Val Westover’s Photography Workshop (& Giveaway!)

I am soooo excited to be shar­ing this with you!! 
Last week­end, I had the plea­sure of attend­ing the “Cap­tur­ing True Emo­tion” pho­tog­ra­phy work­shop by Val West­over and Stephanie Adri­ana. It was absolutely fan­tas­tic and has taken my lat­est pho­tog­ra­phy endeav­ors to all new heights!! Before the work­shop, I knew a lit­tle about adjust­ing ISO, but knew next to noth­ing about aper­ture, shut­ter speed, meter­ing, etc. I’d taken maybe 3 pho­tos in man­ual mode, but didn’t really know what I was doing. All that’s changed now!
While I don’t know for sure how many peo­ple were there, it was well over 100–a room full of all lev­els of pho­tog­ra­phers eager to learn (and all lev­els of cameras–while most had dslr’s, plenty had var­i­ous types of point-and-shoots). Some might be con­cerned with the size, but it was not a prob­lem at all. Val & Stephanie did a great job of pre­sent­ing the infor­ma­tion and they had two large screens, which made it easy to see. For the four hours in the morn­ing work­shop, we went through Val’s guide to “under­stand­ing the basic ele­ments of pho­tog­ra­phy” (we each received our own workbook-style copy) based on his book. 
Every­thing was pre­sented in a easy-to-follow, step-by-step man­ner. I could imme­di­ately see their pas­sion not only for pho­tog­ra­phy, but for shar­ing with oth­ers! And I LOVE their mis­sion state­ment: “to Share the Gift of Pho­tog­ra­phy and to Teach The Basic Ele­ments and Prin­ci­ples of Pho­tog­ra­phy to all who wish to learn!” 
While the morn­ing work­shop alone was great, the photo safari that fol­lowed that after­noon was invalu­able! Being able to imme­di­ately put into prac­tice all the infor­ma­tion I just learned was incred­i­bly help­ful! Val gave us dif­fer­ent assignments–focusing on one ele­ment at a time. Then, by the end, we were all shoot­ing in FULL MANUAL MODE! How cool is that?! 
Val & Stephanie not only get right in the action, teach­ing & help­ing every­one with all kinds ques­tions, but some­times they are the action!
They were our sub­jects while teach­ing us to do pan­ning motion & freeze motion shots! We also prac­ticed close-ups with blurred back­grounds (bokeh), expo­sure, sil­hou­ettes, sun­sets, and so much more! 
Val even used some people’s cam­eras to take a few shots of them-while teach­ing of course! (shows what a good pho­tog­ra­pher he is that I like a pic­ture of me well-enough to post with no makeup & messy hair)!
After­ward I was able to go home and take these sweet shots of the boys in full man­ual mode! 
Pretty cool, huh?! 

And, here’s where I’m ULTRA excited for you.…..GIVEAWAY!!!!
Val agreed to give­away 2 pho­tog­ra­phy work­shops–com­plete with the addi­tional 2 hour photo safari!! That’s right, TWO lucky Mom Endeav­ors read­ers will win a seat at the “Cap­tur­ing True Emo­tion” work­shop of their choice!!!! That’s a $450 value–FREE!!! AMAZING!
Cur­rently, there are upcom­ing work­shops in Salt Lake City, Seat­tle, Austin, Dal­las, Las Vegas, San Fran­cisco, San Diego, Orange County, Los Ange­les, and Phoenix (I’ll be vol­un­teer­ing at the next Phoenix work­shop!) Head over to the work­shop site at Event Com­plete to check the specifics.
If you are one of the lucky ones near those cities (or have friends/family there who you want to win it for), then you don’t want to miss this!!
*I know the loca­tions won’t work for all of you, so stayed tuned to the blog for another give­away in a few weeks from Val that every­one can use! 

Give­away Has Now Ended–   
                                        WINNERS!!!
 
Con­grat­u­la­tions to Sara@Super Sav­ing Sense and Cyn­thia who are the lucky win­ners of a seat at the Cap­tur­ing True Emo­tion Work­shop of their choice!! I think you are going to love it–can’t wait to see your pictures!

