water--

'Texture' Contest Winner.

'Shadow' Contest Winner.

Friday morning began with a stop at Starbucks, then we were on to a new location for the shoot that day. Thunder rumbled overhead as we piled out of the vans at the Dallas Arboretum-- 60 acres of the most beautiful flowers, bushes, trees, waterfalls and lakes you will ever see!! The initial plan for the day looked like this--Our instructors were each going to hold a workshop for us students to observe-- a landscape session, a bridal session and a Senior portrait session. After the workshops concluded, we were to be released for 2 hours of shooting portraits of each other amongst the beautiful gardens!

The day played out much differently than anticipated!! It began to rain, and rain, and rain. It wasn't drizzling, but yet not pouring, just a constant, steady cascade of raindrops over everyone. The instructors led their workshops, staying under awnings to avoid getting wet, and then we broke for lunch. After two hours of tromping through soaking wet grass and standing out in the rain, almost every single student was soaked. It was okay to get a little wet, but it was so wet, that keeping the expensive camera gear we all had dry was becoming a problem. After a quick discussion, the instructors announced we would return to the conference center and switch our schedule up a little bit.

Our portrait shoot was rescheduled to Saturday morning. After changing into warm, dry clothing, we had two sessions and a open forum for the rest of the day.

Saturday morning, we split into groups of three to begin our portrait sessions with each-other. We were outside once again, with raindrops falling occasionally, but the rain held off until just before we got back to the conference center, allowing us to shoot for 2 hours without the rain!!

Our contests for the day were 'Black and White' and 'Picture of the Day'.

Raindrops.

Cameras everywhere!!!

Sometimes shooting portraits isn't quite as easy as you might think!!! One of my 'models' was quite tall-- just barely shy of 7 feet!!! He was over a foot and a half taller than me!! It was quite challenging!! Finally, I had him kneel, and stood on a nearby fench post. :)

--Experimenting with Black&White--

--Anna--

More Portraits!

Picture of the Day Contest Winner.

I was thrilled to be there with two dear friends-- Anna Rehm and Chelsy Bontrager!! We also roomed together, which was so much fun!! Chelsy and I are both night-owls and would stay up quite late talking, but Anna never complained!! She just sweetly went right to sleep, never mind our jabbering. :)

So yes, it's my fault that there have been no new posts, and the Trivia Tuesday's have been absent for two weeks!!! You can be watching for the new trivia this afternoon!! :)