Comments on: Win Sony Camera and Private Photography Lesson w/ Me Ra Koh! Only 48 hrs to Enter!

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[...] Win Sony Camera and Private Photography Lesson w/ Me Ra Koh! Only …Have you always dreamed of coming to a CONFIDENCE Workshop, but don’t yet have the budget for it? Are you a beginner when it comes to using your camera, [...]

By: Sandra

Sandra — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 23:41:59 +0000

Wow, wish I had seen this in time. It is the 19th and I just read a blog entry for the first time….. I will watch for future opportunities.
I like what I see here so far.
Sandra

By: Kimberlyn Totten

Kimberlyn Totten — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 23:49:10 +0000

I’m so excited to see who the lucky lady is! Me Ra… you are a treasure, your heart of generosity and encouragement never ceases to amaze us! You amaze me and remind me continually to always push forward, no matter what life throws at us.

I am forever drooling over that sexy copper brown SONY every time I see it! Wish I’d seen this post sooner…although I’m in Oregon now, not totally a beginner but indeed have a photographers heart. The passion and desire is stronger than ever, the confidence is growing daily (many thanks to you and the entire Soarority community). Now I just need to get my grubby little hands on a good DSLR and I think I’ll be of and Soaring for real!

Best wishes Ladies….Thank you for sharing your stories with all of us. We’re all at different places in our journey…and sometimes all it takes is stepping out and taking a risk to make a dreams come true.

Love you Me Ra…thinking of you and praying for your family daily.

Blessings- Kim and (Scott too)

By: Me Ra Koh

Me Ra Koh — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 19:20:16 +0000

I wanted to personally thank all the beautiful women who shared their stories with us. You are all amazing! Stay tuned for some fun news!

Much, much love,
Me Ra

By: Heather Ratcliff

Heather Ratcliff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 16:03:07 +0000

oops that is suppose to be finchpuppy@gmail.com

By: Heather Ratcliff

Heather Ratcliff — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 15:58:06 +0000

My name is Heather and I am the mother of a 2 yr old little boy named Jackson, a wife to an amazing partner, and a photographer. I state the first two with pride, but when it comes to the third, I struggle to get the words out of my mouth.
My passion for photography began a long time ago, over 25 years in fact. I would find myself so many times taking a National Geographic magazine or any book about pictures and cameras and sitting with it for hours studying, dreaming of one day taking pictures just like them. Flash forward 10 years and I bought my first slr, a Canon Ae-1 Program. I took so many pictures, but never moved it off of program, I didn’t know how. Flash forward to the present, my partner gave me a gift for my birthday of a dlsr. It was in heaven and I was also 4 month pregnant with our amazing and beautiful son. I tried to learn as much as I could about my camera by the time he was born so I could take pictures of him every day. I immersed my self in photography and tried learning everything I could. Every spare moment, such as my commute to work, I am listening to photography podcasts. Lunch time is filled with books and blogs. I have learned so much in the last two years about my camera and how to take pictures but the problem is I still lack the confidence to apply what I have learned, probably due to teaching myself and not learning hands-on from a teacher. I am not very confident of my settings and I always fear what my outcome will be of the pictures I have taken. Enough friends in the last 6 months have asked me to take pictures of them that I took the first steps to start a business, but when asked if I am a professional I shy away from the true answer because I still don’t believe in my self enough to say the word. I dream of someday leaving my 9-5 job, and doing nothing but photography. I just need a push, a coach, and someone to tell me I can do it.
Thank you for providing this contest so that those of us close to Seattle have a chance to learn more. I will be excited to see who you choose and I will be saving my money to attend your next workshop here in Seattle. This year I just didn’t have the money or time away from work. Every moment I don’t have to give to my job, I give to my family. Thank you to you and your husband for your generosity of knowledge through your blog, workshops, and tips. It is folks like you that make this world of photography so much easier.

Heather Ratcliff
Kent, Wa
finchpuppy@gmial.com
206-451-7456

By: denise karis

denise karis — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 08:56:45 +0000

an impromptu contest! I love it!

