Photographers have an opportunity to learn lighting, story telling, and camera techniques from two of the world's leading photographers and educators at St. Lucia's ANSE CHASTANET and JADE MOUNTAIN Resorts from August 18 – 23, 2013. Joe McNally, internationally acclaimed American photographer and long-time photojournalist, will conduct a week of education about light and its possibilities. The week will be about the language of light, and how to use small flash well and fast, travel with a minimum of gear, and make beautiful pictures and portraits.
Joining him as a guest instructor will be David Burnett, one of the world's preeminent photojournalists. David, one of the truly significant photographers of our time, will lecture, critique and lead walkabouts that emphasize and demonstrate how to work with people on the street in spontaneous fashion and create wonderful, story telling portraits and scenes of Caribbean life.
Monday Morning Class with Joe: 9:00amHeld in an air-conditioned conference room, each participant shows up to 8-10 images. This is not a portfolio critique. It is simply a "get to know you" session, with comments and discussion. Joe will then spin a slide show, offering lessons of light, and how to use it well and shape it, even in difficult circumstances. Environmental portraits, a "face in a place," will be thoroughly investigated.
Midday break, from 12:30 to 3:00pm
At the opening of the afternoon session, gear strategies will be discussed, buttons and dials explained, workflow explained, and participants will be introduced to the light shapers and grip equipment that will be available for them to use for the week. There will also be a sensor cleaning demo.
In the afternoon, participants are paired off with each other, the assignment being to take one small flash and one small, portable light shaper, and make effective, story telling portraits of each other. (The portrait can also be made with available light. This week is about using all manner of light well.)
Part of the morning is spent in class, discussing yesterday's efforts, and evaluating results. The class then goes outside in the predictably, bright, harsh sun of the tropics nearing the noon hour, and strategies for using bad light well are discussed and shown. Bounce boards, hand held diffusers, raw flash, hi-speed sync, and large silks are all brought to bear to tame the raging sun. One of the most important skills any shooter needs is the ability to use bad light well, and to overcome situations where they encounter tremendous disparity of light.
Midday Break: 12:30 to 3:00pm
The class is sent out, each individually, to take camera in hand and, in three hours, create a journalistic impression of the hotel. This could involve photographing their spouse or traveling partner, hotel staff, other guests, the jungle biking areas at Anse Mamin, the dive shop, the bars, or the beach. It is important to feel and get used to that awkward, occasionally intensely uncomfortable feeling one has a photographer: "What do I do now?" Or, "How do I tell this story?" "Where do I start?" Moreover, you have to overcome the natural reticence one has about approaching strangers, introducing yourself, your camera and your intent into their lives, and trying to, as seamlessly as possible, tell their stories. Joe and his assistants will be centrally located during this stint and available for questions and problem solving.
Tuesday Evening: Photographic Legend and Lore with David Burnett 8-10pm
The morning is spent in class with Joe, critiquing and evaluating the previous day's efforts. At the end of the critiques, Joe shows a slide show detailing stories from 25 years of shooting for National Geographic, and LIFE. (Both David and Joe were members of the legendary photo staff of LIFE, (both David Joe were members of the legendary photo staff of LIFE) and both go about story telling in their own, individual, provocative way.) As always, Joe is a complete open book, free with information on how stories get produced, client relationships, rights, rates, and the possibilities for the future.
Midday Break: 12:30 to 3:00pm
Afternoon walkabout with David and Joe
Locations for this could be nearby Soufrieres, or anyone of the tiny fishing villages that dot the coast. Transport to and from location by van or boat. TBD.
Once again, back in class, evaluating images, and discussing what went right and what went wrong. During all the crit sessions, Joe will have been selecting images that represent the best of the participants work for the week. That process will continue during this session. Also during this session there will be presentations from Drew Gurian and Michael Cali, two young, promising photographers in the field of rock and roll shooting and weddings. They will detail and discuss their beginnings, their setbacks and successes, and their developing strategies to "make it" in this industry.
Midday Break: 12:30 to 3pm
Afternoon Walkabout with David and Joe
Again, locations will vary depending on weather and availability of van or boat transport. Castries is a possible destination, along with the coastal villages, or in the interior jungles, parks and farms.
David runs this critique session, taking a look at the distilled, edited images from the week and the previous day's shoot. He offers his journalistic take on what went right or wrong, and how to push forward with your photography in a powerful, storytelling fashion.
