CoLab Workshop 2012

I’ve got words. Which is surprising if you’ve ever seen one of my wedding posts (case in point). I usually try to keep it pithy and get straight to the pictures. When I was asked to come to a horse farm outside of San Francisco and speak to a group of beginning wedding photographers I was seriously scared I would have nothing to say. Then a few days before I was scheduled to speak it all came back to me. The stuff that keeps me going, keeps me working, and holds me to being persistent. Most of this stuff comes from books I’ve read… which I borrowed openly and liberally from in my presentation. I spoke for over an hour. I pulled from Lynda Barry graphic novels, Flannery O’Connor essays, the latest Jonah Leher book (which I have yet to finish), and the DVD commentary for Spy Kids (or maybe it was Shark Boy & Lava Girl – I forgot which). Words. Mostly from other artists. Words that have helped me to not give up, to forgive my mistakes, and to understand the process of clocking in as my own boss.

What I’ve come away with is friendship. When everybody left the two day workshop it felt like the end of summer camp. I gained so much from spending time with so many creative people coming from all kinds of different backgrounds. I truly became inspired by everybody there, especially Emily from Emily Takes Photos who’s idea it was to make this happen, Maddie from Hart & Sol West who pretty much cyber-bullied me into coming out to speak, and Meg from A Practical Wedding who’s keynote presentation was for me one of the highlights of the event.

I feel like I’m still sort of processing the whole experience. I got to spend a couple of days with the greatest group of people, getting to know each other while talking shop and art and everything in between. I’m so thankful to have been asked to be a part of this thing, and already, rumor has it there will be another CoLab to come.

If you’d like to be on the mailing list for future workshops you can sign up for the CoLab newsletter here.

Finally, I’m linking to this post Meg wrote on her blog. Not just because she mentions CoLab in it, but because as the madness of my wedding season is upon me, as my 9 to 5 threatens to become my 9 to 10, her post has inspired me to strike a new balance in my life, and to make space for health, and peace, and dare I say, sleep.

Okay, enough talk. Back to regularly scheduled programming of less words and more pictures.

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Photographer: Jonas Seaman

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WHAT IS AMERICANVIRUS?

Americanvirus is the personal photo blog of photographer Jonas Seaman. His work has appeared on television's The Today Show, The Ellen DeGeneres Show, and Inside Edition, as well as numerous magazines and blogs from around the world.

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