Jerry Ghionis + Roadtrip to Cleveland + Mini How To!

Wow, so this past week was pretty awesome. For my birthday, my loving husband, Fred, treated me to a workshop with world-renowned wedding photographer, Jerry Ghionis, who I believe is the MacGyver of photography heheehe!  He's a genius!  Anyway, I saw him first during The Power of Passion tour with Sandy Puc and was instantly enamored (in a photography sense) with his style, his charisma, and all that he brings to the table when it comes to his friggin' awesome wedding photography.  2 weeks ago I heard about the workshop in Ohio, and next thing I know, I'm traveling in a rented Dodge Charger with my best friend, Grace, whom I am so grateful to for agreeing to come with me on my trip!!  She's my soulfriend, and I love her!  Unfortunately, the hubby couldn't come b/c he's saving up his PTO, but that's cool, we plan to have a trip for his birthday in a month or so! :)

First, a few things about the workshop.  Normally, Jerry doesn't do 1-day workshops, but this was to raise money for Akron's Children's Hospital in collaboration with Skip Cohen who has been nothing but a great help to me when it comes to building my photography business.  He has a podcast with Scott Bourne called "Going Pro" and for you photographers who are just starting out or may even be well established, I think there's something in these free podcasts for everyone... they broadcast 3 times a month and you can find them on iTunes!  Anyway, I commend Skip and Jerry for helping such a great cause and am thankful I got to be a part of it!

Jerry's workshop, while it was only a day, was amazing and definitely worth the 7-8 hour drive!  I already am planning to attend his 5-day workshop next year, I'm hoping there will be one in Philadelphia HEHEHEHE... we shall see!  The things he does with light is amazing... and with posing especially.  The way he is able to bring out certain emotions and expressions is so great, and I hope to be able to do the same as well!  I learned so much.. I didn't take any pics really, moreso video so I can keep watching it over and over again.  It was more about watching him at work and having him explain what hes doing as opposed to us taking pics to build our portfolio.  All the more I just took everything in and thought about what would work for me in terms of what I want to accomplish in my own photography, and new things I'd like to try as well.  Jerry's albums are awesome as well - simple, but the images speak volumes... so he doesn't feel there's a need for all that extra graphic stuff or anything too busy that it would take away from the images themselves.

Anyway, as a result of this, I received complimentary admission for the upcoming Skip's Summer School in Las Vegas, from July 31 to August 3!  I am psyched!!! My fellow photographers, you should definitely go if you can, $279 is really not that much to pay for 3+ days of awesome speakers, top names in the photography industry!

Anyway, here are some images from an evening in Cleveland.

There's also a mini "how to" but I guess it's more about.. what white balance can do to a landscape kind of... See below!

Hmmm... gotta love my hair, this is why I stay behind the camera LOL!

Hundreds of bird were congregating behind the building on the left!

Mini How To! 
To give a sky more blues/purples - you can try setting your camera's white balance to Tungsten (light bulb) instead of cloudy or daylight. 

This is cloudy WB:

This is tungten WB:

 Big puddles are fun!

Cloudy WB:

Tungsten WB!  So .. it depends on your taste!

Everything was closing around 10pm in Cleveland and we were like - that's lame!  But then we turned a corner and saw this on E. 4th Street!  RANDOM!!