Corey Ann Photography | Northeast Ohio Photographer

I know that my blog has been really quiet lately, I apologize!  I spent the week after Thanksgiving in Jamaica for a destination wedding, came home for three days, shot Karolyn and Thomas’s wedding and then left for Hawaii the next morning.  I came to Hawaii to attend Mike Colon’s workshop to finish out the year hopefully on a good note with lots of great ideas to bring to the business in the new year.  The workshop so far has been amazing.  I’ve met a lot of great new people and we’ve had some great shoots.  I also am in absolute LOVE with Maui.  It is so beautiful here and the weather is amazing.  I am currently sitting in our amazing room at the Hyatt listening to the ocean crash below me. 

Here’s a teaser of some of the images I shot on Monday of Rosanna.  Her and Jared just got engaged so we all shot their engagement shoot.  Rosanna is seriously adorable and such a natural model.  She is GORGEOUS but also the sweetest person.  Jared is also awesome and so kind to her, their love shows so well on camera.  They were soooo fun to shoot.  Enjoy the pics!

This was taken outside the Bubba Gump Shrimp Co. restaurant.  I was amused.

You know I love shoes/feet!

A car drove by and they spontaneously started dancing!

WPPI offers classes before the big convention starts called Plus Classes that are essentially workshops with various photographers.  This year’s classes were made up of 8 of the top photographers in the field, with 20 students per class, focusing for two days on their personal expertise in photography.  I chose Mike Colón because I adore his work, he shoots Nikon (which is what I shoot) and I felt that I could learn a lot from him.  I felt that our shooting styles were very much similar when it comes to shooting so I really felt that I could learn a lot from this amazing photographer.

 The classes bascially were about the basics of photography and learning how to find and shoot natural light correctly.  Each day we had a morning session of learning the craft and the afternoons were spent with models implementing what we learned during the day.  The first day we had Jen & Adam as our models and the second day we had Krystal & Adam (same guy, different gals) as our models.  I feel that I learned a lot from Mike – especially when it comes to determing light sources!  I also learned how to pay attention more to what is in the background that could be potentially distracting when shooting.  He also had his assistant/friend/sidekick Ray Santana along with him for the class and I also learned a lot from Ray. 

I felt bad for both guys though who were mystified with my manners.  When it comes to fighting 20 people for a shot, I’m the first to bow out.  I got elbowed in the head a few times and someone hit me with their lens (some of these lenses aren’t light!  ow!).  Photography isn’t a contact sport in my world so I chose to go for the odd angles and try and get what I can.  Both Ray & Mike by the second day were trying to not be great teachers but were also shoving me in for the good shots and looking out for me.  They were both fantastic.  I can’t say enough things about them.  Anyone that gets a chance to take Mike’s workshop absolutely should!! 

Below are some shots I got during the two-day class!

I’ve managed to survive WPPI so far!  For the past two days I had a workshop with Mike Colon and it was pretty gosh-darn amazing.  I can’t wait to get home and work on my pictures and see everything full sized.  The first day I felt like a toddler learning how to walk but today I really got what he was teaching and I feel a lot more confident in things and really feel that I took a lot home from this class…. besides my new, awesome Boda Bag!   I was the super lucky winner of the generous gift that Boda brought to our class. 

I’ve met some really amazing people and am looking forward to meeting even more in the days to come!