Thoughts on My 1st After Dark

Last week I had the opportunity of a lifetime to attend my first ever After Dark Education (which I will be referring to as AD the rest of the story) in Kansas City, a quick 5 hour drive from my place. As its website says it's an "experience" as it's "neither a 'conference' nor a 'workshop'; it's the best of BOTH worlds."

I had always heard other photographers talk about AD but only knew that it was this mystical sounding thing with superpowers where they kept you up late and forced you to cram in as much learning in as short amount of time as possible.

Well, my thoughts were proven correct--except for the superpowers.

Flat out, this thing ROCKED!

For 72 hours I crammed in as much learning as possible. Topics ranged from ways to market yourself to lighting a high school senior to creating composite images (aka collages with a 21st century feel) to ways to maximize your sales.

I was surrounded by some of the best photographers in the world. Yes, I said world.

To give you an idea (without namedropping) ADKC featured over 30 of the top photographers and photography minded folks in the industry covering all sorts of genres of photography from high fashion and modeling, to heavily Photoshopped works of art, from boudoir and nude photography to highly conceptual and sometimes bizarre works so intriguing you just have to look closer and longer than normal.

It was an absolute honor. I have to thank Dave Junion for not only inviting me down to take part in AD as an assistant but for being one of the masterminds behind the whole experience. You can check out some of Dave's work here.

Some of my personal highlights from the week (and let me preface this by saying there were so many amazing photographers there that there was simply no way that I could attend each one of their sessions. I can only imagine how awesome they all were and how impactful they would have been to have taken part in. I just can only comment on the sessions that I was fortunate enough to take part in):

-The biggest highlight of the week had to be getting to join Ben Shirk, Dan Frievalt , Dan McClanahan and Beth Forester during an impromptu early morning session with the lovely Miranda (part local photographer, part superstar model in the making!). We went out in search of awesome light and backgrounds and weren't disappointed.

I chose to primarily assist during this as I wanted to merely take it all in. It's not very often that you get to tag along with four photographers who not only are mentors during the seminar you're attending but also some of the most successful and trend-setting photographers in the industry right now!

We started the trip off on an amazing bridge with gorgeous columns that repeated themselves into the background. We had to pull a Wayne's World and yell "Game off!" each time a car would approach. It happened a lot as we were shooting during the morning rush...go figure! =)

From the bridge we drove around and found an awesome alley way in between some old (and apparently abandoned) buildings. There were boarded up windows and some windows that had the glass knocked out of them. It was your cliche down and out warehouse district and it rocked!

You could feel the energy amongst all of us. It was almost like the bridge got us started and from there the ideas and shots just started rolling. And without having to say anything to one another we all just worked together to make shots happen. Like I said, I didn't do much shooting but it was well worth it. When you get to assist some of the best in the industry sometimes it's better to just step aside and watch the masters work.

When we finished up in the alley way we wanted to finish strong. They kept talking about finding a door or some neat architecture to shoot with and then BAM, out of nowhere we found the most amazing thing ever: a bunch of old, beat up pianos sitting on the back ledge of a building...talk about the PERFECT prop! 

Our model Miranda was rocking a white wedding dress and red Keds (they were awesome!) so when we found these pianos up against an old brick building, the opportunity was too great to pass up. I believe when we pointed out the pianos Ben came to a complete stop in his pickup truck, put it in reverse and gunned it to the location. 

This became one of the coolest shoots I had been part of in a while. Just creating on the fly as we found things...it had a very photojournalistic feel to it. So, even though it was a portrait oriented adventure I couldn't help but go into PJ mode and capture all that was happening around me.

-Getting to listen in on Alex McClanahan's pod titled "Weddings: McClanahan Style". I have a real desire to make weddings a large portion of the business that I do year in and year out so to hear one half of McClanahan Studio describe in detail how they navigate through the uber competitive world of wedding photography was HUGE!

Alex and her husband Dan have become well known in the photography industry for their wedding photography. They currently limit themselves to 15 weddings per year and offer to shoot them all across the country. I consider them a big inspiration for where I would like my business to be and I really enjoy seeing their creative take on weddings. They're like a breath of fresh air when it comes to wedding photography.

-Stefani Hays. Simply put, I have never been so excited in the first 5 minutes of listening to someone speak to hear what else they have to say. Stefani led a pod titled "Sales Without Selling". This was amazing. She went over all the right and wrong ways that photographers should approach selling. As someone new to the game of trying to sell my work (and not just give it away for free) hearing her speak about ways to increase sales was inspiring!

-One session that really grabbed my attention (and not simply because there was the opportunity to photograph half naked models) was a session on boudoir and the CORRECT way to pose women led by Jennifer Rozenbaum, owner and operator of Jenerations where her mission is to "provide you with the most luxurious photography experience, all the while creating the most stunning images imagineable".

Sounds pretty good to me!

Jennifer, who I had never even heard of before ADKC, was incredible! Imagine a sub-5' firecracker who doesn't take no for an answer, giving you a crash course of everything NOT to do when posing a woman. Full of energy. Full of fun. This session was AWESOME! Especially as a guy photographer, it's easy to pose women the way I think looks good while totally forgetting how women view themselves. This was a very awesome session to be part of.

She showed us, with the assistance of a wonderfully brave model, all the ways to slim women down and get the most of their body size and shape. I could probably attend this session once a week, every week for a year and still probably come away learning something new from it!

-Getting to assist Ben Shirk of Shirk Photography and Dan Frievalt of Frievalt Photography as they discussed creating composites was very cool! For those of you unfamiliar with composites or compositing, it's basically the process of using a variety of image pieces to create one unique image. Sometimes they're lifelike and realistic, other times they're part fantasy and from another world. It all depends on what story the photographer is trying to tell.

Ben and Dan talked about everything from composition of the composites, sizing of the main subject for most impact, lighting of the background and foreground for image consistency as well as ways to make better composites.

This was a nice follow up to a session that Dan McClanahan and Richard Sturdevant of Sturdevant Studio did on creating and putting together composites. Dan and Richard take a backseat to no one when it comes to creating composites...they even went as far as creating one during AD in which Dan was carrying a baby doll on his shoulders. In the end, thanks to Richard's compositing skills (and crazy mind) the baby ended up peeing on Dan's head while a dog looked on.

Only at After Dark I guess.

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So all-in-all After Dark Kansas City was amazing! I can't think of a single other photography related event that I've attended/assisted at that had the variety, the excitement, the sheer amount of talent and energy that those at After Dark brought. I can't wait for the next one which turns out is in Orlando, FL, on February 18-20. If you've never been to an After Dark I HIGHLY encourage you to attend!