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July 11, 2011

the monday personals | mentors

Everyone has a mentor. Someone to look up to, that inspire them, someone to look toward for advice and guidance.  It's no surprise I have a few as well that inspire me every day to grow in my photography. Although I could go on about a handful of brilliant artists I follow on a daily basis, I mostly want to touch on 3 of them.

First and foremost, the biggest thank you goes to a legend in my mind: Leanna Gosse. She is brilliant. She is beyond talented. She is gracious and encouraging and patient and beautiful. She is family. She is my mentor and I honestly don't know if I'd be where I am today without her. I have been wanting to blog about mentors for months now, but really wanted to hold off until my "year anniversary" of when I truly started digging into the photography. Although I had been bugging Leanna with a million photography questions for a couple years, I never fully applied myself to learning the art like I wanted until last summer. I spent time here and there researching advice she offered but never found the time to actually put that advice to practice. It wasn't until July 2010 when she was in Wisconsin visiting for a family reunion (she's from Toronto, Canada) that she spent a short time that afternoon giving me a few pointers and how best to practice shooting Lexi in my house for optimal light that it finally really clicked and I said "what am I waiting for?" I immediately went to work practicing on my daughter the lighting techniques she had showed me. Almost immediately she boosted my confidence when I posted some new images saying "Hey Em! There ya go! Good job, you found the light!"  I smiled a sense of relief.  It was the beginning of my road to photography greatness. Ha, so I am in no way as brilliant as she but I want to be and I will always look to her as the one who I owe the biggest thank you to.

To Leanna, I say THANK YOU! I cannot thank you enough for what you have done for me and the guidance you have given me to build a foundation on. She taught me a platform of knowledge to understand lighting, aperture, editing, and business mentality.  She's answered a million threads of questions (I'm not exaggerating either...it really is probably a million threads of messaging between us) and showed patience when I'd ask the same question more than once. She gave me encouragement when she saw I had applied a technique she had taught me about and most importantly the encouragement to let me say "My work is good". I've always been so hard on myself - never allowing myself to really say I am good. I feel like if I start mentoring others and giving out advice what gives me the right to do that because there are others out there who know more than I do about the topic. I consistently nitpick my images of areas I need to do better on and what is wrong with it instead of saying "that's a pretty picture". So many times she'd tell me "Em, you're good! Stop being so hard on yourself."  It's a work in progress. I'll never feel I'm as talented as you, but I will always strive to be like you. You are amazing and I'm so glad to call you family.

"Em, you are well on your way to being an excellent photographer and teacher. You've certainly got the energy, passion and drive to teach." - Leanna

Since this is a photography blog and I don't actually have any pictures of her that I can think of, here's a bit of a showcase of her work. My husband and I had the GIANT honor of having her document our maternity story in December 2009. I was about 24 weeks at the time and we met up with her at her sister's adorable farm in Woodville, WI. I seriously think I'm counting down the days until our second baby just so I can have her take more maternity photos of our family ;)

Seriously, you need to check her out. She's fantastic! www.leewestonphoto.com
This picture makes me want to have another baby soooo bad! I was in love from the moment I saw it.  On a comical note it looks like my husband is gazing endlessly & adoringly into my eyes but really he's giving me the smirk of "I feel stupid getting my picture taken!" ha, ha.
Probably my fav fav fav by far. I never knew I could look so good! J/K!  It's all props to Leanna :)
But wait, there's more! You can never have just one mentor but multiples who give you different aspects of the art and advice to help you grow.  Over the last few months I've also become completely addicted to the work of a few amazingly talented photographers from the area. Krystal Muellenberg {Krystal Muellenberg Photography} and Rebecca Eby {Studio Noveau} are just a couple of the greats.

WHY I LOVE KRYSTAL: I am so grateful for the opportunity to work closely with Krystal this summer as she has graciously allowed me to assist her with a handful of local weddings. I look so forward to spending those Saturdays (and this upcoming Friday!) with you for the ability to assist you, the experience and growth I hope to obtain from a truely loved icon from the area, to share laughs, and even make you cupcake pops, lol. I've been starting to become friends with quite a few people from the area who all know Krystal and follow her and look up to her.  Many have even attended her workshops (hosted with the also amazingly talented Dani Stephenson). I can't wait to continue my journey with such a great mentor to the industry and blog about all the things I have learned while second shooting with Krystal. The first wedding I assisted her with, I'm pretty sure I only got about 2 hours of sleep the night before because I was so excited and so nervous. I can't wait to do it again! The knowledge that I gained from that day and the things I observed and came to the realization about are priceless.  Experience makes you grow the most: watching, observing, seeing something that inspires you and then finding time to practice and apply it yourself for that moment when you go "ah ha! I did it...so that's how you do that" is really something I love to be a part of.  And speaking of inspiration...being it's the middle of summer with full-on gorgeous glowing light at sunset. Krystal in my eyes is the queen of "The Golden Hour" light. I actually just spent some time with my daughter the other night practicing trying to capture that light based on a recent maternity session that Krystal did that showed off the golden light so perfect and rich.  I cannot get enough of Krystal's creativity and compositions.
P.S...if you steal from her a kitten will die. No joke, check out the footer on her website. I only speak the truth ;) 
Facebook: Click HERE {become a fan, tell her I sent you!}

WHY I LOVE REBECCA: She has offered up a handful of great advice ranging from 'So you want to be a photographer?' to business ethics and personal opinions, equipment advice (she's a Nikon user like myself - Rock On!), and sharing embarrassing moments together. When Rebecca and I finally met in person, I at one point held my hand out and said "Oh, yeah...Hi, I'm Emily, nice to meet you". Later Rebecca emailed me and said "um, yeah...on that whole formal introduction...I must admit I felt a bit strange since I felt I already knew you through email. Awwkkkwaaard...". I guess I should abandon my ways of being professionally funny. BUT I loved that she was comfortable enough to tell me this and it sorta made my day in an odd way! I have found myself many times mentally asking myself "What would Rebecca do?" Her experience in the business and willingness to share those lessons learned and opinions with me I truly want to say thank you for. It's also reassuring to hear others say "I was there before, I was just like you and went through the same situations." Another thing I love about Rebecca - I think she's the queen of destination weddings. Every single shot is stunning! Probably one of my all-time-favs is a wedding she did over the winter in Puerto Moreles, Mexico. The "trash the dress" session afterwards by far exceeds brilliance. She's a rockstar with the willingness to get the shot...she was literally in the water in a cave just floating there with her expensive camera equipment to get the shot. First off, I'd drown...literally, I can't swim. And secondly, I would have used a canoe or something, but nope...not Rebecca. She is super woman! Check out the album HERE.
Facebook: Click HERE {become a fan, tell her I sent you!}

1 comment:

  1. Beautiful maternity photos! And thanks so much for the shout-out. :) I'm honored to have had such positive interactions with you, and it's sweet that you are so appreciative. Thank you so so so much!

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