Hey guys! Just wanted to give you all a quick run down of all the things we have coming up at Tiptoe!
2. Our annual MOMMY and ME sessions for Mothers Day!
3. Our spring school portrait sessions! 
4. Our Tiptoe Teaches workshop #1 on how to use your fancy camera! 
5. Client appreciation special for the month of May!
Hey guys... So we are thinking that we want our blog to be an open forum for you ALL, our audience? What do you want more of? Personal posts, education posts, advertising specials??
Have photography questions for us? Just send us a quick email to tiptoestudios@yahoo.com and perhaps we can start an ask us section on the blog!!
What would a blog post be with out a shameless plug!!
We have a couple seats left for our Tiptoe teaches class... Now that the kids are back in school learning new things, it's time for you to invest back in your education!! You will not regret it!! And also in case you didn't know, we end all our Tiptoe Teaches workshops with us "shooting" you for a brand new headshot ($150 value)! Now that sounds like fun!! LOL!
I am so excited to share this seniors images... Not only was it by far the coolest day of August that we could've asked for.... It was also overcast!! Amazing! It made it so easy to say sure let's go out to the ball field for some shots. I didn't have to worry with any harsh shadows!! Gahh!
Chase's family is so incredibly special to me, they have been with Tiptoe for years, through family portraits, newborns, school shoots, to his sisters senior shoot a couple of years ago, basically we can just name a type of shoot and I am sure someone in his family has been there for it, as well as the Tiptoe Teaches classes. We have formed such a great bond on so much more than just a business level! I mean my daughter is swimming at their house right now as I am writing this post! LOL. They are definitely some of my favorite people EVER! Just another reason I am so in love with being a Tiptoe girl. I am lucky enough to meet these amazing people and make them my friends outside of business! God surely blessed me!
I could go on and on, but without further ado ... {Chase} Tiptoe Senior!
Hey guys... So I was thinking, there are so many new photogs in the area! Which is awesome !!! I love that so many people are interested in taking their love and passion for photography to a BUSINESS level! (We offer classes and booklets to help teach new photogs!! Check out Tiptoe Teaches on our website... I know, I know, shameless plug) Anyway I wanted to hear from you, can you, the general public, tell the difference between professional and an amateur photographers, in their quality, posing, lighting? Or does the price difference between professionals and amateurs make more of a difference to you?
I am just curious y'all... there is no right or wrong answer. And go....
Next class date!! Check it out!!
Soooo excited that our second round of Tiptoe Teaches is back on July 26th at our downtown studio! We are ready to teach you how to shoot on manual mode, and take control of your images. This class is perfect for moms who want to take better pictures of your kids, or new photographers that are looking for some guidance and mentoring in the aspect of your camera. Tiptoe has been in business for about 7 years now and I can remember back to year one, when we had our cameras set on AUTO and I would see other peoples photos and be like "why can't I get mine to look somewhat like that??" I wish someone would have had these sorts of workshops for me to take, so that I could ask just that question (and the 20,000 other ones I had, lol)!
I didn't attend college for photography, I attended for business, so how could I possibly be a professional photographer if I didn't even have a class for it while I was at Shepherd? Well my schooling came in different forms: it took many years, a 1000 photoshoots, a couple of classes, and an EXTREME amount of hours online researching, until I had finally honed in my skills and knew what I was doing behind the camera. And perhaps even more importantly I knew the right questions to ask to get answers, to the problems that arose, when I wouldn't get something right! All of this "figuring things out" without someone to mentor us, is probably one thing that I would go back and change about "the beginning"! If we could have just had someone to bounce questions off of, it would've saved us so many hours of our lives!
So you may ask why now, why does Tiptoe want to teach now, after 7 years? We know it is the right time in our business to start sharing what we know. We see lots and lots of new photographers in the area that look like they are where we were in our business the first couple years, and we want to help! We know what it's like just starting out in this business and if we can help anyone not go through the struggles that we did, it will make our lives just a little more fulfilling. We want to build a strong photography community where we can mentor, share ideas, and make friends with a great group of people who are as passionate about photography as we are. "A rise in tide can raise all ships." I love this quote because I do believe that with community not competition we all will thrive in our businesses.
Our first round of ladies that attended the classes, were amazing! Which solidified the question of continuing of our workshops. By being able to sit down and have real, open conversations about their struggles and goals, where nothing is hidden, gave us such a joy, one that we had honestly never felt since the start of our business! It was amazing!
I hope if photography is your interest, your passion, or even your obsession you will join us! What a better way to spend a day of your summer than to learn something that you can use in your everyday life FOREVER. You won't regret it!
