Today I have some a super exciting news! First I get to introduce you to one of my all time favorite bloggers, Erin Little of Bluebird Baby. Second, she’s going tell you a bit about her life and about this awesome photography e-course, Eyes Open that she created to help folks learn the basics of photography. Then, you get a chance (well, 3 chances actually!) to win a free seat in her next workshop beginning January 6th.
Chris and I took the Eyes Open Photography E-Course about a year and a half back and it was an absolute game changer for us! After years of struggling, we finally understood our digital camera, how to work with the light, how to tell our story visually and really how to take our images to a whole new level. If you’re a farmer wanting to share the beauty that’s coming out of your fields, or you’re a florist needing to capture your gorgeous work as it heads out the door, or you’re a stay at home mom wanting to document the precious fleeting moments with your children, or your a blogger needing better images, or you’re a small business owner trying to build a professional looking portfolio…you name it, this class is for you!
If I were to choose one gift that I could give to everyone I know for the holidays, this e-course would be it!
So without further ado, meet Erin.
I’m Erin Little, photographer and artist living in a renovated church in midcoast Maine. I share a life full of creativity with my partner Mark, and my 7 year old daughter Elisabeth. Mark is a contemporary painter and Elisabeth is a violin playing, ballet dancing extraordinaire!
I have always been capturing moments from the time my mother and father gave me a polaroid camera when I was three years old. They wanted some pictures of them together for our family albums, so they would ask me to take them. My mother says I took the best pictures: I never cropped anyone’s heads off and always had a straight frame. We still have those polaroids in the albums, and I keep my very first one tacked to my inspiration board above my desk.
By the time I was in elementary school, I had upgraded to a 35mm film camera and was staging photo shoots with homemade backdrops. I made the children in my mother’s home daycare pose for me and have boxes full of prints from my “studio shoots.”
When I was in junior high I would come home and obsessively flip through my mother’s old Life magazines, absorbing all of the great documentation from the masters Lewis Hines and Dorothea Lange and dreaming about my adult life as a photojournalist; traveling the world and documenting current events.
After your typical high school black and white photography/darkroom course, I then concentrated my studies on my other interest: music. It wasn’t until I was pregnant with my daughter (now 7) that I got my first digital SLR and started taking photos everyday. It was like starting over and I was extremely intimidated. The digital camera was so different from the simple 35mm I was used to using. I had all of these notions in my head about how I wanted my images to look, but when it actually came to achieving that with my camera, it didn’t happen. I didn’t know too much about lenses because I had always shot with a 35mm and remembered little about aperture and shutter speed, let alone ISO and lighting.
I started studying my favorite photographers on Flickr and checked the settings on my favorite images. (Flickr shows exif data on photos if users choose to.) I learned what type of lenses I preferred based on the images I loved the most, and also realized that I was more drawn to the framing and quality of the prime lenses over zooms. So from there I purchased the lens that I thought would be better for my focus (portrait photography) and that’s when it all clicked. I was getting the results I wanted and started being able to move forward in my photographic skills.
From my personal blog, I got hired to shoot my first wedding. From there it was just word of mouth and I got hired for wedding after wedding, mixing in family shoots and small professional shoots too. I’ve been a professional photographer now for 6 years and have had my work published in numerous magazines and the New York Times.
Through my lifestyle blog I had readers e-mail me weekly asking me questions about photography, what kind of cameras I used, how I got “that look” in my photos, etc. I would answer them one by one and realize that I was writing the same sort of response each and every time. I felt that the mystery of photography wasn’t a complicated one, it was just one that really didn’t have an explanation that was written simply. I am not one to read a manual because I’d never comprehend it, and I got the feeling that there were many others out there like that. Because I basically taught myself and learned by observing and doing, I felt I had a certain ability to pass on my knowledge in an easy-to-understand way. So, the Eyes Open E-course was born.
The Eyes Open E-course is a no-nonsense guide to photography. It will take any beginner who knows absolutely nothing about their camera or photographic terms, and after 6 weeks they will know everything they need to know to capture stunning images. The course focuses on the most important basic elements that lead to a firm grasp of what photography is all about. I write it in a very personal manner, so that it doesn’t seem like information just spit out at the reader, but more of a personal account of what has helped me in my professional journey.
Over the course of 6 weeks, I take my students from basic photographic terminology and camera functions to portrait photography, creative photography, basic editing, and living a more creative life. Combined with the weekly written lessons are photo challenges, videos, giveaways, and an ongoing Flickr group for members that provides motivation, inspiration, and lots of one on one help and feedback. It’s a very supportive environment overall and the perfect place to explore and learn more about photography!
The next class starts on January 6th and each slot is $150. I take a limited number to insure one-on-one help for everyone. I am offering a $25 discount to Floret readers with the coupon code “floreteyesopen” that expires on the 1st of January. Also, I am offering one FREE slot to a lucky reader of Floret! Leave a comment and let us know what your favorite thing to photograph is!
**We’re also giving you two more chances to win on Facebook and Instagram. So if you’re dying to get this seat, head on over there to drop your name in the hat again **
{ The lucky winner will be announced on Thursday (12/19) morning, 8a.m. PST }
For more information about Erin Little please visit:
Her beautiful lifestyle blog Bluebird Baby
Her gorgeous personal portfolio
And her Maine based photography company A Love Supreme Photography
Brooke on
My favorite thing to photograph is animals. My son works at a horse barn, and I’m so fascinated by how the light plays with those magnificent creatures…..weaves through their manes, shines off their coats, and hides in the shadows of the barn. I dream of winning, and thank you for the opportunity to enter.