If you didn’t make it to the Photography Session at BlogHer 08 this year, I wanted to make sure you got the Cliff Notes! Try some of these tips out and you’ll see your blog photos shine even brighter! We’ll start somewhat easy, get a little more technical and then end easy.

1. Define Emotion: When trying to decide if an image should be black and white vs color, ask yourself if b/w will help define the emotion. Sidenote: Brian and I shoot every thing in color and in RAW format. We don’t use the presets in the camera for b/w images. We make all those changes after the shoot in post process.

Example: I love this fun shot of dad and his boys. But when we see it in black and white, I feel like the emotion on dad’s face is much more defined.

2. Fill the Frame: Think about the Third’s Principle and Make Sure Your Background has Purpose

If you were to break your frame into thirds, is every third filled with something that accentuates the story of the photo? The story of the photo above is really about Blaze and his curiosity, where I decide to place Blaze (in what third of the picture frame) makes a big difference. I like his curiosity poking out from the bottom corner. This subject of framing, composition and the Third’s Principle is also covered in more depth on our DVD 1, Refuse to Say Cheese!

3. Less is More: See if you can capture a shot without any facial expressions, yet still have strong emotion. Brian is the master at this!

4. How Blurry Do You Want Your Background? The lower your aperture/fstop, the more blur in your background. The image below was shot at a 2.8 fstop. Check your lens to see how low your fstop will go. To enjoy the blur effect, you are going to want a lens that drops down to 2.8 or even lower.

Portrait Mode (the lady’s head icon) is essentially giving you a lower aperture automatically. But you can have fun and take control by switching to Aperture Priority Mode. This means you pick the degree of blur (by picking your fstop) and the camera decides the shutter speed for you. The subject of aperture, shutter speed and ISO are all covered in depth on DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box!

5. How Low Can You Go with Your ISO? The lower your ISO, the better your color saturation.

The image above was at a 100 ISO during “sweet light”. Sweet Light is that time of night when the sun has just set and the sky is the bluest it will ever be during the night (lasts about 15-20 minutes). Brian shot this using a tripod, low ISO, higher aperture for more detail instead of blur and a shutter speed that stayed open for 4-5 seconds. This example is a night shot, but we try to shoot at a 100 ISO whenever possible, day or night.

6. AI Servo is the Secret for Swinging! If you want shots of your kids on the swing or riding bikes, try your AI Servo setting because it will lock focus on your subject if they are moving toward you or away from you. For photo examples, go back to the Training Wheels post! These photos were all shot in AI Servo mode. Or here is a favorite wedding example.

7. No-nonsense Tips to Flash Lighting! The secret to using an external flash is where you point your flash head (yep, it moves. :)). As Brian would say, “Think of holding a super ball and wanting to hit your subject in the head with it. What wall should you throw your super ball against so that it bounces back and hits the subject in the face?” (Isn’t that great of Brian. That’s what he’s thinking when taking pictures of a bride! How can I hit her in the face with a super ball!)

Example #1: This is from the other night and the flash is pointing right at Pascaline and Blaze. See those nasty shadows around them and the black cave effect behind them? Yuck! Blaze looks like someone took charcoal from the fireplace and blew it on him.

Example #2: I took my flash head and instead of pointing it at them, I pointed it straight up at the ceiling. The effect is better, but I don’t usually like to bounce off the ceiling because of the shadows it can create under the eyes. You can see how it accentuates dark circles under her eyes, but it is way better than Example #1. Yet, we can get even better!

Example #3: Brian loves to aim his flash head off to the side with a slight tilt. He’s aiming that “super ball” where the wall meets the ceiling. Does that make sense? It brings back a nice side lighting that can look similar to lamp light or window light. Ohhhh, that is way better!

Example #4: This one is my favorite way to use a flash. I like to turn the flash head and point it straight behind me. The only downside is people will tell me all night at a wedding reception that my flash is backward. But the upside is that I get this wonderful, flattering light on the subject’s face. AND, no shadows friends!! What a difference between Example #1 and #4!

Recipe settings for using an external flash? We often have our ISO at 800, our Shutter Speed at 1/60 or 60th of a second and Aperture around 4.5-5.6 (depending on the shot). Try it out at home. External flash is WAY easier than you would ever think! You can totally do this!

