Nicholson Family | Blair & Thurston | Photography Retreat and Workshop in Sonoma

Earlier this year I had the honor of hosting two more Blair & Thurston retreats with Elena Blair. We have been putting on intimate, luxury photography retreats since 2016 and when we announced that one would be taking place in the Napa/Sonoma region it immediately sold out. After some discussion we decided to go ahead and open up a second retreat in the same location to take place two weeks later and that ALSO sold out! Unreal. We are so thankful that we get to do this and call it work.

Our retreats took place at an amazing 6 acre working farm in the heart of downtown Sonoma. We welcomed 14 women at each one, pampered them with the luxury accommodations, a private chef, yoga, an on-site wine tasting, and wonderful guest speakers.

We also love to get out and do a shoot and that's where the Nicholson family comes into play. Elizabeth is actually a good friend of mine and her daughter Abigail goes to preschool with my daughter Sloane. Can you believe that prior to this they have never had family photos done? They were so natural and wonderful in front of the camera despite the stress of getting a flat tire en-route to the retreat.

Our retreat attendees LOVED getting to photograph this family and Elena and I had a wonderful time posing, shooting, and sharing what we know.

Our next photography retreat takes place this September in Portland, Maine and we will be making our 2019 location announcements soon. If you're a photographer, make sure to sign up for our mailing list to find out first!

What to Wear to Your Engagement, Family, or Maternity Session

For the longest time I've shied away from advising my clients on what to wear. I always want my subjects to feel comfortable during their shoot and that will mean a lot of different things to different people. I've had people rock jeans, no makeup, and rain jackets and look totally glowing, and I've had people in formal wear feel completely comfortable and at ease in front of the camera. So yes, it's hard for me to tell you what to wear, but I've put together a few key pointers because while connection and moments are the most important to beautiful photos, great clothes do help ;)

1- Movement. Long maxi dresses and skirts are a lot of fun to photograph because of how they move and blow in the wind. As your photographer, my mind is whirling (in a good way) thinking of how I can use that extra fabric to create motion in your images. I love seeing movement when you walk, are picked up, or simply standing still in a bit of wind.

This beautiful flowing skirt created interesting movement at Meg's family photo session in Malibu, CA.

2- Color. Either go totally neutral or totally bold. I pretty much either want to see very neutral neutrals (ivory, whites, greys, tans) or bold, bright, fun color. What colors to avoid? I am not a huge fan of black unless it's a man in an awesome suit or tux :) I promise that I can slim you in any color, so don't use that as your excuse to wear black!

This blue dress made a great statement at Anna and Luca's engagement session at Golden Gate Park in San Francisco!

These soft greys were wonderful neutrals for this family session!

3- Pattern. I used to be in the mindset that pattern was bad, but that's not the case at all. Thoughtful, fun patterns can photograph beautifully as long as they don't clash with another person in your photos. Ladies, I especially love large floral patterns! Gentlemen, a great checkered pattern is always in style. However, let's try to stay away from plaid unless it really suits our location (forest, mountains, winter, etc).

Most people are afraid to go this bold with pattern and color, but Stephan and Adriano rocked their patterns at their urban Los Angeles engagement session.

4- Shoes. Ladies, unless we are in a flat urban location do not wear heels. I rely a lot on movement and motion so I will likely having you do poses that involve walking. If you are worried about tripping in heels we may not be able to get the great connection that I want from those poses. I personally love nice, flat sandals. Feet are rarely even noticed in photos so don't stress about shoes too much. Men, just make sure that your shoes are clean. Even sneakers are fine with me as long as they aren't too worn out and suit the rest of your outfit/style.

Kristy and her husband both wore flat, comfortable sandals to their session in San Francisco. Sandals worked well for the ocean/beachy vibe.

5- Comfort. Women, I want you to do the following before you arrive at your session. Sit down in various positions. Are you comfortable? Raise your arms above your head. Still comfortable? No tummy showing? Unless of course that's what you're going for ;) Dance. Still comfortable? Good! If you can't do any of these things without feeling uncomfortable find something else to wear. I can't tell you how many times I've had clients show up in pretty outfits only to discover that when they raised their arms their dress exposed their booties or that they could not sit down.

For their family session on the beach in San Francisco, Alison and her family were all very comfortable which allowed them to hold and play with their boys without fear of a wardrobe malfunction.

6- Accessories. I love fun accessories such as hats, necklaces, bracelets, or scarves. We may not use them the whole session but it's a nice option to have in your bag. Don't confuse the word "accessory" with "prop" - props are not my jam! I want the focus of your session to be on people, not things.

Chloe didn't wear this hat for her entire maternity session but it was a great statement piece for certain photos.

If you're looking for some inspiration, I have created a small Pinterest board of outfits and pieces that I love! I'm continually adding to it, so make sure to follow me to see more.

https://www.pinterest.com/brethurston/session-wardrobe-inspiration/

Click Away, no male model, and working under pressure

Picture this: It's day two of the Click Away conference in San Antonio, TX where I am one of the instructors/presenters. I am all set to stream with a crew of four camera men for my class on shooting couples, one of just 11 classes set to be filmed out of over 150 offered. My female model shows up on time and I get her dressed. Our male model is late, so we keep prepping and figure he's just a few minutes out. With 5 minutes to go until our start time, I'm informed that my male model is a no-show. We quickly run through our options- use just the female model alone? Pull a female attendee out of my group and ask her to pose with the female model? Try to scramble and find any available man? Shooting a subject alone was not an option and I wasn't keen on trying to pose two straight women...if we had a lesbian couple that would have been fine but sadly the female model was straight wink emoticon So, I ask them to find me a man. Keep in mind, this is a conference put on by Clickin Moms and the only males in attendance were the maybe 8-10 spouses that tagged along as well as any male vendors. The Clickin Mom's staff apparently tried to find fellow speaker Jesh de Rox...the infamous, amazing, professional educator and couple's posing extraordinaire Jesh de Rox. I certainly would have thrown up in the bushes if I had to pose Jesh.

With basically no time to spare, we get a call and are told that they found someone- Michael, AKA the Shoot Proof Guy. He's wearing his Shoot Proof t-shirt so they ask if I want him to change. I say yes, knowing that this poor guy will literally have to sprint up to his room and then back down to get to us in time. He shows up, looking completely perfect right as we are ready to begin (I mean, he is wearing a pocket square!) I barely have time to introduce myself, let alone prep him for what I'm about to have him do in front of a completely full class, streaming video, and with a girl he has never met. Without missing a beat, Michael rolls with every crazy thing I throw at him and looks amazing as he does it. I am so thankful for his willingness to help me out. What a crazy experience for all of us! And, a big huge thank you to all of the Clickin Moms staff who scrambled to find a solution to our problem and especially to Jodi Arego who was by my side with a smile on her face assuring me that it would all work out smile emoticon

If you want to see the class/video in it's entirety, it's included in a video bundle offered by Clickin Mom's and on sale for a limited time for $99. If I talk extra fast, laugh a little too much, or overall seem awkward in any way let's go ahead and blame it on not having a model 5 minutes before I was filmed. haha.

http://store.clickinmoms.com/2015-click-away-streaming-videos-bundle/

The perfectionist in me feels the need to tell you that because of the camera crew, we had to stay in one location for the session. Also, it was 1:30pm. Okay, enough of that...here are some photos :) The first photo was taken by the awesome April Nienhuis.