Click Away, no male model, and working under pressure

Picture this: It's day two of the Click Away conference in San Antonio, TX where I am one of the instructors/presenters. I am all set to stream with a crew of four camera men for my class on shooting couples, one of just 11 classes set to be filmed out of over 150 offered. My female model shows up on time and I get her dressed. Our male model is late, so we keep prepping and figure he's just a few minutes out. With 5 minutes to go until our start time, I'm informed that my male model is a no-show. We quickly run through our options- use just the female model alone? Pull a female attendee out of my group and ask her to pose with the female model? Try to scramble and find any available man? Shooting a subject alone was not an option and I wasn't keen on trying to pose two straight women...if we had a lesbian couple that would have been fine but sadly the female model was straight wink emoticon So, I ask them to find me a man. Keep in mind, this is a conference put on by Clickin Moms and the only males in attendance were the maybe 8-10 spouses that tagged along as well as any male vendors. The Clickin Mom's staff apparently tried to find fellow speaker Jesh de Rox...the infamous, amazing, professional educator and couple's posing extraordinaire Jesh de Rox. I certainly would have thrown up in the bushes if I had to pose Jesh.

With basically no time to spare, we get a call and are told that they found someone- Michael, AKA the Shoot Proof Guy. He's wearing his Shoot Proof t-shirt so they ask if I want him to change. I say yes, knowing that this poor guy will literally have to sprint up to his room and then back down to get to us in time. He shows up, looking completely perfect right as we are ready to begin (I mean, he is wearing a pocket square!) I barely have time to introduce myself, let alone prep him for what I'm about to have him do in front of a completely full class, streaming video, and with a girl he has never met. Without missing a beat, Michael rolls with every crazy thing I throw at him and looks amazing as he does it. I am so thankful for his willingness to help me out. What a crazy experience for all of us! And, a big huge thank you to all of the Clickin Moms staff who scrambled to find a solution to our problem and especially to Jodi Arego who was by my side with a smile on her face assuring me that it would all work out smile emoticon

If you want to see the class/video in it's entirety, it's included in a video bundle offered by Clickin Mom's and on sale for a limited time for $99. If I talk extra fast, laugh a little too much, or overall seem awkward in any way let's go ahead and blame it on not having a model 5 minutes before I was filmed. haha.

http://store.clickinmoms.com/2015-click-away-streaming-videos-bundle/

The perfectionist in me feels the need to tell you that because of the camera crew, we had to stay in one location for the session. Also, it was 1:30pm. Okay, enough of that...here are some photos :) The first photo was taken by the awesome April Nienhuis.

Parisa & Emerson's Los Altos History Museum Wedding

I'm sure Parisa gets introduced like this a lot, but I'm not going to be the exception. Parisa is dubbed Google's Security Princess and was named to Forbes 30 under 30 list. You can read about her awesomeness here in a great CNN article. I'll admit that I totally stalked her and read about her when she first reached out to me. Surprisingly, or maybe not so, Parisa is almost extremely laid back, sweet, and funny. I felt so at ease with she and Emerson when we first met at their engagement session. On their wedding day, they each proved that the goal for their wedding was to not just put on a pretty party, but to give their guests a truly fun and memorable experience. There were personal touches around ever turn, including the photo booth that Emerson made completely by hand in their backyard, the lemons used for the place cards that came from the tree in their backyard, and the froyo at the reception since that's where they went on their first date and also where Emerson proposed. Although both vegans, they treated their guests to amazing food including fish tacos and condiments made by family members. Oh a selfish note, I am so happy that Parisa wore a gorgeous flowy gown by Sarah Seven and her hair down. It was a slightly windy day which added an air of romance to their photos. As the sun set, we enjoyed a loving and gracious speech by Parisa's father and laugh-out-loud funny speeches by Parisa's two best friends and four of Emerson's. They danced the night away and their guests showed off their mad dance floor skills (I'd totally die if I tried half of the things they did).

Parisa and Emerson, thank you for allowing me to photograph your wedding. You truly were dream clients in every day :)

Catering: Blue Heron
Cake: Satura Cakes
Bridal Gown: Sarah Seven
Bouquet: Succulently Urban
DJ: Henry S. Kim
Photographer: Bre Thurston

Blair + Thurston: The Photography Retreat

Elena Blair and I are so excited to announce that we are hosting a 2 day photography retreat in Malibu, CA on February 4-6, 2016! We have created a website to share all of the details, blairandthurston.com Check it out!! For 2 days we will host a small group of photographers for a girls-weekend style retreat, complete with massages, yoga, and a chef prepared meal. On the photography front, we will be discussing and demonstrating how we each create photos that are emotive, joyful, and tell a story. This is not a time to photograph a beautiful model that is professionally styled, instead we will be shooting real people so that you can take home what you learn and use it for your own clients. We believe that the most beautiful photo is one where emotion and connection takes center stage. We will have two sessions lined up where we will show you what we do and then allow you to photograph the subjects. Once we are back to the house, we will upload our images, discuss them, and edit them. Both of us will go over our editing workflow and why we feel that simple edits are the best match for our style of photography. We will be offering full critiques for all attendees, we will share our business philosophies and why we have both opted for the flat-rate model, and mentor anyone who would like help with business practices.

Our goal for this retreat is for all attendees to leave inspired, rejuvenated, and excited about photography. This will be a place to create new friendships, bond over our mutual love for photography, and learn through hands-on experiences.

This is a full business write off where you get to hang out by the ocean in a beautiful house, drink wine around a couch at night with friends, and delve into photography. I don't know about the rest of you, but I'm really freaking excited ;)

Registration opens on Monday, Sept 21st at 10am. Spaces are very limited. I hope you join us!