For those of you that didn’t win, Val has offered a nice discount–You can receive the $450 work­shop and photo safari for the dis­counted price of $125! I’ve checked com­pa­ra­ble work­shops in my area and this seems to be a really good price! To reg­is­ter for the work­shop at the dis­counted rate, visit the Event Com­plete reg­is­tra­tion page and enter the coupon code at the reg­is­tra­tion check-out page. Coupon code: photo friend

Let me know if you decide to reg­is­ter for the March 6th work­shop in Phoenix–I’ll be there! :) Thanks to all who entered–and be on the look­out in the next few weeks for another give­away from Val that any­one could use (no mat­ter their loca­tion)!


TO ENTER:  

1. Leave a com­ment below, telling me what you’re most inter­ested in learn­ing about your cam­era or photography.
Get extra entries by (leave a sep­a­rate com­ment for each):
- Fol­low­ing Mom Endeav­ors on Google Friend Con­nect (see wid­get on the left side bar) (if you already are, thank you, make sure you leave a com­ment & let me know!)
- Like Mom Endeav­ors on face­book &/or twit­ter and post or tweet about this giveaway

(up to 4 entries per per­son)
Give­away will end on Feb. 25th at 11pm PSTWin­ners with a valid entry will be selected at ran­dom using random.org. I will email the win­ners and they will have 48 hours to claim their prize.
*Come back on Feb. 26th to see the win­ners and to get a very good dis­count code to reg­is­ter if you didn’t win. And, check back for another give­away in a few weeks from Val that every­one can use!!! 


Dis­clo­sure: I received no com­pen­sa­tion for this and paid for the work­shop with my own money. I just was sim­ply so impressed with Val & the work­shop that I wanted to bring the oppor­tu­nity to you. Val agreed to do this give­away in exchange for my hon­est review. As always, all opin­ions and expe­ri­ences are my own. For more infor­ma­tion, read my dis­clo­sure pol­icy.
**Hap­pily linked to TidyMom’s I’m Lovin’ It Fri­day Party because I’m totally lov­ing this work­shop & what I can do now on my cam­era!!

Comments

  1. 1
    Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says:

    I need to learn more about all those pho­tog­ra­phy terms…plus more about por­trait tak­ing!! :)

  2. 2
    Heidi @ Honeybear Lane says:

    I fol­low you :)

  3. 3
    Amy @ Dealusional says:

    So for our annual hol­i­day card, I had this bright idea to take a photo of Emma play­ing her harp in front of the Christ­mas tree lights. It didn’t look good in auto mode, so I decided to try it in man­ual. I pulled out the man­ual that came with the cam­era, and after lit­er­ally an hour, I had some idea of what I needed to do to blur the back­ground a lit­tle. *Thought* being the active word. 87 pho­tos later, I finally got 1 that was sat­is­fac­tory. I think this class is genius and I hope I am able to take it some day, with or with­out this give­away so I can just learn how to use all those cool set­tings that I am scared of :)

  4. 4
    Becca @ Our Crazy Boys says:

    I would LOVE to learn more about lenses. I have no idea what they do or what the num­bers mean.

    And those action shots you took? I want to learn how to taken them!!

  5. 5
    FishMama says:

    Thanks for let­ting me know about this! Sign me up. I wanna win. ;)

  6. 6
    Becca @ Our Crazy Boys says:

    I stalk you on Twit­ter and face­book :)

  7. 7
    Becca @ Our Crazy Boys says:

    I “like” Val West­over pho­tog­ra­phy on facebook!

  8. 8
    Becca @ Our Crazy Boys says:

    I tweeted :)

  9. 9
    Becca says:

    Awe­some give­away! How doesn’t need to learn more about using our cam­eras! I need to mas­ter man­ual! I loved the action shots you took! I would love to learn cool effects like that as well!

  10. 10
    Becca says:

    I fan them on FB!!!!

  11. 11
    Becca says:

    I fol­low you on twit­ter you doll!!!

  12. 12
    Becca says:

    Fol­low­ing you on Face­book and sent out a fb update about the giveaway!

  13. 13
    Cynthia says:

    I would like to learn all the pho­tog­ra­phy terms so that when my hus­band “talks pho­tog­ra­phy” I under­stand what he is say­ing :) How­ever, If I won I would give this to my hus­band because he is so in love with pho­tog­ra­phy and learn­ing all he can. This would be a huge bless­ing!! :)

  14. 14
    Cynthia says:

    I fol­low you on Google Friend Connect.

