Shoot Day! What a great workshop I just got back from! Amy and her mom, Rosalin hosted a great workshop! I stayed at their house and I loved hanging out with them and talking life! Thanks Rosalin for making great breakfasts and a nice dinner. Rosalin also helped scout out shoot locations and ask permission. I think I am going to adopt her as my second mom!! A couple of models could not show up because of food poisoning so we had backup models. I cannot say enough about always having a backup for everything you do in your business. Amy was great for arranging stuff like that. Even the dress company had a death in the family and Amy had backup dresses. I knew this or I would have brought a few of my own bride dresses. Backup and more backup! Great shooting locations! Man I loved the Windsor Art Museum! So much fun in there! I could have shot there all day but I also wanted some old backgrounds to go along with the modern feel of the museum. Plenty of old industry in Windsor and lots of very funky/cool places to shoot! Loved hanging out and teaching the students!
A very successful workshop!

Julie Parker had a great idea: hire out Keith Bryce http://www.filthygorgeous.com/ to create some unique dresses for a shoot after the workshop in Utah. I asked if anyone wanted to pitch in from my class and almost everyone did! What an experience!! I have yet to do a model shoot like this before! So much fun! We used the warehouse we did for the class but I had completely different ideas and concepts. I wanted to keep 2 models going at the same time and come up with concepts on the fly. No easy task! We had some stuff lying around because they were just starting to refurbish the warehouse. Props to play with!! I am all about props! Julie and I also found a haunted house…literally! Webby of http://www.lazarusmaze.com/ was showing off this amazing and old building she owns and we asked her if we could use the place. Man she we just great and allowed us free reign to explore and get scared and shoot our heads off!! ;-) I did not make a head count at the end of the night but I think we lost a few photographers…but I am not going back to look!! ;-) So I did my best to make the imagery seem kind of scary and haunted. The place leaks and there is dripping and strange noises all the time. Totally fun! Thanks everyone from the workshop for pitching in to hire out Keith. Thanks Keith for a great day and night. You are an artist man!!! All the way! Thanks Julie for arranging Keith and Webby. Thanks Tim for the Pizzas! Thank you models for…great modeling! I want to do this again…very soon!! Location: Haunted house and big warehouse in Ogden

Had a great time in the UK again! Seems like I am in your great country more than a few times a year. Always a pleasure!

Steve you did a great job again as a host for the workshop. Great models and amazing locations!!

Here are a few of my favorite images from the workshop.

Just finished up with my Tampa workshop. What a blast! Great students, fun shooting locations Becky hosted at her home with warm open arms and donuts! 3 days of friendship and hanging! Pizza, sushi, chocolate coated raisins, pug dogs, crazy kids, Greek food, lines, natural light, negative space, visual chaos and more!!!!

Thanks Phil!!

Nice meeting Amy!!

Totally fun! Keep in touch you guys!!

Had a great workshop in Slovenia! I just love it there!! I tell ya, if I did not live is such a cool place myself I would really consider living in Slovenia.

Milos helped me create a wonderful workshop with great models and dresses! Also very cool locations: Way up in the Julian Alps in a traditional old style lived-in village.

Down to Trieste Italy http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Trieste and http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/File:CastelloMiramare.jpg (it was so hot in Italy that we had to play in the shade most of the time! Lots of shadow play!)

In Ljubljana: around the center and in an old industrial complex.

I had a wonderful time shooting and teaching and eating with photographers from 4 different countries. I can get talking really fast and I stopped here and there to ask if everyone is hanging with my English. It amazed me the command of English everyone had!

Milos let me use his tilt-shift lens here and there and I had fun with that. Totally fun and thanks Milos for hosting a workshop I will never forget!

Caroline & Daniel of http://www.tinywater.com came to a workshop of mine last year and wanted to host a workshop in Sacramento. Well it turned out great and they provided a great studio to work from. Caroline & Daniel are one of those rare couples that just seem to have what it takes to be different, within the first year of business. They have a unique brand and their imagery has great style. I love to learn from photographer with passion, even if they have been in business for less time than myself. It took me years to find a different and stronger brand and I love to dive into the minds of those that take much less time to get there. Because if you believe you finally made it ‘there’ or finally found your style and brand…you are missing something important: we never stop learning and we constantly evolve to stay fresh. Even if we want a long hang-time at a level we have attained, the market (especially in 2009 and 2010) would never let you rest. It is all about enjoying change and breaking down your own personal walls. We had some great shoots and great food and…well, just a great workshop! Totally wild and fun locations! And haunted!!! ;-) Raquel Siders of Image Provocateur provided all the dresses and fun and crazy makeup! Totally great and very different! Loved hanging with her and seeing her work! She asked me what ‘look’ I wanted and I said “you are the artist, do what you would love to do!”She did!!! Love it!

