Over the last couple of days  I have been  back up in the Lakes with the lovely Aspire Photography Training. This time it was to spend time with one of their bespoke groups to talk about how we approach and photograph our weddings. Group 35 were amazing bunch of guys, really enthusiastic and keen to learn. On the first day I just joined the group and the end of the day to listen and observe whilst Catherine & Jane talked about the marketing side of the business. It’s always interesting listening to the questions that the Bespoke members put to both Catherine & Jane. I’m listening very closely because there is always something new you can learn from these guys.

On the second day I took the group through the whole process of photographing a wedding, from planning to execution.  We were joined on the shoot by a lovely couple, Sarah & James who were lucky to get married on the fab island of Sicily. They acted as our models as I took the group through how to set up and shoot an engagement shot. Then in the afternoon we headed out into the village of Burton in Kendal for some wedding pictures, first to the lovely church and then off to a beautiful location to do the couple shots.

As ever the day was set up and organised by the fab Rachel. She is an ace stylist and always puts in a superb effort. Here are a few of my pictures from the day.

Earlier this week I spent another great day with the team at Aspire Photography Training. This time it was ‘I Do I Do I Do’ workshop which gives the chance for photographers to come up and spend some time building their portfolio for their wedding business. The first part of the day is spend with me going over how we approach a wedding and discuss the things that work really well for us. Then it was outside into the rain! Yes rain! It was supposed to be a nice warm day 25 degrees and blue sky. But we must have had a little micro climate of our own because it pretty much rained all day. But as with weddings you can’t say can we come back another day – so on we went. First it was shooting a pre-wed with the ace couple Rebecca & Scott then some wedding shots with Faye & Chris.

The afternoon session was built around the delegates having around 40 minutes with each of the couples. We were joined by a third couple Petra & James. So everyone spent 2 hours shooting 3 different couples. Then back for some coffee and to dry our feet ( my converses will never be the  same again ). We finished off with a bit of Q&A before heading back home.

It was a fab day with a great bunch of people. If you want to get involved with the same course – Aspire are running it again on the 1st of November 2011

Bit late on this one but we got ourselves into the April edition of Photo Professional. It’s about our ‘Man About Town’ course we have started with Aspire Photography Training.

It was interesting being interviewed by Terry Hope the editor who was wanting to understand the ideas and thought process behind setting up the course.

You can see more of the images and learn more about Aspire Photography by going to our previous blog post about ‘ Man About Town ‘

The next course is on the 19th May – If your interested give Mel a call on 01524 782200

A fantastic workshop last night on our Get To Know Your Digital SLR evening class in Leeds. Everyone got plenty of top 3B advice on their new DSLRs and prosumer bridge cameras.

Our next evening class is 21st April and we have a few places left – book online here now: http://www.3bmedia.co.uk/index.php/workshops/get-to-know-your-dslr

We’ll show you some great posing techniques to get the best out of even the most nervous couple and leave them with some great pictures and good memories. You’ll also leave with loads of invaluable information surrounding the planning and practicalities of wedding photography.

This workshop is not a gear-intensive course and will give you an amazing portfolio of images that will be repeatable on the wedding day. A basic working knowledge on how to use your DSLR will be required, as we’ll be focussing less on technique and more on your style and approach to photographing weddings. At only £275 per delegate including lunch and refreshments, this is a great investment to your photography and your business.

You can view full details of the workshop and book online via our website here.

We’ve been dreaming big for the future, and are excited to announce a whole list of training workshops for amateurs & aspiring professionals.

Check out our 2011 curriculum here.

The wedding, portraits and flash workshops we’ve run so far have generally been full-day mid-week courses for aspiring professionals. Yet, we often get amateur enthusiasts contacting us about the best SLR to buy or asking if we run basic courses on how to get the most out of their digital SLRs.

So we’ve created a ‘Get to know your Digital SLR’ workshop:

The title may not be so catchy, but it does what it says on the tin!

It’s a 3-hr evening class (6.30>9:30pm) for DSLR/prosumer camera owners looking to get their skills together and become better photographers.

We’re running evening workshops suitable for all, throughout the year; including 15th March, 21st April, 10th May and 21st September.

In case you missed that, the next one is NEXT TUESDAY (15th March at Woodlands Hotel, Leeds)!

We’ll be covering aperture, shutter speeds, ISO, composition, lenses, focusing and lots of other tech stuff but without all the tech language.

It’s going to be a lot of fun, with Phil, Rob & myself (all pro photographers) there to answer all your questions (even the silly ones)!

For online booking and all the information you need, head to the 3B Media site at: http://www.3bmedia.co.uk/index.php/workshops/get-to-know-your-dslr

Hopefully see you there!

Just to let people know we have a few spots left for the ‘Man About Town’ course in a couple of weeks on the 3rd of March. Run by the fab team at Aspire Photography Training we will cover techniques on how to photograph men. The modern guy has become very aware of fashion and are looking of ways to capture their confidence and style.

Making men look good in photographs is a skill which requires more than a little know how and experience. In many ways, it can be more challenging than a female shoot, as often the subject feels awkward and uncomfortable and most definitely out of the male, fuzzy blanket comfort zone.

