A day with Jasmine Star {theWORKSHOP}

19/2/2015

Jasmine Star Workshop, Sydney Jstarworkshop, Jasmine Star Sydney, Jasmine Star, Heidi Horton Photography, Intercontinental Double Bay

As most will know (mainly because it's all I've been talking about for months now!) I flew out to Sydney this week for a full-day workshop with Orange-County wedding photographer Jasmine Star and her husband JD.

I found Jasmine online when I first started out in photography in 2011, because of her dog Polo actually. My main model when beginning was my dog, Henry, and Jasmine takes some awesome photos of her dog which is how I found her blog.

When Matt & I made the decision to start planning a trip to America, I desperately wanted to be able to incorporate one of Jasmine's limited workshops into my itinerary, however ironically Jasmine & JD in the meantime decided to host one of their branding & wedding photography workshops in Sydney, Australia! Needless to say I absolutely jumped at the chance to see them closer to home.

Jasmine's workshops are limited to 20 attendees and I was so honoured to make it, although I basically didn't sleep for a week while I waited patiently for registrations to open! Jasmine put us in touch with the other 19 attendees from Australia & New Zealand and for a few months we have been following each other's work, talking about details of the workshop on Facebook, mainly what to bring, what to wear & organising dinner dates the evening before the workshop. So as I flew out to Sydney on the Tuesday I felt like I already knew these girls quite well & I feel having finished the workshop that I have made some new friends & will definitely keep in touch with these talented women.

Heck I was nervous about the workshop. Not only was I flying alone for the first time ever, but I honestly felt a little overwhelmed. Most of the girls were full-time, well developed photographers and here was me still trying to get the courage to take that leap of faith!

The workshop itself was a day of discussing our businesses, branding and then Jasmine challenged us to a styled bridal shoot in the hot, harsh midday Sydney sun! Jasmine was a wonder to watch as she worked with the models and was constantly telling us her settings so we could see exactly how she was getting her images. After the workshop we discussed post-processing and had heaps of time to ask questions.

I took away so much from this workshop that last night my head was spinning with ideas & thoughts. Thank you, thank you, thank you Jasmine & JD for sharing your time & talent with me & I feel truly blessed to have had the opportunity to meet such a fabulous group of photographers. A few Jasmine Star hugs later, a selfie with her of course (check it out on instagram!) and as I sit here about to board my homeward flight, I have a few images from the day I'd love to share. I cannot wait to get home & properly digest everything from the workshop and put it all to practice!