Midday Break: 12:30 to 3pm
Then: Return to class for a lively Q&A wrap up with both David and Joe. You can bounce questions off either, or both, or engage and solicit their opinions on all manner of photographic stuff, past, present, and looking to the future. After that… Flash extravaganza on the beach! During the Q&A, Drew and Cali are hard at work on the beach, where the St. Lucian legend, Junior, prepares his flambos for a sunset display on the beach. Two to three sets are available for participants to rotate through, all involving radio controlled small and big flash, gels, and the blending of the sunset sky with a flash lit foreground. All sets will be populated with models.
When done, we retire to the beach bar for a going away drink, hosted by Joe. And the week in paradise is over…..
All session times and subject matter subject to change pending availability of subjects, weather, rooms etc.
Monday ProgramMorning Session: 9am. Class meets in air-conditioned conference room equipped with digital projector. Morning is devoted to assessing participant portfolios and determining objectives for the week. Each participant to bring no more than 10 images for review and discussion. They can be the participant's images, or images not their own that they admire and wish to know more about, or emulate in some way.
Joe will do a slide show based on lighting strategies that emphasizes the use of all manner and color of light to create effective portraiture and story telling pictures. The key this week is to explore techniques for excellent small flash use, find a photograph, shooting it well, and then, given RC's amazing post production expertise, finishing that photo well.
Break from 12:00 - 3:00 pm.
Special Short Lecture: Capturing video with your DSLR!
Your DSLR camera can be used as an instrument to produce wonderful video that can complement your images. In this short workshop, RC talks about how to setup your camera for quick video capture, what are some of the tools of the trade for capturing great video, and quick workflows for capturing footage while making great still images.
This short, informative presentation from RC will enable the participants to shoot quick simple video clips throughout the week of their St. Lucia adventure. After RC's quick talk, there is an afternoon shooting session consists of small teams with a model assigned to each team. Basic assignment: Use one light well.
Part of the morning is spent in class, discussing yesterday's efforts, critiquing and evaluating results. The class then goes outside in the predictably, bright, harsh sun of the tropics nearing the noon hour, and strategies for using bad light well are discussed and shown. Bounce boards, hand held diffusers, raw flash, hi-speed sync, and large silks are all brought to bear to tame the raging sun. One of the most important skills any shooter needs is the ability to use bad light well, and to overcome situations where they encounter tremendous disparity of light.
Break from 12:00 - 3:00 pm.
Afternoon demo and on location discussion of shooting interior/exterior environments effectively, with emphasis on using flash to balance exposure zones encountered in the open air rooms of Jade Mountain. Each team disperses with models to a selection of rooms to shoot for the afternoon. Assignment is to create mood and ambiance, while effectively using small flash techniques to blend interior and exterior environments.
Special Tuesday Evening Presentation:
After a break and dinner, the class gathers for a start to finish workflow seminar. RC will go over his workflow for importing and organizing images into Lightroom. Once completed, RC will go over key things to keep in mind during the post processing of your images – focusing on making the most of your raw files in the Develop module in Lightroom or Adobe Camera RAW in Photoshop. Finally, RC will take selected images from RAW and arm you with solid Photoshop techniques to make the most of your images- covering things from sharpening, post processing effects, masking, layer blending, and image recovery.
Wednesday ProgramMeet in conference room at 9:30 for image review and critique. Time in class available to select and edit images for max of 3 per student to project.
Break from 12:00 - 3:00 pm.
Thursday Program in ClassSpecial Session! The HDR Bootcamp
The above is followed by quick critiques of the firehouse adventure.
Break from 12:00 - 3:00 pm.
RC is also there in the jungle, leading an HDR walkabout, and students can participate in the "flash and blur," and or the HDR field trip.
Friday ProgramBoth Joe and RC run the critique session, and field questions from the week in a lively Q&A and review. All techniques, strategies for going forward to take the next step in your photography, are up for discussion, including business strategies for the photographer. Given RC's expertise on the web, he'll offer excellent strategies for building a website and projecting a visual experience.
Break from 12:00 - 4:00 pm.
Final Afternoon session: Meet in class to for final Q&A session and review of techniques learned. Last session late on Friday, class gathers on beach for spectacular "flambo" sunset session, with fires on the beach, models and flash lighting with gels. The famous Junior of the Anse Chastanet staff creates a wondrous environment on the fire lit beach, and individual sets are created, running off of Pocket Wizard flashes, that each participant can rotate through to create their own flash at sunset tropical masterpiece.
Joe McNally is an internationally acclaimed photographer whose career has spanned 30 years and included assignments in over 50 countries. He has shot cover stories for TIME, Newsweek, Fortune, New York, Entertainment Weekly, The New York Times Sunday Magazine, and Men's Journal. He has been at various times in his career a contract photographer for Sports Illustrated, a staff photographer at LIFE, and, currently, an ongoing 25-year contributor to the National Geographic, shooting numerous cover stories for those publications. His advertising and commercial clients include FedEx, Sony, Nikon, Land's End, General Electric, MetLife, Adidas, American Ballet Theater, Epson, and the Wildlife Conservation Society. Whether he is capturing individuals or large-scale assignments, McNally's photographs inform the viewer with their artistry and compassion, telling us stories elicited by his great communicative skills and captured through his lens.
