A Guest at Me Ra Koh’s Workshop in Sonoma

Me Ra Koh is this fabulous woman and photographer who shares herself through photography. She’s one of those people that you love from the get go. I think it’s because she’s just plain real. She was giving a workshop for women who wanted to learn more about their cameras and how to take pictures of their families and kids and what came out of it was learning about themselves, as women. If you read some of the comments from these women on Me Ra’s blog you can see that it was not your typical “workshop”.

One of my husband’s business partners, Garrett Burdick helped put the whole thing together, and when Me Ra said that they needed a family to practice taking pictures of, Garrett called me up (love Garrett!). I of course said yes. How cool to have your photo taken by 9 women, Me Ra, her super cool husband Brian AND Garrett!
Here are some photo’s from a few of the women….

Photographs by: Michelle Riddle

Photographs by: Sharon Sossaman

Photographs by: Wendy Zippwald

Amazing right?!

The other amazing opportunity that came out of it was that I was able to speak to the group about my business. Right after the test shoot I spoke to the women about what I do, some design techniques and brought a couple of sample albums to show.

It was this beautiful Sunday afternoon in Sonoma. The location was incredible. (I’m trying to find an excuse to go back 😉 It was at the beautiful Westerbeke Ranch and it felt like you had stepped into this wonderful ground of gardens with a pool and delicious food. The women were fun and welcoming, Me Ra and her husband Brian were so sweet and kind and it was one of those wonderful experiences that just linger with you.

After I spoke at the workshop, Matt, the boys and I stopped off at Cornerstone Place. This is a must see if you’re in the area. There are two HUGE blue adirondack chairs that mark the entrance. There are 20 gardens to walk through, super cool gallerys and shops with exotic home accents, jewelry and of course accents for your garden. My two favorite stores there are Artefact Design & Salvage and Zipper (so hip and cool I can hardly stand it!).

Well, that about wraps up the day. This post wound up being way longer than I thought but there was just so much to share!

Thanks again to Me Ra and Brian, to Garrett and of course to all of the inspiring women at the workshop. You’re reaching for your dreams and inspiring me to reach higher for mine. (And now I’m just dying to pick my camera up again!) Thank you for the photographs of my family and for allowing me to share myself and my business. Thank you, thank you, thank you!