  15. 15
    Cynthia says:

    I fol­low Val West­over Pho­tog­ra­phy on Face­book.
    Cyn­thia Delgadillo

  16. 16
    Cynthia says:

    I fol­low you on face­book :)
    Cyn­thia Delgadillo

  17. 17

    I sim­ply want to take bet­ter pic­tures, espe­cially of the kids

    kristilaroo@yahoo.com

  18. 18
    The Behunin Family Story says:

    I want to learn more about my camara. After you men­tion I went to his web­site. I was so excited to see your pic­tures they are GREAT. Looks like so much fun.

  19. 19
    Ramblings Of Life says:

    I want to learn how to get out of ‘auto-mode’ pho­tog­ra­phy and start tak­ing great pic­tures!
    Angie

  20. 20
    Ramblings Of Life says:

    I ‘liked’ Val West­over Pho­tog­ra­phy on facebook.

  21. 21
    Ramblings Of Life says:

    I ‘like’ Mom endeav­ors on facebook.

  22. 22
    Maddycakes says:

    I bought this awe­some DSLR cam­era last year and still don’t know how to use it prop­erly. I have never used man­ual mode and I’m very inter­ested in learn­ing how to use it. I am an event plan­ner and would love to cap­ture my work prop­erly. I would like to go to the Phoenix workshop.

  23. 23
    Maddycakes says:

    I’m your newest fol­lower and so excited to have found you!
    Michelle
    http://www.maddycakesmuse.blogspot.com

  24. 24
    Maddycakes says:

    I fol­low you on Twitter

  25. 25
    Maddycakes says:

    I “liked” Val West­over Pho­tog­ra­phy on FB

  26. 26
    Shelby Barone says:

    I would love to win a class in OC. I have sev­eral fam­ily por­traits done by Val and would love to learn how to take a pic­ture even slightly as awe­some as his

  27. 27
    Shelby Barone says:

    I already like him on face­book :)

  28. 28
    Shelby Barone says:

    Fol­low­ing you on google :)

  29. 29

    What an amaz­ing give­away! I would love to learn more about aper­ture set­tings, cap­tur­ing pan­ning and high speed motion and reverse macro. Thanks for the oppor­tu­nity to win.

    s.darmock(at)gmail(dot)com

  30. 30

    Fol­low­ing via GFC

  31. 31

    I am a fan of Val’s on FB

  32. 32

    Fan of yours on FB

  33. 33
    Mormishmom @ Funky PolkaDot Giraffe says:

    I’d love to learn more about aperture!

  34. 34
    Mormishmom @ Funky PolkaDot Giraffe says:

    I fol­low you on twit­ter and I tweeted!

  35. 35
    Mormishmom @ Funky PolkaDot Giraffe says:

    I fol­low your blog.

  36. 36
    Amy @ Dealusional says:

    I fol­low on Twit­ter :)

  37. 37
    Amy @ Dealusional says:

    …and on Google Friend Connect.

  38. 38
    Amy @ Dealusional says:

    …and I like Val West­over on FB.

  39. 39
    cdhabolt says:

    I love tak­ing pic­tures, and I’ve always wished I they looked more pro­fes­sional, I would love tips in how to make the closer object looks clearer than the one in the back­ground, like the one of the lamp and the barn up there, lit­tle things like that to help me get bet­ter :)
    ———————
    carito_rmz@hotmail.com (Car­olina Dhabolt)

  40. 40
    cdhabolt says:

    I Fol­low Mom Endeav­ors on Google Friend Con­nect (cdhabolt) Car­olina Dhabolt carito_rmz@hotmail.com

  41. 41
    cdhabolt says:

    I Like Val West­over Pho­tog­ra­phy on Face­book (Car­olina Dhabolt)

  42. 42
    cdhabolt says:

    I Like Mom Endeav­ors on twit­ter (@cdhabolt) and I tweeted! http://twitter.com/cdhabolt/status/39018618125553664

  43. 43
    Asia says:

    I would love to take this class so I can take great pic­tures of my newborn!

  44. 44
    Asia says:

    I love your blog and fol­low it!

  45. 45
    Asia says:

    I recently pur­chased a semi pro­fes­sional cam­era and would love to learn the man­ual mode set­ting by tak­ing this class.

