It’s taken me a while to get to my final thoughts/images from this workshop.  It’s truly been a lot to process … both my thoughts, and the images!

Warning: this may be a long post, but at least it’s chock-full of images!

If you need a head start, I first posted about this workshop here.  In some ways, I’m still processing what I learned {emotionally} and can’t wait to practice what I learned {technically}.

I’m going to walk you through my experience and I’ll finish with a lot of links to others experiences.  I know Me Ra is still working on a final post, so I’ll probably do another post when she’s done with hers.  I think it’ll definitely be worth reading.

So … this workshop took place in the beautiful city of San Francisco, at the even lovelier Cavallo Point.  This hotel sits at the base of the bridge and is cozy, homey, and historic.

On the last day of the workshop … actually, the workshop was over and I was on my way back to my room … I took the photo below.  The weather through the weekend was icky, yucky!  Foggy, rainy … but gorgeous lighting!  If anyone wants to do a session in the rain … count me in! ;)

Anyway, as I was walking back to my room, in the rain, camera bag on my back … I glanced over at the bridge and saw this …

Okay, but let me back up and walk you through some of the things I learned.  I’ve already talked about the very emotional things I learned … so now I’ll share some technical {that actually go hand-in-hand with emotional}.

On day two of the workshop, we drove through some very windy, steep, foggy, wet hills to Rick Chapman’s digs in Stinson Beach.  Rick started with a lesson in communication.  He photographs celebrities {hello … Justin Timberlake, Lance Armstrong, Muhammad Ali} that have been photographed numerous times before.  And most of the time are pretty cranky about getting their mug shot again.

Rick’ll generally have an hour for a photoshoot, but takes precious minutes away from the actual shooting to get to know the person he’s photographing.  What stirs them, what excites them … what kind of image might they want to see?  More on that in a minute …

First, the image below cracks me up!  A model + a photographer with a camera in their hands = we can’t keep our cameras down!  It’s like putting candy in front of a kid and telling them to wait their turn.  Look at us all eating this model up!

Anyhoo.

So Rick talked to us first about communication.  Then he had a model come in and demonstrated the way he likes to start a conversation and have that person open up.  The lovely Leslie was wonderful!  I would love to have a tenth of the spunk she has, as I get older!

Leslie was nervous starting out … rightly so.  Oh, just 30ish cameras pointed at her!  Rick knew ahead of time that she loved to cook, so asked her to bring a couple of her favorite aprons along.  We then ventured outside and got some of these images below.  It was amazing to watch and listen to Rick interact with Leslie … invaluable really.

Then … the tables turned, and we were put to the test.  Rick lined up 12 local neighbors to act as models for us.  These were all older people who had set roots in the town years ago.

I need to tell you … major panic set in.  Even a few tears from some people.  We photograph children.  Not adults!  Yikes!  Nervous …

We were paired with another photographer … for me, the lovely Teri Lee.  Our model was Frank.  58 years old and owner of the local health club.  Whew.  Okay, we can do this.

So we go to the health club, a short drive away.  And there is this larger-than-life, rustic, outdoorsy, friendly man … Frank.

We spent the next 10 minutes talking to him, getting to know what drives him.  What his favorite things about his health club were.  Any images he envisioned having from the session.  Things like that.  As we were talking, I noticed he had the warmest smile and a laugh that lit the room.  {note to self}

So, one of the images he kept asking for was to sit on the couch in the entry way of the club.  Hmm.  Alright, let’s give it a try.

The image on top, is what he’d do when we weren’t directing him.  He felt uncomfortable, didn’t know if he should smile … and kinda looked pretty uncomfortable.

For most of the images I took of him, I asked him to smile or try to get him to laugh.  It was a much better representation of who he is.

That said, they still weren’t the images that I thought would ‘capture’ who Frank is.

But whadda ya think about the ones below?

Frank has this awesome health club.  It’s an indoor/outdoor club.  The weights, treadmills & stationary bike are outside overlooking this beautiful stream that runs right through the ‘club.’  Amazing.

