Here’s a behind-the-scenes look at THE FOUNDATION WORKSHOP, one of the most challenging and innovative workshops for wedding photographers in the world.
Thank you!!!!!! to Britt Bailey for her account at the Foundation Workshop 9 (held in February 2011 in Austin, TX)
Here’s Part II…
FW9 (Part II)
by Britt Bailey
Wednesday
This year the foundation workshop adjusted the schedule, starting the story assignments on Monday and adding a third possible shooting day on Wednesday. I think the third shooting day was key for many students, especially those who had limited shooting hours beforehand or who had stories fall out from under them.
I sat in on one of Tyler Wirken’s team critiques on Wednesday morning, before he sent students back out to the field to work on their stories some more. I hadn’t been there five minutes before I was pulling out my notebook and jotting down my first Tyler-ism from critique, “These still suck, but I’m ok with it.” Said in the lighthearted and even tender way that Tyler has, which is half laugh and all kindness.
Later, with great enthusiasm, Tyler stopped at an image and leaned back, “This is big! We’re solving your problems! If you can only think of context first you’ll find your compositions a lot sooner.”
I learned that “Context” is the key word of Team Tyler. In the same way that “shoot with a purpose” was a key phrase for Team Huy. And Team Tyler uses deadpan humor to smooth the way in critiques.
“This is good. This is good—ish,” said Tyler at another point leaning forward and smiling.
And, “I know you loved her outfit, but it doesn’t matter.”
And “This is totally it, but it’s not it.”
“More context. Less movement. Never leave. Linger. Linger. Linger. Look at her face. You would have had a home run. Look at her face. Look at her expression.”
Later in a review of Citlalli Ricco’s images of the Broken Spoke, Tyler explained a missed opportunity by saying, “You did see it. You just didn’t know you’d seen it. Same thing as every other student on this team.”
Tyler went on to explain, “I’m theoretically in charge here, but I’m not. I’m here to guide your vision. Trust your instincts. Trust yourself.”
Looking through a set of images of customers at the Broken Spoke, Tyler said, “I wouldn’t even have shot this picture, because they look like lawyers. I don’t care about lawyers. I care about cowboys.”
“Yay!” Citlalli said, “Now I want to go back.
Turns out, I did too. I went out to watch Tyler mentor in the field Wednesday evening at the Broken Spoke. Tyler was one of the first proponents of field visits by mentors at FW. It’s hard for me to imagine what a different experience students had before field visits, when they were dropped off at their assignments and picked up at the end of the day. Critiquing the images in the hotel room after the fact is great, and many breakthroughs can happen just by having your eyes opened to missed opportunities or persistent framing issues. But a big part of what makes the Foundation Workshop so special is the hands on help of mentors in the field, who come out to see firsthand what students are up against and help coach them through their obstacles. To me, trying to coach a student without this guidance would be like giving dancing lessons by critiquing photos of a student dancing.
So, I ate dinner with Tyler and Citlalli at the Broken Spoke and eavesdropped while Tyler discussed shooting, while we waited for the crowd to gather for the evening’s free dance lessons.
Tyler looked around at the restaurant, which had lots of open tables but very little open wall space and commented, “How do I start dissecting this place?”
“What are the four elements of a photo essay?” he continued, then catching himself by the puzzled look on Citlalli’s face, “Didn’t I tell you the four elements of a photo essay?”
Citlalli shook her head no.
“Oops!” Tyler said, laughing, before listing them: “Scene setter, overall, close up and detail, with the detail incorporating a human element.”
Tyler looked around the restaurant, which at that point had only two other tables of guests. “Who are my people?” he asked, “Once you’ve chosen a subject, then you watch for that person to come into good light.
As the hour drew closer to eight p.m., more people started showing up, and by the eight o’clock class, the dance floor held twenty or so people. Kari White, the daughter of the owners of the Broken Spoke came out to start the free two step instruction as Tyler worked closely with Citlalli shooting among the participants.
Kari White discussed the two step and explained, “We’ll do it together, then the girls go next, then we’re dancing. 1,2,3-together, glide together. It’s a very simple dance, so this is the hardest part you’ll do tonight.”
Tyler and Citlalli drifted among the dancers, Tyler just behind Citlalli, for all the world, doing their own two-step. A silver-haired gentleman stopped beside me and asked, “Are you taking notes on how to dance?”
“Kind of,” I laughed, before explaining about the Foundation Workshop.
“In this town,” the silver-haired bystander said, “You’ll see the two step taught three different ways. It all comes out looking pretty much the same.”
I smiled, thinking of the different mentoring strategies and teaching styles of the teams applied to each different student, and how even though the approaches were different, the students all arrived at a better understanding of how to frame and tell a story in images. And then the song, “Why Don’t We Just Dance” came on, and the silver-haired bystander excused himself to take the dance floor with his wife, twirling and gliding with mastery that comes from two-stepping for twenty years.
