Krista and Kelby, once again, thank you for the honor of photographing your beautiful wedding.

If you would like to see more of Krista and Kelby’s wedding, click here.

It was a super hot day out but these girls were troopers as well as Kristin & Chad, our models for the day. I didn’t shoot a lot, but I thought I should share some of the images of this super sweet couple. Thank you two so much!

If you are interested in attending a Fancy Camera Workshop, please e-mail me at cristi@cristiowen.com or leave a comment below. Thanks and I’ll see you soon

I’m announcing the next date for my Fancy Camera Workshop… May 30th!

This workshop is for everyone who owns a Fancy Camera (one with a manual setting) and would like to know all about it and take much better pictures with it. If you want to purchase this as a gift to someone, I can mail you a gift certificate for the workshop! This would be an awesome Mother’s Day gift.

This will be my third workshop, and I’ve made some fun changes based on the suggestions from previous attendees. Here’s the gist of it:

AM: I will talk your ears off! We will cover the technical stuff and the fun stuff with plenty of time for questions.

noonish: We will eat lunch

early PM: We will go out and practice everything we discussed in the morning. I will have “models” for a mock photoshoot, but I will also have the attendees photograph each other. This will give everyone a chance to take control over lighting/background/composition and practice directing their own models, as well as give everyone some new pictures for their facebook profile

PM: I will show you all my images, pick a few favorites, post-process one or two images and then give everyone time to go through their images. You will pick two or three favorites, post-process them and we will have a group critique of everyone’s images.

Yes, it’s a really long day, full of learning, lots of laughing, sharing and more learning. I hope you are excited to join me! There are 10 spots open.

What is it?

A workshop to help you take full advantage of your fancy camera. You know, the camera you paid a lot of money for and have been using on auto, AV or TV and not getting the results you want (or should be getting) by using your M (manual) setting.

Here’s an overview of our day together:

• Introductions
• The Technical Stuff (exposure)
• The Fun Stuff (compositional elements)
• Equipment: What’s What
• LUNCH (included)
• Assignment/Hands-on Practice Outside
• Post Processing
• Sharing of Images/Critique
• Q&A

Who is it for?

Anyone who has a fancy camera and wants to take better pictures.

When is it?

May 30th, 2010 | 9 am to 7 pm

Where is it?

Chandler, AZ.

How much?

$110

How many people?

I want everyone attending to get all their questions answered, so there is a maximum of 10 attendees at the workshop.

What do I need to bring?

• Notebook and something to write with
• Any digital camera will work as long as it has a M (manual) mode
• Your Camera’s Manual
• Don’t forget your camera’s digital memory card (CF, SD, MMC, xD, MS, MD, SM)
• Don’t forget to charge your camera’s battery
• A card reader or your camera’s cable to download photos
• A laptop (very helpful if you have one, but not mandatory)
• If you don’t have photoshop, you can download a free trial version prior to the workshop

Want to read about the other two Fancy Camera Workshops?

Click here, here, or here.

Want to sign up or want more details?

Email me at cristi@cristiowen.com

**EDIT: Hi everyone, the Fancy Camera Workshop for May 30th has been sold out. If you are interested in attending a Fancy Camera Workshop, please email me and I can notify you when the next date is announced. Thanks so much!**

Tassie and TJ:

Here are some excerpts from their entry:

Their story:

T.J. and I met while attending the University of Idaho.  T.J. was a football player and I was on the track team so we saw each other around the athletic facilities several times before we officially met. While at a mutual friend’s house, T.J. started up a conversation with me. We talked that night for over 2 hours.  We talked about religion, family, morals/values, sports, and life ambitions.  We even found out that we had the same initials (T.J.).  That part has been very confusing for us since we both get called T.J. by our families.  I gave him and a friend a ride home that night and after I dropped him off I felt great.  This was the kind of person I had been looking for.  I knew that I wanted to end up with someone just like him.

We were becoming better friends all the time. One night after a long conversation I told T.J. that I thought he might be my “soul mate.”  To my surprise he didn’t run away at that.  The problem was that I was moving back to Montana so we knew nothing was going to happen.  It “happened” that T.J. and I were going to both be in Spokane for New Year’s Eve.  Just before Christmas I received a dozen roses with a note saying that he couldn’t wait to see me in Spokane.  We spent New Year’s together that year.