  46. 46
    Asia says:

    You are on my Google Friend Connect!

  47. 47
    Michelle @Flying Giggles says:

    I would like to learn more about tak­ing bet­ter pho­tos of my kids.

    Thanks for the giveaway!

  48. 48
    Michelle @Flying Giggles says:

    Fol­low­ing Val West­over on FB Michelle Martel

  49. 49
    Michelle @Flying Giggles says:

    Fol­low­ing your blog on FB…Michelle Martel

  50. 50
    Michelle @Flying Giggles says:

    Fol­low­ing you on twitter…flyinggiggles

  51. 51
    Hen Jen says:

    oh wow, I’ve had my eye out for a pho­tog­ra­phy work­shop in my area, this looks great! I’d most love to learn how to use all the set­tings on my cam­era, how to change the f stops and why, how to light meter.

  52. 52
    Hen Jen says:

    I am now fol­low­ing Mom Endeav­ors on google friend con­nect! :)

  53. 53
    Hen Jen says:

    I just ‘liked’ Val West­over pho­tog­ra­phy on face­book! wow, he’s local!

  54. 54
    Hen Jen says:

    I just fol­lowed Mom Endeav­ors face­book page, and I just posted about your give­away over on my blog’s face­book fan­page– Home is Where You Start From
    http://www.facebook.com/home.php?#!/pages/Home-Is-Where-You-Start-From/277489155599

  55. 55
    Viv says:

    Very impres­sive post! Awe­some results, Mom Endeav­ors – glad to know you got so much out of this work­shop, and your pho­tos turned out beau­ti­fully. I per­son­ally would feel grate­ful to learn any more cre­ative pho­tog­ra­phy tips like com­po­si­tion, light­ing – and of course, cap­tur­ing emo­tions & per­son­al­i­ties :) Thanks for shar­ing this expe­ri­ence – and best of luck to every­one par­tic­i­pat­ing in this giveaway!

  56. 56
    Saving For Someday says:

    What a won­der­ful oppor­tu­nity. I’ve been look­ing at these types of work­shops but it’s hard to know what you really get and if it’s all that good. Thanks for shar­ing your expe­ri­ence and for encour­ag­ing them to sup­port this give­away. I’ve been work­ing on shoot­ing in any­thing but ‘auto’ mode but I’m not get­ting the great­est results, and I’m find­ing I’m start­ing to depend on Aper­ture mode. This work­shop would def­i­nitely help me max­i­mize my camera’s capabilities.

    Sara from Sav­ing For Some­day
    @Saving4Someday

  57. 57
    Saving For Someday says:

    I fol­low you on Twitter.

    Sara from Sav­ing For Some­day
    @Saving4Someday

  58. 58
    Saving For Someday says:

    I also fol­low on Google Friends!

    Sara from Sav­ing For Some­day
    @Saving4Someday

  59. 59
    Linda@CraftaholicsAnonymous says:

    would love to learn more about tak­ing pic­tures of prod­ucts for my etsy shop and blog. how to stage them, what props to use, etc. and back­drops– what to use for a white backdrop.

  60. 60

    Oh wow! I would LOVE to! Thank you for this opportunity!

  61. 61

    Newest Twit­ter follower!

  62. 62

    Newest goo­gly friend!

  63. 63
    Kim says:

    I NEED this class so bad! In so many ways! I have a busi­ness, yet can’t take a decent pic­ture to post my ads! How sad, but hope­fully, I’ll win and learn some tricks of the trade. Thank you for this great opportunity!!!

  64. 64
    Kim says:

    Just became a follower!

  65. 65
    Kim says:

    I also Liked You on FaceBook!

  66. 66
    Kim says:

    And of course, I liked Val West­over photography!!!

  67. 67
    Bear's mom says:

    I would love to learn more about the set­tings and how to use them to help me get the best shot. I think I have a bit of an eye… but it’s the tech­ni­cal stuff that I really need to learn! Thanks for this post and give away!

  68. 68
    Bear's mom says:

    I’m fol­low­ing you! Look­ing for­ward to read­ing more of your posts!

  69. 69
    Bear's mom says:

    I’m fol­low­ing you on twit­ter and posted a tweet about the give away!