“All you’re going to do,” said Kari White to her students, “is get better and better and better. You’ll figure it out. When the music starts, it’s easier to figure out which one fits you best, so show me what you got.”
Photography by Ryan Jones : see more here
Thursday
Every year the foundation workshop peaks on Wednesday night, as the students come back in from the field for the last time. Come Thursday morning, Foundation feels fundamentally different. Foundation leaders and mentors shift their focus from teaching students to crafting the slideshows. If the first day at foundation is defined by giddy restlessness of excitement to start shooting their story assignment, then the day after shooting could be defined by a combination of exhaustion and elation.
Foundation students, if they’re anything like I was, still resonate with the aftereffects of the “trip,” where at some point in their struggle, which builds to a crisis point in the pressure cooker of foundation, to “find” or “make” pictures, many students transition to seeing pictures all around them that they hadn’t seen before. Many students describe this new state as “seeing differently.” I’m here to say they’re talking about more than composition and exposure. When you gather a group of talented people who all strive for one simple thing, in Foundation’s case, to help each other see better, people are raised out of their regular state of consciousness and are given the opportunity to experience a breakthrough. This breakthrough can be seen as matter of factly as a chiropractic adjustment, of becoming unstuck from a fixed way of seeing. For others, it can be seen more metaphysically. What’s so special about Foundation is that it provides the pressure and support for students to experience what they need to experience, since the process and the lessons are unscripted.
The Thursday night celebration includes dinner out followed by participant slideshows and commentary from the participants and team leaders. Thursday night is bittersweet, because it is also farewell. I sat and listened this year twice removed, one, not worrying about what to say before my slideshow and secondly, wrapped in the clutches of the flu which left me glazed eyed with fever and nearly voiceless. I listened to Brooks banter at our table with Leigh Ann, Bill and Anne Holland, Andrew and Katrina Meija and Mike Mundell while Brooks and Leighanne’s son, Everett slept peacefully in his carseat next to us. I watched the slideshows that condensed three days of epic struggle and a few thousand images down to a handful of images, each a thing of beauty. I watched Jenny Jimenez free form limbo in front of Brooks then stand nose to nose with him and put her foot, very gently, on his shoulder. I listened to the laughter all around me and the clink of glasses as participants and team leaders told their stories. I felt the warmth rise off everyone as we huddled together to watch images projected onto the screen.
Then, just like that, it was over, and everyone donned coats and started trying to call cabs. When the cabs didn’t come, we had to abandon the warmth of the banquet hall and step out into the light freezing rain that iced the streets and sidewalks. Austin was eerily empty with the ice and the late hour. Watching small groups of foundation revelers slip, laugh and disappear down the sidewalk, heading for an open bar, felt like a scene out of a Fellini movie, where the entire cast congo line off the screen, taking the warmth and light and laughter with them.
FW9 Take Out: Memorable Quotes Taken Out of Context
The Foundation Workshop is among other things, a quote factory. I didn’t realize this fully until I attended with a notebook rather than a camera. It wasn’t possible to fit all of the quotes in, so I’m adding some favorites below, as outtakes.
- Photojournalism is 99% mental – Tyler Wirken
- If you don’t believe in Santa Claus, you’re not going to get him to bring you any presents — Brooks Whittington
- Always have a smile on your face – Brooks Whittington
- Make a picture. Make it better – Tyler/Brooks
- Fear is what holds everyone back. Fear of something – Tyler/Brooks
- If I were going to ask you to fill in the blank, photography is a ________ thing, you’d say “visual” right? Photography is about listening, right through here (pointing to his heart). Photography is NOT a treasure hunt. – Matt Mendelsohn
- Photographer has to find a subject reflective of their personality. Either look out the window or look in the mirror. – Brett Butterstein quoting David Alan Harvey.
- Find your angle, your interpretation, take risks, shoot less obviously, less literally. – paraphrased suggestions from Brett Butterstein’s presentation
- Work good scenes to death, watch for body language, never be satisfied, perfect your compositions, wait for the action. You have to keep trying things. – Brett Butterstein
- You can’t spell “photojournalism” without an “I.” – Matt Mendelsohn
- Don’t try to be here and be someone you’re not. – Greg Gibson
- Photography today has become endless cycles of hero worship. – Matt Mendelsohn
- Listen to all of it (what you hear at Foundation), then throw out what doesn’t work for you. – Greg Gibson
- There’s no such thing as bad experience. There’s just experience. – Matt Mendelsohn
- I wanna see the good, the bad, and the ugly. – Greg Gibson discussing not deleting images
- How does _____ (student) need to be challenged? – Huy Nguyen, in meeting assigning stories.
- What you’ve got is the raw ingredients, now you’ve got to make something of it. – Matt Mendelsohn
- “So this is the new stuff?” Matt to student. “Unfortunately,” student reply.
