I was lucky enough to be in NYC when Adorama announced their first every Blographer event. I knew right away I HAD to be there! I was pretty nervous to go to my first in-person photography event. Jill of Babyrabies was the MC (she did an awesome job). As soon as you walked through the door, I felt at ease and among friends. I was in a room with so many other people who loved photography as much as me.

After checking on, we were given a fantastic swag bag with goodies from the sponsors. Thank you! There was all sorts of goodies including coupons, Clickin’ Moms’ Inspire book, a camera strap, an awesome USB bracelet and more! Thank you to all the sponsors of the event!! What a treat!! Not only did everyone get a great swag bag but they also had TONS of prizes!! I am pretty sure everyone walked away with a prize! Thanks!

The event was broken up into 3 presentations. All 3 presentations were amazing and covered a variety of different topics.

10 Ways to make your photos blogworthy

By Erin Cobb of Erin Cobb Photography and Amanda Bottoms of Kevin and Amanda

Erin, who is a military wife as well :O) talked about thinking about your story prior to taking the picture. What do you hope to tell with the series of photos you are going to take.

-Think about perspective, both the viewer and the person in the photo. She had a beautiful example of two images of a child with a baby. One image had the focus on the baby shot from above. The baby’s experience. The next was the child holding and loving the baby. The child’s experience. I love this idea!

Amanda had a great tips about getting blue skies in your image.

– When shooting landscape type shots if you put the sun behind you, you can achieve those nice blue skies. Genius!!

The Power of Visual Storytelling

by Amanda Padgett of Everyday Elements and Rachel Devine of Sesame Ellis

“The soul never thinks without a mental image.” by Aristotle

Rachel shared how she uses her iPhone as a break from her normal shooting. I have found this to be true as well since we moved back and I have been using my iPhone more and more for quick shots. She touched on how she wishes more areas taught creativity instead of just the technical aspects of photography.

Using different angles – She shows different examples how you can tell your story better by using different angles. Loved her example of her photo of her feet with her cat by them.

Get to know your subjects – Think of your subjects as characters in the story you are trying to tell. Love that!

She talks about a book by Anne Lamont – Bird by Bird: Some Instructions on Writing and Life. Which I will be adding to my wish list. The book focuses on writing but you can use her techniques in your photos to tell a story. I really love the idea of pulling from different resources beside photography ones to improve your images.

Rachel also talks about an inexpensive way to add light to your images. She gets a foam board and cuts a square out of the middle for the camera. Then she shoots through the whole. So clever!! I will definitely be trying this one!!

She gave us a creativity exercise which I will definitely be doing – 2 Roll Challenge. I’ll tell you more about that later!

Amanda pointed out that if you don’t learn to use your camera all you have is an “expensive point and shoot”. Couldn’t agree more!

Lunch time!
I so wish I had a photo of the spread! Holy cow! The food was so yummy and fresh!! Much different then any large group lunch I have been to before. I could have eaten for hours!! So good!!!

Developing Your Unique Vision

by Lotus Carroll of I am Lotus, Vivienne Gucwa of NY Through the Lens – New York City Photography, and Lisa Bettany of Mostly Lisa and co-founder of Camera +

Unfortunately, I don’t have any notes from this session as Claire decided she wanted to be rocked in the back instead of sitting. It was a great panel though!!

After all the prizes had been handed out, there was time to take pictures in front of the fancy backdrop that made you feel like you were at a red carpet event.

I was able to take a picture with two fantastic gals who read the blog! Hey Ellie and Michelle!! It was so a pleasure to meet the people you talk to online :O)

Photo Credit: My mom and her iPhone :)

Of course, I had to share the photo of my beautiful mom and me! She also has a blog, Hissyfits and Honey, and went to NYC with me. We had a wonderful time together!!

It truly was an outstanding event! I loved getting to talk to these people who are so big in the blog world but are the nicest most friendly people. They truly wanted to share what they know to help us become better photographers. Thank you!!!

I left inspired to go out and start capturing some amazing images!! Thank you to Joel and everyone at Adorama who put this event together! Thanks to the sponsors as well for all the goodies!!