8. Play, play, play with your Shutter Speed. If you need more available light then slow your shutter speed down. If you need less light speed it up. The key is to stop feeling intimidated by your camera and just play. Mistakes are necessary when getting better at photography. The subject of Shutter Speed and shooting in Manuel is talked about a lot more in DVD 2, Beyond the Green Box, with exercises for you to try too!

If I speed the Shutter Speed up on this image, then there is less light. If I slow the Shutter Speed down there is more light and you would probably see less and less of the outdoor furniture behind Pascaline.

9. Three Keys to Post Process for Me Ra and Brian…I keep it simple because I don’t have a lot of time to spend in Photoshop. I may apply actions, but at the very least I do these three things.

#1 Add Contrast

#2 Decide if image should be BW or stay in Color

#3 Add a soft vignette around the outer edges. The vignette setting is easy to use in Lightroom.

10. Pick ONE Tip at a Time. Every year Brian and I pick on thing to work on. One year it was working on improving our color images because most of us see in color so how can we make a color image stand out even more? One year, we focused on Off Camera Lighting.

Remember, one thing at a time. Otherwise you get overwhelmed and miss out on how much fun photography is.

Mistakes are necessary when getting better at photography–mistake away!!

Where to go and what to do if you want more photography exercises and tips?

We cover these subjects and much, much more in depth at our workshops. Chicago has a couple spaces left if you are in the area, and we may open one up for early December too! (are there still December takers? if so, email me at mera@merakoh.com)

Can’t make it to a workshop? You can check out the DVDs mentioned above. We get amazing feedback every week from people watching our DVDs and trying out the exercises! Sidenote: We realized late last night that our website host didn’t tell us it had updated things in our shopping cart. This means that since last Wed no one has been able to finalize a purchase. BROTHER! No wonder the sales were not happening, it seemed unusual but you know how you get busy with stuff and then leaving for San Fran, we totally forgot. Anyway, such is life. We poured ourselves a glass of wine and got to the bottom of the issue. All fixed now–for real!

Want a free option? You can check out all the Photography Tips for Moms that I’ve posted! There are over 102 posts in that category so have fun!! And don’t forget to send me some of your results!

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New deadline for WATER photo contest is Monday, July 28th at midnight PST.

To enter our new Photo Contest for July, send your image as an attachment to contest@merakoh.com. The theme is Water. Any thing that has to do with water is welcome!

Fatherhood Finalist will be announced this week! (refresh Lauren, refresh! :))

To see our day job , visit here.

Sorry for the delay to all our new BlogHer friends!

The Refuse site is back up and running where you can find our instructional DVDs, 101 Kits and info on our upcoming Chicago Workshop.

xoxo, Me Ra

Brian and I are back from the most wonderful weekend in San Francisco!

On Friday night, we met some of the women who are in my Next Octave coaching group (and their great husbands) for dinner. Brian got to meet these amazing women in person, and we all talked for hours. It was a perfect dinner! Thank you ladies!

Next came Saturday: Day Two of BlogHer 08! Hundreds of women from all over the country came to San Francisco for the annual BlogHer Conference. I was honored to join in the fun and teach a photography workshop to these amazing, beautiful blogging superstars!

I would say 98% of the sessions were panel discussions with 3-4 women bloggers up front speaking. But the BlogHer staff was kind enough to let me to do the photography session solo, and we were packed out with women sitting on the floor and standing outside the doorways! The enthusiasm they had for taking better photos was wonderful!

(I just love how Brian tilted the camera to capture this little baby’s eyes. :))

This picture is to fun not to share. I was giving out door prizes of Refuse to Say Cheese, Beyond the Green Box, the Portrait 101 Kit, and Adobe’s Lightroom. When I held up the Portrait 101 Kit to give away, the two women in the front went crazy over it. See what I mean, this was a super fun audience!

BlogHer had posted on their site months back the question, “What do you want to hear about from Me Ra Koh at BlogHer 08?” We posted four different topics I could speak on and asked them to vote. The response was so diverse that I decided to mix all four topics and created a talk called “The Top Ten Tips that Shape Our Images.” Assuming the levels of photography would be super diverse, I started out easy for the beginners in the room and then got more and more difficult for the more advanced people in the room.

