Last week Aaron and I joined his family for a little road trip to their favorite vacation spot: Red River, New Mexico. His family has been going there for generations. They love to fish and Red River is the perfect little spot to get away and do just that. While the boys fished, the women just hung out in the cabins, cooking, playing games and going into town for a little shopping. Some of us even went on a half day white water rafting trip (that was one of my favorite things to do). I love new adventures and photographing some of the fun places along the way. Here are just a few frames from the trip including my little trip out to Cadillac Ranch just outside of Amarillo.

Last week I attended a photography workshop in Tennessee for Christian wedding and portrait photographers all over the country called For the Love. The premise of the workshop was based out of Matthew: “Then Jesus said, ‘Let’s get away from the crowds for a while and rest.’” —Mark 6:31. And that was one of the many things I needed. I needed rest.

As many of my friends and my sweet husband knows, I love to work! I love being a wedding photographer and I love working on my images, love talking with my brides, love photographing their weddings and love working my business. But I needed time to get away and to rest. The workshop was a sweet time of rest (not so much a physical rest because we sure did have fun hanging out and photographing everything all week), but a resting in my spirit. I experienced so much joy improving my knowledge and skills. I loved doing what the Lord designed me to do.

The workshop also had a super-bonus too! I experienced such a great time of community with all of the sweet photographers from all around the country! Even though we had “free time” we’d all end up photographing each other, talking about marketing, looking at each other’s websites—we just wanted to encourage each other and spur each other on to greater and better things. I honestly loved getting to visit with everyone at the workshop and look forward to encouraging each other from now on.

I want to give a shout out to all of the great photographers who attended: Allison Ballinger, Alison Holcomb, Chelsea Giles, Chris Luk, Clary Pffeifer, Andrea Crosswhite, Glendon Tang, Jason Mize, Jenny Beck, LaRae Russell, Kasey Boatright, Kelly Hornberger, Kimberly Chau, Leslie Harris, Nicki Smith, Megan Greathouse,  Maria Trout,  Sharon Chin, Rebekah Hood.

And a shout out to our super-star teachers: Erik Clausen and Lauren Clark. I spent most of the week learning from Erik because of the way our groups were divided. God has given him great eyes to see things in beautiful light, a heart to care for the marriage of his couples, and a great and humble spirit; all of these things made learning from Erik a great experience. I was truly blessed to hear his passion and the way God has changed his life. And lastly, a shout out to the super-great-awesome organizer: Ginny Corbett. None of us can say enough great things about Ginny! We’re all so thankful for her obedience to the vision God gave her for this workshop. She is a sweet and truly gifted photographer and I’m excited to see all of the great things God’s going to through her in this industry.

So I’m back in action, ready to work and things are already changing here at Allison Davis Photography. I’ll be sharing some of the new ideas and new things in the weeks to come. But for now, enjoy some sweet photos from our fabulous mountain workshop! (Since we were snowed in, we had to use each other for models, so enjoy the photographs of some of my sweet friends.)  ]]> http://www.allisondavisphotography.com/blog/2010/02/15/for-the-love-workshop-my-experience/feed/ 9