When it came to learning Lightroom, one of the most helpful tools I found was a DIY workshop by photographer David Johnson. 

David has been a landscape photographer for a number of years and is passionate about helping others hone their craft. He operates Photography Roundtable, a blog and podcast that's a resource for all things photography, including tips, tricks, product reviews and advice. 

I was first introduced to David through another photography podcast I listen to regularly. Coincidentally, around the same time I was considering Lightroom as a viable photo editing option, David had just developed his DIY Lightroom tutorial. 

To be clear, I don’t know David personally, so purchasing his product felt a little bit like a leap of faith. At the time, I figured I’d learn something. What I didn’t realize was just how much I would learn, or how good completing his program would make me feel. Seriously! David’s workshop is 30 lessons long, so finishing it felt like a real accomplishment! 

David created his Lightroom tutorial for people like me -- photographers who are new to Lightroom and who are intimidated to the max. Because it's downloadable, users are able to work at their own pace and complete the course on their own time. I have a day job, so that kind of structure is perfect for me. I got up early in the mornings and went through a few lessons before heading to work each day. Learning a brand new program wasn’t easy, but David made it fun and exciting. It was kinda like going to school!

The best part was being able to see the fruits of my labor. After each lesson, I practiced what I learned and in just a few weeks, was utilizing Lightroom to it’s potential.
 
I have so much more confidence now than when I started. I’m convinced purchasing David’s workshop was one of the best educational investments I’ve ever made, and I can't thank him enough for sharing his knowledge with the world!

I wrote earlier that it took a lot of convincing for me to fully understand the value and benefits of Lightroom. For years, I'd been editing photos in Photoshop and I figured that was all I needed.

Gerry Suchy, photographer, graphic designer, and tutor taught me that I had a lot to learn. Prior to meeting Gerry, I had only heard about Lightroom -- I had never seen the actual program, let alone used it. At our first tutoring session, Gerry gave me a basic overview of the program. He explained how and why it's different than Photoshop, and showed me functions that would benefit me most. It was a lot to take in, but having someone physically sit next to me and walk me through each step made the experience less intimidating.

That doesn't mean transitioning from Photoshop to Lightroom was easy. For starters, getting the most out of Lightroom means using a RAW file format.. (For those unfamiliar with the term RAW, think of a dark room. A RAW file is like unprocessed film. With the right tools, it can be manipulated much more than a JPEG file.) I never shot in RAW before 2015 because I never needed to. Before I thought about starting a business, I was doing photography solely for fun and all of my post processing was done in Photoshop... The same version of Photoshop I got a license for when I was in college... The same version of Photoshop I had been using for almost 10 years. My Photoshop CS3 was so outdated that it wouldn't even read RAW files!  

So when I began exploring Lighroom as a viable photo-editing option, using the program meant more than just learning new software. It meant changing the way I work. I'm not gonna lie: that realization was frustrating and scary and felt like an intense uphill battle. There were definitely moments when I thought learning Lightroom was nothing more than a huge waste of time. 

It wasn't until I saw the program in action that I started to understand it's full potential. As challenged as I was, I can't thank Gerry enough for helping me see the error of my ways. It might sound silly, but learning how to use Lightroom taught me many valuable lessons, including how to be more trusting and more flexible and less judgmental. 

It's been six months since I started using Adobe Lightroom full-time for editing my photos and I can't believe the difference it has made! The program has allowed me to streamline workflow (which means less time at the computer!) while producing a higher-quality, more consistent product for my clients. It's a win-win for everyone. There are some days when I'm not sure how I ever lived without it!

As much as I love the program now, learning how to use it didn't come without some nudging. Even before I thought about starting a photography business, I knew a lot of industry photographers -- okay, let's face it, almost all industry photographers -- use Lightroom for post processing. My initial reaction to this was good for them. I'm not one to blindly jump on the bandwagon, so it took some serious convincing for me to really understand why Lightroom is such a valuable tool. Here's why I love it:

Better workflow 
Before using Lightroom, I used Photoshop to process all of my images. Because Photoshop doesn't have the database functions Lightroom has, this meant going through photos one by one and jotting down the individual file name on any photo I felt was worth keeping on a piece of paper. Then I had to open each individual file in Photoshop and make my adjustments. Depending upon the number of photos and my availability, editing a single shoot in Photoshop took me between one and two weeks. Lightroom offers a number of functions that completely streamline this process, making it much less cumbersome. The difference is like night and day!

