ALBION ROW

Law School – a photography workshop

Disclaimer: this post is aimed at wedding photographers rather than couples, feel free to skip past if you are looking for my wedding photography.

In a few short years Alan Law has gone from starting his wedding photography business to being named 1 of Rangefinder’s ’30 rising stars of wedding photography’.

IN THE WORLD!

A huge accolade, and one that Alan is very humble about receiving…

“Honestly, I remember looking through this annual list a few years ago when I was just starting out, and just being blown away by the talent. In awe of these people’s skills. There was never for a single nano-second any thought that I may one day possibly make this list. No way; it just wasn’t possible.” – AL

30-rising-stars-wedding-photography-uk

Along the way he has won the Westcountry Wedding Awards ‘Best Reportage Wedding Photographer’ two years on the trot, picked up a Fearless award, and been featured in numerous magazines and blogs.

So when I had the chance to go to his new workshop, complete with snazzy title ‘Law School’, I jumped at it!

And so I found myself in the meeting room at Watergate Bay Hotel, looking out over a rainy, wind-swept vista with a group of other keen wedding togs.

Alan Law - Law School - Workshop

The view from the workshop!

The workshop was very practical with a friendly & relaxed feeling, very much an open discussion, covering the following areas comprehensively:

  • Technique
  • Gear
  • Ideology
  • Compositional choices
  • Capturing emotion & movement
  • Finding and maintaining creativity
  • How to book more weddings
  • SEO
  • Workflow

The images throughout were exemplary and very inspiring, and it was incredibly useful to discuss their creation. Alan did not hold anything back, and answered questions thoroughly and honestly.

With a background in SEO, somehow Alan made the subject seem quite simple and answered several questions that I had, providing loads of advice for bettering your organic SEO ranking, as well as tips for utilising paid marketing such as Adwords and Facebook Ads.

Alan Law Workshop

Vast quantities of coffee were consumed: the staple diet of the working photographer!

I left the workshop with a very positive frame of mind, feeling creatively refreshed.

A handful of practical changes to my business are now in my mind, some big and some small. These include changes to on-site SEO, a change in attitude regarding which images I show, a major re-think about which products and services I will continue to offer in the future, and a realisation that I have been over complicating and over thinking some aspects of my business.

Aside from the practical business stuff, I also feel very driven to create more of the type of wedding images that I love, and to push myself at each and every wedding to create photography that is artistic, meaningful and beautiful.

Alan spent a large proportion of the time discussing his approach to photographing weddings, what he looks for, how he remains so creative, compositional techniques, how to utilise light, what moves him, how to have empathy for your couples, and much more…

As Alan says; aim for every image to be good enough to hang on a wall, no supporting images needed.

 

It was also wonderful to meet such a lovely bunch of photographer’s, with a wide range of experience and approaches, capped off with a great evening meal together.

Needless to say, I would highly recommend that any photographer attend one of Alan’s workshops if they have the chance. Top bloke, amazing wedding photographer and all round nice guy to spend a day with!

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