It’s About Getting Better

This is always a slow time of year for portrait and wedding photographers.  This is a time for playing catch-up and for planning ahead.  One of the things I always do is decide what areas of the business/craft I need to work on and plan which seminars and workshops to attend.  Some of the things I want to work on this year include: Lighting – I love creative lighting, both artificial and natural.  I can never learn enough about lighting.  Posing – If you’ve been one of my clients you know I’m not a real hands-on… look here… chin-up kind of photographer.  I like to gently lead/coax folks in to natural situtaions rather than direct.  But knowing more about posing certainly cannot hurt.   Post Processing – My goal is always to create and image that can stand alone, straight out of the camera.  But I also realize that a good solid photo can sometimes be something much more with the correct post processcing techniques.  Plus all photographers get requests to change reality a bit via Photoshop.  So growing my knowledge and skills in post processing is a high priority for this year.  As a rule, I prefer the hands-on nature of workshops over seminars, but both can be useful in the quest to improve.  So far for 2008 I’ve decided to attend the following:

 Tricoast Photography 3-Day Workshop

Tricoast Photography, headed by Mike Fulton, is quickly gaining recognition as one of the top wedding photography studios in the country. Their artistic use of light and digital post processing techniques is winning them awards and peer recognition throughout the industry. They are currently offering a limited number of 3-day, hands on workshops, each limited to 20 participants. Day one will include some classroom work on their approach to location lighting for wedding and bridal shoots, followed by several hours of practical application via actual shooting. The following two days will focus on post processing, workflow, marketing and all the other little things that have helped them build a successful photography business. I’ll be attending the workshop at Columbia, SC, April 21-23. More details can be found at their website, http://www.tricoastworkshops.com/.  You can enjoy some of Tricoast’s amazing photos by visiting their main website, http://www.tricoastphoto.com/.

Captivated by the Light with Ed Pierce.

This seminar will be held May 6 th in Raleigh, NC. The live portion (Ed Pierce) will cover lighting as it pertains to digital photography. All attendees receive a set of DVDs with additional speakers making presentations on workflow, business and other interesting topics. Details can be found at the seminar website, http://www.edpierceseminars.com/learn.php.

Very AltF Workshop

John Michael Cooper is frequently referred to as “the Grandfather of Trash the Dress.”  JMC has been called “one of the world’s ten best wedding photographers”, and is known for his edgey, less than traditional approach to wedding photography.  I’ll be attending the Atlanta, GA workshop in July.  The workshop will focus on their untraditional posing methods along with their use of natural and “very unnatural” lighting methods.  There will also be some time spent on post processing/Photoshop techniques. You can learn more about the Very AltF workshop at the workshop’s website, http://veryaltf.com/.   To view their images and learn more about the AltF studio check out http://www.altf.com/ (just be sure to tell your mother to close her eyes!).