I Taught a Flash Photography Workshop!
I recently taught a flash photography workshop. How was it? What did I learn from it? Keep reading to learn more.
If you’ve followed this blog long enough, you know that teaching is one of my passions, and I jump at any opportunity to share what I know. That’s why I decided to teach a flash photography workshop. Here’s the whole deal.
When?
I taught this workshop in May, over two Saturdays, on the 18th and 25th. Teaching four hours each day.
Where?
All of this happened at VAEO Business Club, which is a co-working and office rental place in my hometown. It also has locations at Queretaro and Monterrey, and the place is great!
How Many Students?
I had a total of seven students. A few from my previous photography foundations courses, but I also had new people who hadn’t studied with me before.
How Was It?
It was awesome! We had a blast discovering this new world of adding light to a scene in a controlled way. My students learned to add and remove shadows, balance the flash with ambient light, and creating low- and high-key images.
What Did I Learn?
We had a blast, both my students and I. In particular, I learned a few things that I’ll apply to the next workshops:
I quickly realized we needed more time, specially to practice all the theory behind flash photography.
We also need more space because, even though VAEO has a lot of office space, nice meeting rooms and an awesome terrace, the common areas are kinda small.
All the experience of learning in this place was very good, but trying to share the images we made during the workshop was a bit challenging, mostly because I didn’t have a clear way to do so. Maybe we needed just a common hashtag to use on Instagram, maybe a Facebook group… I guess we’ll have to try.
I also realized I need an assistant. Setting up the meeting room, then the flashes on stands, modifiers and also teaching was challenging. If I had an assistant s/he could have taken care of some of those tasks, and could have shot come video for my YouTube channel. I usually shoot with an assistant, but I didn’t realize how helpful they could be during a workshop.
Coming Soon: Meetups
In general terms, we had a great time in the workshop. So much so, that my students and I agreed we should meet again, just to practice. We agreed to invite more people like photographers, upcoming makeup artists and models, so we can share and practice our different disciplines and share our work. So, expect to see more of that in the blog and YouTube channel.
Now, my question for you is: Have you taught before? How was it? Please, share your experience in the comments section.
