Venice photography workshop

I recently had the opportunity to participate in a photography workshop in Venice.  It was hosted by Drake Busath, a professional photographer based out of Salt Lake City, Utah.  He hosts workshops all over Italy, including an "extension" workshop in Venice.  It's called an extension because it's only 4 days, sandwiched in between two longer workshops (in Tuscany and the Italian Riviera).  It was perfect for me, considering how low I'm getting on leave.  I figured it would be a good intro to Drake's program, and if I enjoyed it then I could do one of his longer workshops later.

Well let's just say I will definitely be returning for a longer workshop in Italy one day!  It was a whirlwind of a trip, but it was amazing and I learned SO MUCH.

Drake was joined by his friend and fellow photographer, Randy Collier.  Both Drake and Randy were eager to teach me, and started giving me field lessons immediately after we met!  I was so honored to have one-on-one time with such accomplished and gifted photographers, and I tried to soak up as much of their expertise as I could.

Here are some of the things I learned.

1. Lighting is everything.  Drake taught me how to observe the way light bounces off of buildings, and to recognize the difference between good lighting and bad lighting.  Here are some examples.

Flat lighting
(no interesting glow or shadows on the building)

Bright lighting
(areas that are "blown out" and awkward shadowing)

Just right!

2. Shooting "square" is better than shooting from an angle.  When you shoot an object of interest from an angle, it results in distortion.

Shot from a gondola, so the angles are all off!

Shot straight on - so much more visually appealing!

3.  Positioning is key.  Pay attention to how you position a person, and where their eyes are looking.  Place more "space" towards where they are looking; it flows better.  There is SO much more to portrait photography and posing people, I'd have to take an entirely different workshop dedicated JUST to the art of portraits.

Positioned too far to the left, doesn't really flow with where she is looking. 

I like this one better!

4. Cropping for detail and texture.  Sometimes cutting off part of a window or part of a door is so much more interesting than shooting the entire view.  I had fun playing around with this, watching how Drake and Randy framed their shots.

5. Color blocking.  While we were in the colorful town of Burano, Drake told us to practice "color blocking" - and what better place to do it!

 6. How to blur people in the photo.  This was fun to practice as well.  I set up my tripod on a busy street, lowered my shutter speed to about 1/8 second, and used the remote control.  I'll have to play around with this technique more, and with a better tripod.

My attempt at blurring a crowd of people. 

Drake took this one of me.  :)

7. Creating "negative space".  Drake used that term a lot.  And I finally began to understand it, especially as I looked at the difference in how I would compose a shot and how Drake would compose the same exact shot.  In the pictures below, for example, Drake explained how the negative space (the street) "pushed" the yellow building further up into the frame, making it a more interesting photo (and also pushing it into that important "rule of thirds" area).

The shot as I originally composed it.

Same scene, more negative space.

I also learned a LOT of technical things, like how to use the histogram, when to over- or under-expose, and how to properly choose settings.  I learned why photographers use tripods (not just to look cool or take people out with them), and I realize now that I need better equipment (my tripod pretty much sucks).  Finally, I learned that I have a lot more to learn!!

What an unbelievable experience.  Practicing a hobby that I love in a beautiful city like Venice, with my husband by my side.  What more could I ask for?!