WOW!\u00a0 I had the pleasure of spending two days with David Beckstead.\u00a0 For those not familiar with him, David is frequently considered one of the worlds top wedding photographers.\u00a0 He was the 2002 WPJA Photographer of the Year and\u00a0in March 2007 American Photographer magazine\u00a0included\u00a0him on\u00a0its list of the “Top Ten Photographers in the World.”\u00a0 He is an amazing person to meet, obviously an exceptional photographer and a great person to have the opportunity to learn from.<\/p>\n
Recently David starting offering the “Shoot With Beckstead” workshop.\u00a0 He keeps the number of participants small so everyone gets a lot of individual attention.\u00a0 Last Monday & Tuesday he was in Wilmington and I was one of the less than a dozen photographers in attendance.\u00a0 We spent two days with David.\u00a0 On day one we shot at a number of locations around Wilmington.\u00a0 Locations included the Belamy Mansion, the battleship North Carolina, and downtown Wilmington.\u00a0 Both David and the photographers in the group choose set-ups for the models.\u00a0 David gives very limited direction, encouraging the participants to use their own vision and creativeness during the shoot.\u00a0 At the end of the day the participants return to there rooms to post process their images and to select 10 for critique by David.\u00a0 Each photographer also selects an additional 20 shots to be given to the models along with their “ten best.”\u00a0 On the second day, David critiques each photographer’s ten images in great detail.\u00a0 He gives support and praise where deserved, makes suggestions about how to improve the post processing and composition of each image, and shares how he might have shot the particular set-up differently. It was certainly an excellent opportunity to improve my photography and take it up a notch or two in the process.\u00a0 Below is a slideshow of the 30 images I submitted for critique and sharing with the models.<\/p>\n\n