Her theme was “Back to the Basics” and she spoke about branding, videography with DSLRs, and how to set yourself apart in the market. She is an excellent speaker and you could just tell everyone was eager to hear more.

She started sharing with us her journey in the photography business and how, in the beginning, she got so caught up in trying to emulate what everyone else was doing and said, “I forgot what I wanted to do… I lost myself.” At that point in her life, she was fortunate to have the opportunity to move to England, where she had a chance to get away and start shooting for herself and what she wanted to do. She took this chance to really get to know her camera and figure out her own personal style. It was there that she started experimenting with videography with her DSLR and really fell in love with it. She also spoke about social media and how much it has revolutionized her business and her ability to connect with future clients. Alea encouraged us to start crafting our style and who we are and what we want our business to become.

One of the most inspiring things I took away from last night was how a photograph should be beautiful simply because it is beautiful, because you intentionally took it that way. How you compose the shot, finding the perfect light… to shoot the picture the way we want it to look the first time, in camera and without a lot of post-processing.

Here are a couple shots from the meeting:

Join our Kansas City SMUG Meetup Group at http://www.meetup.com/Kansas-City-SMUG/ to get notifications of future meetings.

A SMUG is a place where you can learn, teach and meet up with other photographers who share your passion. It’s also how we can tell you what’s happening in our world and discover what’s happening in yours. SMUGs are a great way to connect with other photographers and add a few weapons to your creative arsenal. To learn more about SMUGs visit http://www.smugmug.com/smugs.

My name is Tina Kraemer of Pure in Art Photography (www.pureinart.com) and I am a wedding and portrait photographer based in the greater Kansas City metro area. My favorite camera is my 5DMII and I love shooting people in the beautiful sunlight during autumn evenings! I love my Kansas City SMUG because we have talented and inspiring speakers and the photographers who are attend are always willing to share and learn from each other.

Our speaker was Brett Jarnagin of Jarnagin Photography, a wedding and portrait photographer from Shelbyville, Illinois, who’s extremely talented in flash and lighting setup. He teaches Flashfire lighting workshops for photographers all over the United States and Mexico and is also the creator of Life. Camera. Actions.

He spoke about and demonstrated his different off-camera lighting setups as his beautiful wife, Casey, modeled for us. He has a very unique style that can transform a so-so location into some super dramatic. Here are a few pics from the SmugMug meeting.

Some of us also experimented with using the ring light, which made some pretty neat photos as it removes all of the shadow from the face, restricts your pupils so more of the color of your iris shows up (and therefore being rediculously bright) and puts a nice circle light around your pupil. Brett took pictures of everyone there to use as facebook profile pictures.

Here is a picture I took of my newly-engaged friend, and SmugMug group leader, Ria Liu in front of the ring light.

Brett Jarnagin put on a  full-day workshop (not an understatement… it was a full 12 hour day of intense learning) the day following the SmugMug meeting, where attendees got lots of hands-on training. I had the honor of being one of three models for the workshop! It started out inside at Layne Haley Photography‘s studio in the Strawberry Hill area. The better party of the day was outside (in 100+ degree weather might I add) walking all around to different locations in the West Bottoms area. Even though most of the shots were taken in the middle of the day with full sun around, the lighting technique he used made it look like they were all at night! The photo on the left below was shot at 2pm! EPIC. lol. We ended the night in front Layne’s studio next to an old factory, where he taught us about creating light trails and modified settings about shooting in lower light. It was an awesome workshop and everyone had a great time! Thank you Brett for coming out to KC! Have a great time on the rest of your tour!

Pictures by Brett Jarnagin for Flashfire Workshop at KC SmugMug.