    I’m @Bears_mom

  70. 70
    Bear's mom says:

    I liked you and Val West­over Pho­tog­ra­phy on face­book (via Jaclyn Kall…)

  71. 71
    Sara @ Super Saving Sense says:

    I love tak­ing pho­tos and I love my fancy cam­era but, I am an “AUTO” girl. Every­thing is done on auto­matic or on an auto­matic set­ting. I “dab­ble” with my man­ual set­tings but I would love to under­stand lingo, these num­bers that appear when I change set­tings and how to work all these buttons!

  72. 72
    Sara @ Super Saving Sense says:

    I like Val West­over on Face­book. Well I already have liked him so I will con­tinue to like him ;-)

  73. 73
    Sara @ Super Saving Sense says:

    I fol­low you on Twit­ter, Tweet Tweet!

  74. 74
    Sara @ Super Saving Sense says:

    I fol­low on GFC!

  75. 75
    Saving For Someday says:

    I like you on Face­book, too!

    Sara at Sav­ing for Some­day
    @Saving4Someday

  76. 76
    AZLB says:

    Thanks for find­ing me and telling me about the giveaway…would love to win!!! Great photos.…seems like it really payed off.

  77. 77
    KS says:

    I would LOVE to learn how to take bet­ter por­traits! I’m not very good with low light shots either and by the time I half-way fig­ure out what set­ting I need –my photo opp has passed!

  78. 78
    KS says:

    I like you on Facebook!

  79. 79
    KS says:

    I like Val West­over on Face­book too!

  80. 80
    monicazyoung says:

    I am inter­est­ing about learn­ing about how to deal with the sun and light changes when tak­ing pictures

  81. 81
    monicazyoung says:

    I am fol­low­ing Mom Endeav­ors on Google Friend Connect

  82. 82
    monicazyoung says:

    I like Mom Endeav­ors on face­book and fol­low you on twitter

  83. 83
    The Knoll's says:

    Great Give­away. I’m always look­ing for ways to improve my photography.

  84. 84
    The Knoll's says:

    I “like” Mom Ende­vors” on facebook.

  85. 85
    The Knoll's says:

    I “like” Val West­over on FB.

  86. 86
    Karen@PrayerGlow says:

    What a fan­tas­tic oppor­tu­nity to take pho­tos to the WOW factor!

  87. 87
    Karen@PrayerGlow says:

    I “like” Val West­over on FB.

  88. 88
    Annette {One Perfect Room} says:

    What a great oppor­tu­nity to win a fan­tas­tic photo work­shop! Thanks for the chance!

  89. 89
    Marcia says:

    Learn­ing Man­ual and fine tun­ing cam­era set­tings is what I am look­ing for­ward to…

  90. 90
    Jana says:

    I’d learn how to take the best pho­tos I can with the cam­era I have. Some­times they turn out awe­some and other times…yikes.

  91. 91
    Jana says:

    I am a new follower!!

  92. 92
    Jana says:

    I like on FB!

  93. 93
    Jana says:

    I like you too on FB!

  94. 94
    Vivian says:

    I would love to have a refresher course. I took a pho­tog class back in col­lege, but that was a long time ago.

  95. 95
    Vivian says:

    I fol­low your blog.

  96. 96
    Vivian says:

    I like on FB.

  97. 97
    Vivian says:

    I tweeted.

  98. 98
    Amy says:

    We just got an AWESOME new DSLR and I would love to get out of auto!

  99. 99
    Lyssa says:

    I just got my DSLR, I have done old school man­ual but would love tips with my new dig­i­tal one :)

  100. 100
    Lyssa says:

    I fol­low you on your blog!

  101. 101
    Lyssa says:

    I like you on FB

  102. 102
    Lyssa says:

    I like Val West­over on FB and tweeted this giveaway!

  103. 103
    HoopDeeDoo says:

    Hi! I really want to learn more about proper light­ing, and how to grad­u­ate past the green rec­tan­gle. I have some great equip­ment (speedlite, zoom lens, 50mm lens) but don’t know what to do with it!

  104. 104
    HoopDeeDoo says:

    and now I’m a Friend Con­nect follower!

  105. 105
    HoopDeeDoo says:

    and I like you, I really like you, on FB!

  106. 106
    HoopDeeDoo says:

    aaannnnddd.…I tweeted!!

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