Almost Alone Nashville

Hey we finally caught a breather and I've got a few minutes to post some images from our week in Nashville last month. I had the incredible opportunity to attend a seminar called Almost Alone with David Williams. I met David when we went to the Digital Wedding Forum Convention back in January. David is an inspiring teacher and an amazing photographer so when I heard his tour was coming to Nashville, I knew we had to attend.

David is a rare breed who is not only an asset to the photography community, but to the world in general. He is passionate about our craft and the art behind it and even more importantly the deeper and overall meaning behind why we photograph and the gigantic responsibility we have to be a visual historian for our clients and their families.

Without photographers like David, it would be all too easy to forget about the philosophical and spiritual level to this business and focus on the bottom dollar. He opens your eyes and reawakens your hunger. And it helps that he's a true follower of the mantra that there are no stupid questions (unless he's already answered it and you just weren't paying attention. Photographers by their nature are a sharing group and David Williams is the epitome of that.

So if you are a photographer, I highly recommend taking the time to track David down and attend one of his seminars. And he's giving the keynote at DWFC '09 in Phoenix. So run, no fly, and give the man a listen.

Thank you David, so much, for your kindness, generosity, and for holding us up to the window!!!

Okay, I'll step off my soapbox now and get on with some photos!

The first night we went to a cool party hosted by Nashville superstar Chuck Arlund (with Arlund Imagery), who provided us with some model friends to practice on. This wasn't part of the seminar really, but it was a cool chance to let some of us experiment and do some shooting that we normally don't do.



The last photo and the next few were all shot with a video light, which is pretty much a constant source of tungsten light. I've played around a little with video light before, but not to this extent. Needless to say, I'm adding one of these to my gear wish list.








Here's The Man, David himself. We came in from playing with the models and found him giving a little tutorial on classic "Hollywood" lighting and posing. Simple and clean and timeless lighting.






A little triptych for you.


At some point Danielle and I snuck up to the roof to check out the view and I decided to play around with bouncing my flash off the corrugated metal wall and do a quickie portrait of her with some Nashville lights in the background.


Don't forget the obligatory self-portrait (don't worry, there'll be another one near the end of the post).


On to the actual seminar!

David explaining a "doorway" studio (as seen from the stairs... and boy you better believe I was cautious on all the steps!).


Outside demonstrating some group posing.


David shooting and N.C. photog Brian Sutton sneaking over his shoulder.


Chuck (who hosted this Almost Alone) and I had a little shoot-out at some point.


David talking about available light.


Chuck hamming it up and showing of his pizza cod piece.


Check this out; David photographed Atlanta photog Andrea Taylor in pure available light. It looks like it was shot in studio, but I'm shooting through David's arm and that is all window light. Pretty cool, huh?


David used all of us as models and here's his take on yours truly (Don't worry-I won't be quitting my day job and trying out for the new Sears catalog anytime soon).


This was Chuck's wife's grandfather Jack, who, along with his lovely wife Carol, let us have the seminar at their beautiful home. David was shooting to my left demonstrating front lighting so I thought I'd hunker down and get a nice 3/4 profile of Jack.


Another something cool David talked about was telling the story with details. I've always been a pretty good detail photographer, but I never really thought to use details together in a series to help tell part of the story. I've mainly focused on using detail photos to accentuate an image in an album, but by themselves (and as a collective with other details), they can be a powerful storytelling tool. So on the last night when some of use went to a great little Vietnamese restaurant, I decided to practice.

(You can see a bigger version here.)

And last, but not least, more self-portrait love with the crew!


So as you can see, we had an absolute blast. And the coolest thing is that I learned so much, and had my eyes opened to a ton of things that were right in front of me the whole time, that we've already started to take some of the things and apply them to every session we have now. Good news for you guys, huh?!?

I just realized that it's past midnight now so it's officially July 4th. HAPPY Independence Day! I hope everyone has a safe holiday. Please make sure that you all go back to work Monday with all your fingers (you know who you are firebugs). I think we're hanging out at our friend Traci's pool and then over to our other good friends, Linda and Tony's, place for some grilling and fireworks. In other words, a really productive day!!

-Wes