The proposal:

For our 4 year anniversary this New Year’s Eve after dinner T.J. asked me to walk over to a gazebo with him which was across a bridge.  I agreed even though it was snowing and I was not dressed for the weather.  I had purchased a new pair of red suede high heels, they were cute but not made for the snow or walking.  But I made the trek with only a couple of near falls.  When we got over to the gazebo T.J. started to tell me how he couldn’t imagine life without me and how he was glad that we are so perfect for each other.  He said that I was his soul mate and that he wanted to spend the rest of his life with me.  Then before I knew what was happening he was down on one knee asking me to marry him.  I of course started to cry and asked if he was serious.  He said he was and I just started hugging and kissing him.  He reminded me that I hadn’t answered him yet and I told him of course I would marry him.  So he put a ring on my finger and made it official.  By the way the ring is amazing.  It is from Ireland and it is a claddagh ring.  Did I mention that it has 34 diamonds.  It is so perfect for me and it symbolized our whole relationship.  I am the happiest person in the whole world to get to be marring my “soul mate.”  We really are meant for each other and I knew it from the first time we talked.   I don’t think life gets much better than that!!!!

Their wedding:

We will be having 400-500 guests and a lot of this is because we both come from big Irish Catholic families.  Our reception is being held in an airplane hanger  because there isn’t anything else big enough to hold that many people.  It is going to be simple but a lot of fun.

Tassie and TJ, I am soo excited to be photographing your wedding for you. Congratulations and Happy Valentine’s Day!

And  here are a few shots from our awesome day together. Courtesy of my husband. Thanks, Curt!

Shooting in full sun is not ideal, but sometimes it’s your only option. Therefore we practiced some of that as well:

I love everyone’s commitment here. So glad Curt captured this as I was busy answering questions and never even saw it happen:

We got pretty lucky with this blue garage door to add a little color to some of our images:

Dustin and Teresa seem pretty happy with their new-found skills:

During panning practice:

I don’t think I can ever fully express how much I loved everyone who came to the workshop. You were all so great and I hope from the bottom of my heart that you enjoyed our day together and walked away with not only knowledge, but excitement for what the future holds for you and your photography.

You can see some of the Fancy Camera Workshop images here.

This last Saturday I had my first official Fancy Camera Workshop and I feel like I am still recovering from it. The whole day felt like things were moving 10x times faster than normal life speed. I’ve taught many community college classes before, provided countless nutrition presentations for a variety of groups, from children to elderly, from 5 people in the audience to 500. I thought I was more than ready for the workshop, but this was completely different than anything I’ve ever done before.

I packed a whole lot of information in one day and trying to create images while answering questions and trying to make sure every important piece of information is covered can certainly make your head spin. But I have to say I am soo happy with how things turned out. Some of the attendees had literally just bought their cameras the week of the workshop and walked away shooting perfectly exposed and very well composed images on manual setting! In just one day!

Four our photo shoot location, I thought it would be great to show everyone that you can create some really great images in really terrible places. So after the lecture part of the day we just literally walked out to the hotel’s parking lot where the workshop took place and used that as our photo shoot location. I was really impressed with what everyone was able to create.

I also need to give my best friends, Tom and Trisha, a lot of credit for being so adorable and patient with us. I love you guys! Here are some images of my favorite couple:

I think this series is just so cute:

It’s always fun to practice a little panning, and with sunflare it’s even better!

After the shoot we went back inside and talked a little bit about post-processing and had a great critique of everyone’s images. Here are a couple of images processed a little differently just for fun:

Thank you so much to everyone who came. It was wonderful meeting all of you. Please stay in touch as I can’t wait to see what else you will create! For some behind the scenes images, click here.

What is it?

A workshop to help you take full advantage of your fancy camera. You know, the camera you’ve been using on auto and not getting the results you want (or should be getting) by using your M (manual) setting.

Here’s an overview of our day together:

• Introductions
• The Technical Stuff (exposure)
• The Fun Stuff (compositional elements)
• Equipment: What’s What
• LUNCH (included)
• Assignment/Hands-on Practice Outside
• Post Processing
• Sharing of Images/Critique
• Q&A

Who is it for?

Anyone who has a fancy camera and wants to take better pictures.

