She's Here! & Capture the Light with Heather Walker

We did it! Lily is here, safe sound and so precious. Thank you so much for all the well wishes. It meant a lot to have so many of you thinking of us.

Here is just one little teaser photo. Check back on Monday for more pictures and I'm sure I'll put a couple more on Facebook in the meantime.

Lillian Kate Evans

This is our last and final day of Photoberfest. I don't know about you, but that went really fast for me! To cap it off I first want to say, THANK YOU to everyone who participated, whether that be by submitting photos for the contest each week, listening in on our calls with Ashlee or just coming to blog to see what was going on. This month has been fun for me because I feel like I've gotten to know more of you by seeing your photos of yourself, your family, your kids, and your creativity. I love getting to know people and it's been a pleasure getting to know all of you even more. SO don't be shy about coming back frequently to this blog! Let's keep chatting...

I'm ending this week with a special guest post by the very talented Heather Walker. Heather is a SAHM and an extremely talented photographer. She has a unique talent of being able to capture that special moment in such a way that feels magical and so endearing. I love to check in on her blog as often as I can and get excited when I see a new post. She has a love and a passion for her photography and most of all for her family and it show through the images she captures.

I'm so happy she was willing to share some of her vast knowledge with us today...

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Thank you Katie for inviting me join Photoberfest!  Great to be here and honored to help inspire others!

 My main tool to unleash my creativity has nothing to do with my camera and all to do with available light.  Light is my inspiration to be creative.  As a photographer I do not focus on what the rest of the industry is doing because it’s easy to copy someone else’s creativity.  I want to “create” my own art, and it wouldn’t be telling a story if I used someone else’s ideas, because each of us are unique, and therefore should be captured that way!  So I chase the light to capture the beauty of the moment in front of me.  And when I photograph my own children I ALWAYS set a scene where they are doing something enjoyable so I can capture them doing just that, something they find joy in and we would be doing anyway.  For example, just recently with the pumpkin patches appearing I felt I should do as I do every year and take my kids to be photographed with the pumpkins.  I adore the traditions we have while picking out pumpkins and I didn’t want to change this, but I wanted a challenge in capturing it this year.  Something different than the same shots I get every year.  So this year I took them after the sun had set and played with only the available light from the horizon, flood lights from the patch, and even used our car headlights to help tell the story.  At dark in a pumpkin patch!... now this felt right!  We had such a blast this night and I’m so glad I brought my camera to capture it ;)  You can see a few of the images from this evening here.

I like to remind people to not get discouraged if you are working with equipment that you feel isn’t good enough. Please remember that the best camera is the one you have on you… and to help inspire you (and demonstrate that my camera has nothing to do with my creativity) I’ll share with you a small collection of my iPhone images (from my Instagram account).  These are all snapshots of my family life that I would have otherwise not have if I believed the phone on my camera wasn’t good enough:

I often suggest to those desiring to take better photos to practice with their phone also because angles and opportunity for practice may be more frequent with their phone.  Bring focus to the story, the sentiment, the heart of it all, work towards carrying your emotion through your image.  Tell the story, and tell it well… but most importantly don’t get carried away taking pictures that you forget to live in that moment.  

 View Heather's blog here.

-Heather Walker

If I’ve just given you some insight in photography, then you’re really going to want to joy me for my free webinar I'm giving live — I’ll be showing you the 3 most vital tips to taking great pictures with your camera plus answering your questions.

It’s guaranteed to be a good one.

Not yet RSVP'd? Learn more here.