Last week, I had the pleasure of attending the second annual Vision Conference, hosted by the Black Female Photographers.  This year’s conference was held in Atlanta, GA and photographers from the across the country (and even Canada!) were in attendance.

In the three days that we were in Atlanta, we had many opportunities to connect with each other, learn some new skills that we can implement in our businesses, and of course capture new images for our portfolios.

Being on social media, I’ve connected with many of the photographers in attendance online, but it was absolutely awesome to finally put faces to the social media profiles I’ve been following for a while now.

It’s funny how that works—we don’t know each personally and have only “met” online, but once we all got together in person, it was like reuniting with our [photog] family!

There were several classes offered during the conference.  Below is a summary of the ones I attended.

Ashley Canay hosted on class about using video in your business.  This is something that I’ve been wanting to do for a while now, so I was so glad to have been able to take her class!  We learned a few tips on capturing the videos as well as editing.  And while we may be fearful of starting out or using video, Ashley’s main takeaway was just to “push the darn [record] button!”

Toni Shaw hosted a class on outdoor/on location lighting.  While I’m primarily a natural light photographer, I picked up some great tips that I will be able to use in the future.  And it was amazing to watch Toni in action in getting some beautiful images.

Mary Brown taught a class on using Photoshop, which was very helpful (my primary editing software is Lightroom, but I’m beginning to use Photoshop more and more), and Rhea Whitney taught about branding yourself and defining your style.  After taking another hard look at my portfolio, I can now confidently say that my style is vibrant, clean, and modern.

Nicole Mondestin hosted a maternity shoot out, where I was able to capture the gorgeous image below.

 It was great to learn such wonderful information from my fellow female photographers!

On Saturday evening, we attended the Vision Awards Banquet.  It was during this event that we recognized and celebrated the achievements of our fellow photographers who demonstrated excellence in their respective crafts (I was not nominated for any awards this year, but am hoping to have family photography represented next year!).

After a delicious dinner (like for real…the food was excellent this ENTIRE weekend!), we let our “cameras” down and had a LOT of fun at the after party!  My motto for the night was “work hard, play hard!”

Overall, the Vision Conference was fantastic.  I gained some valuable information that I will implement in my business and as another fellow photographer told me, “If you walk away even with just one piece of information that helps improve and bring value to your business, the conference was worth it.”

The Vision Conference was truly an experience I will never forget.

Sharetha Monique is a maternity, newborn, child, and family lifestyle photographer in Charlotte, NC. Follow me on Instagram: @sharethamoniquephotography or join my private community on Facebook.  To keep up new content, and stay informed of exclusives and special offerings, sign up for my newsletter!