AN opportunity to recharge the batteries, learn new skills and swap ideas with fellow photographers came my way recently.
I signed up for a week long photography training holiday with a bunch of like minded wedding, portrait and landscape photographers. This saw us leaving the miserable grey weather in UK and jetting off to the sunnier climes of Lanzarote, the fourth largest of the Canary Islands, about 100km West of the Sahara.
The wonderful sunshine soon lifted our spirits as we embarked upon a fantastic week of wedding, portrait and landscape photography workshops and presentations.
George Dawber who runs Photo Training Overseas had arranged a wonderful line up of talented speakers, many of whom were former delegates at previous events.
During the week long event, we were treated to underwater wedding photography which took place in one or two of the hotel complex swimming pools, much to the amusement (or maybe amazement) of the hotel guests. These workshops were lead by the valiant Klarke Caplin, a world class photographer famed for Wedding and Portrait Photography.
In contrast, Roy McKeown presented his Landscape Photography workshops at more sedate pace. Even those who were not landscape photographers couldn't help being impressed and inspired by Roy's wonderful portfolio. By the way, Roy is also a very capable portrait photographer. Something that he does for therapy when not chasing the light across the countryside in his native Ireland.
The wedding and portrait photographers were well catered for with workshops by John & Sandra Parris who operate their wedding and portrait photography business in Hawick (pronounced Hoik), Scotland. Their story is one of hard work and eventual success. Their story was very inspiring and they very openly shared their experiences (good and bad) on the way to becoming one of the most successful wedding and portrait photography businesses in the UK. John was the youngest photographer to gain fellowships from the three top photographic organisations in the UK!
Next up was the charismatic Gordon McGowan, a highly acclaimed wedding and portrait photographer who's unique style has won him countless awards and admiration worldwide.
Jo De Banzie has a style in total contrast to Gordon's but produces wonderful, award winning portraits. Her easy going, relaxed style seems to put her subjects at ease and the resultant portraits capture the personalities so well. No wonder that she is in such high demand.
Jeremy Makinson was at hand to take us through the finer points of lifestyle portraiture with child models. Using a blend of respect, humour and bribery he led us along the path to success in this popular style of portraiture. Heaven knows how many Barbie dolls he bought as bribes but he certainly got the best from our wonderful little model!
Stephen Busuttil and Mike McNamee presented workshops on post processing methods. It was a pleasure to watch these masters at work and they passed on so much useful information and tips, My digital workflow will certainly get slicker after this.
During the course of the week, many more speakers shared their experiences, methods and ideas with the delegates.
This was my first with Photo Training Overseas but it certainly won't be the last. The friendliness and openness of everyone there demonstrated what a great business we are in. There can't be too many business areas where people are so willing to share their knowledge.
I would like to pass on my personal thanks to them all, they were truly inspiring.
At this moment in time, I'm waiting for next years venue to be announced, You might say that with company like this the venue is immaterial but have nice bit of sunshine and their company it just doesn't get any better than that.