Yesterday, I attended the
Creative Photo Workshops Wedding Workshop with Shelton Muller and Glynn Lavender! And what an awesome day it was.
The morning's theory session provided a great overview of the principles of wedding photography, what sort of skills were required (and it's A LOT! There are SO many roles that a photographer actually plays on the big day), how to build rapport with everyone during the day, and a useful discussion about lens choice.
We then trouped out to Brisbane's iconic Breakfast Creek Hotel for the practical part of the day. I'm sure the patrons weren't expecting to see a stunning bride and groom, and a gaggle of photographers learning how to take portraits in doorways!
What I loved about the day was how we were shown how to create pretty amazing images in a fairly ordinary setting. We posed Eve, the gorgeous bride, in a doorway while she was sitting on a grubby plastic chair - and yet from this pic you would never know. It reinforced to me that great portraits are not about location - it's about clearing the shot of all distractions and focusing on the light on the subject's face.
We were also shown how to set up poses from which you could then shoot 6-10 images - it seems obvious now, but this was certainly not something that went through my mind when I shot my first wedding a few weekends ago. I felt like I needed to re-compose and re-meter for every shot, and realistically, you don't have that sort of time a wedding. No wonder I felt flustered!
The afternoon continued on, and we were given instructions on how to pose people for the light and how to walk them into scenes once you've set them up. In true Creative Photo Workshop form, the afternoon finished with some off camera flash work, which these guys are just passionate about. Their enthusiasm for great creative photography and the way in which they share it with aspiring photographers like moi, makes me want to get out and shootin', and practicing this stuff even more!