- Don’t ever take one photograph. – Brooks Whittington
- No winners or losers here. The only way you lose is if you walk out of here without learning something. – Greg Gibson
- This is not about the assignment. All that matters is that you learn and grow as a photographer. – Greg Gibson
- Shooting weddings you should be sweaty even if you’re not fat. – Brooks Whittington
- I am a compositional freak. – Brooks Whittington
- The guy who came here and moved things, I almost choked him, and I’m a pacifist. – Brooks Whittington
- Notice your projections and change. — Amy Deputy
- Women tend to apologize for their power. – Amy Deputy
- Formulate some ideas how you want to shoot something, and then let it develop. – Huy Nguyen
- You shouldn’t need a caption for your photo. – Huy Nguyen
- Think of ways to show us things we need to know. — Huy Nguyen
- What are the pretty parts? What are the ugly parts? How do I get rid of the ugly parts? – Ben Chrisman
- Sizing up a room, always evaluate the light. — Huy Nguyen
- I feel like everyone is shooting scared. They just need to lose that. – Ben Chrisman
- I feel like your compositions are a little wild. Think of everything in the frame. – Ben Chrisman
- Think of having a dominant element and other things not competing. – Ben Chrisman
- Find balance. Get to a place where you can function and feel it. – Huy Nguyen
- Show us the coffee shop the way you feel it/see it. – Ben Chrisman
- Shoot the transition. – Huy Nguyen
- There are moments there that we don’t know are happening. — Huy Nguyen
- From the side, doing stuff. That is really high on my bad angle list. – Huy Nguyen
- That’s a one framer. Realize mistake. Move. Show me a boring frame and then move. – Huy Nguyen
- I see a lot of missed opportunities. – Jennifer Domenick
- Light. Composition. Moment. And FOCUS. We’re adding a fourth requirement. – Huy Nguyen
- “Did you get a good night’s sleep last night?” David Murray asked. “All three hours.” Dexter Lo replied .
- You are not giving up on this. You’re like a pitbull on this picture. – David Murray
- What do I want people to see? What do I like? — David Murray
- The rest of the frame is neither simpler nor important. – Becca Spears
- Too literal. – Erwin Darmali
- Don’t spray and pray. – Tyler Wirken
- Don’t be too quick to be content. – Tyler Wirken
- Look past what is staring you in the face. – Tyler Wirken
- Hands and eyes are the most expressive elements. – Brett Butterstein
- Every photo needs to have a purpose. Don’t shoot blindly. – Ben Chrisman
- Get past yourself. Forget yourself. Get completely absorbed in them.” Ben Chrisman
- Fall in love. What is it like when you describe a person you fell in love with. Transfer that to the pictures. – Amy Deputy
- It’s a CAN portrait! You CAN pose that can! — Huy Nguyen discussing a Lone Star beer can.
- Maybe the photoshop fairy will come visit us tonight. – Huy Nguyen
- I feel like it’s the first time I’ve ever seen the place. – Tyler Wirken discussing an overall shot.
- Make it clear. Sparkly clear. – Tyler Wirken
- The point is that you didn’t get it, which should piss you off even more. – Sergio
- You’re a fishing photographer. Practice good fishing, not bad fishing. – Tyler Wirken
- That’s your squirrel. SQUIRREL!!! – Tyler Wirken
- You’re moving too much. – Tyler Wirken
- You’ll be doing too many things well and not enough things great. – Tyler Wirken
- Showing what’s going on – make it great, then make YOUR picture. – Tyler Wirken
- You’ve got to commit to the making. – Tyler Wirken
- This is a pedestrian point and shoot angle. – Tyler Wirken
- I’m really unhappy right now. Everything you wanted to have happen in this picture, happened in this picture.” — Tyler Wirken
- There is nothing wrong with your work. You’re in between levels in your work. You’re trying to go to this other level, but you’re not good enough yet and you miss it. It’s painful to be in that in between stage. – Tyler Wirken
- That’s why you’re here, to see different. You didn’t come here to be told how you see is perfect. – Sergio
- This picture works, because it shows the saloon. This picture doesn’t work, because it shows Billy Bob the beer guy. – Tyler Wirken
- The reason is the R word, “Relevance.” — Tyler Wirken
- Whenever I have a thought for a pic where there’s a “maybe” involved, then I’m going to prove to myself if it is or isn’t. – Tyler Wirken
- Sometimes you’ve just got to let cool rule. – Tyler, referencing a “no relevance” pic.
- Wanting to get the people in the picture by shooting 1000 pictures of no people in the picture isn’t going to work. You need people in the pictures to get people in the picture. – Tyler
- Slow your shooting down and shoot what matters. Tighten it up. – Tyler
- You’re going to say, “Yeehaw and Bullshit” a whole bunch of times. – Kari White at the Broken Spoke.
- Stop playing with random animals. Stop playing on slides. Wash your hands. Don’t get sick. – Coach at the Cheer Factory
- end
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