I love my job as a Ft. Worth newborn photographer, so I can’t tell you how excited I am to share my experience with Rachel Vanoven and Erin Tole through their “Same/Different Workshop” held in Ft. Worth, Texas last week. If you are unfamiliar with Rachel Vanoven and Erin Tole, they are newborn and family photographers who are basically the best of the best. These ladies are world renowned and people from all over the globe aspire to attend their workshops. I just happened to luck out in that they were doing a workshop less than 20 minutes from my home in Roanoke!! Check out their websites for baby cuteness overload (Rachel’s website and Erin’s website). I love Rachel and Erin because their work is timeless, and that is really what I always strive to reflect in my own photography. I am a firm believer in education, and as a newborn photographer in Ft. Worth, I try and attend at least one in-person workshop per year. You can read about the workshop I did last year with Silver Bee photography here. There were only about 12 spots for this particular workshop, and I believe they sold out in less than an hour, so I consider myself supremely lucky that I was able to grab a spot. It was fate because these ladies are my photography idols, and I never expected to be able to get away to one of their workshops. For the workshop, I had the chance to observe both Erin and Rachel as they soothed and posed a newborn. I also saw Rachel do some parent/newborn and sibling/newborn posing. Both of the babies we worked with were absolute dolls, and barely made a peep the entire session. It was great having such zonked out babes because it really gave Rachel and Erin a chance to go through many newborn poses in a short amount of time. My greatest take away from this workshop was seeing how Erin and Rachel both have completely different workflows in their newborn posing. Rachel seemed like she had a more structured flow that covered all the bean bag poses before moving on to props. Erin was more flexible with her flow and shifted regularly between posed shots and beanbag shots. I loved seeing how these great artists took different approaches to achieve their end product. In my own work, I feel like there is room for improvement with my newborn workflow and I can’t wait to implement some of the transitional ideas I learned from these ladies. We spent some of the afternoon going through the editing and marketing aspects of this business, and then moved on to outdoor family photography at Bear Creek Park in Keller. In fact, we shot in the exact location where I did my 2015 fall minis! Of course, it is January and everything now is dead leaves and dirt, but these talented ‘togs found a patch of green grass and, most importantly, great lighting which is all you really need. Same reason I have chosen that spot two years in a row—great lighting– at the right time of day. Kind of made my heart happy to know that these celeb photogs chose the same location as yours truly. Te-he. Beyond the actual learning aspect of the day, it was so enjoyable to be around a group of ladies who all shared the same passion for photography (especially newborn photography!). This is such a niche environment, and it is funny how we get so excited chatting about prop vendors, flokati rugs and the best white noise aps to keep a baby in the zone. Definitely felt like I found my tribe! Plus, Erin and Rachel are total sweethearts with lots of personality. Even though these women are basically photography celebs, they were completely down to Earth. I am looking forward to hosting a model call in the near future so I can perfect some of the new skills I learned. Again, I can’t say enough what a lovely time I had and how much I gained by attending this workshop. I feel it is so vitally important to always grow with my photography, and my time with Erin Tole and Rachel Vanoven certainly added to my newborn knowledge.

Heather of H. Parker Photography is a Ft. Worth Newborn Photographer also specializing in baby photography in Fort Worth, Texas and surrounding areas including but not limited to Dallas, and Roanoke.