Anyway, Miss Aniela's workshop was a one full day workshop which cost me $745 to boost my fashion photography experience and portfolio with 5 beautiful models in a Clinton Hill mansion. It was a 2:1 photographer/model work session which is perfect for workshops. I've attended the paparazzi shooting style workshops and avoid those at all costs. This beautiful house was 5 stories high and had at least 15 bedrooms-too many to even count. One room even had a open bathtub in the middle with hand painted walls. Miss Aniela walked in and introduced herself to the photographers, she was wearing a cute red, fitted dress and she looked exactly as pretty and petite as she looked in her books. Natalie Dybisz (a.k.a Miss Aniela) is a famous well known fashion photograher, self photographer, expert photoshop artist, and author I admire. Her work is stunningly beautiful. I love her self photography work the best. You definitely need to see her work at missaniela.com. She's been hosting these fashion workshop events in England and this was her first stop in the states and she plans on having another workshop in California in the fall. The first few hours of arrival, photographers were able to chat around while the models were getting prepped up by their hair stylists and wardrobe stylists. Natalie rounded up the photographers and gave a few good photography advice that morning while we waited. She emphasized that it was up to us to learn on our own while she as well took photographs of the models that day. I've attended a lot of workshops before and knew this would be the deal but wish she was able to at least make a few rounds to give us her perspective or I wish I had the chance to see her work in action. She was always open though to give advice whenever you needed during the day. I met Matt (an exact look alike of Peter Hook from New Order) who was the assistant on these workshops, and he was very helpful throughout the day keeping it organized and to help with lighting and he gave great input. He did not once pick up a camera but I knew he had the photography experience. I was paired up with a local experienced sports hobby photographer, Tom Anthony from Manhattan who has been shooting for 30 years. He didn't attend that many workshops before and this was his first model shoot experience of this type. He has a beautiful wife that doesn't like to model either so I guess he stuck with golf photography instead. As the hours went by, he got the hang of communicating with the models well but maybe too much because he kept on "chimping" (the act of looking at your photos after every take and showing it to your model) which ruins the flow of momentum with everyone in that room. Just like any painter who paints a Mona Lisa, I try not to show my model my finished detail until after the set. At times, it could ruin a models confidence on the way she looks when you keep showing her the photos after every take. I got my good shots in so I couldn't complain. The models were strong and confident throughout the day and very professional. I was extremely pleased with the choice of models Natalie picked. I was also pleased with the professional hair stylists and wardrobe clothing. Natalie loves the wild hair and smoky eyes look with lots of dramatic hot makeup. I thought it was a great experience for beginners and for professionals and it was worth the money spent because of the great location setting, the Photoflex strobe lighting they provided us in each room, the superb stylists, the clothing, the signature agreements, and the quality models. Natalie also provided us a bunch of informational videos of her Photoshop editing work -didn't know I could do so much on CS5. Watch her videos on her website as well-this is what you'll expect at her shoot but even better! The only few drawbacks were that we weren't provided to use the whole house where ever we wanted to shoot and were only stuck in small rooms of the house per each model. The rooms were cramped and gave limited areas to shoot. This was only a one day event but would love to see a two day event. I also wished we got a happy hour to meet the models, and chat more with photographers as well as with Natalie and Matt over a couple of beers. Overall, I give this workshop a thumbs up. I'd definitely attend one of her workshops again.
Here are some of my works of Pelin and Yana from Natalies workshop:
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