Last week we completed our 2nd class in the 3 part series, Let There Be Light! It was fan-tas-tic. We sat inside, munching on snacks, talking about light and what we look for when we shoot as natural light photographers. We touched on metering, white balance, and focus points and said what they mean in our business. I really feel like we are helping these ladies figure out what it's like to be photographers, and they have such wonderful questions and feedback. Gahh, I love it! It is such a powerful thing to be able to share your craft with people. On that note, we were also able to go to Washington High School this week, and go over the basics of photography to 3 classes. We all know how nervous I am speaking in front of a group, so I don't know if it was all the essential oils Tara had me put on before hand or all the prayers I was sending to Jesus but definitely something came over me and I did it! I did it without shaking, tunnel vision, ringing in my ears and my heart racing. (Thank you Jesus!!!) With all this positivity that has come from our teachings, I know we are on the right path in our business. A path of being mentors, teachers, and inspirers. I feel like it is filling a place in our business that has been lacking. Our goal now is to reach more, so if you are a mom with a camera, a high schooler, or a new photographer that needs some guidance and someone to help you work out your photography issues, WE ARE HERE, and we want to help you. I personally love the way I feel when we leave such an awesome coaching/teaching session. It fills my soul! So after hearing the message from Pastor Shawn (at NDMC, my church) where he told us to be better, be bigger, be an inspiration to someone, fulfill what He has called you to do, I feel that these workshops are allowing me the outlet to do just that! And it's AWESOME.
If you are interested in learning through one of our classes, check out our Tiptoe website and click the "Tiptoe Teaches" tab for the next date and our workbook info.
Seriously!!! We have decided to open our workbook up to the public, not just our workshop students! So if you are an aspiring photographer, or just a mom wanting to take better pictures with your DSLR camera this workbook explains the Tiptoe way to shooting manually! If you are dying to get your hands on one, just send us a quick email to tiptoestudios@yahoo.com or call us at 304.995.6743.
On a side note, our first group of ladies seemed to love the workshop, so we will be putting together some dates for some more workshops! If you missed out on the first one, and would want to attend another, send us a quick note! Thanks guys! 
I know leading up to the first workshop, I was so excited but I also had the jitters! I mean I had them bad! What if I forgot everything? What if my "organic" Tiptoe way of photography doesn't make any sense to anyone else except me! What if the "students" give me blank stares like I am speaking Latin or something. What if, what if, what if! WELLLLLLLL, I just want to say that it was a smashing SUCCESS!! All that nervousness for nothing! I think we were sooooo blessed to have such a great group of ladies for the first class. They were great listeners and had great questions for us! I keep wondering if they were geniuses or if we really did a good job of explaining what to do because they nailed it when we went outside to practice with our cameras!
I love that we all sat together,breakfast in hand, and we shared so many great laughs (some at my expense, but it's okay, lol). Everyone knew that I was going to get tongue tied at some point, and lets be honest when we are talking about "shooting people", it never comes out right! I love coming out of this feeling like we have made some serious friends. Again, I know we were blessed with these ladies because they gave me the confidence of knowing that I can do it again. I can only hope that the workshops from here on out have equally as perfect friends/students!
I know the Tiptoe gals are now super duper pumped about planning out the next workshop "Let There be Light" where we go into finding the light, posing, and some more in depth camera functions! Be on the lookout for dates and sometime soon we are going to be adding a section with more info on the workshops to the website! I feel like this is a whole new lease on our photography life, it is so refreshing to share our knowledge! I can't be more excited! 
I can't even stand it!! Tomorrow is the big day! Tiptoe's very first workshop! The time is here that we are able to share our passion, our love of photography!! Shhhhhhut up!! We have been working so hard putting it all together and now the day is almost here to share! And if I am being really honest, I am a tad nervous!
We have built our business over the past 6 1/2 years learning new techniques and now have honed in all of our knowledge and broken it down to 3 workshops - The first, which we are teaching tomorrow, is Know Thy Camera, we will be teaching you how to use your camera in manual mode, so you can achieve the image you had in your mind! We are trying to make you do the thinking for your camera not vice versa... Without these first set of skills you will never be able take control of how your image turns out!
We are keeping these workshops small in numbers, as it's not going to be your typical "class" where we stand in front of you and teach! Anyone who knows me personally knows that I can NOT get in front of a group and speak at them. I get sweaty palms, my heart starts pounding, I get tunnel vision and all I can hear is whoomp, whoomp, and I honestly have no idea what is even coming out of my mouth. Nothing in this world probably makes me more nervous than speaking in front of a group! So with this being said, we are making it more of a round table discussion, just like back in the beginning of Tiptoe where it was Tara, Jennifer and I sitting down together working out our photography issues. We want all our "students" to feel comfortable asking questions or telling us their issues. We want to be able to give 100% attention to every person there. We are going to start the day with a Royalicious breakfast and coffee getting to know each other a little and figuring out your goals for the class. Also we thought it wouldn't be a Tiptoe workshop without a photo shoot, so at the end we are going to be practicing together!! And all our 'students' will be leaving with a brand new Tiptoe headshot!
I simply cannot wait! I probably won't even be able to sleep tonight!!! GAHHH! So please everyone wish us luck!
Also on a side note, I think we are going to offer our workbook that follows the teaching of this first class. So for anyone that wasn't able to attend the class and wants an insight on how to use your camera manually! This workbook may be a better option for you! Just send us a message, if you are interested and we will decide if opening up the workbook to non-class-atendees is a good idea???
