Sometimes things happen in a really weird way. One day you’re bummed because you’ve got a major case of blogger’s block and have no desire to open up WordPress or whip out your camera, and the next day you get an email from an aspiring model asking if you’ll do a photoshoot with her to help her expand her portfolio.

And then you get another email from a fellow photographer and hula hooper, who not only teaches you some amazing hoop tricks that will knock your teeth out if you don’t watch it, but also does professional photography as a side job and will teach you pretty much anything you want to know.

What? Like, seriously? Anyone who says blogging isn’t full of badassery is a FILTHY LIAR.

So I met these two women, Lesley (the hooper and photographer) and Austyn (the model) over the past few weeks and they basically yanked out of me the inspiration and excitement for blogging, hooping and photography that’s been hiding inside and too lazy to come out and play.

Lesley taught me the invaluable (seriously, CANNOT THANK HER ENOUGH) concept of how to “shoot manual” with my camera, which means instead of your camera making you its bitch and telling YOU how the pictures are going to turn out, you flip the tables and control every aspect of how that picture will look.

At first when Lesley taught me the concept of shooting manual it was like she was teaching me how to speak Greek while hopping on a pogo stick and eating a pear at the same time. And then I decided to give it a go once again before the shoot with Austyn and realized what a difference it makes when I control the aperture, ISO and shutter speed.

I have a hell of a lot to learn still and a lot of practice sessions in my future, but we had so much fun and I am like a first grader who just won the fifty yard dash because I’m so happy I shot my entire very first photoshoot with a human in manual. If you’ve ever dabbled in photography, you know how exciting this is.