Don Macgregor’s Image Exploration 2015 at Shawnigan Lake BC (PPA affiliate school) was a great experience for me—I was asked to give a 3 hour lighting lecture to open the next 4.5 days of workshops, I was scheduled in to arrive Saturday evening then to leave on Monday morning, but something happened—I was having a really excellent time with the attendee’s and so ended up staying for the whole 4.5 days at Don Macgregor’s invitation. During that time I sat in on two of the workshops, first of all on Craig Minielly’s most excellent advanced lighting workshop and then on Laurie Klein’s fine art figure studies in nature. I “live to learn” and so always sit in on other presenter’s lectures but rarely get to on other’s workshops, Laurie’s class took me totally by surprise and in another direction I had never considered plus I ended up doing some modelling for the class which gave me great insights from the other side of the camera (see Vic Kirby’s fine B&W image of my “modelling debut” above). I highly recommend people shooters doing some modelling, I think that it really improves your ability to direct the subject(s) in front of your lens—you see, hear, and feel what directions work, you may find that your way of directing is even annoying when someone else is doing it to you. I have found that many, due to insecurity most likely and mostly males, objectify the subjects they are directing with their language, I believe this alienates subjects rather than connecting. I have a terrible time remembering people’s names and so during shoots, I write down their name(s) on a piece of masking tape then stick it on my tripod—calling your subject “honey” or “doll” or anything other than their real name can be annoying, but then again, if that is the emotion you are going for…;)
All the best,
Dave