Consistency
In addition to its time-saving features, Lightroom allows me to be consistent from one photo to the next when editing for exposure, color, tone, and saturation. These things can be done in Photoshop, but Lightroom makes the process incredibly easy.

Pre and post-processing organization
One of Lightroom's best features is its ability to organize photos. A lot of photographers swoon about it's pre-processing organizational capabilities, but my favorite is the kind of organization Lightroom allows you to do post-processing. In one fell swoop, I can resize, name, tag, and save all images from a single shoot!

Regular readers of this blog who are social media whizzes might not find this post terribly helpful. But if you're like me -- somewhat new to social media -- keep reading :) 

One of my goals for this year is to learn how to better market myself. Part of that involves better utilizing social media to reach clients and people in my community. A lot of photographers rely heavily Facebook for this, but I've actually had more luck with Twitter. I love Twitter!

For months now, I've been using Hootsuite to manage my Twitter account. I love the platform's user-friendly interface and am especially fond of the function that allows users to pre-schedule tweets. But there's been one problem: for the longest time, I was unable to schedule tweets with photos attached. Don't get me wrong--the function was there, but it wasn't working. I'm a photographer. That's a pretty significant problem, but one I haven't had time to look into until just recently.

I mentioned this to a few friends who are social media experts, and they suggested Tweetdeck. So, I decided to check it out. Late last week, I scheduled my first tweet with a photo using the new-to-me platform. (For the record, this is Snorri, the Icelandic goat!)

I must say: I'm not that impressed. Maybe it's because I'm relatively new to the program, but I don't find it as user-friendly as Hootsuite. There's a lot of up-and-down scrolling just to schedule a tweet, and the scheduled-tweet column doesn't populate immediately. This makes it take about three times as long to schedule a tweet in Tweetdeck than in Hootsuite. Given that I do most of the work for my photography business in the morning before heading to my day job, my time is limited. 

There's no reason why I can't use both platforms, but for sanity's sake, I realize I need to choose one. Over the last few weeks I've done some testing of my own and Hootsuite is on a roll -- I haven't had any problems scheduling tweets with photos. So, Hootsuite it is! 

Those who don't following me on Twitter, now's a great time to do so! My feed is going to be, shall we say, picture perfect? (HAR!) Those who are already followers, be on the look out for great visual content!

(Keep reading for additional details about Tweetdeck and Hootsuite, including my own list of pros and cons!

One of the questions I frequently get asked is how I got my start in photography. I get asked so often that I thought I'd just write a blog post about it!

The truth is, I got my start in the art almost by accident. It started back in college. I majored in journalism and wrote for my college's student newspaper. I served many roles, including editor of the front and opinion pages, columnist, and co-editor-in-chief. At the time, photography was the farthest thing from my mind. I took my reporting and writing seriously, and was laser-focused on honing those skills.

During my freshman and sophomore years, our newspaper staff was lucky to have two amazing photographers. They were rockstars at what they did and made sure the paper had great visuals. As college kids so often do, one of them graduated, taking our photography staff from two down to one. The remaining photographer (who I'll call Kristen) was involved in all kinds of campus activities. In addition to serving on the student paper, she was in a sorority, numerous clubs, acted as a campus tour guide, and participated a plethora of other really cool things.

When you're in college, over-scheduling yourself is easy to do, and that's exactly what happened to Kristen. On the verge of an exhaustive breakdown, she realized something had to go, and that something was her involvement with the newspaper. Overnight, our paper went from having one incredibly talented photographer to having none. Frantic, our adviser ran into the news room, scanned the area, zoned in on me, and said, "You! Go take pictures!"

I had no idea what I was doing, but I accepted the challenge. My first assignment was to take photographs of a student play. Somehow, they turned out well, and I continued my role as the paper's make-shift photographer. I won a few awards for my work -- which I chalk up completely to beginner's luck -- and in 2009, purchased my first DSLR, a canon Rebel. I worked on my skills, got a few additional lenses, and upgraded my equipment. But it was all for fun. In my mind, photography was just a hobby -- or so I thought.

That changed in 2013 when friend of a friend contacted me. She needed a second shooter for fashion line she was launching, and asked if I'd be interested. I thought she was crazy! I didn't consider myself a professional by any stretch of the imagination, but took a chance. I figured I didn't have anything to lose. The shoot went incredibly well and the next thing I knew, I had a website, business cards, and clients. The rest, as they say, is history!

I even got to meet President Obama when he was still a senator!