Learning, learning, and more learning.....

In my quest to be the very best wedding and portrait photographer I can be, I recently attended a workshop in Scarborough, Maine, sponsored by the Professional Photographers of America and hosted by the Studio of Nadra Edgerley. The workshop was entitled "Portrait of a Bride and Groom." Nadra and I met briefly a couple of years ago at a bridal show. Since then I have been a huge admirer of Nadra's work, so I jumped at the opportunity to take a workshop hosted by her.

As it turns out, we had an intimate group of five very talented photographers, all with unique perspectives and personalities. We started off with introductions, followed by why we attended and what we wanted to learn from this workshop.  I was pleased to learn that several other people were attending the workshop for the same reasons that I was. We were looking for tips on directing our happy couples to capture the best possible portraits of them To help us with this area, Nadra openly shared her vast experience and knowledge with us. She also spoke quite a bit about finding and perfecting our own unique style.  So, to combine our own style and Nadra's great advice, we went out into Nadra’s backyard to work with a “bride and groom”.

While in the backyard, we each had one on one time to photograph the happy couple and work with Nadra. She again spoke about personal vision and encouraged us to ask ourselves what we wanted to say about this couple through our imagery. She also reminded us to pursue every possible angle. What did I discover? I need to purchase a very fancy piece of equipment…a footstool!

While Nadra worked with each of us individually, the rest of the group was employing Nadra's advice by photographing each other. We did this because Nadra feels that it is important for us to experience what it feels like to be on the other end of the camera. I have to admit, this was a fairly un-nerving experience. I rarely find myself being 'shot' and I found that I craved direction from the photographer. This was a very helpful learning experience as it reinforced how important it is to make one’s subject feel comfortable and open to being gently directed.

We had the opportunity to immediately put this lesson to use.. Nadra’s 15-year-old niece, Lindsay, came out and allowed us to practice on her. She was such a good sport, and we each took some wonderful images of her. After we were done with our shooting exercises, we had lunch and downloaded our images for critique. We were instructed to choose 10-15 of our favorite images. It was a difficult task for me because I took over 400 images. Thus, I learned another lesson about the importance of editing.  In other words, I need to narrow my selection of images that are truly outstanding. Editing images that are just OK is a real time bandit.

Everyone’s images were amazing and incredibly inspiring! Nadra again focused on how each of us captured the same subject with our own unique perspective and personal style. Nadra stated that she feels my style is capturing emotive moments with a fine art vision. It reminded me of a comment a dear friend made to me long ago who stated my work exuded a kind of quiet grace. That comment helped shape my personal vision as a photographer. It was a nice reminder to continue to create work that is authentic and true to who I am.

All in all, it was a great workshop filled with inspiration and growth. I learned a lot and I met some wonderful photographers.

Here are a few images from the day’s bounty.

Blessings,
Sara