Root to Rise Retreat

Events

I started this year with the goal in mind of focusing more on continuing education and personal development in my business. I just came back from my first retreat for 2023 and I had an absolute blast! This one was part of the Root to Rise mastermind class I’m a part of, put on by Sabrina Gebhart, a mentor that I have worked with closely for a couple of years now. It was well worth the investment!

Root to Rise Mastermind

Root to Rise is a 4-month class with both in-person and online components. I wasn’t able to make it for the retreat last year so I was thrilled when it worked out for 2023! We meet as a group to troubleshoot issues in our business, set goals, and hold each other accountable. Sabrina herself holds Voxer hours each week where she also acts as our own personal sounding board to go over literally anything we want or need and her feedback has been worth its weight in gold. The cherry on top of the sundae, however, was being able to meet with my cohort in person!

Build Community

As I’ve mentioned before, it can be kind of isolating to be a self-employed photographer. This retreat helps build community and adds a fresh set of eyes- several of them, actually- to existing work. Before arriving, we were instructed to choose 20 of our favorite shots to assemble a portfolio. Sabrina printed them out and we all participated in a peer review of sorts. Receiving feedback from others in the field was incredibly beneficial to me. I’m used to flying solo, so it was nice to shake things up a bit and receive constructive criticism (and praise!) from other extremely talented photographers.

Lifestyle Family Sessions

After reviewing our existing work, we also had the opportunity to shoot 3 lifestyle family sessions. First of all, it was so much fun and a huge help for stretching my creative legs so to speak. We photographed two in-home family sessions and one beach session, and seeing all of the different styles applied was really cool. We also took turns taking headshots for each other, and it was great to switch things up a bit!

A family with three small children laugh and play during an in-home lifestyle session.

A father kisses his two blonde sons while their blonde mother in a lavender dress snuggles and plays with their infant daughter during an in-home family photo session.

A brunette couple embrace on their green sofa during an in-home photo session.

A mother and father play with their small children in their sunlight filled living room.

A mother in a yellow dress runs along the beach at golden hour with her two young daughters. Their father in a blue gingham shirt embraces the girls and their mother next to the sea.

A brunette mother in a yellow dress holds her young daughter in a floral dress with her sisters on the sand during a beachside family session.

Three brunette women pose during a headshot session as part of the Root to Rise retreat.

Refreshed & Renewed

This retreat wasn’t all work, however, and Sabrina made sure to spoil us during our time together. We were treated to a private chef on two nights and we had a private yoga session to stretch our physical bodies when we weren’t busy stretching our creative minds! I left our time together feeling refreshed, renewed, and ready to tackle my business with a brand new mindset.

I’m so looking forward to applying all of the feedback I received to the sessions I have planned for 2023. Big things are ahead, guys!

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