A Photo Shoot

During the Santa Fe Photography Workshop that I took we had a photo shoot with some young men with tattoos.
 

What was interesting was that these young men had never modeled before. This photo shoot thing was as new for them as shooting a model was for me. I was the first one to shoot the young men and so I was the one to ask them to take off their shirts. They were very uneasy with stripping down to the waist for some old gringa. There was a lot of hesitation and teasing each other as they did it. So I tried to focus on the tattoos. Su bebe? Esposa? Oh, El Virgen! Muy bonita! That helped a little. But they didn't know what to do and since this was my first time to give direction to a model, I wasn't too sure what they should do either.  With my bad Spanish, I struck the pose first and then they tried to do the same thing. After about 10 minutes we were working and I was clicking the shutter.
 

Out of all the things we did in the workshop, I think that working with these young men may have been one of my favorites. I'm encouraged to ask someone to model for me. Even if it never becomes a project or goes anywhere, it is a learning experience.

Anybody know where I can find some young men with tattoos?

My Photography Workshop

I didn't post anything last week because I was on the go from 8 AM to about 9:30 PM. I took a Santa Fe Photographic Workshop called Faces of Mexico: Environmental Portraiture with Holly Wilmeth.
It has been a long time since I took a workshop. I've been trying to think of when was the last time I took a workshop that was just about photographing and not about some technical aspect of photography. The last one I remember was a workshop with John Sexton back in the 1990's.

Sexton is an amazing photographer who shoots in black and white and knows more about the wet darkroom than most anyone. I learned so much about perfecting my black and white prints from that workshop but also a lot about seeing. Although he is still a working photographer and workshop leader, I found out how much the photography world has changed. When someone younger than me (well everyone in the workshop was younger than me) well anyway, she asked me about whose workshops I had taken, I mentioned Sexton. The look on her face told me that Sexton didn't register at all. She started with digital photography...in color, of course. Darkroom, black and white? Nope, Sexton's work didn't register with her. I had to laugh to myself. Times, they are a'changing.

The workshop was a wonderful experience. I met some great photographers, made new friends but most of all I learned a lot. Wilmeth was a warm and encouraging instructor and role model about how you work with people. It was good for me to have this time of concentrated work with my camera because I had gotten lazy about using it in various modes. I do want to shoot environmental portraits so my friends are probably going to get some requests to model for me. Now that I have put that in my blog, I hope they don't run when they see me!

If you ever have a chance to take a workshop with Holly Wilmeth, DO IT! You won't be disappointed.