Not to mention the lighting was gorgeous out there!  Even a step further … look how Frank lit up out there … he’s put a lot of hard work, blood, sweat & tears into the club.  You can see he’s in his element here.

The image below is the final one I submitted for Me Ra’s final post on the workshop.  For me, it pulled together everything I learned about Frank in the short time we spent with him.  You can see more images I took of Frank here.

Here are a few other blog posts of day one and two from other attendees … here, here, here, here, here, here, here, and here.

Alrighty … day two under our belts … day three had to eventually roll around, right?

The morning gave us the opportunity to pick between five mini-lessons.  Bummer was, we could only pick two and would only have about 45 minutes at each.  I chose a ‘texture’ session with Rick and a marketing session with Me Ra.

With Rick, we walked around the property and found different things to shoot against and what kind of angles to look for.  Of course, it wasn’t long enough and I didn’t learn enough … but that gives me reason to sign up for another workshop, right?

One of the things we learned was a bit about natural lighting.  Look at Rick’s eyes in each of these shots.  Shooting from below gives him dark {not so pretty} eyes … not to mention the background is a little blah.  But holy-jeepers what a difference when he looks up to the light!

Love it!

My session with Me Ra was awesome {of course!}.  She looked at each of our websites, gave us suggestions and answered questions.  She is one of the sweetest, most inspirational people I’ve met.  She never {ever} has a negative thing to say.  If she has a suggestion, she says it in a way that makes you think you’re already ‘all that’ … she just lightly suggests “maybe this way of doing it” … amazing skill to make every.one. feel so special!

So after our morning sessions, we were paired up again with a fellow photog … this time I had the pleasure of working with miss Chelsie.  Can I take a moment and gush about Chelsie?  She’s 17 folks!  17!  She missed her senior prom to come to the workshop with her mom.  She’ll be going to college in the fall, but is starting a photography business with her mom.  They are incredible ladies and I’m so thrilled I had the opportunity to meet them both!

So onto our sessions …

First up, a mother/daughter session.  Can you say gorgeous??  Sophia {the daughter} was a hoot!  Acting all shy when we met her, holding onto her mom … we got a few shots of them together, when I asked Sophia if there were any images she had in mind to capture.  Oh. my. word.  She went out into this open space and started ma.da.ling!  Whoa!

This girl knew what she was doing!  She cracked us up and was amazing …

You can see a few more images I took of her and mom, here.

Next up!  Jason and Andrea.  They had just had their photos taken for the last 1.5 hours, so I wasn’t sure what they’d be up for.  And did I mention Jason is a photographer?  Yikes.  Good thing I remembered deodorant … well, and that it wasn’t hot outside.

First thing, Jason says he’d like “wide.”  Wide shots, wide spaces … big!  So big we went.  Out into an open field.  They ran, jumped, piggy-backed, kissed, danced, and played peek-a-boo around a tree.

They were SO much fun to photograph!  So in love.  So beautiful.  So inspiring!

Thank you, thank you for letting us capture these beautiful images!  You can see more here.

And the image below is the final image I submitted to Me Ra.  Bummer we could only submit two total … so hard to choose!

This was a workshop, and experience I will never forget.  So completely inspiring.  I love the way God has laid out my path in photography.  Just the right moments/workshops presenting themselves at just the right time.  Thank you Lord.

Here are our amazing leaders for the weekend.  Brian, Me Ra, Rick & Garrett.  Thank you for preparing an amazing journey … and especially for taking the journey along side of us.

I need to also mention before I finish this never-ending post …

I have such a hard time getting to know people, opening up and talking to new people.  I made a commitment to myself to go in as an ‘outgoing’ person … and I did it!  I really did it … and I had a great time.  Why haven’t I done that sooner?  :)

That being said … I’m the dork {hee hee} in the lower right-hand corner of the photo below!  :)

{image via GB Photographers}

Lastly … if you have a moment and are interested … here’s a beautiful slideshow with images from the entire weekend.  Thank you Matt for putting it together!