Dear Photography Friends,
I have two new workshops coming up in the next couple of months that I want to tell you about, a new “Photography of the Ballet” workshop, and an “Outdoor Portraiture” workshop.
The first one, “Photography of the Ballet”, is one that I have done before a number of times and that people seem to enjoy. This workshop is scheduled for Sunday afternoon, May 20th, from 2-7 p.m., and again at the Southlawn Studio in Rockville, MD. The two dancers scheduled for this workshop are Brenda and Maya, both excellent dancers and both very photogenic as well. (A photo of each of them from previous workshops are below.) As in previous workshops, we will be using a variety of studio flash setups, which emphasize their form and posing in various ways. We will be working with both classical ballet forms as well as contemporary ballet techniques.
Brenda
Maya
In this workshop, in addition to the studio flash images, we will also be working with a new system that I developed, in which continuous lighting (either Q-H or LED lighting – in which longer exposure times can be used to capture dance blur images), is combined with the participants own on-camera flash units (set at the camera rear-curtain sync), to produce combined blur-flash images. With this set-up, multiple students can be shooting at the same time, with minimal interference. (I will have several extra individual flash units available for use by students who might need them.) I think this will result in some different and outstanding images! (I have also included below a “blur” image from a previous workshop, using continuous lighting only.)
Maya, Dance blur
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The second workshop that I have scheduled is an “Outdoor Portraiture” workshop, scheduled for Sunday afternoon, June 24th, from 1-6 p.m. (I am scheduling this for an hour earlier than my studio workshops, in order to make best use of the sunlight/daylight.) The location for this workshop has not yet been finalized, but I am tending towards using a location in Rock Creek Park (in D.C.) which has many different types of potential background areas, including a stone bridge, a wood bridge, a waterfall, a building, and various types of vegetation.
This Outdoor Portraiture workshop would also have models provided, and would include the following: determining the “best” exposure through use of your camera histogram and/or a hand-held light meter; use of reflectors to control contrast and shadows; on- and off-camera flash to eliminate shadows and create modeling on the face; balancing flash with available light; use of neutral density filters to improve your images; photographer and model/client interactions; building rapport with the model/client to capture the best possible images; and much more.
Both of these workshops are “shooting workshops”, with 3-4 hours of shooting and the emphasis on students “learning while doing”. I will continually be offering comments, suggestions and guidance during the workshops, on how you can make your images even better.
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The workshops are $125 each, which includes the handout plus non-commercial model releases from each model. You can signup for either (or both) workshops on my website at donbeckerphotography.com, under the “upcoming workshops” link. You can use either the PayPal link there, or email me at don@donbeckerphotography.com that you wish to attend and I will send you an individualized PayPal invoice for the workshop fee.
Thanks to all of you who have taken my previous workshops, and I look forward to working with some of you again as well as meeting and working with all of the new workshop attendees!
Best Regards,
Don