A number of you have asked me to post the outline from the session. Great idea! Check back tomorrow because not only will I post the outline, but I’ll post some of the image examples too.

Aside from the fun of getting to speak at BlogHer, I also got to catch up with some of the wonderful ladies I met when I spoke at the Sony’s Mommy Blogging Event! It was great fun to see them again and catch up! Becoming more acquainted with the blogging world has been fascinating and the Sony Mommy Bloggers are nothing short of amazing!

And to top it off, Tracey Clark and I finally got to meet in person! Yeah!

Tracey is such a kindred spirit. She is the founder of Shutter Sisters, an author, a wonderful photographer, mama and beautiful wife. We had such fun talking that Brian and I almost missed our flight home. In fact, the flight ended up being delayed and that is the only reason we didn’t miss it! But our only regret is we didn’t get to hook up with Garrett and Rick! Next time you guys, we still need to experience Garrett’s cooking! (Great shots of Justin Timberlake! Way to go you guys!!!)

But I know what is on all your minds. Your waiting to hear what Batman has to do with any of this blogging craziness. Okay, I’ll get to the real meat of today’s post.

Brian and I bought tickets for Batman on Saturday night. The theater was in a mall downtown. We got there an hour early and decided to do some window browsing. After fifteen minutes we decide to get our seat “early”. Okay, whatever! The lady says we need to get in line by the windows. Sure. No problem. But wait, the line runs all along the windows on the main floor, goes up to the 2nd floor, 3rd floor and wraps around the whole 4th floor! People in the front of this mammoth line had been there since 7pm! Our showing was 10:30pm. The math kills me! They had been waiting in line for over three hours!! Serious.

Assuming we’d be sitting in the front row, the line actually continued for quite some time after us. I think our theater held 1000 people because somehow we ended up getting good seats! But word of caution, this movie is on the dark side. Not for kids in the least. And Joker is so convincing that he creeped me out. But Brian, oh boy, Brian was in heaven. Don’t forget, he is the actual Bruce Wayne (aka Batman) in disguise as Brian, Me Ra Koh’s husband.

p.s. Our product’s site, Refuse to Say Cheese, went down today. I know a lot of you from the conference were hoping to purchase the DVDs and 101 Kits on line. We should have the site back up soon! Thanks for understanding. (Don’t you just love the timing of sites going down? :))

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To enter our new Photo Contest for July, send your image as an attachement to contest@merakoh.com. The theme is Water. Any thing that has to do with water is welcome.

To see our day job , visit here.

For more fun photo exercises, check out our popular Instructional DVDs Refuse to Say Cheese , our 101 Kits for starting or expanding a business in photography, or for details on spots left in our upcoming Chicago Workshop , click on the words of your choice!

My little wifey and our kiddies mama asked me to post where and when she’s planning on having dinner in Denver tonight.

If you want to get some food inside the Whole Foods Market deli, Me Ra will meet you at the outside tables and chairs depending on how long the photo shoot goes today. Below I posted the address, time and links for directions.

Where: Whole Foods Market 870 S Colorado Blvd, Denver, CO 80246-2014

When: June 22, at 4:30 or 5:00 PM (depending on how long the photo shoot is).

Have a great dinner and ask her some REALLLLYYYY hard questions!!!! Thanks!!!

This little mama is headed this morning to do a photo shoot in Colorado!

This is so last minute, but why not throw it out there–sometimes last minute stuff is fun, right!

I have a couple open hours on Sunday (early evening) before I catch my flight home. Are there any photographers who would like to meet up for dinner? We get so many emails every day from photographers and newbies with such great questions, and I feel bad that I can’t answer them all. So I thought if any of you are in Denver and want to meet face to face over dinner, we could tackle some of those questions in person.

If your interested, post a comment in today’s post AND send Brian an email (brian@merakoh.com)! Since Brian’s staying back with the kiddos, I’m going to have him figure out the place to meet and time to meet. Once he gets your email, he’ll solidify details and email you all back.

