Kyle Hepp

June 15, 2010

I know that a lot of photographers out there are firm believers in attending workshops to better their craft.

I am not

I honestly think that most of what you would learn from fellow photogs can be found on the internet. For free.

The being said, New York Wedding Photographer, Ryan Brenizer, is sort of, like, kinda, a little bit, one of the absolute best there is. I don’t want to inflate his ego too much, but he’s basically a living legend amongst photographers. And, amongst the massive photographer backlash against fellow photographers who give what some deem to be basically worthless workshops* and charge what some deem to be exorbitant amounts of money* for them, I felt that his price for the amount of knowledge and experience that he has to share, was actually fair. So I bit the bullet and Paypal’ed him to schedule our 2 on 1 consult while we were in NYC in May.

Seba and I paid a visit to his studio where we sat down with Ryan and jumped right into how to better utilize flash during receptions. I’m going to be honest. A LOT of that went completely over my head. I’m pretty dense, and Ryan talks really fast. Looking back on it, I should’ve brought a tape recorder. He explained many of the techniques that he used, and I’ve already implemented some of them in weddings this year. None of it was rocket science, and probably was things that I could’ve googled around and found out on the internet, but at the same time, to know that someone who takes as amazing pictures as Ryan is using such simple techniques to achieve the incredible results that he gets, was just sort of a reminder — there is no magic bullet.

My critique of this part of the afternoon is that I wish we would’ve had time to try some of what he was talking about ourselves in order to get a little bit more hands on experience.

We then headed to Central Park where he showed us how to do two things I’ve wanted to try out for a while — The Brenizer Method and his flash composite technique (that while he maybe didn’t invent, he might as well have in the wedding photography industry). I sort of got these techniques from my research online before but I didn’t really understand how or why he was utilizing them. Seeing Ryan in action was really helpful and gave me new ways to use the same simple gear I’ve always had at my disposal.

While we walked back, I bombarded him with questions about how he runs his business. Ryan is the first to admit that he’s probably not the best person to ask when it comes to marketing and all that jazz, but at the same time I was really interested to hear about how he keeps us with his massive workload (he shoots a ridiculous amount of weddings a year. I’m talking RIDICULOUS) and how he deals with his clients.

When we arrived at his studio, he quickly showed us a part of his workflow and how he processes the Brenizer Method and flash composite method images efficiently. Then we talked shop for a little bit longer.

Honestly, just the chatting part of the day was the most useful for me. I garnered a lot of useful information. I gained confidence and realized I was definitely on the right path in some things, while I needed to really push myself in other things.

Part of the deal was that Ryan would also do an online portfolio review as well. That was hard to hear and I was beyond terrified when his email popped up in my inbox. I actually read the first line from the gmail inbox preview that said, “keep in mind this is totally subjective,” and then proceeded to go to the bathroom and throw up. It took me over a half an hour from actually seeing the unread email to actually garnering the courage to open it. He very kindly ripped me a new one in several aspects, which has pushed me to be better in those areas, but he also built me back up and gave me a really great compliment, “You have an excellent eye, and there are shots in your portfolio that I would be absolutely thrilled to have in mine.” Coming from one of the top wedding photographers in the entire world, I’d like to blow those words up big, print them out and hang them on my wall.

My biggest criticism of the day is that we really didn’t get to try out anything that he was teaching us and that was hard. There simply wasn’t time for it. I couldn’t afford more time, even after Ryan generously spent even more of his day with us than was actually paid for. But if I could do it all over again, I would wait until we had more money saved up in order to be able to hire Ryan for a longer workshop. I know most fellow photographers are reading this and thinking that an afternoon with Ryan is a total steal. It is. I am NOT denying that.

I’m just saying that it was more than twice the price of Marcelo’s monthly tuition, which is a pretty big sacrifice for us to pay and I wish we could’ve afforded more time to be able to get even more out of it. That’s not Ryan’s fault and that’s not our fault, it just is the way it is.

But, all in all, it was still worth it. I’ve taken some of his advice and I feel like that has made my last wedding better. I kept in mind some of his words, “Look for the characters of the day to tell the story through them as well as the bride and groom.” That’s not a flash technique or even some kind of super crazy advice that I couldn’t have gotten anywhere else in the world — in fact, I just told you that. Tight here! For free! On the internet! But meeting Ryan and hearing more about the way he runs his business and the way his mind works and the way he works in general during a wedding has pushed me to make changes in my business, try new things, work even harder for my clients, and overall better myself as a photographer.

Nobody can deny that’s money well spent.