Foundation Workshop.

Imagine a workshop that is rumoured to make grown men cry. Imagine that workshop offers some of the world’s top wedding photojournalists as instructors and mentors… Imagine greats like the Chrismans, Anna Kuperburg, Ray Soemarsano, JVS, Huy Nguyen.. (to name a small few) imagine they are your teachers, mentors and most importantly, family… for 5 days straight.

Imagine 6 teams of 6 students with a team leader, 2 mentors and an assistant.. imagine that all of your team leaders are those same idolized wedding photographers. Every single one of them is awesome. It’s ridiculous. Oh yeah, and there are two counsellors too.. counsellors that I -never- thought I would need.. but turned out being desperately thankful for in the height of my day 2 breakdown.. not to mention the rest of the amazing staff that support you and feed you and give you a shoulder to cry on throughout…

Imagine receiving an assignment that has absolutely nothing to do with wedding photography; In fact, it could be the furthest thing from it. Imagine having to tell the story of that assignment with pictures. Imagine going out by yourself that first day, driving over an hour to reach your assignment.. not knowing what you will find when you get there then shooting for 12-16 hours. Imagine having to take all of those images back to your team and handing over your cards to have every, single image critiqued and viewed by your team. No deleting images. They’re all there.

Imagine being photographically naked in front of your entire team of kick ass photographers. Imagine these harsh, but necessary, no holds barred critiques last upwards of 8 hours, after which you get an hour and  a half of sleep to process it all and rest before you’re off to do it all again. For 3 sometimes 4 days straight. Imagine that you’re expected to be better the next day…

Imagine crying…….. a lot…….. from fear, from exhaustion, from elation and from the way your Foundation family makes you feel inside –that’s one of the good cries…

Imagine all of this and you still won’t  be close to understanding what Foundation is really like. It’s like trying to describe child birth to someone who has never been through it. I can hear your eyes rolling now..  that may sound dramatic, but it is not. The way this workshop will affect you will be dramatic.. it will touch you to the core. They say to check your ego at the door, but with Foundation there’s no need; suffice it to say you will be stripped of it rather quickly. You most certainly won’t have it when you leave…

What you will have is a new vision.. a new set of eyes that sees things very different. You may leave feeling disappointed in yourself while at the same time invigorated and excited about how your photography is going to change.. you may leave insecure.. you may leave confused.. but what I have no doubt of, is that everyone that walks through the fire of this workshop will be a better version of themselves.. not just photographically, but on a deeper level than that. I learned things about myself during this week that should have taken months of therapy to pull out. I am so fully reflected, flaws and all, in the photography that I produce.. and that is just so clear to me now. I have so, so much work ahead of me… on every level. I feel so grateful though, because the most important thing I’m leaving with is a deep sense of family that no words can describe. I know that on this journey ahead there is a loving, ego-less, lovely, hilarious and hardworking group of people that will be struggling to produce the best work of themselves right along with me. There are no rockstars in Foundation.. truly. We all cried together.. laughed together, lived together and supported one another.. no matter what your name was, or how many times American Photo Magazine had named you one of the top 10 wedding photographers in the world..

Now, we can only show two images from our assignment, and I thought long and hard about what to show. I could have shown images of horses.. and shoes being put on.. and Jake and Cosper and the boys.. but instead I chose imagery that really sums up what Foundation is all about. These images don’t really tell the story of Jake and his men.. their story is much bigger than that..  but they do tell my story and I think the story of so many others that have been through foundation…

I am most certainly not the same person I was walking into the Foundation workshop 2 weeks ago. I went through the fire.. I’ve been broken and reshaped.. and now it’s up to me to decide how this experience is going to change my future… and man, can I just say.. I am so terribly excited! …especially to be going it with such an amazing family surrounding me.

A HUGE thank you to my most fabulous teammates, your work and transformation was so inspiring to me! Thanks to my ruthless yet encouraging team leader JVS, my awesome mentors Ray Soemarsono and Ryan Jones that drove hours to see me during some of my most difficult moments, and to sweet and amazing Jan Garcia who assisted my team and who’s smile kept me going throughout the tireless critiquing. Oh, and the biggest thanks goes to Huy and the rest of the Foundation family (you know who you are!) for making me feel welcome from the very beginning.. way back at the Foundation Conference. You guys are truly awesome.

For my most awesome team-mate Kip Beelman’s account, please visit him here! Also, sweet Kate and amazing Carolina blogged their experiences too.. and for the real digs, check out Foundation Workshop’s page for more accounts and stories and a few pics

If I scared you, I’m not going to apologize. You should be scared. This workshop aint for sissies…