When is it?

January 9th, 2010 (PLEASE NOTE DATE CHANGE)

9 am to 7 pm

Where is it?

Chandler, AZ.

How much?

$110

How many people?

I want everyone attending to get all their questions answered, so there is a maximum of 10 attendees at the workshop.

Want to sign up or want more details?

Email me at cristi@cristiowen.com

Want to read about the first Fancy Camera Workshop?

Click here.

Giving things away is kind of addicting and contrary to popular belief, it is actually quite selfish. It just feels so good to make someone else so happy!

So here are the details for the contest:

You must be having a great summer wedding in the state of Montana in 2010.

To enter the contest, simply email me your love story and all the details about your upcoming wedding. And don’t forget to tell me how you found out about the contest, your complete names, contact information and why you would like for me to photograph your wedding.  I would also love a photo of you two so I can post the winners on my blog!

I will announce the winners on Valentine’s Day (February 14th, 2010) right here on the blog.

What will you win?

9 hours of wedding day photography, a 3-month password protected online gallery with all your images and a DVD with high-resolution images. And as long as you are available when I am available I would also like to give you an engagement session and custom guest sign-in book with your photos from your engagement session!

Send your entry to: cristi@cristiowen.com

And because I believe it’s never too late to get what you want, the deadline to enter the contest is February 13th @ midnight (Montana time )

I can’t wait to read all your stories and meet the lucky winners

I am looking forward to a great summer in one of my favorite places in the world:

For a while now I have had a few friends and clients ask me to put together a class to teach them how to use their “fancy” DSLR cameras to its full potential. I thought it would be fun since I love to teach, but I didn’t give it too much more thought beyond that. Until, a past co-worker of mine emailed me and said I needed to put something together fast! Her brother’s wedding was only 3 weeks away and she wanted to put her camera to use and not be frustrated with the results.
Well… I guess I could put something together… How about a “Fancy Camera Workshop”?

I wasn’t sure if anyone else would show up, but they did and it was super fun!
We spent the whole morning talking about how to properly expose images using the manual setting and discussed some of the many different compositional elements used in photography. We had lunch and then headed out for some hands-on practice with our model, Luisa. I asked everyone to shoot all of their images on manual and to pick at least 3 different compositional elements to work on.
When we got back inside we talked about post processing and then shared our images and had a fun group critique.
I didn’t shoot much while we were out but here are some of my images (and my own homework):

Finding Patterns/Repetition:

Changing focal length (and I guess I cheated a little and changed my perspective a tiny bit):

Something unexpected:

Panning:
Foreground/Framing:

Wide-angle lens distortion:
Shadows:
Sun flare:
Changing perspective (from the photo above):
Here are Erin, Monika and Alicja practicing getting different perspectives of the same subject. I was cracking up when I saw this. By the way, Luisa is wearing shorts under her skirt
And here’s a very happy me with my very pretty daughter:
A huge thank you to everyone who came. You are all amazing! I had so much fun and learned so much myself. I know I just started in my journey of being a professional photographer not too long ago and I have such a long ways to become the photographer I want to be. However, I want to make sure I fully enjoy every step of the way there and I hope that I get to continue to share what I know with anyone who wants to learn.
And while I am on the topic of teachers I would like to send a huge and special thank you to my very first photography teacher and major source of inspiration, Roy Pope and to Jennifer Bowen for being the first photographer who gave me an opportunity to see first hand what it was like to be a wedding photographer and to fall in love with it . I am forever grateful to you two. Thank you.

Did you get something good JoJo? Funny story about Joanna. I met her earlier this year during a dinner at WPPI. We sat next to each other and clicked right away. She then told me she would be interested in becoming a part of Alpha Kappa Camera. A few months later, she came to Phoenix for Melissa Jill’s workshop and we got in touch via facebook. I picked her up at the airport the day before the workshop which happened to be mother’s day. She ended up spending that whole day with me and my whole family. So, basically, she’s practically family to me

Trina working it again:
I had to have some touristy Charleston pics. This one is by Trina:

I love it that Lisette captured this photo of me photographing Kara:
And here’s what I got. Gorgeous.
My shootsac’s 137th use: Carry Lisette’s shoes.
(Photo by Lisette)

