like a breath of fresh air

yan and her little ole fam way workshop.

she rolled into town, right into my home, and stayed for a weekend and the workshop — winning over

my kids, all the attendees, the models and everyone she met along the way.

there is a reason she has over 14k followers on instagram.

her personality is like a light….people are drawn to her  — her way of being complete honest about this crazy life in the lightest and quirkiest of ways.

that comes through in her images, her words, her being.

taken by yan (of me and noa)

she took the time to thoroughly go through each attendees portfolio beforehand and

really give it a thorough critique (like down to the pricing and email and all that) her comments were like that

truth you really knew deep down but had sort of glossed over and forgotten… and gave us all

very specific homework to us.  hard homework. homework that makes you think and improves your photography. im happy to say i took her comments to heart, changed

my website, my pricing, my emails and just like that, with a snap of the fingers, my booking percentage from my inquiries shot sky high.

sometimes you need someone professional and smart to just point out the obvious.

on the portfolio, she emphasized to only show the image you are 100% in love with. don’t post for any other reason. to be sincere and most importantly to be you.  and so many tips and ideas on building your portfolio so that you attract your ideal clients.

my images are not a true representation of the workshop. in that, there are only my truth.

yan doesn’t teach her to shoot like her.. she teaches you to shoot like you. so while the models are the same,

my shots are mine and the other attendees shots will look like theirs, and yans will look like yans.  refreshing.

yan’s key to family photography is to draw out emotion that they naturally experience later — the love, tenderness, laughter that comes

with family life. and she has a whole bag of tricks to share:  kissing game, teeth kiss, magic words, smelling — just to name a few.

yan shot a family in the workshop as she normally does it. but with a running commentary the whole time. explaining what she was doing and why. how she was posing, what she

was seeing, what she was looking for. the rhythm of the shoot, the interactions, the places she took a side step because of something she saw.  all transparent as could be.  and an eye opener.

easily one of my favorite things about her is her oddity — her outside of the box-ness — call it quirk, humor, or just plain radness.  her advice? “shoot it regular, shoot it at a weird crop, shoot it at some odd negative space composition” all from one pose.

once a family is posed? wait… “it will all fall apart in the truest of ways”  easily the best thing she said all day.

catch that inbetween time, when they start laughing and squirming and being themselves.

her focus is really on the relationship between the mom and kids.  dad is in there too but mom is the star. and she makes mom look like a star and teaches you those tricks too.

what is really best about yan is what she said herself. she has a very high tolerance to look stupid.

which translates into her really being herself and failing and laughing and reaching higher and opening up and letting you in for the ride.

she takes those things we all think and do and says and does them out loud but in a oh so cute, quirky and funny way.

so you stop and say hey.. she is just like me !

she’s the kind of girl you think.. oh, she could be my friend.  sincerely. and then boom, she is.

so was it worth it? oh boy it was.
the portfolio review before the workshop even started was worth my price of admission.
and really? do yourself a favor and schedule a family sesh with yan while she is town for the workshop.
i did.