So a young lady who I have not seen since she was probably 8 called me to ask if she could job shadow me.  Where did the time go?? Her name is Tara and I have known most of her family all of my life.  Good people! Because I once taught at Neshannock High School, I had quite a few students interested in Job Shadowing.  I wasn't sure I would like the idea of having students in my home for several hours, so I tried to schedule those that were interested on shoot days.  

That proves difficult sometimes because there is a lot more to the photo gig other than taking pictures.  I wish it were different but hey, it's the price we pay.  Anyway...what was I saying?  Oh ya, so Tara contacted me about job shadowing, so I decided it would be fine since she had never been a student of mine and well...I know her family.  

We went through her questions she had to ask me for school and I showed her the general ropes of what I do in a day.  Contracts, answer emails, order prints, edit some images, my work flow in Lightroom, my fine edits in Photoshop.  Then I pulled out my cameras and showed her a few settings and had her photograph a candle, plant and  Melvin :)  

I showed her my little studio and thought, why don't we snap a few photos and you can edit them in Photoshop.  Who doesn't love hamming it up in front of a camera and then learning something new?  So it's just what we did.  First we used these tin cans I had around.  Thought it might be neat to combine multiple photos of her and include me in the middle.  The child is a teenager and well, we all know most teenagers talk a lot.  So she was game.....this is what we came up with together:

3 Then we went back into the studio and took a few more portraits.  This time, I took several of her and she incorporated them into one image.  She had fun learning how to use actions and some merging tools.  Fun + Learning = YAY!  

4A I gave her an A!  She did excellent and was very willing to learn!

Thanks Tara!  Good luck in your future in Photography!