Done with sensitivity and creativity, it’s an essential string to your bow and can generate some truly stunning results whether for fashion or portraiture. We’ll show you how to dress your models, where to stage the shoot and how to light it to perfection. This one’s a must.

The look and style we are capturing are summed up in the images you see below. Whether you are a photographer and wanting to add something different to your portfolio or have never tried this before then get involved!

If you are interested  give Mel a call at Aspire on 01524 7682200 or go check out there website Aspire Photography Training.

This course will teach you…

• Techniques to make your subject feel comfortable and confident
• How to turn a man into a model
• The importance of light, wardrobe and location
• How to keep you and your subject relaxed
• How to make the shoot fun and get the best results

We look forward to seeing you there.

As we start to see the end of the year approaching – already we are looking forward to an exciting 2011. There are a number of projects in the pipeline which I will talk about in separate posts but here I want to mention our relationship with the fab people up at Aspire Photography Training. Over the last couple of months these guys have change the look and feel of who they are. They have new premises, a fab new website and a bunch of new courses for people to go on. One that Catherine was keen to introduce was ‘Man About Town’. There are a lot of courses about but usually photographing gorgeous women ( no bad thing! ) but at Aspire they wanted to address the balance a little. So ‘Man About Town’ was created and I am running the course 3 times during 2011.

3rd March 2011

19th May 2011

21st July 2011

This course will teach you…

• How to photograph men
• Techniques to make your subject feel comfortable and confident
• How to turn a man into a model
• The importance of light, wardrobe and location
• How to keep you and your subject relaxed
• How to make the shoot fun and get the best results

So checkout the website if you are interested and book a spot on one of the days. It will be great to see some of you there.

Earlier this week I was back in the Lakes training with our good friends at Aspire Photography Training. Formally CPT they have now moved to another lovely location just outside Burton-in-Kendal. The studio is a former stable yard at Dalton Hall. This particular course was helping to create wedding portfolio. The fabulous Lisa Aldersley was the other trainer and we had 10 eager photographers who wanted some help in developing their wedding portfolio. The lovely Rachel from Aspire had organised a number of couples for us to photograph – so off we went into the cold and crisp Autumnal day and had some fun. The first couple we had in our group was Becky & Ben who were just so much fun in going through an engagement shoot.  Check out Becky’s yellow coat.

In the afternoon we did more bridal shots with Kirsty and Jordan. I loved the sunlight at the end of the day. Almost like Southern California in the evening but really  freezing cold.

Below is a slideshow at the bottom of some more images from the day.

Last Tuesday we ran our first One-Day Wedding workshop at Woodlands Hotel in Leeds

It was an ace day, filling 8 eager minds with details on how we 3B approach wedding photography

Mr Barber kicked the day off with a classroom session on the importance of the pre-wedding shoot

Then Phil & I split delegates into two groups to show delegates how we shoot 2 pre-wed couples, before letting them take turns shooting.

We wanted to use real couples, rather than models, to show the love and also to show how we make real people feel comfortable in front of our cameras.

This couple Jo & Phil are friends of Clare’s who’d recently married and so jumped at the chance to dress up again & party with us.

Laura & Jamie were a former couple of Phil’s & were well up for playing dress up again.

We showed our delegates the kind of details we look for.

It was drizzling when we started, so showed them how to handle England’s ever changeable weather

A few compositional ideas

And how to communicate with a couple to get them relaxed

A bit of back light flare technique

We’d been supplied a beautiful bouquet, buttonhole & table flowers by our favourite florist in the business, Fiona of Firenza Floral Design

Here’s our 2nd time delegate Natasha photographing our mock wedding breakfast table setup

After lunch the girls donned their frocks & although we like to shoot naturally and unstaged, our makeup artist did a few staged makeup shots.

Laura, looking beautiful.

It’s little wonder why the girls wanted to dress up again when they had stunning dresses like these!

A detail of Phil’s button hole

I like this moment of Jo on the steps.

A kooky compositional bridal detail from Phil.

We really couldn’t complain about the sunlight…

…or the model behaviour we got out of our couples

Jamie even pimped his outfit a with fun footwear

We really hoped we did Jo & Phil proud with a new set of wedding images

They put in so much to help us get what we needed & were very natural in front of the lenses; despite the fact that there were 5 photographers at a time coming at them!

We showed delegates how we like to shoot solo portraits…

…and a bit about depth of field

Personally I like this one of them looking at another delegate

Another moment

And possibly, in my opinion, the most weddingy snap of the day, on the Woodlands steps.

After reading the 3B Feedback Questionnaire it appeared that all our delegates were super pleased with the day and content. We feel we struck the perfect balance to introduce the class to how we approach wedding photography, and how we get the most out of photographing real, non-model couples. We’re excited to do another workshop early in 2011. In the meantime we’re preparing for our Exposing Flash Workshop on November 9th this year! If you’re interested, download the brochure by clicking here.

So thank you again to our couples, Jo & Phil and Laura & Jamie, Fiona from Firenza for the flowers, our makeup artist Lauren & to all our delegates for making the 3B One-Day Wedding Workshop such a great success!