If you don’t know who Rachel Devine is you’re missing out. I think I began following her blog posts and photography a year or so ago although I feel like I’ve followed them for years. I identified instantly with her, because she has two daughters very close in age to Luella and Willa (she also has a son, but if you know me, you know there are no little boys anywhere in my family!). She writes about her life with young children in a warm and candid way that I admire, and photographs them in an way that I hope to emulate.

So, when I discovered that she was actually from Virginia and was coming all of the way here from her home in Australia to visit family and offer her first ever workshop, I decided I would really, really like to join in! If you know me, I’m not so much a “photo workshop” kind of girl. I am not new to photography as an art form, and some of the workshops I have seen advertised seem to be led by photographers who have less photographic experience than I do. Rachel is not this person. She has an extensive background in child fashion and commercial photography, not to mention the thousands of daily life captures that I have come to look forward to in my RSS feed, and has written a book on photographing children that has already pre-sold thousands of copies (and it won’t even be released until the spring!). I knew I could learn from her.

The day of the workshop, Rachel was kind and honest – an open book available to answer any questions we had (what she charges for commercial work, exactly how she goes through her editing workflow, how and why she sets up her facebook page, who she likes bests for printing her business cards, what Gemma’s favorite American Girl doll is – you get the idea!). We talked custom Kelvin, jpeg vs. RAW, backlighting, and how important the history of photography is to understanding what we do in our current work (…. exactly!!…).

Rachel gave us her favorite tips for successful kid shoots (with supplies we could purchase at target for under $5), and provided goodies galore for us to take home – all from companies that she trusts and uses herself. Honestly, I still haven’t even had a chance to go through all of the loot. We were welcome members of her hip camera club from here on out (no film pocket laden, green vested, camera guys in sight!).

Here are a few of the photographs I took of our cute kid models Piper, Hunter, Max and Gemma (of course), throughout the day…  ps – when Lu saw me editing a photo of Gemma she immediately exclaimed, “She has teeth just like ME!”

I think I was a little nervous to meet everyone, and by the time I had really settled in it was practically over. I would have loved to wake up the next morning, meet up with everyone and do it all some more! Thanks, Rachel. I learned so much and I am honored to be a part of your first workshop.

Now, if you would like to visit Rachel Devine’s blog yourself, click here. I saved it for the end as you are sure to get sucked in. :)