We want to send out a big thanks to everyone who attended Monday’s Rock Your Reception Lighting workshop at the Grand Ballroom of the Providence Biltmore Hotel this Monday. We really had had a fabulous time hanging with you all.

At this workshop each ShootStyle member explained their individual approach to lighting receptions. As you might expect there was a lot of overlap in the the lighting basic concepts we all used, but how we applied those concepts to our lighting turned out to be very very different. The topics covered ranged from bounced on-camera flash to off-camera speedlites, to studio lights to light-on-a-stick.

The day started with an informal lecture session where we all discussed our lighting methods and showed examples of those methods in use with images from actual weddings.

After the lecture, everyone broke off into small groups for hands-on instruction. To make the experience as real as possible, participants learned each of our lighting styles using their own cameras connected to our lighting gear.

One of our goals was for each participant to have 1 on 1 time with each ShootStyle photographer, so that if they had any questions specific to how that photographer worked, they’d have a chance to get them answered.

And occasionally, folks got to take their thinking caps off and have a little fun.

Big shout-outs go to Nantucket photographer Mark Crosby for shooting these behind the scenes photos and to ShootStyle Alumni Alicia Williams for keeping us on time throughout the day.

This workshop sold out pretty quickly, and if you missed out on it we have another very special workshop coming up on October 30th. Zofia will be leading a Lifestyle Family Portrait Workshop on Nantucket. We’ll be working with real families and Zofia will be demonstrating her approach to untraditional family portraits. This will be very intimate event with a maximum of 9 participants.  Complete information on our upcoming Nantucket workshop can be found here.

When I first started photographing families, I just assumed everyone wanted that posed shot, all eyes on my lens, big grins, perfect hair, matching outfits, etc… But I took a cue from an unlikely source, my favorite photographer, Richard Avedon, and started taking the shot immediately AFTER the formal pose. The one where everyone lets out that breath and relaxes. Where the baby tries to run away and the dog licks his face. Where grandpa throws an arm around his daughter and kisses her forehead. The unscripted moments, the real expressions. I found myself clicking away at those moments with the fierce intent of a photojournalist, yet with the heart that I have for that love families share. I got into this new groove and realized that people really wanted those real moments just as much, if not more than the formal poses. *I* wanted them even more.

When my daughter was born, I finally realized why. My favorite images of her are not the ones where I dressed her up and did her hair and told her to smile. My favorites photos are the ones with ice cream all over her face in sheer joy. Where she’s blowing bubbles and dancing with her best friend. The real expressions that you cannot ask a child to make.

Now families come to me for a less traditional sort of family portrait. I have learned how to make kids really comfortable around me and how to let them just be kids. I have several techniques that I use to assure the technicalities of the portrait are there, yet so is the real laugh, smile, cry, yawn, curious face.

This workshop will focus on making your families comfortable in front of the camera so they are able to let their guard down and enable you to really create lasting memories that your clients will really appreciate. We will cover how to take that formal photo that every family thinks they want and turn it into a real moment that they will cherish forever. We will also combine that with how to achieve a great session while working in less than ideal situations, such as a Nantucket beach on October 30th!

Because we’ll be working live with real families, the workshop is going to be limited to just 9 attendees. We’ll be starting the day off with snacks and socializing at noon followed by an hour of instruction before heading off to shoot some family portraits. During the shoot, you’ll be working with a very small group of three photographers and a ShootStyler. I’ll be spending time with each group to demonstrate the concepts we discussed during the instruction.

After the shoot, we’ll regroup, and review what we’ve learned. We’ll be done by 7:15 and will arrange transportation to get you back to meet the last ferry to Hyannis. Of course, if you want to stay, you can join us for drinks at one of the Nantucket’s fun watering holes.

See you there!

~ Zofia

To order your ticket, Click Here or use the widget below.

Yes, it’s been entirely too long since we all got together to share a drink, some stories, and some laughs – so please come join the ShootStyle gang on Sunday July 25^th at Temple in Providence. We’ll be getting there around 6pm and who knows when we’ll be leaving. The last time everyone got together with us, we closed the joint down:

Temple is located at 120 Francis Street in Providence, RI [google map]

You can let us know you’ll coming by RSVPing to the event on our facebook page.

See you there!

One of the big challenges faced by wedding photographers in New England is that our wedding receptions often take place in dark, windowless halls. Worse, these halls are sometimes run by catering managers who feel that turning the lights down to almost nothing gives their hall a romantic ambiance.

Well, that may be, but the dim atmosphere also means that Grandpa can’t read the menu and we wedding photographers can’t shoot using available light.

So the question facing us isn’t ’should we light the reception’ but rather ‘how should we light the reception?’

There are a number of approaches to lighting the reception and each of the ShootStyle members do it a little differently as you can see in the examples below.

At this hands-on lighting workshop, ShootStyle members will be demonstrating everything we know about lighting a reception. And since none of us tackle lighting a reception in exactly the same way, you’re likely to see an approach that suits your style of photography.

We’ll be working with flash on camera, flash off-camera, sync cords, radio triggers, multiple speedlights, light-on-a-stick and even studio lights. We’ll cover topics such as lighting the entire dance floor, balancing your lights with the ambient light, and creating dramatic lighting. And because time is always tight on a wedding day, we’ll also show you how to get different looks from a single lighting set up.

