Mentoring Retreat | Hawaii Newborn Photographer

By far the best investment that I have ever made in my photography career was going to a Newborn Posing workshop.  I cannot stress how important attending a newborn posing workshop is and in so many aspects!!!

1. Newborn posing safety—do your research and find a reputable newborn photographer who mentors.  Your mentor will enlighten you to safety factors that one needs to pay utmost attention to when working with newborns.  I say “do your research” because unfortunately there are many people out there who attend a workshop themselves and immediately start holding workshops themselves with very little or no experience in working with newborns.
2. Newborn posing—my mentor is AMAZING when it comes to posing newborns.  There are so many tips and tricks that I have learned from her that are priceless!!!  I WOULD NOT be where I am today with my newborn photography if I had not attended her mentoring workshop.
3. Continuous support—my mentor is available to me at all times.  If I ever have a question, need advice, need help, etc.  I can just email her, message her, call her, text her, etc.  And she is right there to help me out.  I cherish and am eternally grateful for the lifeline that she extends to her mentorees.

As you know, I am a former educator and I believe in professional development and continued education.  So when my mentor announced that she would be holding a private refresher/retreat for her past mentorees I was over the moon excited!!!  I am proud to say that this past May I attended my second Newborn Posing workshop.  Like my last workshop, it was a fun-filled, jam-packed two days.  The difference was that it wasn’t one-to-one mentoring, but it’s okay because I had a one-to-one mentoring session last year.  This year 15 of us gathered for some newborn posing refreshers.  My main goals for this workshop were to see where I was after one year of working on my own after my workshop last year and to re-learn the 2 poses I was struggling with and still haven’t mastered.

The workshop was a success and I am feeling very, very fortunate to have had not one, but TWO wonderful opportunities to learn and grow from my mentor.  She is a wonderful person, mentor, photographer and friend.  I am truly blessed to have her in my life.  Thank you, thank you, thank you to my mentor 🙂

Here are the two poses that I still need to master.  Please take note that these newborns were posed by my mentor.