Yeah! Can’t wait to meet some of you!

Thank you so much for all the FUN and HILARIOUS posts on the Loser Mom blog post! Your comments and stories were such a kick to read! If you haven’t read them yet, you must! These moms will let you know you are NOT a Loser Mom but instead, you’re in great company. And FYI, Blaze didn’t cry before swim class today! It’s amazing how far you can bribe a kid with a package of M&Ms!

If you answered “yes” to the first question of being a photographer, and “yes” to the next question of being married, and “yes” to ANY of the questions after that… you are going to love this announcement.

Jeff and Julia Woods have decided to do something gutsy in the photography industry. Instead of doing a photography workshop for photographers, they have decided to do a workshop that focuses on strengthening marriages in the photography industry. I told you–it’s super gutsy and super wonderful!

When Brian and I first started our photography business, I felt overwhelmed at the sheer fact that I was married and a mom. How would I ever build a business that would get notice when a majority of the photographers around me were single? I soon realized that Brian and I needed to make intentional effort to befriend other married couples in the industry. We needed to know we weren’t alone. We needed to know it wasn’t “to late in life” for us to start building this dream.

The “feeling alone” part can be so heavy on a marriage and new business. Jeff and Julia have a heart to encourage and inspire those marriages who are feeling weighed down.

They are calling it the One Workshop: side by side 247.

Check out the lineup of speakers that are coming!!

Dane and Tami Sanders will be speaking. I can’t say enough good stuff about Dane and Tami. They have definitely been an anchor of friendship in the industry for me and Brian. Their an amazing couple of integrity and also parents to four beautiful kids!

Stephen and Jen Bebb are also speaking! They were voted as one of the Top Ten Studios in the World by American Photo Magazine this last year. Check out their blog and you’ll see how cool these two cats are. Not only are they beautiful, talented, successful photographers, but they are also incredibly real, the refreshing no-nonsense kind of real. And, they can make you laugh so hard you’ll feel like you’re going to wet your pants which has to lend to why they are such great parents to their three boys!

These couples are only a piece of the goodness that One is going to give people.

So if you’re a…

photographer?

married?

feeling overwhelmed?

needing encouragement?

or maybe wondering if you should quit this whole business??

…hold that thought and sign up for One before all spots are gone.

p.s. If you don’t know Jeff and Julia Woods, the “nutshell version”…Beautiful couple, have a heart to encourage others, talented photographers, sponsored by Canon’s Explorers of Light, do all their speaking, workshops and extravagant weddings from a small town, home base in the Midwest. They have four kids and home-school them all. How can you not get inspired?

Jeff and Julia–thank you for putting your heart out there and doing a conference like this! Brian and I can’t say enough about how much we support you both! For married photographers to know they are not alone and their dream building is not in vain…in fact, it’s so NOT in vain that you would both take time away from your family to host a workshop to inspire people beyond their fears… Wow. We already owe so much to you both!

I sat down to write this post and Blaze looks and me and says, “Mama, sometimes when you talk you sound just like Batgirl!” My day is off to a great start! In Blaze’s world, this is a huge compliment.

So I asked Brian last night what the photo contest should be with all the suggestions made. And he looked at me as if to say “Are you kidding me? DUH! DADS!!”

I guess it’s dads! Or Brian said it could be called “Fatherhood” which may sound more inviting and dramatic.

The deadline for this photo contest is Monday, June 30th!! Send all your submissions to contest@merakoh.com!!

Your entries can either focus on a detail that speaks to dads…

or it can be an image with dad in it that somehow shows us what he’s like in his role.

Your image can be funny or serious. It’s totally up to you!

We’ll have a grand prize for the winner and prizes for the Random Voter Awards! All prizes to be announced! Lots of you have expressed loving these or those for the Random Voter Awards, so maybe we’ll do that again!

Send them in and inspire us!!

To get inspired by previous photo contests, check out the Photo Contest category. Lots of good stuff!

Quick question about the Seattle Workshop!

…are we still wanting one? Check this previous post out. It looks like 29 of you voted for August and 35 of you voted for December. We may be able to pull of both dates–still looking at the details. If we did the August 22-24th dates, how many of you the 29 voters can still make those dates?

