My husband is an art teacher. And he was the first one to show me the technicalities of camera exposure. He taught B&W photography to high school students for close to five years. It was all 35mm film and processing your film in a dark room. No matter how hard he tried I always forgot what ISO was, or when to use a slow shutter speed. I was a horrible student. I was diligent about snapping away but really not cognitive about how I got the perfect shot.

Then a friend recommended a book by Bryan Petersen called Understanding Exposure. I picked up a cheap copy through Half.com. Poured through the pages, completed the assignments and took notes. And the things that Mr. Gregory taught me made a bit more sense. A-ha, I would say to myself over and over again. I get it.

And then through some of my “internet research”, aka-blog stalking, that I do regularly, I found an entry about a workshop called Bloom Workshops. The blogsite was bright and colorful. Both photographers, Brenda Acuncius and Kristy Lane, are awesome family and children photographers. But would an on-line workshop work for me? Hmmm?

With a wee bit of hesitation I enrolled. Still not sure what kind of information I could possibly glean from an on-line type learning experience I logged on for the first day of the workshop and I was in love. Further practical application! Yes, I need this! Get out there and shoot, shoot, shoot. Make notes so you can make sense of what you’re doing when you’re shooting. The workshop ended after a fast 6 weeks and in the beginning I was a lil’ freaked out. So much going through my head. What works again? What do I do again?

And you wanna know what, the more I shot, the more everything clicked and FINALLY started sinking in. I was able to remember the critiques I was given from Brenda and Kristy and pair it with the Bryan Peterson book and Mr. Gregory’s lessons and BAM, my work has improved by like 100%! The support I received from the other Bloom attendees along with the expertise of the Bloom moderators definitely gave me more confidence.

So, if you are in need of place to go, where everybody knows your name and there are a lot of warm fuzzies and a whole lot of people with light bulbs of realization going on while screaming “A HA”. Sign up. The workshops are so popular now, you might be wait-listed but be patient. It is so worth it. Get on it!