Lisa Ward Photography: Day 2 in Sunny California

I didn't sleep too well the night before. My mind was racing just thinking about how much fun I'd already had... flying solo to CA, finally seeing the amazing Pacific Ocean, meeting new ladies for dinner, staying in a fancy hotel, etc. Oh yeah, and I kept thinking about how the next day would play out... meeting the rest of the ladies in our group, what yummy food I'd be eating, what new things I would learn, etc.

That morning, I got ready and had just enough time to walk briskly over to the pier. I wish I'd had 30 more minutes to take in the scenery. I just had like 5 minutes to look around. I saw surfers, several volleyball games going on, seagulls, and people just strolling along the ocean shore.

At 9:30am, the CONFIDENCE Workshop began!

Me Ra Koh and Brian Tausend were the presenters of this workshop. There were around 20 ladies in attendance. We first went around the room and introduced ourselves. When it was my turn, I told everyone the normal info of how I am married with 3 kids, etc. Then I shared with everyone my embarrassing story about one of the times that I applied for the SOAR! Scholarship (that Me Ra and Brian created.) The main part of the scholarship application is the 2 minute video each applicant submits stating why they feel that they deserve to be awarded this scholarship. For the life of me, I just could not figure out how to upload my video! So I read the fine print that said to call/email Brian if you had any technical questions. And let me tell you, I emailed Brian, then called Brian and left messages on his phone WAY too much! To make a long story short, we figured out how to upload that darn video. A couple days later, I was online and discovered that the "Brian" who'd been helping me out was ME RA'S HUSBAND! Ahh! I could not believe it. I just figured that Brian's last name was Koh, like Me Ra's! Right then and there, I threw my hands up and told myself that I should just forget about winning that scholarship. Who in their right mind would award a scholarship to a needy girl who couldn't even upload a video?! Sure, I wanted to get recognized, but not in that way! Everyone in the conference room got their good morning laugh in.

Anyway, so we learned about many things in Day One of the workshop. We talked about understanding the different types of camera lenses, about The Magic Three (Aperture/Shutter Speed/ISO), playing with different camera modes, framing and composing photos, and the elements of storytelling photos.

We had a lunch break in the early afternoon. There were large round tables set up in the beautiful courtyard for our group. We each had a gigantic, fancy chicken salad. The presentation of lunch was top notch. It was yummy, but it involved cutting up practically the whole head of lettuce.

I am a visual learner. So when it came time to do our Mom and Baby Photo Shoot, I was so excited. We had 6 moms volunteer to model for us with their cute babies. See me and my fabulous picture taking posture below.