Cyndy and Paul Meyer from Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania hosted the second annual Shoot With Beckstead Workshop. www.PaulMeyerPhotography.com They created a wonderful and giving atmosphere for me to teach! They cooked for the group and we had some nice patio hangs while circling a small fire. I love sitting around a fire and chatting photography! The class members were a cool mix of photographers with different skill levels including some that have never shot a wedding before. My workshops are composition based so really anyone can learn to take their image framing to a new level. I appreciated that everyone worked well together while we all shot around Pittsburgh. The PNC baseball park was fun and very chaotic. It took some real work to isolate cool and different frames around the mass of intersecting lines. Fun!! I am hoping Cyndy and Paul will let me take a yearly stopover for great workshops. Forget the shooting and teaching...I am just coming back for Cyndy's food!!! ;-)

Thank you guys for making this such a great workshop!!!

Had great time for the second year in a row teaching a Shoot With Beckstead Workshop in Norway. Bjorn and Hovsep did it again by hosting a great and fun workshop for Northern Norway in Tromso. Kjetil and his family kindly took me in for 3 days. We fished and cooked what we caught on a fire and hotdogs too!! Kjetil took me off for a full day drive to tour and we had a great time! Loved having fun with his kids! Hovsep and his great family took me on at their house when the workshop started and for some days to play after. Totally enjoy seeing little Shant again and hanging with Hovsep’s wonderful family.

Well it rained every day I was there!! ;-) Still we had a window for one of the shoots where the sun did come out. Crazy wind and rain most of the time for a full week! Well that is Norway. It can happen! Then it just comes down to the people and I think Norwegians are just great!! Friendly and giving!! And very interested in what i had to say about our wedding industry and image composition.

Thank you guys for inviting me again and I hope to come back next year!

Milwaukee Art Museum Well I just got back from another amazing SWB Workshop! Wendy Gunderson hosted and just went all out! The Gunderson’s hosted a gourmet Mexican meal that was simply amazing! Their daughter decorated and the house looked great! Totally fun and yummy! I negotiated the rights to shoot indoors at the Milwaukee Art Museum. Wow! One more time…Wow! So much fun finding the lines and reflections!! The sky was full of clouds and it had rained but inside we had plenty to work with. I have said many times before: I ‘see’ light first and when the light is covered by clouds, I then see lines and other compositional elements. When it starts to rain, that should be when you pull out all the stops and passion to produce better work than before. It is all in your own attitude! Walk in knowing you are going to ‘blow away’ the shoot no matter what the weather is or what the venue looks like and you will walk away with amazing shots! Cathy and Scott of http://www.AmbianceStudios.com also helped with all the dresses and models. I wanted something a little different for this shoot and I got it from http://www.zitabridal.com/ Kelly was just so great giving us dresses to help with this shoot. I had a blast everyone and I hope you walked away with new and cool ideas for your compositions and business!

My 3rd year in a row teaching a workshop in Denver was a success! I lost my voice for the first time I think in my life. I had to make sure everyone could hear me on the 3rd day in classroom while I whispered. Thank you so much Suzanne, Grant and Travis for helping me again with the hosting. You guys are always so helpful and I appreciate it! This is the second days shoot at Golden and Argo mine. Totally fun places to shoot!! Shannon (our Argo mine model) was one of my past brides for a wedding we shot in Maui. She is so great!! Kassandra and I stopped by and had breakfast with their family a few days ago. Nice to keep up with our past wedding clients. Travis and Taylor were models Suzanne knew. Taylor modeled for us last year. Everyone did great!

Looking forward to a 4th workshop in Denver next year!!

Mark wanted to host again this year in Alabama. I was like…cool! Kassandra and I really enjoy out trips out to Birmingham and Mark’s family. Food is great and the hospitality even better! This time we did a 3-day SWB. Wow! What fun! We shot at a very secret location and I would have to kill you if I told you where it is! We also shot at my all time favorite bride shoot locations, the old Sloss steel mill. Randi and Keith, thank you for the use of your nice warm home! Maggie was fun again and Asia chased her around the whole trip yelling: Maggie, Maggie, come here, come here! Mark you did it again! What a great class you hosted! Thank you all from Asia, Kassandra and me for the Southern hospitality!

Here are a few of my favorites from the class.