2nd annual WPS Convention | Carolina Inn | Brian Mullins Photography

For what has been “traditionally” a slow month, August sure has been packed full of a lot of different endeavors. An organization that is very near and dear to my heart (and is something I helped found and am on the board of directors for) is the Wedding Photographic Society (WPS). The WPS had their 2nd annual convention this year at the beautiful Carolina Inn this year. This is the 2nd year I spoke and instead of talking about business (as I did last year), I elected to focus more on photography classes with teaching both a lighting 101 and 201 course. Some of this material is based off of my existing Raleigh Photography Classes but, mostly, it focused in depth on lighting, mixing light colors, off camera flash, bounce flash and all the really cool modifiers you can use to get different “looks”.

The convention was held over 3 days and we a few of the best speakers currently touring – Amber Holrtiz, Neil Van Niekerk and John Michael Cooper (altF). All in all, we had 12 speakers, 6 live shooting sessions and a HUGE industry party all arranged by the amazing team at Your Special Day. Running these conventions is always an educational experience and with this being our 2nd year, we really, really raised the bar with the level of speakers, the activities and the overall operation and organization of the events.

On the 2nd day of the convention, I did a live shoot with one of my favorite models, Emily. I did her senior portraits last year and this is the 2nd time she’s been involved in a lighting class, so ya, we’re pretty comfortable working with each other. Without going into nauseous detail, we covered a few things in the photography class – shooting in bright sun, high speed syncing manual off camera strobes, bounce flash, blending flash with ambient, overpowering ambient then, finally, low light situations. The photos below are from that session then a mini-session I did afterwards.

I want to thank everyone who came out both to the convention and those who attended my classes and shooting session. I hope you enjoy the photos and, as always, if you had any questions about the class materials, please don’t hesitate to email me!