Bridal boudoir and portraits

As anyone who follows my blog will know I have been attending Damian McGillicuddy's training for over 6 months now (wow time flies!) and have learnt so much on each day I have attended. Not only that but I come away equipped to take things further myself. I can't deny that the training has almost became addiction, the quest for knowledge never ends and each session always equips me with even more skills with which to progress and earn from my photography.

In that process however I have really came to appreciate that my personal quest isn't to make lots of money, it's to take the very best photographs I can possibly take. to continually push my boundaries and to expand my skills.

Friday saw a two hour drive up the M6 for a workshop with Damian McGillicuddy.  It was my first trip to Chester  and I was instantly won over by its beautiful medieval buildings. The place certainly has a great deal of character. The workshop itself was at a restaurant; Oddfellows  again as I approaced I was rather enamored with the architecture and character of the place. Inside was no disappointment either and my excitement for the day grew further.



The focus of the day was on bridal boudoir and portraits, so after brief introductions of everyone present we launched into the first session of the day. Our first model was Charlie Edwards who I have had the pleasure of working with before. Charlie is a truly lovely girl as pleasant to talk to as she is beautiful, not just a model but also skilled in both make-up and fashion.  Damian showed us how he worked, using natural and flash light and various light modifiers. then we got to have a go ourselves asking question as and when we wanted.  Even just being able to watch a professional work is a great insight for me and I took a great deal from this first session even if I only took 3 shots. ;)  However the idea of the day was to take away knowledge not shots so this was a personal choice.

After a rather lovely lunch in the restaurant, we moved back upstairs to work with the second model Ulorin Vex, again stunning to work with and very versatile. She seems to be able to take on any form from edgy fashion to bridal beauty shots.

This session saw us moving around the building, locating good places to work and then learning to use the light there and combined it where necessary with off camera flash. The addition of gels and white balance shifting really brought about some great effects. The piture below was a balance of ambient and a single  flash light, with a DMSL beauty dish



All in all the day was a great experience for me, and I came away with some great shots. Some of the info Damian imparts is invaluable and I best start saving for the next one ;) A few more shots can be found on my Flickr Page for info other than sharpening eyes and cloning some plug sockets, the shots are as were from camera to demonstrate the techniques and how effective they were.