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I'm finally able to share about the Katelyn James Workshop Experience that I attended last November! We were asked to hold off on sharing any images until Katelyn's were submitted for publication and I'm happy to report that they've been published on The Wedding Chicks blog!

I learned so much during the two days I spent with Katelyn and 11 other amazing female photographers! I was a little worried because the workshop was long (9 am - 9pm). I have the attention span of a flea, but I have to say it went by in a flash. I was inthralled in every word. I didn't want to leave when it was over, I wanted more! I had a good more 5 hours in me atleast.

I've attended several workshops and this by far was definitely the most informative. Katelyn shared everything! I was on information overload when I left, but I'm not complaining. I felt a bit lost about what I needed to do to grow my business and although I still have a long way to go this workshop helped me figure out the steps I needed to get started.

I'll admit I was hesitant to take the workshop because of the price. I went back and forth for a few days then just finally took a leap of faith and registered. I knew I walked in the door of Katelyn's home that it was going to be worth every penny and it was! I highly recommend this experience to other wedding photographers! There were so many things I learned, but I couldn't implement them all at once, so I'm going to share with you the top 5 that I was able to do right away and were game changers for me.

First,bBeing convinced to edit in Lightroom instead of Photoshop. I am so stubborn and spent endless hours learning Photoshop ignoring all the advice others gave me about making the switch. Katelyn spent some time showing us a few tricks in Lightroom and I decided to give it a shot. Instantly I went from spending 3-4 hours editing 50 pictures to 1 hour! What's even better is I was able to do this without having to spend 35 hours learning Lightroom! The tips Katelyn gave got me there. This has drastically improved how quickly I can get clients their images and have more time to work on the business aspect of things.

Second, changing my business name to my actual name. This was difficult for me because I was emotionally invested in Dia Marie Photography, but after taking Katelyn's advice I made the switch and couldn't be happier. It was definitely the right decision for me!

Third, posing. I really struggled in this area and the workshop has improved my posing techniques dramatically!

Fourth, Blog stomp. If you blog and post images and don't have it get it! It's around $50. You won't regret it! (Update: Blog Stomp as since introduced Album Stomp. You must have it).

Lastly, I was lucky enough to win (never happens to me by the way) an album from Leathercrafstmen! The album is worth over $400!! I didn't have a sample wedding album, so this was huge!

There are so many more things I took away from this experience and have been working hard to implement into my own business, but that would be a really long blog post.

Check out a few of the pictures I took during the stylized shoot. I was more concerned with listening to what Katelyn was teaching then taking actual photos, but I did get a few!