Stephanie Cotta Workshop

As you may or may not know, roughly a year ago I went to a Stephanie Cotta workshop at her studio in St. Louis.  It was a total eye-opener and drastically changed the way I photographed newborns.  A few months ago she contacted me about hosting her up here in Chicago and of course, I was all over that.  I bring you Stephanie Cotta Workshop 2.0!

If you’re new to the newborn scene, Stephanie totally rocks the newborn photography world.  She’s the top newborn photographer in St. Louis and is among the top newborn photographers in the country!  She travels all around teaching her methods and I was beyond excited to be hosting her in my own little studio.  She is probably one of the most grounded people I know in this crazy newborn photo word and is more than willing to tell all during one of her workshops.  Stephanie has no ego and is willing to do whatever it takes during her workshop to help us grow (and after in the special Facebook group).  She is such a breath of fresh air in this competitive environment where most don’t like to share or help each other!

It was beyond freezing but we got the studio nice and toasty and Stephanie was able to get down to business.  She walked us through her prep, how she gets her posing bag ready, and how her process works with her posing flow.  She then went through each pose and as she did it, let us know the key points for each and what she was doing.  After we photographed each pose, she would check our camera and let us know how to correct the angles we were getting.  We each got a lot of one-on-one time to help us perfect each image in-camera.  No matter if we were new to photographing babies or in it for years, she was able to help each and every one of us.

We also had a trunk show put on by the fabulous Julie of Cute Stuff by Jo and Co.  She creates some of the most beautiful and original props for newborn photographers.  Her most popular prop is probably those amazing plush pretzels that Stephanie uses and they come in every color of the rainbow.  You can catch them in use all over my work and in one of the above photos.  I love how versatile they are, as well.  And Julie is the sweetest lady you’ll ever work with.  Honest, you won’t be disappointed if you shop with her.

The rest of day one was filled with editing and processing and a lot of shop talk. (Seriously, we went 2 hours over for that portion like it was nothing).  It was great to hear how someone as successful as her built up her business to where it is today.  She’s a smart one, that Stephanie!  Her editing is a breeze, too.  Now I need to implement some of these new tricks and my newborn editing will take no time at all!  I already used some of her tips on a maternity session and I was done in record time!

Day two was another day packed with us selecting some poses we wanted to practice and she would walk us through them.  I found this super beneficial since we were able to watch each other and have Stephanie immediately correct us on what we were doing wrong.  It is always amazing to watch someone as fabulous as her pose, but until you actually do it and are corrected is when you finally get a real understanding of what you’re doing.  If anyone out there is debating the 1 day vs 2 day class, I cannot stress how important that second day was for me.  I felt I got soooo much out of that portion.  Honestly, if you’re looking for an amazing workshop to step up your game, Stephanie will NOT disappoint.

I came away with so many gorgeous images – I have a TON more than what is shown here.  I was also so happy with all the ladies that came to the workshop from all over the US, even though I know at least one of them froze her tooshie off since she was from Georgia.  I had such a fun time and laughed all weekend!  You all are hilarious.  Thanks for making my weekend so special and I look forward to seeing where you all go from here!

Golden Photography is located in downtown Lake Zurich, IL and specializes in newborn, child, and commercial photography. To learn more about her and the studio check out http://www.golden-photography.net