We’ll probably be introducing you to some new equipment was well as new techniques. We all know that buying new gear is fun, but great light starts with getting the most out of what you already own, and we’ll be there to help you do just that! Bring whatever equipment you currently have including a camera, strobe(s), stands, triggers, cords, fast lenses, etc.

There’ll be a lot to cover and we’ll be zipping right along, so to get the most out of this workshop, you’ll need to already have some understanding of basic camera function.

The Rock Your Reception Lighting workshop is happening on Monday, August 30th from 1pm to 7pm at the Biltmore Hotel in Providence, RI. It is limited to the first 20 people who sign up. Tickets cost $89 and are non-refundable (but if you find you can’t make it you can transfer your ticket to a another photographer).

We look forward to seeing you there!

Our assignment series runs every couple of months and is open to all photographers, professional, semi-pro and amateur. In our assignment series this month, we asked participants to illustrate “Me at Work”.

We had some very creative self-portrait entries. Some serious, some not so serious. :)

Below are our selections for the most creative entries, but with all the creative energy that went into all the entries, really everyone wins.

We hope you had some fun playing along and seeing everyone’s entry’s on our facebook page! Thank you for playing and now …. The Winners!!!

First Place is Greg Hinson’s self-portrait of himself in the operating room. There was some funny chatter going on over this photo on our Facebook page and a very funny back-story about the making and selling of this image.

Second place is Joshua Behan doing a funky mirror piece.

And third place is Rachel Worrall, a writer who has done a lot of modeling for ShootStylers, shot amidst a sea of clothing, making decisions.

In this installment of our assignment series, we bring you the phrase “Me at work!”

Your assignment is to illustrate the concept “Me at work”. This might be a photojournalistic exercise or an artistic construction. We leave it up to you to define the phrase and how you will interpret it.  But you do have to be the “author” of the image. Don’t give us a photo your second shooter shot of you working.

Our assignment series is open to everyone. You don’t have to be a working photographer, you can be any kind of worker. We’re hoping you’ll wanna play along.

The most creative entry wins! Actually, everyone wins. We will post all of the entries on our facebook page, and post a few of our favorites on our blog, complete with a link back to your blog or website.

Images should be sized to 590 pixels on the long side. If you need help figuring that out, ask your favorite Shootstyler! And by all means, slap that logo on there if you have one! Email your entry to:

assignment@shootstyle.com

We have an album on our Facebook fan page. When the entries start coming in, we’ll post them there first. Check in with us at Facebook if you are looking for some inspiration.

www.facebook.com/ShootStyle

The deadline is June 14, a Monday. If you have a photo you shot already (think reflections)  of you working , that would be awesome.  If you want to set up some sort of story or fantasy of you at work, even better!

Let’s have fun doing this together!!Assignment series: “Me at work!”

What do you get when you combine eight gorgeous women with six luxurious and eclectic bedrooms in a stupendous vacation rental placed at the top of a winding road in the mountains of western Maine?

Shootstyle found out.

An incredible last minute opportunity was dropped in our laps to shoot at Ski Esta. We used every nook and cranny we could find, including the indoor swimming pool and various showers and a bubble bath.

Four guest photographers from around Maine and Massachusetts, Chris Rielly, Shannon Post, Sierra Jackson, Carol Savage and Kim Calakoutis joined ShootStyle members Andree Kehn, Earl Christie, Stacey Doyle and Michelle Turner for part of the day.

For a boatload more photos and for some behind the scenes action (like the below from Carol Savage) check out our Facebook page!

Thank you to all of the participants who joined us in Worcester for our Rainy Days and Mondays workshop this past weekend. We really enjoyed having you all along! Here is a selection of images from David Butler, Jaime Parker, Sarah Moore, Erin Chapman, Liz Squillacote, Emily Delamater, Vanessa Thelin, Brian Sullivan, Ariane Famiglietti, and Jessica Yttredahl.

We had a great turnout for Jamie Wexler’s workshop “Rainy Days and Mondays” in Worcester, MA, today. Jamie intentionally chose a venue that was not pretty and not ugly enough to be funky and interesting, but rather kind of boring and nondescript, because we’ve all been stuck there for a wedding. What do you do when you need to make gorgeous photos and the location is craptacular?

We invited 14 photographers from around New England and we crawled all over this hotel. Here is a sneak peak of the workshop participants in action.

In this installment of our assignment series, we asked participants to illustrate what “Beginnings!” meant to them.

The approach could have been anything from a photojournalistic exercise to an artistic construction. We left it up to the photographers to define the phrase and how they interpreted it.

The most creative entries won (see below) Actually, everyone did!!

Our assignment series is open to all photographers, professional, semi-pro and rank amateur.

What a fun collection of Beginnings images, from the cute babies (and almost babies) to the beautiful flowers and the unique & quirky interpretations.

Thank you for playing and now …. The Winners!!!

1st Place is Michele Stapleton’s Graduation image:

2nd Place is Rachel Worrall’s Toilet Paper Roll:

3rd place is Renee Thompson’s Basketball image:

Congrats and thank you to everyone that played along!!!