Photography At The Castle

Good Morning Everyone,

Yesterday we celebrated our second week anniversary in the wonderful country of Italy.  I can't believe how quickly time is passing. How in the world do you spend less time in this historical rich country?  I’m sure glad we not heading home anytime soon - too much to see, to many photographs to take, and too much good food and fine wine still to try ;~) Both LaDawn and I feel truly blessed by this experience and the wonderful people we have been meeting thru-out our journey.

Yesterday was also the first day of our Italy Workshop - it went GREAT!!!  So how much equipment and gear do you really need to teach a class in Italy.  Clay showed me what he brought along and I was floored!!! He had six bags of gear!!! Me, I'm trucking along with everything in my Lowepro Roller 2 bag and I'm good to go.  Check out the photo below - it looks like we could open up three fully equipped studios with all the gear he brought.  In fact, if you look very closely, I think you'll find a kitchen sink in there somewhere ;~)  Needless to say, nothing is going to be left out of this week's photo extravaganza.

Clay and I kicked things off in the morning by team-teaching with the entire class of twenty five attendees.  Then we split up in the afternoon into two groups, each of us taking half of the class for half of the afternoon and then switching the groups later in the afternoon.  What's cool about Clay and I teaching together is the fact that he is such a fabulous portrait photographer, he can easily show the class all the nuances of how to flatter and make a person look good in front of the camera.

My gig, as you know, is composition and lighting.  That said, we both bring two completely different viewpoints to the photography experience for the class.  Both of our styles add an rewarding experience not just for the class attendees but for each of us as well.

The afternoon time was spent with each of us working with the smaller groups of photographers and also giving the class plenty of time to shoot on their own. We had seven beautiful models to work with so everyone had ample time to capture some great images.

Part of our Italy Class experience is the fact that all meals are included - yep, breakfast, lunch and dinner.  What a surprise it was to see the owner of the castle open her wine cellar to us for the first time at lunch yesterday.  Hey, I was teaching so I held off any wine sampling till much later in the evening. 

After lunch we worked all the way up until 6:30 p.m. finally taking a break for 30 minutes till dinner was served at 7:00 p.m.  After a super delicious dinner it was back to class when I gave a presentation on composition until about 10:30 p.m.  Clay takes the presentation this evening - yep, the days are very long but everyone seems to be thriving on all the creative energy happening around the castle.

Today will basically proceed pretty much like yesterday - another full day beginning at 8:30 a.m. and wrapping about 10:30 p.m. this evening. 

Tomorrow the entire class heads to Siena for a day of shooting in one of Italy's most historically preserved and beautiful cities.  That should really be a kick too. And, of course, another 14 hour day - whew!!!

So that's the lowdown so far from our Italy Workshop.  I'll plan to get back to you as soon as I can get a little free time to get back to the keyboard.  Everybody have a great day in you part of the world and I'll see you soon.

Arrivederci,  David