Behind the scenes with Rick Sammon on creativeLIVE

The man's energy is contagious. Walk in a room with photographer and educator Rick Sammon and instantly you feel ALIVE! Join Susan Roderick and me as we co-host Rick's free live online Exploring the Light workshop on creativeLIVE. We have a blast asking Rick questions on behalf of all of you watching around the world. Thank you Rick for teaching us today about exploring the light and SO much more - setting goals, using speedlites, working with models, photographing people and more.

My favorite part of today was how you pushed each of us to think about the question What Does Your Photography Mean to You? Yes, there were some tears. I'm so touched by all of the stories our creativeLIVE community is sharing on our new creativeLIVE forum. Thank you everyone for engaging with us - you are what makes creativeLIVE so special. Check out more behind the scenes photos here on Google+.

Want to know what this workshop is all about? Watch Susan and my pre-show interview with Rick Sammon as he walks us through the studio and talks about everything he's going to teach.

Tune in to the live stream on creativeLIVE Saturday & Sunday for SO much more learning! Thank you!

Humbled by Lighten Up and Shoot

I am sincerely humbled by Andy & Mikey of Lighten Up & Shoot's blog post today - see here. Ok, let's be honest - I am jumping up and down excited with glee too! It was watching Mikey & Andy's videos that inspired Susan Roderick and I to make our own. To think that a month ago Susan and I had never made a video in our lives, and now we're on Lighten Up & Shoot's blog - it's kind of unreal!  I couldn't have summed up what Susan and I are creating with our behind the LIVE community better than Andy:

"Their plan, bring to the world what happens when the creativeLive camera's are off! They get in a little further, more personal, more real and more...well fun! I really love the idea they have for so many reasons! I mean think about it people, they are in a position where they get to not only meet but interact with the best photographers/teachers on this planet! Instead of them being all selfish and keeping it to themselves, they share with the world! Now that's brilliant!" 

We have been blessed to be volunteer chat hosts at the coolest creative school EVER - creativeLIVE. As Andy says, we want to share our experiences with YOU - because that's what it's all about. When everyone shares, everyone wins. There are no losers in the creativeLIVE philosophy. Right? creativeLIVE co-founder Chase Jarvis is an open book with his blog and Chase Jarvis Live. I love the concept.


No time like the present to sign up for Lighten Up and Shoot's creativeLIVE workshop - July 29-31. It's FREE - and that's downright amazing. No doubt they will take us all on a wild ride, gringos-who-also-said-adios-to-the-Man-and-live-in-Columbia style!

In the meantime, Lighten Up and Shoot are touring the world teaching workshops - check out the schedule here. But the beauty of Mikey & Andy is that they bring FREE photography education to each and every one of you in the comfort of your own home. They have hilarious and yet incredibly educational videos on YouTube with hours of content about not just lighting, but so much more. I dig their style, and that's an understatement! Kindred spirits? Creo que si!

Check these gringos out on www.lightenupandshoot.com! Subscribe to their YouTube channel: http://www.youtube.com/user/mikeyorange?blend=2&ob=1!

behind the LIVE takes off on a helicopter ride with Vincent Laforet

Okay, so before you get too excited, my helicopter ride with director/filmmaker/Pulitzer Prize-winning photographer Vincent Laforet was of the metaphorical kind. Vincent is known for hanging out of helicopters with souped up camera rigs, capturing the beauty of the earth from above. He gets to see things in a way that most of us might not have a chance to and then shares that with us through his art and storytelling. I really like that concept - it's what living life is all about. It's what creativeLIVE is all about. What fun or satisfaction is there in keeping an experience or knowledge all to yourself?

A few weeks ago Susan Roderick and I gave birth to our behind the LIVE project. I feel incredibly grateful to be a volunteer in-person chat host representing all of you out there on the internet who are watching creativeLIVE from the comfort of your own homes, asking your questions and passing along your comments to instructors. It's like I win the lottery over & over with each creativeLIVE workshop. Susan and I love getting to know the instructors, students, cast and crew of creativeLIVE courses and workshops and we thought it would be super fun and fabulous to bring the interwebs behind the scenes too! We've done this in the past with stills, but what better way to enhance your behind the scenes experience than moving to video? And what better time to move to video than during Vincent Laforet's workshop teaching still photographers like us how to take the leap to video? 

So we're in, and we're doing it despite not really knowing what we're doing. I have a little HD Flip video recorder and Susan has her new 5D Mark II. Match that up with iMovie on my Mac and we're ready to roll! We figure 6 months from now we'll be sitting back laughing at how incredibly amateur our video skills were. But that's how everyone begins. It takes practice and a willingness to make mistakes and learn from them. We thought it would be cool to show you what happens right after the creativeLIVE workshop ended, when producer Celeste Olds announces "clear!" When the creativeLIVE cameras stop rolling, behind the LIVE cameras start rolling.

