Blog has been a little silent these past couple of weeks, but rest assured I am still around! I have been recovering from a little sickness bug that hit last week and I am now starting to feel better. A couple of weeks ago I had the opportunity to meet one of my favorite photographers, not only did I get to meet him but I also got to join in one of his first workshops! I can’t tell you how excited I was about this workshop, I still don’t think I have the exact words to describe how I felt. Because of his creativity and unique ‘look’, he inspired me to pursue photography and be just as passionate,  and to top it all off he is an incredible christian guy. His passion goes way beyond just photography, and is centered around God, which has always attracted me more and more to his work. I knew just having the chance to be around him would inspire me and push me to be a better artist. Here is a picture of of Jeremy Cowart and I after the workshop. (If you want to read a full recap of the workshop click the link after the image below)

 

So to give you a little recap and glimpse into the workshop, I took a couple of pictures along the way. The first day and the beginning of the second day our group spent the time listening to Jeremy talk about his journey into photography. He then walks us through his website and takes us through detailed stories of what it took to make each image happen in his portfolio. It was so interesting to hear what went into each shot, I had no idea how simple lots of his shots were and at the same time the complexity of others. It was so great to have the opportunity to ask him any question about the shots in his portfolio and just learn what went into them. By the end of the talk I did learn one major thing, that I was okay with not wanting to become Jeremy Cowart. What I mean by that is, that I love what he does, but it isn’t what I am passionate about, which was so important for me to learn.

The latter half of the day was spent walking around The Factory, where Jeremy has his studio, and watch him work with models and listen to his thought process as he works with the space he is in. He treated the models like they were a band, and we just watched Jeremy set them up and listened to his thoughts of what to look for in a given space and how to make the most with what you have and not make excuses.

After he was done shooting around The Factory we came back into his studio and he showed us a couple of different lighting arrangements that he typically uses when he shoots against a white wall. I was especially excited to learn a little more about lighting and it was great because Jeremy had it tethered to his laptop and projector so we could see the shots right after they were taken.

After Jeremy was done going through all his tips and creative toolbag he sent us all on our way for 45 minutes to take our own pictures with the models, we were split into small groups and each given our own model. We then came back and picked our favorite three and Jeremy critiqued all of them and gave us ideas to improve upon. I’ll have to share some of my images at a later time. Jeremy started out as a graphic and web designer and thought it would be valuable if he then went through several of our websites and gave us feedback on the design and how we could improve our site. The whole critiquing process is always a hard thing for anyone to hear but at the same time so valuable and helpful, and Jeremy wasn’t a harsh critic by any means, everything he had to share was encouraging and uplifting.

Everyone who attended the workshop was so different and we all came for different reasons. We had everything from a dentist who was interested in learning about photography, hobbyist and amateurs,  portrait and wedding photographer, and other commercial photographers. With all these differences we did have one major thing in common, we have all been impacted and influenced by the work of Jeremy Cowart. So many photographers there had similar stories of how they started into photography and how Jeremy’s work gave them a new passion to pursue photography. My hope is that some day I can do the same for people and just dream of things bigger than myself. I was so happy to attend this workshop and I know everyone in our group felt the same way. I will leave you with our final group shots that we took once the evening concluded. Enjoy!