The Busy Season
It's the busy season again, which is to say, the camera clubs are waking up for another year. This time of year is especially busy for me; for the last few years I've been running a studio workshop at Imagez Camera Club. I say running, but in practice I very loosely set the structure and coordinate the many people who make models and kit happen. It's slightly hard for me to believe that I started this course with two lights and a single model.
It's surprisingly challenging to make it all happen, even with the whole team - it seems like the more you try to add, the harder it becomes to keep on track. The other problem is resolving disparate ability levels. We have a few complete studio beginners but also some more experienced members (many of whom have been on the course in previous years). When I first proposed the 4-week structure of the course, I intended it as a beginners event so that when the club holds its occasional studio nights, everyone could benefit from the experience. I'm also a huge believer that learning how to light makes you more aware of light in general, which leads to much better photos. Now we're at the point where we need to cater for the beginners but we are also trying to drive forward the skills of the other members and really get them to focus on the art. The process has not been universally liked and there's still difficulties with the evening structures, but in general I think we're on the right track; certainly, a great deal more planning has gone into the course this year.
An upshot of this is that I'm finding myself surrounded by models a lot without much opportunity to take photos. Hopefully I can change that in the coming weeks, but right now I'm very much in teaching mode.
Having said that, I did take a lot of pictures at the Imagez Fashion Catwalk night... to be posted shortly.
It's surprisingly challenging to make it all happen, even with the whole team - it seems like the more you try to add, the harder it becomes to keep on track. The other problem is resolving disparate ability levels. We have a few complete studio beginners but also some more experienced members (many of whom have been on the course in previous years). When I first proposed the 4-week structure of the course, I intended it as a beginners event so that when the club holds its occasional studio nights, everyone could benefit from the experience. I'm also a huge believer that learning how to light makes you more aware of light in general, which leads to much better photos. Now we're at the point where we need to cater for the beginners but we are also trying to drive forward the skills of the other members and really get them to focus on the art. The process has not been universally liked and there's still difficulties with the evening structures, but in general I think we're on the right track; certainly, a great deal more planning has gone into the course this year.
An upshot of this is that I'm finding myself surrounded by models a lot without much opportunity to take photos. Hopefully I can change that in the coming weeks, but right now I'm very much in teaching mode.
Having said that, I did take a lot of pictures at the Imagez Fashion Catwalk night... to be posted shortly.