I couldn’t end this post without a huge thank you to Shea who basically was our stylist for the day. Not only providing tips and touch -ups but also most of the clothes we all wore. You are awesome, girl!
(Photo by Lisette)

Afer we had been out there for a while and we were all walking back to our cars, Jasmine asked did you all think you got at least one shot that really represents your brand? Me and my big mouth said no. Oh, why do I do things like that? As I said it and felt like she was turning to me, I just wanted to run and hide but I couldn’t. She’s fast, really fast and she found me in the middle of the other 20 photographers. And she said, “well then let’s go back so you can get your shot”. I wanted to cry, but I didn’t. I felt horrible because I knew everyone was hot and ready to go. I felt bad because I knew Tiffany probably couldn’t wait to get out of those shoes. I felt bad because I was sure Mark was close to having a heat stroke in that suit. But under Jasmine’s order I walked back and prayed that everyone wouldn’t hate me. Then I got the shot below. I love the contrast of the super made-up for magazine look with their very real feelings. Thanks Jasmine for my first shoot with an audience and thanks everyone else for not throwing rocks at me on the way back to the car. I really appreciate it.
And as promised, check out my very own Donald Trump comb-over. And please, should you ever witness this on my head again in real life, please let me know. Thanks
P.S. The above photo was taken straight from Jasmine Star’s website, which gets 10,000 hits/day. Could it get any worse? Oh yeah, it could. I blinked!

From left to right: Kara Layne, Gisele Holloway, Annie Gerber, Brenda Eden, Katina Patriquin, Gretchen Knoblock, Rachael Earl, Kym Ventola, Angie Sloan and Me – taking the picture. Can anyone with mad photoshop skills please add me to this photo?? Thanks!

It’s always nice to be around people that don’t think anything of you taking pictures of chairs and napkins

We had a lot of fun at Sugar Bowl, getting to know each other, eating, giggling and of course taking pictures. After Sugar Bowl we split up into groups to take headshots of each other. I was with Annie and Kym an we had a really great time.

Here’s Annie:

Yes, she’s beautiful. I know. And I think you can probably tell from the photos but I just want to say that she is just soo nice and sweet too.

And here’s Kym. I LOVE Kym. Kym found out about our photogether when she went out to lunch with Melissa Jill. Melissa then called me and said she had met a photographer she thought I would get along really well with. She was soo right!
She’s absolutely beautiful and in this photo she reminds me of Kate Winslet (the upgraded version of course).


I am so happy to say that our photographers’ get together was a success! It was really great meeting everyone, sharing ideas and taking each other’s headshots.

I am really excited for what the future holds for us. I am looking forward to the friendships and our growth as photographers.

Thank you to everyone who came and I’ll see you all next month.

Make sure to check everyone’s blog and leave some comments. Every photographer loves blog comments.

Day 2 of the workshop I didn’t get to take any photos since I was the model for the mock bridal shoot. Please note the word model being used very loosely here as I couldn’t think of a more appropriate one . If you must, you can see photos from that day on Melissa’s blog or Amelia’s blog. Even though it was very cold, it was still a fun experience for me to be on the other side of the camera and be able to keep in mind what my clients go through. Not to mention I felt like I was on America’s Next Top model when they have a swimsuit photo shoot in the middle of the winter! The other really funny part was the look I got from the locals and tourists. Everything from a wave, to a honk or a completely puzzled look! What is that bride doing laying down, why does she have 7 photographers taking pictures of her, and where is the groom? Ha!

My good friend Amelia (sans hat):

Brandi from Arizona – How cute is she??:

Super stunning Trina from Utah:

That last night we went out on the town and it was soooo much fun! I didn’t bring my camera – which Amelia and I vowed to never go anywhere again without a camera, we even toasted to it -so I need to wait until Trina gets me the pictures from that night. We shamelessly stole her camera throughout the night and also shamelessly posed for her throughout the night. I can wait to tell you all about it.

It’s hard to put into words what an amazing experience it was to be here today. First of all, we are in Ireland which is so incredibly beautiful! Second, everyone who is here is just so nice and fun to spend time with.

I wanted to add a photo to the back of my new business cards but I’m having a really hard time choosing a photo. Help, please!
You can click on comments and vote for your favorite.

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Thanks I appreciate the help