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EARLY

Yep, that’s right!!! If you are taking advantage of the Early Bird Discount for our upcoming Chicago Workshop, use the coupon code EARLY when registering for the workshop. All caps and just one word, EARLY.

If you notice the time stamp on this blog posting, we are doing it a few hours earlier than we said we would. I hope you’ll forgive us for this because Brian has been throwing up and running a fever most the weekend, and we are exhausted! But, we wanted to make sure this went live for the morning because we’ve been getting your emails all weekend and love how excited you are! We thought it made the most sense to post it now instead of risking us missing the alarm clock.

ALL the juicy details are on our website at Refuse to Say Cheese! We’ve got 20 spots open, plus one reserved for the new Running on Empty Winner and another reserved for our fabulous Chicago hostess, Gretchen!! (thank you Gretchen for all your hard work!) I’ve been a push over in the past with letting more women in but this time I’m going to be strong. No begging! Ladies you TOTALLY know who you are! Don’t wait to sign up, just get it done and you won’t have to worry about not getting your spot.

The Early Bird Special means you get 20% off if you sign up before this Friday night at midnight (Pacific Time). This means the cost pp is $799 instead of the normal $999! For more details, check out the site! This is going to be one fantastic weekend together! Just the fact that we get to hold it inside the Fine Arts Building in downtown Chicago is killing me!!

Check out the colorful and beautiful courtyard! Are we going to go crazy doing live photo shoots in here or what?!!

Even the inside is warm and inviting!

To top it off our Monday Add On Day is going to be with the fabulous and famous Bob and Dawn Davis! You may know them for shooting weddings like this one,

Or there other clients like this wonderful lady,

I know a ton of you want to be a part of this day but for now we are holding these spots for workshop attendees only.

Once you are registered for the workshop, we will email you within a couple days and send you the link to register for the Add On Day with Bob and Dawn Davis. (This is a separate registration and the cost is $299 pp.) To check out another one of their blogs and see a fantastic video on Bob, click here! (Ron, you did it again!)

So hip-hip-HOORAY!!! We are coming to Chicago with three days of JAM PACKED good stuff!!

Brian and I can’t wait to meet you all!! Don’t hesitate to email us if you have any questions! mera@merakoh.com or brian@merakoh.com

To register for the Chicago Workshop, CLICK HERE!!!

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I’ve got a Chicago Workshop Announcement for you!!!

We have finalized our location, dates and even our guest speakers for the Add On Day are set up!!!

The Chicago Photography Workshop for Women will be on November 14th and 15th 2008 at the beautiful Fine Arts Building in downtown!!! AND for our Add On Day, we will be learning from the celebrity photographers Bob and Dawn Davis!!! (the sweetest, most amazing, humble, and talented husband/wife team who shot Eva Longoria’s wedding as well as special events for Oprah!!! Brian and I are so excited for you to experience these two!!! Check out their website and ALL the celebrity weddings these two have done. Their blog is pretty great too!) The Add On Day will be Monday, November 16th 2008 and open first to Workshop Attendees. The Add On Day is $299 pp.

So here’s the deal, we know there are more than twenty who wanted to sign up. We wanted to give you all a big heads up. Here it is…

Starting Monday morning at 6am we will begin the Early Bird Registration where you can get 20% off! This means instead of paying $999 for the 2 day workshop, you will be paying $799! The Early Bird Special will end on Friday, June 6th at midnight next week. So you’ve got all weekend, and five days next week to twist your husband’s arm a little harder. We are going to close the workshop at 20 women, plus one spot for the Running on Empty Winner. And I’m really going to keep it at this number this time no matter how persuasive some of you are (ladies, you know who you are! :)) (Please note: The Add On Day is not included in the Early Bird Special. And the DVD discount for workshops can’t be combined with this offer.)

There it is ladies!! We open Early Bird Registration for our first Chicago Photography Workshop on Monday morning!! YEAH!!!! We can’t wait to meet you in Chicago!!!

