Let me explain. One of the catalysts of starting the Shootout group was my need to practice various techniques I’d heard or read about. I wasn’t going to jump in and try wireless flash at a wedding reception during an actual wedding without actually knowing how to use it–call me crazy or a control freak…or both.

So instead of being a constant talking head for my groups, I encouraged them to take the lead, practice something they wanted to practice and ask questions as needed. Which made for a pretty silent group I’ll tell ya. Even though silence is uncomfortable at times, you’ve gotta accept that sometimes silence is okay.

The event was held at the San Dieguito Heritage Museum and it had an old gas station used for movie sets, a general store, a hut and my station –which was a fence and a motor home. Yup. I’m NOT joking. More details below. It was an awesome location (despite the motor home) and the San Diego Bosses, Yvonne LeBrun & Stephen Knuth planned a fabulous event!

I was honored to work beside the following amazing leaders in the industry:

Jeff and Betsey McCue, Garrett Delph, Evan Bishop, Scott Anderson, and Lawrence Chan (our speaker).

My models, Devon and Taj were hot and laughed at my jokes cause I’m funny. Seriously, I am.

One of the biggest challanges for my first groups was the harsh sun, but we worked with and around it!

Here is one of my groups getting the shot below.Check out the awesome motor home.

One of the fun things about a shootout is trying new things. I don’t do a lot of post processing when I am working for a client, but for shootouts, I get to play.

I snuck in a shot of models from another group. They were too cute for words.

FAVORITE!

During the free for all, I caught a few shots of my model with someone else’s model.

And my friend Jen Johnson and I figured we could totally do the modeling thing.

If you are new to my blog, you may have no idea what the PhotogShootout actually is. I encourage you to go to the top search bar and type in “photogshootout” and familiarize yourself with our events. If you are interested in getting to know your camera better, learn from photography leaders, meet people, build your portfolio, etc. my group, the SoCal PhotogShootout can be found on Facebook.

Out next event is this week. February 11th and the event sold out in 2 minutes. If you didn’t get a ticket and you want one, well, you’ve come to the right place. FRIENDS WITH BENEFITS ALERT(Click HERE if you have no idea what that means): I am giving away ONE ticket for Thursday’s event. But I need to see how BADLY you want it and I’m gonna make you work for it this time. In the comment box below, you need to write a poem or song that includes the words: SoCal PhotogShootout, Hanssie, Matt and photography. I will pick my favorite (with some help from Matt, my husband and my 5 year old probably) and the winner will be announced Tuesday AM.

And to ensure a spot to all of 2010’s SoCal PhotogShootout events, go to http://thirstrelief.shootq.com/
I’ll be blogging more about that next week.

Happy poem/song writing!