Yay!!! This month, I hosted my very first photography workshop for my faceboook group "Find a Professional Photographer MD." The workshop went so well that everyone had a blast and asked to do it again!!! Thank guys for your great support!!! Additionally, I was so thrilled by that fact that I met some of the best photographers all at once. When I said best, I meant not only their works were amazing but they also had a wonderful personality to work with. I couldn't have been happier to connect with them.
However, for every event it always has a tough side to tackle with. For this one, I couldn't believe that it was to find a model for our photoshoot. I thought models were everywhere. Long story short, I posted it in all the groups that I could think of, but one week past, two weeks past, three weeks past....still got no one signed up for it. Oh my god, how would I run a photography workshop without a model. Thanksfully, one of the attending photographers offered to model as well as one of my beautiful friends who was willing to step in if I still found no one. So at least I got a back up plan.
When I was still feeling happy with my back up plan, I would never never never think I would run into a real model, Louisa, one week before the workshop on our family trip to see cherry blossoms in DC. I guess luck was still on my side. Thank you!
Louisa asked me to take pictures of her and her friend. Click! Click! Click! Wait a moment, she was posing so professionally. While I handed her camera back to her after taking a couple pictures, I gathered my courage and asked her if she would like to model for my workshop. And yes! she said she is a model and would love to model for us. What a miracle!!! A beautiful model was just sent to me. Yay! Makeup artist get! Model get! Then I got all the handouts ready and was very excited for the day to come!!!
I can go on and on and on with all the details, but lets just skip to the workshop itself.
So the goal for this project is to encourage photographers to keep learning while get connected with other local photographers whom otherwise you may never meet.
First of all, we had a discussion about posing and learned about how posing can affect the composition of a picture and how to pose your subject to create more interesting and flattering image. Instead of teaching a variety of poses to memorize, we shared posing tips that allowed us to apply more creatively and freely, such as posing the subject's hands around the face to avoid cutting off the limbs in a cropped image, adding hopping, jumping, twirling movements or actions to draw attention to the subject in a large background setting, teaching the subject to make a turtle neck to avoid double chin, etc.
After about one hour discussion, we went out to take picture using the tips we just learned. Although it was drizzling a little bit and quiet chilling, it didn't fade everyone's passion to take pictures!!! And thanks to Louisa for modeling in the cold without any complaints.
Before the workshop, the makeup artist and I already had back and forth communications discussing about the outfit and style to shoot. We had what we would shoot as the background in mind, which was these blooming yellow flowers, and decided what colors of outfit to go with together. I think it is pretty fair to say the colors in the image turned out beautiful.
Here are some pictures I took that day. You can checked other photographers' works on their Instagram (I will post at the end).
After the workshop, we went back to my home studio where I took some beauty shots for the makeup artist to add to her portfolio. Sharanya is a very talented makeup artist. I had a wonderful time working with her.
Last but not the least, I hope that this workshop will be a kick off and become a tradition to our group. Although I can not promise to do it in a regular basis because my schedule can get a little crazy when it is the season for family portraits, but will definitely organize another one when I can put it in my schedule, FOR-THE-FUN. :-) Model: @mooweesa
Makeup artist: @wildflowervibes
Attendee photographers: @kellydearphotography, @heirloomsbyheidi, @mykallea, @sdpiv
Thank you for reading!
