A wonderful opportunity

I'm linking this first shot with my3boybarians and Trendy Treehouse. Scroll down to contune reading about my wonderful opportunity =)

I had an amazing opportunity over the weekend. I was involved in a photography workshop all day Saturday. It was called "Telling the Story" and was given by a local (but nationally known) photojournalist. The goal was to tell a story of an afternoon in our town. I was SO nervous! This class took place in downtown, which can be a little "colorful", lol. Plus, I totally hate talking to people I don't know and avoid it at all costs, but we couldn't take pictures of people without their permission. She definitely challenged us and I had to step WAY outside my comfort zone. But I learned A LOT.

And the kicker?

It rained.

All.

Day.

Long.

Seriously, there was a puddle around my chair from all the water dripping off my jacket! And it did make everything more difficult. I really don't like to be wet, so it was hard to not hurry through each assignment so that I could get back indoors. However, as our instructor reminded us, "it's just rain, at least your not getting shot at"!

We started the day with a quick overview of cameras and how they work, then out on the streets for our first assignment.

We were sent out in pairs and each of us had to stop two people (yes, random strangers!) and ask their permission to take a few photographs. We then had to take five shots and only five shots. No machine-gun-shooting (snapping a million shots in a row, hoping for a good one). And no Chimping-it (snapping a picture and then immediately looking at the LCD screen to see if it was good). Finally we had to get their name, contact info and a quote.

Even though I was seriously stressed over having to walk up to random people, I managed to complete the assignment and even got a couple of decent shots. (And no one mugged me, lol!)

Our next two assignments centered around our Saturday Market, which was only a couple blocks away from where the class was taking place. Again we went out in pairs and for the first assignment, we had a designated area to start in. My partner and I were assigned the Farmers Market.

After about 45min of shooting, we headed back to the classroom to go through the images everyone had taken. We then went back out. This time our goal was to get any shots that we felt like were missing from the first batch.

Over all it was a great experience. And I can definitely tell you that I don't want to be a professional photojournalist! I seriously don't like talking to people, lol. But I'm still considering taking the next class. I learned a lot that I can apply to what I like to photograph (ie. family events) and I stretched my comfort zone. And like my instructor said, "When you stretch your comfort zone way out, it makes doing what you like that much easier." And with that I can definitely say, the family reunion will be MUCH easier to photograph, lol. {grin}

So, now I will quit talking (typing?) and share some of the images I got.

***Disclaimer - No, I did not avoid talking to people by simply not photographing faces, lol. I just chose not to include those images in this post =)***

Oh, yeah, one more thing {grin}, I think it would be fun to go back on another rainy day (I must be CRAZY, right?!?) and photograph only umbrellas and rain boots! Seriously, there were some amazing umbrellas and rain boots to be seen!

OK, here are the photos, lol.