At some point in your photography, you need a kick up the butt
I know which direction I want to move my photography and with that in mind I started looking for workshops that would broaden my experience in the disciplines that interest me.
Bert Stephani is a Commercial and portrait photographer based in Belgium and has become well known through his videos on Youtube and workshops where he openly shares his knowledge and experience. He also co-founded the LIME project with Pieter Van Impe, a Belgian Wedding Photographer, and the ethos of LIME is Learn, Inspire, Motivate, Experience.
Bert occasionally gives 2 and 5 day workshops in Belgium around his busy schedule, but I was unable to attend some earlier in the year due to some bookings, so I dropped him a mail about doing one in the UK later in the year. He said, “Sure, you arrange it and I’ll come over”
Fast forward 5 months and I’m standing in Heathrow Terminal 5 with my girlfriend on a cool Sunday evening holding a sheet of A4 scrawled with “The Varnisher” in black marker. Meanwhile a 6’6″ Belgian wanders out of Arrivals with a big grin and a 50mm f/1.4 mounted 5DMkII slung over his shoulder and shakes my hand with one of his big paws.
Bert is in the UK.
For 2 sunny hot days in early September, Bert guided us through one of his Location Lighting workshops “Seeing the Light”.
Day 1 was indoors where he covered the management of light within composition and talked us through the process of making images from editorial and advertising assignments which the group thought up for him.
We used the Richmond RACC Drama room as it was spacious enough for the group and had lots of props and clothing which we used in the assignments and for goofing about in the breaks.On day 2 we were running about Richmond by the towpaths, bridges and in the parks in groups of 3 with a couple of models and a make-up artist while Bert gave us assignments. Although the workshop ended at 18:00, Bert and a few of us headed into Canary Wharf for some food and then we did some night shots around the unique architecture that Canary Wharf provided.
Apart from being approached by Canary Wharf Security, where a copy of our permit sated his questions, the workshop seemed to go pretty much like clockwork. The people that signed up for the workshop were a relaxed and creative crowd and that helped to make the workshop a great success.
Wednesday came and a relaxed Bert headed back to Terminal 5 with some presents for his family
He landed, he LIME’d, he left.
Or as my girlfriend says, “Veni, vidi, visa ….. I came, I saw, I shopped”Our talented make-up artist was Emma Ridgers: www.fabulousyou.co.uk
Male Model – Nick Crispini: www.crispini.co.uk
Female Model – Prabha Shiyani: Prabha at Usana.comImages from the group are here: https://www.flickr.com/groups/1228981@N23/
Slideshow Below
Bert Stephani Workshop to take place in Richmond RACC
I visited a couple of locations for the workshop and one was booked 🙂
The venue for Day 1 will be held in the heart of Richmond in the Parkshot Richmond Adult Community College (RACC) building which is about 2 minutes walk from Richmond station and is also easily accessible by road, tube and bus.
We will have pretty much the run of the college, but we’ll be based in 1 room and we can use the corridors and the gardens if required (depends on what Bert wants to do)
The second day we’ll be exploring different locations in a walking distance in and around Richmond.
On both days the workshop we will gather at 09:30, start at 10:00 and aim to finish at around 18:00
Directions, other information and forms will be emailed to each participant prior to the WorkshopFinal location to be booked. We’ll update the main Event Page if there is more information
WORKSHOP : 2-day On Location Lighting in London with Bert Stephani
The Workshop:
On Monday, we’ll start out by going over the basics of light. We’re going to learn to recognize good light and shape bad light into good light.
In the afternoon we are going to learn how to MAKE the light with small flashes and mix ambient light with flash.
Bert will also discuss equipment choices and will squeeze in lots of tricks of the trade. With lots of real life examples and mini-shoots, we’ll make the theoretical part easy to digest.On Tuesday, you’ll get the chance to put everything you’ve learned into practice on a location shooting day. You’ll get some fun assignments, that you will work on in small groups under Bert’s guidance.
You don’t need any experience with flash, tons of expensive gear or a degree in photography to benefit from this workshop. A decent knowledge of the basics like shutter speed / aperture and the motivation to improve your photography, is all you need. If those attending are a bit more advanced with lighting then we’ll quickly progress to advanced techniques over the days.
To register and for more information, go to this page:
Bert Stephani UK Workshop September 7+8 2009