Girl’s Night Out – Leesburg, VA

Last December, I applied for a SOAR! scholarship opportunity from Me Ra Koh.  While I was not one of the winners chosen for the scholarship, I came out ahead in so many ways just for taking the chance.  The best thing to come of the scholarship is that I now have a network of supportive women who are facing the same struggles and thrills of fulfilling their own dreams through photography that I am.  Through Facebook, Flickr, and forums, we’ve chatted about everything over the past six months.

I’m lucky enough that one of the women, Beryl, lives just around the corner from me, so we’ve met several times over coffee and dinner.  Last week, we were paid a visit by the lovely and talented Marcia, aka Mrs. Classy, from Keller, Texas.  We had a wonderful time catching up with her in person, over dinner and then spent some time walking around downtown Leesburg practicing our photo techniques and cracking ourselves up.  If you saw three nutty women with cameras out last Sunday in Leesburg, that was us!

Beryl Young of Be Young Photography is currently located in Stone Ridge, and will soon be based out of Lovettsville, VA.  She does incredible lifestyle photography, and took our family’s photos this weekend.  She’s expecting a new addition to her family, and I can’t wait to help her document her first days with her baby girl this fall!

And this is Marcia Stulher of Classy Kids Photography.  Her tagline is “photography for the classy and sassy”, and that fits her to a T!  She’s a loyal and passionate friend and a fierce business woman. I couldn’t look at her while she was taking pictures of me because all she did was crack me up.  My face hurt after a while from all of her antics, but she could play it cool too.

So this final picture is a special one for Marcia… She kept telling us she didn’t understand the allure of senior photos where the subject was standing in the middle of the street.  I’m still not sure of the symbolism, but I think it’s kind of a fun shot!  My son is worried that she might get hit by the car, and I can assure everyone that she did not.

Finally, here’s a shot of what it felt like to be on the receiving end of these two with their cameras.  If you head over to Beryl’s blog, you can see her take on the same shot.

I’m planning another blog post this week on my thoughts about being on the other side of the camera.  It was definitely an eye-opening experience, and this session combined with my own family session this weekend, has taught me a lot about how my clients feel.  I look forward to sharing that with you this week!