ELEVATE Workshop // Part 1

Oh my goodness! I'm not even sure where to start on this blog post, because there is just SO much that I could say about the ELEVATE Workshop!! This is my second time hosting ELEVATEand it was truly an incredible experience! We had THE best group of people, coming together to learn, explore and push themselves to the next level! The common theme of this workshop was the concept of creating 'Honest Imagery' and how to challenge ourselves to shoot the best images, that will truly live on in time and not simply follow a trend. Personally, it is SO rewarding being able to teach others and organize workshops like this, because you can literally see everyone's mind's shift and make a positive change for their work, their business and their lives! ELEVATE isn't designed with an easy button, it's meant to make a person really dig inside themselves and ask WHY, because everyone has a different answer, goal and plan for their work, lives and businesses!The ELEVATE Workshop took place at Juliane James Place, which is one of the newest venue's for people getting married or hosting retreats in Minnesota! JJP is located in Finlayson, MN and it was absolutely perfect for this event! I wanted to host the workshop in the middle of the woods, with everything that is Minnesota-Fabuous! This meant nothing but flannel, tater tot hot dish and Bonfires! Everything came together absolutely beautifully, but I honestly couldn't have pulled this off on my own! A HUUUGE thank you to our Studio-Manager-Extraordinaire, Liz and JJP Owner, Alyson for being our personal chef's all week! These two ladies slaved away in the kitchen, making us 3 home-cooked-meals a day, that were absolutely phenomenal! I also would love to thank Brandon, Nate, Collin, Daniel and Sara for helping me haul tables, put up tents and set up our technology all week!

Two big highlights of the week were listening to some live music by Jim O'Neill for dinner and having a presentation via-the-internets with Richard Photo Lab! One of the most fabulous parts of the week was sharing this video from Elevate with all of the attendees! Motion Film and actual pictures are an entirely different experience and we are so lucky to have had Capture Studios create this awesome piece for us! So please, without further adieu, I encourage you to watch the video, take a gander thru the photos and hopefully experience a little bit of the beauty that was ELEVATE!

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During the week, we had an on-going shooting challenge for the attendees to document their experience that week, and in the end, everyone had to present one image that represented their time at ELEVATE and gave off the true vibe and feeling of the workshop! The winner was the one-and-only Megan Daas - I absolutely love her image!

Our major shooting challenge of the week was SO much fun! Jonny and Michelle, of Paper Antler, were gracious enough to take the time to head up north and be our real-life-models! The challenge was this: Each photographer had 10 minutes to shoot the couple, and in the end they would have to bring together 3 images in a triptych to tell a story. The wild card was that they had to use one crazy element - smoke bombs, sparklers or confetti poppers! I think it's SO cool to see everyone's images below! Even though we all had the same circumstances to work with, all of our images are SO different! I should also mention that for critique purposes, all of us had to shoot in .jpg and these images have not been touched at all in Photoshop!

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A GIANT thank you to my guest speakers, Daniel Chin, Collin Hughes, Matt Brue and Brian Greenberg for taking the time out of their incredibly busy lives to be a part of this! I would also like to thank all of our sponsors for being so generous with the giveaways for our attendees:

Red Cart Into The Darkroom Richard Photo Lab Kelly Moore Bag H20 Creative Sara Kiesling Actions Slide Sideways Shawn Bielefeldt Motibodo

And last but not least, thank you SO much to all of the attendees! You all taught me more than you will ever know and I feel so incredibly humbled and honored to have been able to share this experience with you! Each and every one of you have SUCH a bright future ahead!

LOVEe