Last week, Susan and I travelled to Cincinnati to take David Ziser’s Fall Master Class. Most photographers know David as one of the nation’s foremost wedding photographers and educators. His recent book, Captured by the Light, is a must-read for both aspiring and established wedding photographers, and David's blog is one of the most content-rich photography resources on the internet. The 18 participants came from all over the country, and even one from Canada. Most were aspiring professionals.
The workshop began on Monday morning with David talking about various aspects of posing, lighting and composition. The material about the use of leading lines, framing within interior frames and recognizing “vanishing points” for subject positioning was particularly interesting, and David amply illustrated all these points with a series of his typically gorgeous images. Perhaps unusually, David is an avid user of wide-angle lenses in his wedding photography and uses these to great effect to create unusual and striking scenes.
The second session of the day was entitled “what makes a beautiful image?” The answer came quickly – “it’s always about the light”. David talked at length about how to make your lighting exciting – coincidentally, that will be the subject of his next book – and by the end of the next hour or so, we were left in no doubt that the ‘loop’ style of lighting is his favorite way to portray his subjects. David explained how to position the off-camera flash (or position the subject in natural light) to make sure that you always get that flattering light on your subject. Although I had read this in his book, hearing him explain and demonstrate it really drove the point home and we all knew that we would soon get the chance put all this theory into practice.
On Monday evening we took the short drive from our hotel to David’s house and studio. We spent a very pleasant evening on the Ziser’s great outdoor deck enjoying adult beverages and the wonderful fall weather. And the education didn’t stop either – David held an impromptu sessions on sales techniques in the same area that he normally meets with clients. But as good as this was, the highlight of the evening was definitely the pulled pork!
On Tuesday morning we set off by bus to the very beautiful Mother of God church. Our morning was spent with David demonstrating a variety of techniques that we would get to try out later in the day. His Canon camera was wirelessly tethered to an iPad (using the Shuttersnitch App), which made it really easy for the participants to see the results he was getting.
After an excellent lunch at a local restaurant, we split up into our pre-arranged groups (with 4 or 5 students each). David had arranged for 5 models – 4 girls and one guy – so that we could shoot bridal portraits or bride and groom together. Each group was assigned a ‘coach’, one of which was David. The models and the coaches rotated among the groups so everyone got to experience each location, all the models and get help from all the coaches. Special thanks go to Quantum Instruments who provided complete lighting kits to each group of photographers. Being avid Quantum users ourselves, we were very comfortable with these flashes, so we could really concentrate on some of the posing and compositional stuff without being distracted by the technicalities of the lighting. The models, Rebecca, Dawn, Laurel, Christie and Reed were awesome and were endlessly patient with us as we struggled to find new and different ways to photograph them.
The coaches, by the way, were excellent. Our personal favorite was Eric Cameron from Cameron Creative Imaging who was both highly personable and a natural teacher (that's Eric playing the voice-activated light stand below). I think everyone was shocked to learn he had only been a pro for about 7 years. We would love to entice him down to Florida to give a workshop of his own! Jason Lykins and Steven Easley also brought their own individuality to the process, and of course, it was great fun to have one-on-one instruction from David himself.
Wednesday morning started off with a talk by LaDawn Ziser on album design using Lumapix Fotofusion software. Susan and I have been using this program for a couple of years, but it was funny to see the jaws drop around the room as LaDawn showed how quick and easy it is to design great looking albums in no time at all using this program. I am pretty sure that Lumapix had a brisk spike in their sales after this!
The next session was devoted to a critique of images taken by participants the day before. We were each required to submit 4 images for critique by David and LaDawn and it was a really great learning experience. For many of the participants, it was probably the first time hearing a public critique of their work – but the overall standard was really good and the critiques were nothing but constructive. David even showed his own images from the day – unedited – and walked us through his thought process as he worked to arrive at a final image. Not only that, but he brought several large prints of his favorites to show the class.
In the afternoon, we headed out to beautiful Ault Park in Cincinnati. Our models had changed into fashion wear for the shoot, and once again, we spread out in our groups with different models and coaches. Even though we were no longer in wedding mode, all the same principles applied and it was a lot of fun trying to find new angles, poses and environments to photograph these great models.
We weren’t done yet though. After we finished in Ault Park, we jumped back in the bus and headed for the riverside in downtown Cincinnati. As darkness fell, we got to photograph the models with the night cityscape as a backdrop. Our group again spent some time with Eric who encouraged us to try lighting with a video light instead of a flash. The results were definitely worth it!
Thursday began like Wednesday with image critiques. After lunch David really got into the business side of photography. He emphasized the need to develop relationships – not just with your clients, but also (very importantly) with your vendors. He discussed the importance of branding and the art of selling your client what they really need. The key is to “sizzle the client’s experience” and David explained how he accomplished this at every step of the process.
On Thursday evening we again adjourned to David’s home where we were greeted by LaDawn and a wonderful dinner. Once again, the education did not stop as both LaDawn and Jennifer (David’s studio manager) were giving mini-lectures in the basement studio and David was holding court on the deck.
Friday morning was devoted largely to recap and wrap up, and LaDawn handed out some great door prizes to all the participants. We wrapped by noon to allow David to hop on a plane to Florida where he was photographing a wedding the next day.
As Susan and I headed to the airport, we were conscious of how fast the week had gone. As photography educators ourselves, we knew how much had been put into the last 5 days – we would be hard put to imagine how much more could have been jammed into the course. Not only did we come away with a huge amount of practical knowledge, our course binders were crammed with every PowerPoint slide that David presented, lists of vendor contacts and a CD packed with software shortcuts, sample images and more. But wait – there was more. David recorded all the image critiques so that we could go through these at our leisure and continue the learning experience at home.
One thing that strikes you about David is that he is the consummate professional; polite, always well dressed and extremely knowledgeable about all aspects of the business of photography. But most of all, David is extremely willing to share his knowledge – from photographic technique to pricing - and I know this was greatly appreciated by all the participants. Talking of the participants, what a great group it was. Many of us are already Facebook friends – including the models – and hope to keep in touch as we all go forth in our various photographic adventures.
We learned a LOT from this program and were able to put it into practice the very next day at an engagement shoot. Workshops like this are certainly not cheap, but we look upon it as an investment in our business, and since we also own and operate Harmon’s School of Photography, it gives us an opportunity to see how other photographers teach and run workshops. We also got some really nice images, although that wasn’t so much the point – we were there to learn HOW to get those images on demand for our clients. David even used one of our images in a really interesting blog post about claiming images taken at workshops as your own work.
Finally, if you are an aspiring portrait or wedding photographer, you owe it to yourself to check out one of David’s classes. He will be running the Master Class again in the Spring, frequently tours the country with one-day workshops, and is an important contributor to the on-line training available from Kelby Training.
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