Friday Digital Master Class Wrap Up

Good Morning Everybody,

Today we wrap my Digital Master Class -- five days, some of them pretty long days, filled with photography, creativity, inspiration, and camaraderie. We had the entire class over to our home again last evening where everybody had a chance to just sit back relax and enjoy a wonderful evening of good food, beautiful weather, and friendship.

We had a wonderful group of photographers attending our Spring Master Class. It seemed to me that everybody had their favorite part of the class. Many liked the on location shooting, others like my hands on approach as I worked with each class member individually, others enjoyed the sales and marketing and still others enjoyed the album design/Lightroom sections of the week.

This morning we have a few loose ends to tie up with graduation taking place at about 11:30 o'clock and everybody heading back home to different parts of the United States and Canada by around noon today. I sure hope everyone learned many new lighting techniques, rules of composition, posing  tips to enhance their photography and the ability to stretch their photography style to better enhance and flatter their clients. One great thing about teaching is that I get to learn a lot as well. As we progressed through the week, I made some observations that I can bring to our next Master Class in October and to the Sedona Experience in June that I think will make for an even richer experience.

I think the highlight of the entire week was a happy ending to the stolen camera episode on Wednesday. What can you say except that happens to anybody and has indeed happened to several others. What an amazing surprise to recover the stolen gear.

I think another highlight of the week was the fact that the class learned a lot from the first day’s shooting and the image review Wednesday morning. In fall of 2010 we started something revolutionary in weeklong training classes. We asked each of the class members to submit their five favorite images. Then on Wednesday and Thursday morning all of those images - about 100 of them, are loaded up into Lightroom.  Then LaDawn and I review and critique each of the images.

We record the entire image review of all 100 of the class members work. In addition to the image review I also review all the images that I had taken on each day as well. During the recording session I'll point out my pluses and minuses and also what lesson I was trying to emphasize in each of my images.

We do this on Wednesday morning and Thursday morning. The end product is a wonderful learning resource for all the attendees. This year the image reviews span two DVDs.  It will give the students a great opportunity to watch and listen many more times once they get back home.

I know the first time that we did this last Fall everybody loved it. This year class members once again named the image review one of the highlights of the week. Having a recording of the image review of over 400 images should help each class member improve and polish their work even more.  Maybe we’ll see you at the Fall Digital Master Class [link].

A  very BIG THANK YOU to my coaches, Damien Tepe, Craig Weiglein, Steven and Easley and Jim Faust for all their help, expertise, talents and support during the week.

I would be remiss if I didn’t mention the sponsors who provide valuable door prizes and discounts for all the attendees, Nik Software, Inc., Graphic Authority, ProImage Editor, Marathon Press, Lowe Pro, B&H Photo Video, and Kelby Media another BIG THANK YOU!!

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Hey gang, that's it for me today. I can't believe the week has come to an end so quickly. LaDawn and I and Jennifer will sit down early this afternoon and review the class comments and our observations and see how we can make things even better for the Fall Master Class.  We already have some good ideas to review.

For LaDawn and I - we don't get much of a break. Tomorrow morning at 7 AM we are off to the Cincinnati airport, climb aboard a Delta jet, and head to Banff, Alberta, Canada. The Professional Photographers of Canada are holding their national convention – Canadian Imaging - in one of the most beautiful cities  in the world.

I've been invited to present at the convention and I’m really looking forward to it. It's a pretty full schedule for us during the convention. I'll be presenting at the tradeshow on Sunday and Monday. I start at 7:00 am doing an early bird workshop on Wednesday, and then continue presenting most of the day, until 6:00 pm, on Wednesday.

The good news is we're taking a few days off after the convention wraps and just enjoying the gorgeous countryside of this beautiful country.

That's it for me today -- I hope to see many of you next week in Canada. If you're attending the convention, please come on up and say HI.

I'll see everybody next week from Canada.

-David