The last seven days have been an incredible journey. For those of you who played along in the guessing game of where I was last week, Amanda guessed it! I was at “The Next Octave” launch retreat with 9 AMAZING WOMEN. What is that exactly? I’ll be filling you in more as the next nine months go by, but here’s a framework. My business coach, Karen Buckley, and her business partner, Fay Freed, decided to start a new program where nine women come together for nine months. This was their first group, and they had invited each woman for different reasons. When I was invited I wasn’t sure if it was the right thing because our schedule is already so busy. The nine months would include a retreat in the beginning, a retreat in the end and then teleconference calls each month and business coaching sessions each month. The purpose of the group is to help each other go to the Next Octave in our businesses, life and love. Did I have time in my schedule to do this? How could I not make time in my schedule? The women were all fifteen plus years older than me, and I was afraid this would throw the dynamic off, but it didn’t at all. I feel like I just made nine new friends who are beautiful women with such incredible wisdom. They are all rich in resources and ideas. They have all led amazing lives and some of their businesses would blow your mind. So to come together for three days and take a close look at our femininity, what feminine wisdom is, how it applies to our businesses, and then to take apart our businesses and look for weaknesses/strengths and identify how to risk a bit more or dream a bit bigger…WOW…the conversations were unreal. Without expecting to, I came back a changed person–or more appropriately, a changed woman. I flew home from San Fran Thursday night. Brian and I repacked the suitcases and got the kids out of bed the next morning at 6am to catch our flight to San Diego. Our San Diego Photography Workshop was about to start, and I was so FILLED up and ready! And wow, what an INCREDIBLE group of thirty women!! Carey, Brian and I had an amazing time!

My time in San Fran was about making the scary choice to climb a little higher and water my soul so my roots can grow a bit deeper. Then to bring all that wonderful energy and passion to a group of thirty woman who have all come to our workshop for similar reasons…the intensity of all our excitement, joy, tears and confrontation of insecurities reminded me of being a little girl and learning to climb trees and then pushing myself to climb just a little higher and then a little higher again.

When was the last time you went tree climbing? When was the last time you gave to yourself? When was the last time you pushed yourself to reach a little higher and felt the fear of falling at any minute? I have to tell you that when we do our workshops women often tell me that they cried the first night. It’s as if their emotions have been on hold, and they have made a step into the unknown and don’t know if this step was a huge mistake, the right thing, safe or unsafe… My first night at the Next Octave was the exact same experience. I showed up the first night at the Wine and Appetizer/Meet and Greet and met this group of women that I would be working with for the next nine months. Just like those of you who come to our photography workshops, I didn’t know any of these women. Would I like them? Would they like me? Would I learn anything? Would I be too far behind and slow everyone else down? That first night I went back to my hotel room and totally cried. I felt like I was either climbing the wrong tree or had made the biggest make to think I could climb this high. It had to be one of the two. But I stuck it out and in the next couple of days decided to stay at their homes instead of the hotel, decided to open myself, risk a little and in the end made friendships that I will have for a lifetime (whether they know that or not :)). And I have a feeling that the thirty women who came to our workshop this weekend have made a handful of their own lifetime friendships. What I forgot in all this that I didn’t remember until the end–tree climbing is also incredibly EXHILARATING!! Not to mention the unexpected view from the tree top! For those of you who want to take a baby step in tree climbing, Karen Buckley is going to be a featured Guest Columnist on our new forum that will be going LIVE in the next week or two. She will be writing wonderful monthly columns on a private thread within the forum. It will be open to all the moms who purchase our Mom’s 101 Survival Kit. Karen is an AMAZING resource, and I’m so excited she wants to share with you! If you check out her and Fay’s website, they have decided to do lead another group of women into their Next Octave. I think they’re going to offer a three month and nine month program, so you can check out their site for more info on that. You’ll find all kinds of yummy things there! And if you are one of my mom’s or a married woman or a single woman who has a passion for photography and you know you want to climb this “photography tree” a bit higher (even though it terrifies you to death!), we have finalized our dates for the November photography workshop in Chicago. We will be releasing early bird registration this week! I’ll let you know what day this will go live so you can plan to tree climb with us in Chicago! Now off to the pool! Today is the first day of our little family vacation in San Diego, and the sun is finally deciding to show her face! Yeah!