When I received the invite from Kimberley Clayton Blaine (TheGoToMom) and Sony Electronics to attend a day of photography and pampering I was excited to enjoy the event and see my fellow bloggers. But my tech obsessed side was looking forward to checking out the new Sony Cyber-Shot WX9. The Sony Photo Fun Mom Event inspiried me to get out of my “work at home” sweats off and get my fashion on. Or – at least – attempt to.
Here is a video from the Event:
Sony Photo Fun Mom Event from Kimberley Blaine on Vimeo.
The event gathered a fun group of bloggers together to enjoy San Diego, experience the Cybershot WX9 and get headshots from celebrity photographer Brian Smith. Brian Smith’s project/book is called “Art and Soul” that has a goal to raise visibility and funding for the arts/art education.
While all the event pictures from the day were taken with our Sony Cybershot WX9 cameras, I wanted to also try out some of the special features. The WX-9 has 16.2 megapixels, easy to use HD option, 5x optical zoom, 3.0″ screen, Full HD 1080/60i video and “Exmor R” CMOS sensors and my favorite settings: 3D Sweep Panorama and soft skin setting.
Starting off the Sony Photo Fun Mom Event was a during the first night dinner at Anthology.
Jeannette Kaplun took this picture of (left to right) Heidi Leder, Michele McGraw, Rebecca Levy, Sheila Dowd and Glennia Campbell. I was excited to see local San Diego bloggers Beth Avant, La Jolla Mom, Bizzie Mommy and Susan Kay Wyatt from LA.
Glennia enjoyed using the “Sony Cybershot WX9′s Gourmet setting to take photos of food in low light with brilliant effect“. I found the WX9 not only easy to use out of the box, but the settings enable you to take fabulous pictures on the go (with a camera that fits in your back pocket if needed!). Here are a few pictures I took using the Sweep Panarama setting that allowed me to sweep the camera and capture more in one picture. The resulting picture can take a normal picture to the next level with more detail and perspective.
In the picture above, Jennifer Martin and the Sony Photo Fun Mom crew giving us a demo of the Sony Cybershot WX9.
The beautiful San Diego skyline at dinner.
The sweep panaromic picture above is one I took of downtown San Diego from our event the next day at the Hard Rock Hotel. This inspiried me to bring the Cybershot WX-9 on my family vacation and use the Sweep Panorama setting to capture all 10 cousins on bikes riding on a beach boardwalk. Capturing special moments like that are priceless, and now I can do it in one picture instead of many.
We also had a chance to look at accessories such as the Sony Partyshot (hands free photos) and digital photo frames.
It was great to see representatives from the Sony social media team including Sukhjit Ghag (picture between Kim and I).
Kimberley Clayton Blaine was also a great resource for learning even more about the Cybershot WX9. She showed me the Soft Skin setting – which is now one of my favorite settings.
Above is a picture of Kimberley Blaine and Jeannette Kaplun I took using the “soft skin” setting that highlights skin in just the right way. We all decided that we don’t want any more pictures taken of our face unless the soft skin setting was used.
This picture is of Sarah Auerswald and Kimberley Clayton Blaine – also using the soft skin setting on the Cybershot WX-9.
Jeanutte Kaplun and Heather from the Rookie Moms were the models for a shot Brian Smith helped us frame. He told us to look for unique landmarks to help frame a picture – and this sculpture did the trick.
We all had fun trying the different camera features.
Here I am with the fabulous Liz Gumbinner, one of the founders (with Kristen Chase) of my favorite shopping sites Cool Mom Picks and Cool Mom Tech. I am thrilled to be part of the Cool Mom Tech team, so I tried to find a good pose for a picture. I think Liz nailed it – but my pose needed work. Luckily we had Brian Smith Photo to help me and the other moms out with headshots.
Brian Smith used the Sony DSLR-A900 for our headshot pictures.
Kimberley Clayton Blaine and Britt Michaelian are getting their fashion on for their headshots:
The beautiful Sheila Dowd of the Clever Girls Collective had her celebrity pose on.
I tried my best to go from Geek to Model Chic (something that does not come naturally for me). Luckily Brian Smith and his wife Fazia (who is a fantastic stylist) helped me find a style and some poses that worked to create my new headshots.
Thanks to event host Kimberley Clayton Blaine, Sony and Brian Smith Photo for making this mama feel like a celebrity for a day.
I not only have celebrity headshots, but I also learned how to make my friends look like a celebrity using the features on the Cybershot WX9!
Disclosure: Travel expenses to attend the Sony Photo Fun Mom event were covered by Sony. We were given a Cyber-Shot WX9 to capture our memories (and we enjoyed it!). This is not a paid post. As always, my words are my own.