Want to see more of what went on behind the LIVE during Vincent's workshop? Check out our YouTube channel for more behind the scenes footage, follow us on Twitter @behindtheLIVE and "Like" our Facebook page too! 

This week I had a another fun idea. I realized that while Susan and I have some interesting questions of our own, there is WAY more content and power in the questions all of you might have. What if Susan and I ask YOU for ideas and inspiration for our behind the LIVE videos? What do YOU want to ask Bambi Cantrell or Jasmine Star or Penny de los Santos that we might not ask during the actual creativeLIVE workshop? As creativeLIVE chat hosts, Susan and I are just a vessel for all y'all out there. So why not do the same for behind the LIVE?! We are excited to gather YOUR ideas and juicy questions to ask instructors, students, crew behind the LIVE in future workshops. Inquiring minds want to know, right? We're not looking for the standard "Canon vs. Nikon," "Lightroom vs. Aperture" or "What's your greatest tip for photographers just getting started?" We're talking reality TV here. How do you ask questions? Well, feel free to send us tweets (@behindtheLIVE) or leave your questions, thoughts and ideas on our Facebook page. 

While my video skills are in their infancy, still images speak a thousand words in the language I am most fluent. I love the intensity in which Vincent teaches and guides his students, whether in person or around the globe. Enjoy!

Thank you Vincent Laforet, Chase Jarvis and creativeLIVE for a stellar ride! Next up - this weekend (Mar 18-20) world renown photographer Bambi Cantrell takes us on a different kind of ride in her free free 3-day Posing and Lighting workshop at creativeLIVE. Bambi will be covering important fundamentals and showing how to apply those techniques in a range of wedding, boudoir, and portrait environments. Don't miss this one - it's bound to be juicy and incredibly spirited! Enroll here for free. I'll see you there!

creativeLIVE karma

Hi, my name is Kenna and I am a creativeLIVE addict. If founder Craig Swanson at creativeLIVE says jump, I say "how high"? Perhaps I wouldn't jump off a bridge if Craig suggested it, but these days I find myself willing to do most anything for creativeLIVE. Name my first baby boy Craig Chase Klosterman?? hmmm - not sure about that one either...

I ask myself, why am I such a groupie that I preach and tweet, tweet and preach about creativeLIVE all day long? Well, because my life is all about the interconnected cycle of giving, receiving, giving, receiving. That's kinda how the world works in my humble opinion. creativeLIVE karma - yes, that's it. As Craig says, I'm a true believer.

creativeLIVE gives me and the world free creative education, and we all receive it with gratitude, pass it on to others around us, make the world a better place using the tools we have learned. Try it on for size - pay it forward by turning friends and colleagues on to creativeLIVE, and see how it changes their lives like it has yours and mine. CL founders Chase Jarvis and Craig Swanson believe in the democratization of creative education - and they are walking the walk, not just talking the talk. My fellow partner-in-crime-chat-hostess Susan Roderick and I are stunned every single day with how much we have learned from our involvement in creativeLIVE over the past year - for free. Wow - were we ever in the right place at the right time to have become volunteer chat hosts at CL? Thank you Universe!

The list of upcoming FREE photography workshops in 2011 is not just impressive, it's downright crazy talk! Vincent Laforet and Jasmine Star are BOTH back in the CL house after stellar weekend workshops in 2010. And the workshop announcements have only just begun. Meanwhile - there are a ton of other exciting weekly classes in addition to these weekend workshops - can you say John Greengo? And I'm not just talking about classes on photography, but courses exploring many more avenues of the creative life. Plus, the archive of classes that can be purchased for ridiculously low prices is long and growing.

Here's a brief summary of what creativeLIVE has announced so far for the weekend workshop series:

March 4-6: HDDSLR - Moving from Still to Video with Vincent Laforet

Creative Live Promo from Vincent Laforet on Vimeo.


March 18-20: Posing and Lighting with Bambi Cantrell



April 9-10: Building Your Wedding Photography Business with Jasmine Star



May 13-15: Food & Culture Photography with Penny De Los Santos



July 29-31: Street Photography with Mikey & Andy of Lighten Up and Shoot


But wait, there's bound to be much much more. Are you ready? I am!

Alright Craig - what do you have for us next? And what can WE (the interwebs) do in return for that juicy creativeLIVE sharing-of-goodness karma next?