Joe was listed by American Photo as one of the 100 Most Important People in Photography and described by the magazine as "perhaps the most versatile photojournalist working today". He has been honored as a member of Kodak-PDN Legends Online, as well as being a Nikon Legend Behind the Lens.
In 2010, he was voted as one of the 30 most influential photographers of the decade in an industry wide Photo District News survey. McNally won the first Alfred Eisenstaedt Award for Journalist Impact for a LIFE coverage titled, "The Panorama of War." He has also been honored numerous times by Communication Arts, PDN, Graphis, American Photo, POY, and The World Press Photo Foundation. His fine art work is represented by the Monroe Gallery of Santa Fe, and his prints are in numerous collections, most significantly the National Portrait Gallery of the United States.
Two of McNally's books, The Moment It Clicks and The Hot Shoe Diaries, both cracked Amazon's top ten lists of best sellers. Other books include Guide to Digital Photography, and Sketching Light. In addition to these books, McNally's work is also featured in several 9/11 books, Faces of Ground Zero – Giant Polaroid Collection; One Nation; The American Spirit; and One Nation – America Remembers September 11, 2001, Ten Years Later. In addition to books, Joe has his own instructional DVD, The Language of Light. McNally is known internationally for his ability to produce technically and logistically complex assignments with expert use of color and light. As part of his teaching activities, he conducts numerous workshops around the world. McNally continues to hold wide acclaim for his international workshops and seminars. Besides many U.S. venues, including those in New Mexico and Hawaii, Joe teaches in locations that include Dubai, Malaysia, Hong Kong, Italy, Denmark, Norway, Finland, Iceland, Sweden, Amsterdam, Germany, Switzerland, Austria, Slovenia, St. Lucia, and Canada.
To see more of Joe’s work, as well as a schedule of his workshops, please go to: www.joemcnally.com.
David Burnett is a photojournalist with more than 4 decades of work covering the news, the people, and visual tempo of our age. He is co-founder of Contact Press Images,the New York based photojournalism agency, now entering its 37th year. In a recent issue of American Photo magazine Burnett was named one of the "100 Most Important People in Photography." (That made his mom very happy.) Here on this site are images of history unfolding: war, sport, politics, the famous, the infamous, and the Unfamous. Work is constantly being added, so come back and see one person's view of what our world of the past 40+ years looks like. In a world gone mad over digital photography, his kit includes a 60 year old Speed Graphic press camera, and a plastic $30 HOLGA. Each has a place along side his digital cameras, each camera a tool to find the right look for the right moment. The May/June 2010 issue of American PHOTO did a 10 page story on David, and his unique talent for staying ahead of the times. In July, 2011, David worked with Photographers for Hope to create a workshop for homeless news vendors in Glasgow, Scotland. Their work is a really wonderful show of what photography can do, when there is motivation. Don't miss it.
He is also collaborating with the group "Facing Change - Documenting America" which is trying to recreate a modern version of the FSA, and take a serious look at the issues facing the country during these turbulent economic times. You can see the group's work at www.facingchange.org He recently taught workshops at the GulfPhotoPlus.com festival in Dubai - a long way on an airplane to get there but really great fun. Check out the blog (werejustsayin.blogspot.com) he writes with his wife Iris.
Rafael Concepcion (RC) is the author of the bestselling book "Get Your Photography on the Web" a step by step book for photographers looking to develop their own websites without code, and "The HDR Book – Unlocking the Pro's Hottest Post-Processing Techniques" by Peachpit Press.
As as Education & Curriculum developer for the National Association of Photoshop Professionals and an Instructor for Kelby Training, RC spends his day working on Photography, Photoshop, and how to get users onto the web. RC is also one of The Photoshop Guys. and the host of DTownTV.
An Adobe Certified Instructor in Photoshop, Illustrator, and Lightroom, RC has over 10 years in the I.T. and ecommerce industries and spends his days developing content for all applications in the Adobe Creative Suite. RC has held training seminars in the U.S., Europe, and Latin America, and recently combined his photographic and web experience to teach with famed wildlife photographer Moose Peterson at the "You Can Do It Too" workshops in Mammoth, CA, The Digital Landscape Workshop Series, and at the Voices That Matter Web Conference in San Francisco, CA. RC is also a columnist for Photoshop User Magazine and Light It magazine.