Happy Monday, friends! Oh my goodness!! I am SO excited to be sharing this blog post with you all!
If you follow me on Instagram, you know a few weeks ago I took a trip to Virginia. The week spent in Virginia was vacationing/visiting my brother, photographing families, and most importantly, attending the Hope Taylor Photography Senior Photography Workshop!
Over a year ago, I saw Hope post a senior photo collage in a Facebook group called, Shoot & Share. She posted a photo of one of her seniors she photographed during the Cherry Blossoms in Washington, D.C. I remember that photo vividly and friends, it was GORGEOUS! It instantly made me go to her Facebook page and click, “Like.” Shortly after following her on Facebook, I found out her Instagram and hurried and clicked, “Follow!” Ever since then, I’ve loved her bright colored photos, her positive attitude, how real she is, and how we have similar qualities. I mean, we are both young and love aqua, which is huge! 😉
Through out the time of watching Hope, a beautiful + intelligent girl only a year younger than me, continue to grow and be successful in this business, I was dying to meet her! But, unfortunately, she was across the country and I wasn’t sure how or when I would get to meet her. My brother is in the Air Force and lives about an hour away from Hope. So, every time my family had the idea to go and visit him, I would instantly email Hope to see if she had anytime to meet. Unfortunately, those family visits didn’t happen.
Late 2014/early 2015, Hope mentioned she would be having a senior photography workshop on March 7th, my birthday!! “Oh my goodness! That would be great to attend her workshop on my birthday!” Wellllll, that didn’t happen due to money & not sure if it would be worth it to travel for it.
After her March workshop and I noticed all the posts, it made me wish I budgeted my money out so I could have attended. Right after her March workshop, she announced she would be having another workshop in August. “AUGUST? During the summer!? Where it could be easier for me to travel there!?” I thought to myself. Once I found out the date and found out when seats would open up, I kept battling thoughts with myself. I’m going to be honest with you with the thoughts I had. Such as, “I just bought myself a new full frame camera for my birthday. I feel broke. I’m not sure if I should spend another few hundred dollars to be at her workshop. Then money to travel….” “No, maybe it won’t be worth it. I could put this money to a new lens.” “No! I love hope! I’ve been wanting to meet + learn from her for so long. I HAVE to do this!” Well, friends, once seats went on sell at 10 AM EST (meaning 7 AM PST), I woke up early to make sure I was on my computer in time and I bought a seat!! Right after purchasing a seat to her workshop, I instantly thought, “Oh boy, I feel even more broke now…. but OH MY GOSH!! I am going to HTP’s WORKSHOP!!!” I was filled with excitement. I knew this investment was going to be worth it. Worth it for my own personal experience + for my business. Once I got the confirmation email, I KNEW I had to start budgeting for this trip. Plane tickets, food, etc.
I contacted my brother + sister-in-law letting them know I will be in the East Coast and instantly asked if it was okay if I could stay at their home that weekend. I mean, come on, it’s family and I could save a few more hundreds of dollars by staying at his new house with them! 😉 Of course, they said yes. Woohoo!! I already had another thing checked off my list.
Once June rolled around, it was time for me to purchase my plane ticket. I was going to be flying across the county… by myself! Oh boy! I definitely felt the butterflies rolling in. But I already purchased my seat at the workshop… I can’t back out just because I wasn’t going to be flying with anyone. I HAD to go out of my comfort zone for this… Or how else would I grow? …..Until my sister-in-law helped me find tickets for ONLY $200! My budget was around $500! To purchase the ticket, I would have to be in Virginia for exactly a week. My boyfriend, David, was sitting right by me when I was on the phone with her and I looked over at him and said, “I can get TWO tickets for under my budget and you can come with me! We can have a week vacation!” After planning things out, David was able to come with me!! So, I actually didn’t go out of my comfort zone this time and got someone to come with me! 😉 Not only that, but other family members would be meeting us there to spend time on vacation as well! Which helped SO much with expenses on food! I was SO thankful for how everything played out.
From my plans of flying out alone and spending a few days in Virginia, turned into a week of spending time with family, families in Virginia taking up my offer of having shoots while I was there, and attending the workshop, made it all such a great trip!
Oh wow, this blog post is getting long! haha! Sorry, but I just felt the need to share how this all went down and how I made this trip all worth it. Not that the workshop wasn’t worth it all, but family time + spending time photographing other families topped it off!
Now, to the great stuff – my experience at the workshop! MY GOODNESS!!! Hope out does herself!! The meet + greet on that Sunday was amazing! The attendees + myself finally got to meet Hope and hanging out with each other + get to know each other before spending all day Monday together. That evening made me SO excited for the following day. Each attendee was as sweet as can be, Hope made everyone feel comfortable + welcomed, and we all got to enjoy some treats. I was ESTACTIC to finally meet Hope and be in her ADORABLE new store front studio.
Monday finally came! The day of the workshop!! EEKK!! I was SO excited to learn from Hope. She talked everything from how she started to where she is now. How she treats her clients to how she runs her business. I was excited for the WHOLE day, but I was most excited for the styled shoot + to see Hope at work! After spending a few hours learning plenty of business things from Hope. (I won’t give too much away, because I believe you should go purchase a seat at her upcoming workshop and experience it yourself 😉 ) We headed to the location of the styled shoot. AHHH!! It was SO adorable! I absolutely loved the Southern feel that Hope went for, for this workshop! After learning even more from Hope at the shoot + shooting for our own portfolios, we went back to the studio to learn how she does her workflow after each shoot.
My experience with Hope at her workshop was oh-so-very-wonderful. Coming from a gal who traveled across the United Stated just to attend the workshop, it was worth it! If you are a fellow photographer and thinking about attending her next workshop, TAKE THE LEAP AND GO FOR IT!! She is one spunky, cute, bright colored loving, girl that makes the whole experience GREAT! She teaches SO much knowledge about being in this industry and you will be leaving her studio at the end of the workshop motivated and ready to get to work! I can’t emphasis it enough, ATTEND HER WORKSHOP! Heheh! 🙂
As I mentioned earlier, we got to take photos for our own portfolio during the styled shoot. Down below are some photos from the workshop. But before viewing the photos, you have got to check out these vendors:
Dear Sweetheart Events, Paisley & Jade, Sorby Sweets, Katherine Elizabeth Bridal, Hello Darling Beauty + Rachel Tenny
With out their help for Hope’s workshop, none of it would have been possible!
Thank you to all the vendors + Hope for an amazing workshop!
I can’t wait to come back to the East Coast to visit!!
XOXO,
Shelby Danielle
{Follow me of Instagram for daily updates: @ShelbyDaniellePhotography}
First, here are some behind the scenes photos that were taken on my iPhone during the meet + greet & the workshop. 🙂
^^ Isn’t this hilarious!? Noah, a fellow photographer/attendee took this as we were trying to figure out how we would pose the models together when we had 60 seconds to get full attention + advice from Hope. We were nervous to have all eyes on us before we went up to have our time with Hope, so we HAD to practice! hahah!
A little behind the scenes^ 
Absolutely LOVE you, Hope!! Thank you for having me + sharing SO much with us!
Now, to the updated headshot Hope took of each attendee + the group photos!!
Thank you ALL for reading + checking out this blog post! I know, it was definitely a LONG one! <3
