Now…  I adore details and Valerie spared no expense getting everything just perfect, from table decorations right down to her Badgley Mischkas.  Her florist was Sue Chamberlain and you absolutely MUST see her work!  Sue’s creations are incredible — not only are they artistic and dreamy arrangements, but the flowers themselves were perfectly fresh and simply lovely.  And Valerie….  Valerie was so stunning…completely breathtaking!  Chris made the most handsome groom, and his friendly demeanor totally added to his charm.  This wonderful couple was married at St. Katharine’s Greek Orthodox church in Falls Church, Virginia.  What an incredible place of brilliant color!  After the beautiful ceremony we stopped along the water for a quick bridal party session, then made our way to the reception at Indigo Landing in Alexandria, Virginia — a place with real character, excellent food and service, and a fun atmosphere.  The following are just a few of my favorites from Chris and Valerie’s first day of their new life together….  Valerie and Chris, thank you for choosing me to be your wedding photographer!  I am honored. Congratulations, you two!

For some assignments I chose to use uninteresting, inanimate objects simply to demonstrate the objective (such as depth of field) but for most of my assignments I practiced on my awesome boys who were not only willing to help, but wanted to make it FUN too!  You can see this clearly in the first example of my youngest as I practiced different light metering techniques.  By the way, this is just a fraction of all the work I did but these examples illustrate the progression of my practice and understanding.  And I was often not concerned about the beauty and composition of the photos when concentrating on a particular objective, so these are not the photos I would frame for my walls!  Still, my favorite objective, by far, was nailing the exposure when composing with back lighting:

Then I also practiced metering the light and freezing motion by adjusting the shutter speed (See? These “practice” photos, while not beautiful at all, still illustrated my ability to adjust my settings so that I could end up with different effects!):

Jessica even had an entire lesson on editing.  This is just one of my favorite photos from that particular lesson:

If you’re at all interested or thinking about doing a workshop, please take the time to check out Jessica Cudzilo’s 503 Workshop.  It is truly one of the best things I’ve done to improve and enhance my skills, and it was worth every penny and every second of my valuable time.  Doing this workshop online worked perfectly with my schedule and my life…because I have a family I am not able to simply run out the door and off to class, so this workshop allowed me to work at home, on MY time.  I learned MORE than I thought I would, and it was a blast!  The forums were amazing and all of the students worked together to help and encourage each other.  But I have to say the best part was Jessica herself.  She sincerely cares about each one of her students and from the moment you take your first step into her 503 World, she is with you all the way, cheering you on.

You know you want to check out this workshop…so….don’t just sit there….DO IT!   You’ll be so glad you did!!!