For you who don’t know, Cliff Mautner is a highly regarded photographer and educator. He was named one of the top ten wedding photographers in the world by American PHOTO magazine.
However, the main reason that I took his 3-day workshop was because he was able to create beautiful photos even during the the most difficult lighting conditions. I wanted to be able to see the light the way he does. I was so glad that I took the workshop. The tuition may be expensive to some, but it was worth every penny to me. Some including myself agreed that what we gained from the workshop was worth much much more than what Cliff charged us!
Cliff not only taught the class about lighting in difficult situation, but also about lens selections, marketing, business, and workflow to name a few. We even got to see a live real potential-client meeting who was considering in hiring Cliff for their upcoming wedding! Cliff was like an open book and generously shares his wealthy knowledge that he gained from his almost 30 years of photography career. The only thing he asked us was that we shouldn’t share these information to others who have not been to his workshop. So don’t even think about asking how I did this and that on any of these images. 
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Filed under: bridal, model, Portrait, Wedding, workshop | Comment (0)
Here is Mindy and her horse pet, Lemon. 
Mindy and I have been wanting to do a photo session for over a year (I think), but never got a chance until just recently. Thank goodness for the great weather for that day on autumn. Not to mention I just love the foliage colors in Fall. So the timing was actually perfect.
Lemon was 6 years old, which Mindy told me that’s about teenager for horse’s age. Lemon used to be a race horse and raced at Penn National. Mindy got her after she was retired from racing due to injury. Bless Mindy’s heart.
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Filed under: Animal, High School senior, model, pet | Comments (4)
I actually found Don Giannatti’s workshop site by accident. I was trying to find a certain lighting technique and was pointed to his site by Google. I read about his workshop and became interested. I had been to few lighting workshops/seminars but Don’s was more in-depth, two-days, and priced reasonably. Not to mention that there was one workshop that was nearby, Baltimore.
I found out later that the one in Baltimore was the advanced workshop. I could still do it, but I really wanted to learn about the different strobes and modifiers, and how they would affect the lighting quality. Fortunately, Don was kind enough to give me and few others a “catch-up” session the day before. So it was more like a three-day workshop for me.
Here’s one image I took on the last day. We used 5 speedlights on this setup.
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Filed under: fashion, model, Portrait, workshop | Comments (9)
I had always been interested in taking Susan Stripling’s seminar/workshop, but got a bit discouraged by the need to travel to Florida where she usually does her workshop.
Lucky me, I just became friends with another photographer, Stacy Richardson on Facebook. A few days later, she announced that Susan Stripling was having a workshop in just 3 more days at Annapolis and there were only two vacancies left. I was so excited! The problem was that it was a last minute deal, and I had to find someone to watch my son. Luckily, we had some good friends that were willing to help us. So again, lucky me.
The workshop was in late March. It started at 10 in the morning and ended at almost 10 in the evening. We got a chance to practice to shoot outdoor where we observed the location, where the lights were coming from, and how the lights fell on the subjects. We were fortunate to have Lauren, Jen and Brent to model for us. Make up was done by the talented Amie Decker.
The forecast said that it was supposed to rain all day. Lucky us, we got some breaks in the cloud and we ended up with cloudy day during the shoot although it was quite chilly.
So here are some of my favorite images.
Most of the poses and set-ups was done by Susan, but some were done by the attendees. The first image above was set by Susan, but when it was my turn to shoot, I modified the pose a bit and directed Jen and Brent where to look. BTW, don’t you think Jen had amazing eyes?
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Filed under: bridal, engagement session, model, workshop | Comments (3)
I had been using Neil van Niekerk’s lighting style for a while. I learned from his blog and postings at forums. However, I felt that I’m still missing few things and did understand few things he explained online. I then decided that I need to get a hands on training from Neil and planned to attend his workshop in Annapolis. Unfortunately, the one in Annapolis was canceled. Neil offered me to go to the one in Philadelphia. Which was about a couple of hours drive. I thought, why not? I didn’t want to wait for another year, and probably he won’t do workshop that’s close enough to Baltimore or Washington DC area next year.
So I drove to Philly at about 6:30 in the morning and got there at almost 9 a.m. due to morning rush hour.
The class was small, only 10 students max, so everyone will get more personalized attention from Neil. We learned so many stuff. At the end of the day (or I should say night), we were all tired. It was about a 10-hour workshop.
Neil also provided two models for us to practice throughout the entire day. Here are some of my favorite results from the workshop.
Indoor session using on camera flash bounced to a wall/ceiling.
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I always try to learn new photography skills in lighting, shooting style, composition, photo editing, etc. (you name it). I am also usually fascinated by other people’s work whether they’re pro or even newbie. I often analyze the technical and non-technical aspects if I find an eye-catching image.
One professional photographer whose work I had been admiring was Ben Jordan a.k.a. Sabawa. His style was unique and very eye-catching. Although most of his work was more toward fashion and modeling, I really wanted to learn his style to hone my skills especially for glamour high school senior portrait photography sessions. Of course some of the skills can be applied to wedding, engagement, family, or children photography.
Fortunately, I found out later that he provided individual workshop for pro photographers. I was really excited and immediately contacted him to inquire about the workshop. He offered me to do a session at Annapolis, but I wanted to see his studio which was located at Pocomoke City, Maryland. Pocomoke City is a small town on Maryland’s Eastern Shore, about two hours drive from Kent Island, or two and a half hour drive from Annapolis, but only about half hour drive from Ocean City.
I finally did a workshop with Ben in mid August. He provided a model, Kellie, who had been working with Ben for quite a while. Kellie was a very professional model; she was always ready to pose for us. I learned few things from her as well. We did the photo sessions outdoor, by the water, and also indoor in his studio.
Here are some of my favorite images from the session. You may notice that the style is different from what I usually do. However, the image editing or enhancing is my own style.
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Filed under: fashion, High School senior, model, Portrait | Comment (1)
