Yesterday I went on a portfolio training day with Chris Chambers of www.ChrisChambersPhotography.com. I’d chosen the Urban wedding course, because later in the year I have a couple of weddings in Leeds City Centre. The course cost £120 and lasted from 9.30am to 4.30pm, with various stops for coffee/lunch etc (though not included in price obviously).
The day started with a coffee and an introduction from Chris, and then it was straight out into the mean streets of Leeds. We headed down to the train station for some flash photography in front of one of the newer buildings. Then Chris had found an amazing graffiti wall, and later we walked up to the main pedestrian area by Harvey Nichols. And finally after a quick cuppa and a warm up (it was bloody freezing) we made our way up to the Town Hall.
Chris was helpful and happy to share tips throughout the day, he shared his settings, helped out with using flash and generally explained what he would do in the situation. He also encouraged us to try new techniques and generally have fun with the models.
The models were great; young, slim, pretty and full of fun, perhaps it’s a little unrealistic to expect that all weddings will be like this, but if you get some nice images from it and you learn a few things – it’s all good!
The photographers I spoke to were divided over whether to use the images for their portfolios. Some didn’t think it was an issue, but a couple thought it would be unfair to suggest that they were taken from a “real” wedding. Personally, I’ll be using them in my portfolio, but I will be saying that they were from a shoot rather than a wedding. I also think that if you’re just starting out, its really difficult to put a portfolio together if you haven’t done a wedding so you need to do things like this.
So to round up:
Positives:
· Got to find out how a more experience photographer works
· Chris shared tips and tricks
· Chris brought lots of equipment and wasn’t precious about us using his.
· Met some lovely photographers, shared stories, moaned etc!
· Found some really great locations for future weddings.
· It was cheap compared with other portfolio building courses, and local to me!
· Use the images for your portfolio
Negatives:
· You need to have a fairly good understanding of flash & off camera flash (though Chris was more than happy to help).
· There was only one “couple” – if there had been another couple it would have been more beneficial in terms of using it in your portfolio.
· Although there were only 8 photographers (plus Chris) at times it wasn’t possible to all get the shots. Some people are naturally pushier than others so it could have been frustrating for some – though to his credit Chris did his best to sort this out.
· It was freezing and wet at times – I’d probably go for a course in summer in future J - but I suppose not all weddings are perfect!
One thing to remember is that you need to be sure you like the style of photography that the photographer running the course does – personally I wanted to try flash more and I know Chris uses flash in a lot of his images. But if that’s not your thing, then make sure you’re aware of what you’re getting into!
Anyway, my overall thoughts are that it was a really positive experience, I learnt a lot, I met some lovely photographers, got some great images and overall achieved what I wanted to achieve from the course. I’d definitely recommend it! and here are a few of my favourites:
You can find Chris here:
Great shots. Love the muted colours.
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