#AJWORKSHOP recap!

Well, I can't hardly believe the workshop has now come and gone. It feels like I was waiting for it forever and it was such a whirlwind of two days that now I'm totally on a low now that it is over! It was SUCH an amazing time however and I learned a ton, met SO many great people and am 100% confident that this was a great first step in the continued growth of my business!

The workshop took place in the gorgeous Clayton on the Park in Scottsdale, AZ. Everything about it was perfect. Amy and Jordan gave us a cute little grab bag filled with the most important thing of all...CANDY! Just kidding, their Top Secret playbook was in there and wow if that thing isn't valuable!! I think I might need to keep it in my in home safe because of the crazy amount of great info that is included! 

Fifteen amazing other photographers joined me at the inaugural #ajworkshop and we all had a great time chatting and getting to know more about each other and learning from each other throughout the whole experience. It was fun for me to see all the awesome camera gear everywhere! 

We dove right into the good stuff and I was lucky enough to be in the first row. I took some shots occasionally throughout A&J's teaching and I HAD to make this collage. I call it, "how to use your hands while speaking by Jordan Demos". HA! 

Probably my favorite part of the workshop had to do with posing. I learned a lot of great tips and tricks especially for posing couples! Look at how cute they are! 

Then we did a lot of work with Expodisc. I've had one for a long time and hardly every used it. I think that is about to change for sure! 

The styled shoot was in the afternoon and Amy showed us how she goes about getting all the amazingly beautiful shots that she always captures. It was great to see her in action! Then all the rest of us got in on the action as well! 

Amy's feet were cracking me up, and check out Jordan rocking his shooting stance! Love it! 

I never seem to make my way into the group getting the shot, so I had a great time shooting everyone else shooting. Does that sentence even make sense? Hope so! 

All of the above photos were from day one of the workshop and I don't have any captures from day 2 as it was mostly all about business and momentum. I have LOTS more to share about the specific info that I found most helpful from this workshop as well as some fun other photos as well, but that will all have to wait until I can get my thoughts together! This workshop was such an amazing blessing to me and I am so glad I was able to attend. Can't wait to share more! 

Kelly Moore Kelly Boy Bag // Review

I am no stranger to Kelly Moore camera bags. I'm on number three!! My addictions to camera bags should surprise no one (especially Paul!) given my same addiction to handbags. The quest for the perfect bag will likely go on forever. 

My first KM bag was the 2Sues bag in purple. I loved this bag and used it religiously for about a year. There were many things I loved about it, but in the end it was a better purse than a camera bag. I found myself using it every day but really NEVER using it on shoots. 

My second KM bag was the Jude bag. This bag was purchased to hold ALL my gear at one time for use at events or weddings. My reviews of both bags are listed below. 

I decided that I needed a bag that was easier to get my gear out of while shooting. I did a lot of research, looked for reviews online and settled happily on the KM Kelly Boy bag. While this bag is still gorgeous, its not as feminine as a lot of other Kelly Moore bags. However, at this point I am really looking more for functionality than fashion and I really feel like I made a good choice. 

The bag has a shoulder strap, a cross body strap, five pockets on the front of the bag, one large pocket on the back of the bag and two smaller pockets on each side of the bag for smaller items. 

I use the pockets on the side mostly to keep my phone and lip gloss. I do find that often times the straps/buckles/keys get in the way of the side pockets so they aren't quite as easily accessible as I had imagined. 

The front pockets are very handy. I keep business cards, lotion, other keys, batteries, SD cards, cleaning cloths etc...I don't keep anything in the large zippered pocket on the front yet, but I'm sure something will end up in it eventually! 

On the inside of the bag there is a very large padded basket that you can remove if you like and/or you can change around the dividers to make certain sections bigger. Very flexible and customizable. Most of the time I'm just carrying my wallet, pen purse, and my bag of random goodies and a checkbook. They all fit very nicely in here and are separated so things don't "fall to the bottom" or get lost. 

When I go on a shoot the bag will nicely fit a body and three lenses plus my wallet. I also substituted in two flashes so you could see how that would fit as well. On most sessions I don't bring this many lenses, usually only two so this works out really well in case I feel I need to take more. 

This bag is also designed to hold a laptop. I put my 13 inch MacBook air in the laptop space and it was snug as a bug in a rug. Usually I put my planner (or what is my substitute planner for now anyway) in that spot. I would probably only need the space for my laptop when I travel. 

I've had this bag now for about a month and I am really liking it. With my other two bags I would keep both straps attached to the bag at all times, but with this bag I am finding I don't need to do that. The shoulder strap stays on my arm really well (most purses don't) so I was finding I was really never using the cross body strap just in day to day life. When shooting however, I put the cross body strap on to have my arms free. 

Overall another big two thumbs up for Kelly Moore and her stylish and functional line of bags! 

I was not compensated in any way for this post, all thoughts are my own and I paid my own hard earned cash for all of my bags. However, I would absolutely not be opposed to KM sending me as many bags to review as she would like! =)