ANTI-Workshop, pt. 2: The Luck of the Draw

It's been a week since the beginning of the Anti-Workshop, and I'm still so keyed up I can't sleep. So I thought I'd get part 2 in. :)

For Wednesday's assignment, we broke into teams of three by drawing numbers.

The first person I found on my team was Dustin Steller, of Kansas City. Dustin is a phenomenal graphic designer & a fabulous photographer. We'd met the first night & I was excited to work with him.

The second person was Jesh de Rox. Yes, I'll admit to being intimidated! But Jesh is one of the nicest, most genuine people I've ever met, as well as being an utterly amazing artist. He has the most incredible sense of "play" of any adult I've ever seen, and it translates into his work in many ways.

Then we were assigned our model for the day. Each team was given a "bride" to work with. Some were models, some were photographers--all were wearing different styles of wedding dresses. We were assigned to work with Jessica Claire, normally a spectacular SoCal wedding photographer, wearing a fabulous 1920's flapper dress--and she wasn't allowed to bring a camera with her! I think she had the hardest job of all, trying to keep up with Jesh & Dustin, and unable to capture any of it for herself.

Here are a few captures from the day--the rest can be seen on the website:






Jesh & Dustin at work:



One shot on the scavenger hunt was supposed to be "headless". Needless to say, this shot was all Jesh.....




As I told Dalisa Cooper that night, I learned so much from these three amazing people by photographing with them, I don't think I'll even know how much I absorbed that day for weeks or months to come. Dustin's eye for design & ability to previsualize an image before capturing it, Jesh's creative mind & boundless sense of humor, Jessica's sense of adventure & willingness to try almost anything to make a shot work for us.....It was an incredible day that I simply won't forget.

ANTI - Workshop (pt. 1)

I'm recovering from spending most of this week in the ANTI Workshop, a three + day seminar created by Boutwell Studio & altF (also known as Doug & Chenin Boutwell and John & Dalisa Cooper). Both couples are fantastic teachers and wonderful people, as well as fabulous photographers. I can't even begin to describe how much I learned from this team, and from the other photogs who participated.

This is just a preview of yesterday's shoot--I'm completely beat, but I wanted to share these three photos as they were some of my favorites. As a set, I think they're some of the strongest work I've done so far. :) More on the seminar & this shoot in the next post, I promise. You should be able to click on any of them to see more detail, they become even more contrasty than usual once they're uploaded to the blog.





Thanks Chenin, Dalisa, Doug & John. I had an amazing time--Vegas in March can't come soon enough!

(special thanks to Huy of f8 studio for recommending this seminar, and extra special thanks & hugs to Dalisa for giving me the courage to come & play!)

Bonus points to those who can identify this model--more about her & a few others I met this week in the next post. :)