What a wonderful experience I had this past weekend. I enrolled some months back for a workshop presented by The Brooks Institute in Monticeto and put on by Joyce Wilson, a world renowned Portrait Photographer. The weekend kinda of snuck (I know that isn't a word, but I like it anyway) up on me with the wedding the prior weekend and that major road trip.
Saturday I was off at a little after 8am with my laptop and my almost new hot top of the line Sony Cyber Shot Digital camera. Addmittedly I was a bit nervous and got even more so as I entered the Campus. An old Mansion perched in the hills above the sea. The House(?) is enormous and very ornate hard to imagine living there, but I guess I could get used to it. The parking lot had a handfull of vehicles and I could see a sign on one of the lower doors. The sign directed me upstairs to room M5 , there I found a group of about 13 other students, as I was one of the last to arrive I took one of the remaing seats in the rear of the room.
Joyce Wilson introduced herself and then asked for quick bio's from everyone. Two of the men were here from Norway,and both professionals in their country. Two from Japan also professionals in the "bis" . There was a Cardioligist from New York. An Advertisment female excutive. Several more from other States , two retired ladies and I. When Joyce got to me she explained that I was unable to talk, I had fowarned the proctor when I enrolled in the workshop.
Joyce lectured first about goals and the opportunities (or lack of due to the digital camera and the internet) we set in our lives both professionaly and spiritually. We then went thru different types of natural light. Next came a mother and 5 month old boy that modeled for Joyce to demonstrate her Techniques in portraiture, very interesting and fun. Back to the room for a review of the shots she had just taken, along with a critique of herself ,she is very down to earth, approachable, a mix between Will Rogers and Wily Post, and a joy to listen to stories It was almost time for lunch when she announced that we would be paired up with our models after lunch. That we were NOT to do any nudes as these girls all were 16 except for one. Kirsten had come a bit early and did some poses for Joyce.
I nad my lunch(Tube) in the car and afterwards one of the Norwigean men came out to smoke I approached him and attempted to introduce myself again He was very nice and we chatted for a moment, and then it was time to return to the classroom.
We broke into groups of 2 and 3 I was paired with a retired woman Arleen. This is when I realized I was totally out gunned in the equipment department. my hot new little camera was exactly that. Almost all of these people had at least 2 DSLR cameras 1 had 4 different cameras, no one was shooting film. There were Cannons, Nikons, Leica's, Hasselblad, all DSLR;s with multiple lenses. The Hasselblad I recall seeing at Sammys Cameras web site at around 22K without a lens. Oh well I'm here and I'm proud hear me roar. Actually my spiel was that I'm still undecided as to what 5K camera I was going to purchase.
The models were assigned to each group and off we went. The model's were far more Prepared than my partner or I Kirsten clothes, shoes, jewelry, shawls, hats, etc. At first Arleen and I stumbled around , but in a short time we were directing the action. Numerous sites for posing a beautiful raven haired girl. A sunlite hallway, the womens mirrored bathroom, outside all over the grounds. We were told to regroup around 2:30pm which we did and switched groups and models. So off to explore new ideas with a very sweet 16 year old Emily, who in my opinion, you could not take a bad picture of. Kirsten was 21 a student at Brooks and a model. Emily had never done any modeling and now that we all had one model behind us we led her thru various poses and then it was time for a family shoot Demonstration and the End of the day one. Joyce told us to go home read her hand outs and put 6 or 7 of our best shots on a flasah drive .
Saturday nite I found my 6 favorite shots and entered hem into my flash drive. Sunday we turned our flash drives and then had a demonstration of studio lighting set ups and various poses useing us as models I hope we get those they were fun. Joyce's T.A. told me my flash drive only had one picture so he put the rest on for me. Next was lunch and back to the classroom where we reviewed our work. I was shocked when Joyce critiqued my submissions and she was very surprised with my results from a little camera, I was up there with the big boys. I think they had more consistent results than I did
Not much more to say other than I will go back as soon as possible for another workshop. I doubt that I will buy a slick new DSLR for the moment I am happy with my hot almost new Sony Cybershot .
3 comments:
That is awesome Dad. Way to get out there and go for it. That is quite a roar. As I told you, after looking through all those older photos, I actually had the sense of seeing the world through your eyes. I think that takes something special to convey to others. Glad to hear you are fired up to take another workshop but aren't in a rush to get that crazy new mega camera. I'd have love to have been a fly on the wall to see your expression when your picture was put up with the "big dogs". I'm looking forward to hearing more about it all tomorrow.
I was thinking the same thing derek about you putting yourself out there dad, very cool and inspiring. How come you didn't post any of the pictures? See you tomorrow.
Those photos turned out really well dad. Glad you posted them.
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