Results workshop Dublin

As you have probably read on this blog September 8th was the day of the Dublin workshops, I already uploaded a small iPhone4 video from that day but as always I also show my personal favorites of a workshops a few days after the workshop. During the workshops the main focus is of course to teach but as a good photographer should I also can’t resist to shoot some images myself of course 😀 and in this blog post you will see my favorites of the workshop and read something about the stories behind them.

If you have any questions about the images or the workshop, feel free to ask so by using the comment option.

For the first setup we moved outside to a wonderful graffiti wall that was close to the hotel. As light setup we used the Elinchrom Quadra with the Elinchrom convertor to use the standard Elinchrom accessories (my favorite accessory for the quadra system because I never believed in buying separate accessories for the Quadra and the other units, with the convertor you can use your “old” accessories on the Quadra).

As usual there were a lot of people watching during the outside sessions and also taking shots from a distance, what did strike me as relaxing was that the atmosphere on the streets of Dublin was very relaxed, at one time some police officers walked to us and I was feeling rather uncomfortable because in the UK we would have probably been send away (or worse), but not here, they looked, and continued their walk……

So here the first images from outside at the graffiti wall with Pauline.

Next up was our second model, Susan.
A completely different looking model. I loved her looks and she reminded me of the models you sometimes saw in the 60s (not that I’m that old of course :D), so I tried to find a look in the final images that fit that look but also mixed it with a bit more 2010, and because vintage is all in fashion now I think we came up with a nice combination.

After lunch we moved back into the hotel because at that time it was raining again, somehow I think we were very lucky with the weather because only during the outside sessions it was dry, the rest of the day was really bad weather wise.
For the first setup I used the Elinchrom Deep Octa and a strobe placed at the bottom of the stairs aimed at our model Susan to give a backlight that I wanted to include in the shot. The main teaching part of this setup was to find odd angles and still include the scene/model and light. It’s not a spectaculair setup but it is not something you would normally do and a part of my workshops is to make the students think about different solutions instead of the safe ones they are used too and use all the time. The fun thing is that every situation gives me different solutions meaning that this part of the workshop is always different, to be honest, no workshop on location is the same, that’s the most fun part of it, every location is different and forces me to do totally different things.

After this it was time to go to the restroom…..
I hear you thinking, restroom ?
Yes the restroom 😀
How often do you hear photographers complain about a location, it’s not big enough, it’s not inspiring, it’s too limiting etc. etc.

Some photographers can really bitch about this.
For me the solution is always simple, do what you have to do. And that means get an interesting shot, and to be clear you can do that in ANY location, there really is no predetermined set of dimensions or surroundings that have to be filled to make an interesting shot….. but as a photographer you do have to be creative. The following shots might or might not be your cup of tea but for me it’s the way I have setup the shot for this situation, with a big thank you to Stefan who did the hair exactly as I asked him 😀 and of course to Pauline for going crazy in a way too hot environment (yes ladies and gentlemen that’s real sweat, the life of a model is not always glamour :D)

lightsetup : one Elinchrom BXri with grid

For the final setup we decided to let Pauline cool off just a little bit and use the window in the conference room to function as a backdrop. For this setup I showed several solutions to light this scene ranging from natural light to fill in flash and using flash as the main lightsource.

Lightsetup : Elinchrom BXri with Deep octa bounced of the ceiling.

Many many thanks to :
Pauline and Susan (models)
Kathryn O Neill MUA (www.kerrymakeupartist.com)
Stefan (Hair and styling)
Paddy (Barker photographic for lending us the gear)
Annewiek (for being there and assisting me)
The students (for making it a nice day)

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