Some of the readers of my blog may be unaware that in addition to photographing weddings, I also take time to teach other photographers.  By presenting as well as attending seminars and workshops,  I keep myself inspired as a photographer.

This year I’ve scheduled a series of photography workshops on lighting techniques, to be presented in cities across the USA.  I just completed the first of the series of workshops held this week in Phoenix and three cities on the West Coast – San Francisco, Portland and Port Orchard (near Seattle).   The workshops are based on material I’ve written to help other photographers and is published on my photography techniques blog, planetneil.

In each location I helped the attendees deal with lighting situations that are typical of their specific area - and each workshop included practical sessions where the attendees were able to photograph models to put into practice the techniques I taught. The image at the top was taken at the Boat Harbour in Port Orchard, WA.  The images below were taken during the photography workshops held respectively in San Francisco, and Phoenix.

Thank you to everyone who attended the workshops, and to our models in each city.
Do keep in touch. 

The response afterwards was tremendous; numerous people thanked me and congratulated me, and I even got several “best presentation of the convention” comments. Not only was that gratifying to hear these comments, but also to see that there were actually more people at the end than when I started the presentation.

Here’s a compilation of a few images, mostly of the time during the break when I was chatting to people in the front. It seems I can’t keep my hands still when I talk.

So it was with real pride that I was invited to do a presentation again this week in Mystic – the third such get together.  By now the event had grown to 120 photographers meeting up! The subject of my presentation this time was how to use flash for some quick scene sweetening. (A description that Bruce Dorn kindly allowed me to appropriate for myself.)

The get together had evolved into a 12 hour program with top-notch speakers. And it was a real honour to do a presentation along with top photographers like David Mielcarek, Monika Broz, Michelle Turner, Steven Frischling, Walter van Dusen, Joseph Prezioso, Ben Chrisman, Michael Cody and Doug Boutwell.

Walter my friend, you did yourself proud with this event, really upping the standard to a new high!

With the most recent workshop in Manassas, I realised I have moved from a viewpoint where I want to teach other photographers what I do, and how I do it …. to an approach where I want to teach other photographers how to achieve what they want to do.

(photo by Brian Knapp)

Also, something truly affecting for me with this workshop, was when I realised that two attendees had travelled all the way from Michigan to attend … and then said it had very much been worth it.

Thanks to the Candy Factory Art Center in Manassas, which was a fantastic venue for a sold-out workshop.  And also thank you to Ashlea, our gorgeous model who was so patient.

Thanks to everyone who attended. Do keep in touch!

… and here is our beautiful model, Nicole, who helped us out on the day.

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Thank you to everyone who attended, and a special thanks to Zack for the use of his studio.

Joriana was one of the attendees at the recent workshop on flash photography that I held in Strerling, VA – and she was gracious enough to stand in as a model for us during the practical parts of the workshop.  The workshop appears to have been a success judging by some of the response I’ve had after the workshop:

“It was great to meet you yesterday and I thoroughly enjoyed the workshop. I learned so much – I could have had an extra half day. I especially enjoyed towards the end of the session with the special lighting and effects. “

“Thank you for an AWESOME workshop! You are so patient and explain things so well. I will practice what I learned and hopefully improve my photography dramatically!”

Thank you to everyone who attended, and thank you to Mindy and Joriana Belcher for helping to arrange the workshop.

The response when I initially announced the workshop,  was very good.  So good that I had to add a second workshop on the next day. The choice of venue - St John’s in Watertown – was a fortunate choice in that we had access to the sanctuary. This was good to help the group figure out flash photography techniques in what is one of the toughest places for a wedding photographer - in the church itself.

Here are two images (taken by John Hartnett) during the workshop:

The feedback via email and on the forums, as well as at the workshop itself, have been overwhelming.

I went away from each workshop in the evenings, tired and exhilarated. It really is a wonderful experience as a workshop leader / teacher to see when someone *gets* something, and things falling into place. It feels good to know that the workshops can have this much impact!

So thank you to everyone who was there. Keep in touch!

This year, Walter van Dusen once again arranged the seminar and get-together in Mystic .. and there were 68 photographers who attended. I was one of the 8 presenters, who included noted photographers such as Claudia Kronenberg, Dan Doke and Michael Cody.

I once again held a presentation on techniques to improve on-camera flash.
(Incidentally, those webpages are a result of last year’s presentation.)

And here I am .. in action. 
And if it looks like I’ve been travelling, it *is* because I’ve been travelling. 

Thank you to everyone who was there and made it a great day of learning and socialising. See you all there again in 2008.

Preparation for this seminar started slowly last year, and picked up roller-coaster speed as the date approached - Monday morning, April 10th, at 8:30am. Weeks and weeks of actual work had gone into the preparation and fine-tuning of the seminar … and then it was actually time to do it.

The DWF Convention was held this year from Sunday April 9th, to Wednesday 12th in Las Vegas – and it tied in with the WPPI Convention and trade show that was held across the road at Bally’s. It was wonderful to meet up with so many friends and acquaintances I had made over the years on the Digital Wedding Forum.

The seminar itself went very well – with one exception.
There were sound problems, which meant that the presentation was delayed by 30 minutes while the hotel technicians rigged a temporary sound system.  Also, a thank you to whoever helped sort out the feedback problem with my clip-on mic. :^)

Other than that, I believe the seminar went very well. I got tremendous feedback afterwards from dozens and dozens of people.  An indicator of the success of this seminar, was that there must have been 200+ people attending – some lined up against the wall at the back of the auditorium – no seats avaialble. Wow! Thank you everyone who attended. It was wonderful to be a part of something so big.

You also need to keep in mind that any presenter is competing with the lure of friends, other hugely talented photographers, the WPPI trade show, and of course … Las Vegas is just outside the room.  In the evenings I roamed the Vegas Strip with other photographer friends.

Here is a gallery of images of (mostly) night-time Las Vegas.