Figure Photography Workshops

I've been on a drawing kick lately, aspiring to finally get competent at this art form. I love it - not quite ready to share most of those results yet. I am fortunate to have over 12,000 images on a hard drive that I can use for reference. I'm super grateful for that.

While digging through the archives. I found some lighting setups I had documented. That will be my next post. How to get completely different looks without moving a light. This made me think. I miss giving workshops. And I mean giving as opposed to hosting because I felt I added value to the process by teaching. And my idea of a workshop has always include an opportunity to learn.

In figure photography its meaning has been lost. Being used indiscriminately to mean a whole raft of things. Most commonly though, I see it being used where "trophy expedition" would be a better way to describe it. Expensive locations, catering to rich people with camera gear worth more than most professionals could afford. The idea being to come back with an image or 20 that will impress your social media followers.

Bitter? Maybe a little. I'm not against it in principle - whatever floats your boat. I'm just now wondering, again, if there is room in this genre for serious teaching. I have run across many who were excited to learn and have expressed gratitude for the opportunity. I have run across others who didn't want to learn and were only there for the opportunity to "bag a lion" so to speak. Proud of the images that they took, sharing them online. All fine. Did they learn anything? Sometimes.

So full circle, and to shut up and make this sound less like a rant: I wonder, mostly to myself, if there is actual interest out there for learning figure photography and lighting. Or is it mostly about taking someone to the right location, at the right time of day and pointing to the area where they should shoot?

My workshops typically lasted 4 hours with four participants. 50% of the time was teaching and lighting setup. Participants would have an opportunity to work with the model and the setup. One at a time. Shooting over another person's shoulder was never allowed.

So maybe I'll wonder this next part out loud? Is this a thing anymore? Figure Photography Workshops. Let me know your thoughts. Sign-up below to leave comments and to get future updates.