In a few weeks time I’m popping up to London for the day to attend one of Alan Law’s photography workshops, aptly titled Law School. As a photographer a lot of our ‘training’ comes simply through practise, gaining experience, and in finding your own style and rhythm. However I like to attend workshops to be inspired, meet other photographs, and to pick up handy tips and practical advice. Alan is an award winning photographer based in Cornwall, and I love his natural style. He dislikes ‘posing’, and likes blending in. This is my style too! So it’ll be great to hear about his experiences, and I also hope to learn more about the dark art that is SEO (search engine optimisation), and other technical aspects that are the dull yet important part of running a business.
So today I was reflecting on previous workshops I’ve attended, and thought I’d share some of my images taken during the portrait sessions we got involved in.
Emma Case’s workshop was the first one I’d ever attended a couple of years ago, and it was the most lovely and welcoming workshop I could have hoped for for the first time (it can feel quite intimidating to turn up to an event full of other artists). Emma and her husband Pete are a great photography duo, and really drove home the importance of focusing on producing work that give you ‘the feels’ (evokes emotions), and to also understand/discover your ‘why’ (what drives you as an artist). We had two lovely couples to work with throughout the day, one of whom has to be the most gorgeous pregnant woman I’d ever met, right?!
The Photography Farm workshops, which are held in a old farmhouse near Crawley, are week long programme held by some of the UK and world’s top photographers. My recent workshop was with the jolly Scottish guy Neil Thomas Douglas, and part of the day involved us hunting around the old farmhouse for pockets of light (found in the hallway under a velux) to demonstrate that you can find a portrait opportunity no matter where you are (or how dark the location is!).
