I’ve been asked how and when I met Ryan Brenizer and that dates back to us sitting in the lobby of a hotel in Carefree, Arizona along with some of our other peers including the adorable Paul & Mechael Johnson, the always stoic Daniel Lane, and the utterly hilarious Brian Tao. We were editing files (you know, a photographer’s work is never done) and we just started chatting and we realized that we were already familiar with each other through the grapevine. That’s what the internet does – it makes the real world seem smaller and more friendly!
Four photography conferences later, we still hang out WAY too much and dance WAY too much at those suckers. So when talk turned towards a workshop in Dallas, I was happy to help Ryan host it. Now, Ryan realized very quickly that Fort Worth and Dallas are not the same thing. I have used them interchangeably when talking to non-Texans (eh, what do they know!) and I should have been more careful because when he announced a Dallas workshop and it was actually located in Fort Worth, he got kind of slammed for that, um, little detail. Eh, he’s from Manhattan, give the man a break!
And the perfect location for a lighting workshop would be Marty Leonard Chapel. I know, I know, I spend enough time there as it is. But I should tell you how truly difficult shooting that chapel can be if you haven’t found your zen there. It throws light streaks and halos at you like nobody’s business and then it kind of laughs in your face like a big old mean bully.
Day one of the workshop sold out almost instantly and Ryan and I were just so stoked that we added a second day. I was preparing for a wedding at the chapel the following week that I was going to be shooting in film. (O yes, there’s that four letter f word that you never thought you would see again!)
So there I was, the ‘weird one’ with a film camera at the workshop, shooting a few rolls to find a new kind of groove with my shooting style and translating it all on film.. Fun note about the Canon EOS3 tat I was using – it has eye controlled auto focus which tracks the movement of your eyeballs in the camera and adjusts the focus accordingly in the frame. Seems so high tech and savvy, but alas, it never it made it to the digital SLR market as we know it now. In case you are wondering, I had to turn off the feature because it was driving me batty … and maybe that’s why it didn’t make it into the new stuff we are shooting with today!
Our first couple was Casey & Regan, photographed on my Canon 5d2 in full mid-day sun. Casey was a groomsman in Rachel & Gary’s wedding in 2009.
Canon Eos3 + Kodak film, ISO 400 inside the chapel.
The second day, we had the awesomely awesome Samantha & Jonathan from Jonathan Ivy Photography. Open shade this time – Canon 5D2.
The last two images are Fuji, ISO 100. Love the way it renders the greens!
