Earlier this year, in February, I decided to invest in my business to continue my education with newborn photography.   I knew I was going to be opening my studio in Upper Arlington and I wanted to learn about studio lighting in addition to improve on newborn posing, styling a newborn session, editing and angles. I knew I needed to find a great Newborn Photography Workshop for my business. 

I was on Periscope one day and happened to follow Bianca, with Photography by Axsys Design periscoping a triplet newborn session.  I loved everything about that Periscope.  Her energy was great, you could tell she was excited and passionate about what she does.  I loved all of her set ups/props/outfits and her final product of her images were just flawless.  I knew she was the one immediately especially when she mentioned she offered Newborn Photography Workshops and One on One Mentoring! I sent her an email that day.  Shortly after sending her an email she had called me and was so personable and our conversation was natural that I knew it would be a good fit.  It was was a very large investment as her studio is in Atlanta. In addition to the workshop price there was flights, car rental and hotel.  But, I felt confident that this would help me become a better photographer and my work would improve as well. 

When I arrived,  Bianca took me to dinner and we discussed a lot about marketing and the business side of photography.  After dinner, we headed straight back to her studio and we prepared for the 2 newborn sessions that we would have the following day.  She showed me how to style each session.  She had a huge Prop Collection with all types of wonderful props, outfits, layers, rugs, headbands, hats and bonnets.  First, she showed me how she styles her session by coordinating all the colors, outfits and props for the session.  Then she had ME pick out and style the 2nd newborn session. 

The following day we had two newborns.  The first newborn she showed me exactly what to do. She demonstrated how to pose the parents, siblings and focused the majority of the session on newborn posing.  I loved that she included parent and sibling posing because that is also important to my clients and was something I wanted to get better at.  She also showed me a great workflow for the session that would work well with the baby and helped make each pose a smooth transition.  It was great.  In addition to the posing, she helped me realize that a picture can look so different based on the angles.  She would take a picture on her camera and then have me take a picture.  She then looked at the shot I took and critiqued how I needed to fix the angle and I would take the shot again until I got it right. 

My favorite part of the session what that she allowed me to pose the 2nd baby that came in the studio.  This was very helpful for me as I learn better with hands on training.  It was great and Bianca was a patient and calm teacher.

After the two sessions, we took the images and she showed me how she edits her images.  One thing she taught me is to get it right in camera so you don't have to do as much editing after the session. She also provided me with some tools such as brushes and newborn actions that have been so helpful in my editing workflow as well.  

I also met with her husband, Jason, during the training as he does all of her marketing.  We talked about marketing techniques and he was very knowledgeable. 

After the workshop, the training didn't stop.  She followed up with me and added me to her FB Workshop Page with all the other girls who have also mentored with her.  This has been so helpful as Bianca will offer gentle cc's on any image that you'd like to be critiqued.  She has even taken an image and edited it for me, then would record how she did it so I could learn and do it myself.  She also even offered to Skype with me during a session so she could walk me through a specific pose which was very sweet of her.  It's been extremely helpful and I love that she wants to continue to teach me and help me with my business. 

Her husband, Jason, has also been extremely helpful with my many technical questions from lighting to computer issues I may have with Lightroom or Photoshop.  It's very nice to know you can go and ask a quick question rather than researching/googling it for hours when they can answer it quicker than you can google it. 

I would definitely do this workshop again and I highly recommend Bianca for any photographers out there considering a Newborn Photography Workshop.  I know it's a large investment, but it truly is worth it.  Your confidence with newborns and your work will show improvement. I definitely have seen improvement on my end.  

Here are some of the images I took from the Newborn Photography Workshop Session: