My workshop...photography 101

May 9, 2011 · In Photo Tips · By Allison Carenza

It's like the first day of school all over again.  The night before the workshop I stress over what to wear, I revise and re revise my plans, I worry about technology, and of course whether or not the students will like me.  This is particularly bad now since the students are big people...grown ups.  But the morning of the workshop I wake up pumped, ready to get my teach on.  There is a kind of peace that comes over me because I know that whatever happens I'm going to do my best to share the knowledge I've acquired from so many great photogs.

We started the day going over all the yucky technical stuff.  It's boring, hard to learn, but the most important part of the day.  I tried to throw a couple silly stories in there to mix it up.  And I didn't really care if they were laughing with me or at me as long as they were laughing.  I also tried to get everyone up and moving around a lot.  Very important for my ADD!

After we got all the technical stuff out of the way, we ate lunch and got into the good stuff.  The art of photography.  How to use the technical info they learned to compose pics that are professional looking.  Then they got to go out and shoot around the city.  What may look like dirty city to the average eye is actually full of potential wall art.  Here are just a few of my favorites.  I was so very very impressed.

Nice color, and texture!

Frannie found a cool double reflection.  Made me stop and stare for awhile.  The pic on the right has emotion.

Dirty water, but so well composed.  I even like the distracting cross on the right.  Could be a sign from God.

Nice!  The pic looks like it was done in photoshop HDR style, but nope.

IPAS's store cat.  She was all about having her pic taken.  Loving the contrast here and the composition is nice too.

Interesting and well composed!

COLOR!

Right on!  I could tell they were really finding interesting angles!

In the afternoon we went back outside so I could model some portrait  photography.  I showed them how to hunt for the good light.  I think we did a pretty good job of finding the good stuff.  This was at about 3pm so not the most favorable time of day for gooey light.  Just goes to show, good light can happen at any time of day!

I just wish I'd taken everybody's pic!  Frannie was fierce and this light was too.  Bouncing all over the place.

Alissa on the left was laughing all day, and I loved it.  Happy pregnant people make me smile.  The pic of Lindsey on the right was taken a la natural.  The light was peeking over the building behind her hitting a window that was reflecting onto the ground and bounding up on her face.  Gorgeous!  Finds like this light are hard to come by.

Thank you Lindsey, Frannie, Alissa, Sue, Kim, Jim, Kathy, Melissa, Llana and Jon!  You made this a great day!

Oh and mother nature.  You rock too!

My next photography 101 workshop is going to be August 27th! You can sign up here.  It's going to be hot as hades, but hopefully no rain.

I'm also working on putting together some more workshops.  Here are some I'm thinking about...

Portrait photograhaphy

Studio lighting

Lightroom

Would love your feedback!  Much Love my friends, and happy shooting!