Photography Seminars in the UK

[LORAC]

I've only been shooting for 12 months and not covered a wedding yet, except one as a 2nd shooter and I was thinking about attending a seminar, here in the UK, on photographing weddings.
It's OK playing with the camera in my own time, but certainly don't feel confident enough to face a whole wedding on my own.
Would a 'wedding course' help the situation and who in the UK would anyone recommend. What's a good price?

[Gary_Evans]

Forget seminars initially and look at something along the lines of the mentor me training from the SWPP or one of the Barrett and Coe courses

http://www.swpp.co.uk/mentor_me.htm

http://www.barrettandcoe.co.uk/

I havent been on either so cant say whether they are good or bad, they are just two that I am aware of.

A good price? If it helps you earn money then dont expect it to be free

[LORAC]

Certainly not expecting something for nothing.
But as I have camera experience and am very familiar with weddings I would have thought the slower pace of a seminar, maybe one that used models for real life camera work, but in my time, would help familiarise myself with the lighting better, than as mentored second shooter at a faster paced real wedding.

[Gary_Evans]

.............I would have thought the slower pace of a seminar, maybe one that used models for real life camera work, but in my time, would help familiarise myself with the lighting better, than as mentored second shooter at a faster paced real wedding.

You didnt click the links then? Thats what the second one is

[LORAC]

You didnt click the links then?

Err . . . Yes and thanks for the heads up. But the second one doesn't mention wedding scenario shoots - It just seems to be a franchise based sales pitch.

[pal0c]

Have you considered joining the www.digitalweddingforum.com as a start member (it's free)?

The start membership is for people new to weddings or interested in starting.

[LORAC]

Cheers Pal! - I'll take a look.

[arachnic]

B&C are more interested in themselves than helping you. Yes they will provide you with a course (at a price) but then as you pointed out they are pushing the franchise.

I would go about trying to get more second shooter experience in order to put a portfolio together and develop from there.

If you put the money aside that you were going to spend on the course. You would be able to invest that in getting your name known.

[LORAC]

Thanks spider - I thought I'd grasped the B&C formulae ok. The second shooter idea is fine and I am always shooting 'live' scenarios, but a 'live' wedding is something else.

The seminars listed here http://www.digitalweddingforum.com/ seem to be mostly (unless I'm missing something) USA based - Great as they will be, flight costs on top of a bar bill will fry this years budget.
I

[bildeb0rg]

Canon UK run wedding seminars, on location with models, why not give them a call?

[tlc]

go to www.experience-seminars.co.uk its a canon outfit, and they are pretty good and have variable dates, etc.

but i highly suggest you find a photographer who will let you tag along as a second, you can only learn so much sitting in a classroom. even if they do take you over to a church to shoot some models, its nothing like the real thing.

there is so much to learn, and you will make mistakes so its best to start out either joining a forum and learning all you can AND second shooting, or photograph some friends weddings for free and see how it goes.

[LORAC]

Thanks again everyone for the advice. It's great to know that there are plenty of options. I am a slow learner, especially from manuals, but once it's sunk in, it's locked.
I have second shot a few, but I need as many 'real life' scenarios as I can get.
There's no 2nd chance as main shooter at weddings and I need to hit the right buttons first time.

[pal0c]

Some useful links:

www.contemporaryimagingconsultancy.com - Training sessions by Julie Oswin and Steve Walton. They also have a book out which is quite good.

www.jeffascough.com - Jeff Ascough is doing a number of seminars at focus this year http://www.seminarsatfocus.co.uk/

www.peterprior.com - Peter Prior recently did a workshop which a number of DWF members attended.

http://www.lovegroveconsulting.com/ - Damien Lovegrove also does wedding training.

Paul.

[Gary_Evans]

Peter is a friend of mine, and I went along to one of his courses which are aimed to some degree at people who do already shoot weddings as the main shooter.

It was nice to bump into another user of this forum there too.

[Peter Prior]

Hi Gary,
thanks for your kind words.
Just to add that the original intention was to offer workshops for new and relatively new wedding photographers to help them build a business from a good base fairly quickly. I also covered the use of good technique when shooting weddings all year round.

I was suprised but very pleased that more established pros such as Gary came along and in the end i re-gigged the workshops to hopefully appeal to both new and experienced wedding photographers alike.

In reality this meant the days ran over by 2 hours but it was well worth it.

There is a real possibilty that i may run other days after the summer so please feel free to watch my blog for news.

www.peterprior.com
http://peterprior-photography.blogspot.com

[Peter Prior]

Just to add, that if you have the intention of becoming a full time pro in the not too distant future, the Master Photographer's Association now run an Affiliate scheme where you can gain access to support and mentoring as well as regional meetings and seminars.