The Weekend Lens From The Click Retreat

I spent the greater part of last week in the Outer Banks with a wonderful group of women at the Click Blogger Retreat. This event was hosted by Today's Mama and sponsored by Southwest Airlines, HP, Snapfish, Sony, Avery, National Geographic Kids, KIND, The Outer Banks Visitors Bureau, Carolina Designs Reality, SAGA Construction & Development, and epiphanie bags.

The 50-60 attendees and organizers stayed in two huge houses next door to each other right on the beach and it was so much fun.

Tracey Clark and I led a casual session where we talked about everyday life photography and Project Life. Everyone who attended the retreat went home with a 12x12 Project Life album, page protectors and a Jade kit. For most of the women at this event Project Life was new - some had heard something or other about it online but for many of them it was completely new.

It was so cool to get to have a conversation and introduce people (especially women who are already into taking photos) who might never consider traditional scrapbooking to give this sort of documentation a try (completely remembering that it can be anything you want it to be). It's such a great introduction to memory keeping.

One of the fun pieces of this event was getting to try out some new cameras from Sony. I was most interested in their new Alpha NEX 7 camera - a super small little camera that does a whole bunch of cool things but the thing I thought was the coolest part was that as you make adjustments (like increasing the shutter speed or ISO) you can actually see how that will change the shot you are taking on the screen or through the viewfinder. That's a huge learning tool in and of itself to be able to see what's going to happen if you up or decrease any of those manual settings.

I think I might have finally gotten over my mental block and moved into manual mode with my camera thanks to my new friend MeRa Koh (who was shooting with that Sony camera I mentioned above). For some reason what she said in her presentation clicked and I shot in manual the rest of the event. But my favorite part was sitting next to her on the shuttle to the airport and having one of those life conversations that will stick with me for a very long time.

A couple favorite shots:

Big thanks to Rachel at Today's Mama for inviting me to participate in this event. She's so down-to-earth and fun and together and this event totally reflected all those qualities. Loved every one who was a part of the team for this event.

One of the biggest benefits of these events is the opportunity to connect in person with like-minded creative people. In this case it was a lot of super tech-savvy women who I loved learning from in all the different conversations over the four days. So worth it.

Check out Tracey Clark's post on this event here.

I also wanted to take a minute today to say thank you for being here. I know you have a choice in how you spend your time online (and in everyday life) and I so appreciate that this is one of the places you visit. Hope you have an awesome Monday.