By: Dy

Dy — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:27:45 +0000

What an amazing opportunity you are providing, Me Ra. What you are doing and the techniques you are providing to build confidence in photography are very inspiring. I would be so honored to be one of the lucky winners of this amazing opportunity.

I have been taking pictures for a while now with a point and shoot camera; however, last year my husband bought me a DSLR for my birthday and I feel in LOVE with it! Many thanks to my wonderful husband . I have to admit that I mainly used it in the ‘green box’ mode for the longest time because I didn’t understand how to use the other modes. Then one day, I learned about your DVDs and I wanted to go ‘Beyond the Green Box’ . I watched both DVDs and loved how you explained things in simple terms and made it so easy to understand. And I found you and your husband to be VERY funny! You guys are so cute! Well, after watching both DVDs I started to take pictures in aperture and manual modes. I was amazed at how creative I could be with the pictures! I loved the idea of telling my kids story through photography. As I continued to take more and more pictures, I soon realized that it became my passion. The passion to learn more, to take better pictures of my kids and capture their story and become a better photographer continued to grow. It was an AMAZING feeling to be so passionate about something and realizing this is what I want to do for a living. I could seriously see myself doing this for many, many years to come and know that I would still enjoy it. I am very interested in taking pictures of kids/families and weddings. I want to be able to take pictures for families so that they can have their stories told through photography and special moments captured forever. These kids grow up so fast it’s easy to miss it. To be able to capture the story of a very special day for a bride and groom would be a wonderful gift I hope to be able to give one day. I am very much a beginner and know it’s a long road to becoming a professional photographer so every opportunity to learn and build my confidence would be such a blessing.

To answer your questions, it is ‘Yes’ to all! I am a Mom to two amazing and wonderful kids. Kaleb is my 4 years old son who’s caring, funny and energetic. There’s never a dull moment with him. Kailtyn is my 2 year old daughter who’s small in frame but is very feisty and holds her own. They are the joy in my life and keep me laughing every day!
I enjoy reading your blogs and look forward to reading up on new tips/techniques you post.

Dy Leng
206.618.9975
Sammamish, WA

By: Pardi

Pardi — Fri, 16 Jul 2010 07:12:26 +0000

My husband said I am our twins’ paparazzi because I have the camera in their face all the time. What can I say, I’m afraid to miss the precious moment and even if I captured ‘the moment’, I’m afraid that my shot was overexpose or underexpose or just simply blurry. So, I took multiple shots with multiple settings. Then, I ended up with a dozen pictures of the same action. Some were better than the other and sometimes they pretty much look the same. Then, I’d painstakingly go through the pictures one by one and try to improve them by cropping and adjusting exposure and color. You see, I make photographing my kids a full time job. Problem is, I do have a full time job and I don’t get to play with my little 3.9 years old monsters all the time because I have to take a picture of them playing.
It started a little over a year ago when I decided that the point and shoot was too slow to capture my toddlers in action, so, I bought myself a DSLR. It was great. It was so responsive. Look, look, look I could take back to back shots. I was never going to miss a moment again. For a while, I was this mom with a big DSLR camera on automatic setting. The pictures were nice and crisp. Problem was, with little sunlight in Seattle, the flash came on most of the time and resulted in harsh lighting. I had to find a way to kill the flash. So, I researched. I watched YouTube instructions. I read photography blogs (including yours, which was and still is, my personal favorite- lots of tips on taking pictures of kids, concise, easy to read). I started playing with ISO and Aperture. Now, from all crisp and sharp pictures I took in automatic mode, I end up with more bad ones but once in a while one would turn out so good that it fooled myself to think that I ‘got it’ (so not true!).
MeRa, I need help! I would love to be taught how to take pictures of kids running around under the ever overcast Northwest sky. I could use help figuring out how to take pictures of the kids indoor with back lighting. I would love pointers on how to improve my pictures aesthetically. How do I make the two subjects in the picture look equally good? How do I get more interesting shots? Should I be taking picture crouching on the ground? Hanging up side down from the tree? I’ll do anything to get great shots, I just can’t quite figure out what, but I hope that you would pick me to be the one to learn from you.