Faye and I had a wonderful 7 days at the SWPP Convention this year held for the first time at the London Hilton Metropole. We were delighted to be given the Presidential Suite for the duration of our stay and this was also where we hosted all of our Superclasses. Though a large suite once you added 16 delegates, oversold 2 places, model’s and our helper it made a total of 21 people in the room! As one delegate posted on Facebook the following day it was the ‘Presidential sauna’. However all 3 workshops were a great success and thanks to our models, Ella Rose, Mina, Lucy, Mackenzie and of course our model delegate Andy.
Our Masterclass on the Saturday was a huge surprise. We were only expecting around 40 or so delegates so imagine my surprise when we arrived at the room, I thought Melissa’s G’s talks had just finished and the delegates were all leaving. Not so, there were around 150 delegates in the room, so to all of you who attended Superclasses or Masterclass thank you for spending your time with us and we hope to be back next year with a new and exciting programme which we are already working on.
We stayed in London for an extra 3 days as we had an all day mentoring session on the Wednesday. Tuesday we spent at the V&A, stunning and a must for a revisit. The 2 photography exhibitions were well worth the visit.
Now busy downloading images from the Convention before getting ready for our trip to Lanzarote for PTO. Our model will be Rebecca Amy and Faye will be leading a Boudoir workshop, while I will cover the Art Nude. However for those who know us we will be working together on all sessions. We are looking forward to meeting old friends and I am sure making many new ones as well.
We have also been invited to be platform speakers at the bi annual Groupement National de la Photographie Professionnelle.
This is the French association for social photographers affiliated to the FEP and this year over 500 of their members will meet for 3 days in the beautiful city of Tours. Faye and I are very much looking forward to this visit and we have also been invited to do several workshops following the convention around France.
Before then of course we have FOCUS at the NEC in Birmingham. We will be there from Monday the 4th March through until Wednesday the 6th demonstrating some of our lighting techniques on the BOWENS stand and perhaps we will be on the SWPP stand as well but that is yet TBC. You may also catch us on the FOTOSPEED stand talking about our favourite Platinum Warm Tone paper.
Both of our Fine Art Nude workshops at Pipewell Hall have sold out so we will shortly be announcing 2 new dates, one up here @ Claremont and one down south. If this is of interest keep checking back as places go fast. Also keep up to date with Faye and I on Facebook.
This image was made during our Lighting Superclass at the SWPP Convention using the BOWENS Fresnel spotlight. It is one of my images and post production done by Faye with her usual elegance and style.
