The Photography Parlour G2G

It's strange but after 20 odd years as a wedding photographer, come the day of the wedding I'm nervous. When I show the bride the album for the first time, I'm nervous and when I look at the shots taken on the day for the first time, I'm nervous.

I've always thought of these nerves as a good thing. To me, it shows that I care about the bride and groom, I care about the images and I care about my business.

But nothing had prepared me for shooting in front of other photographers.

To give you a little of the background I should tell you that I attend any number of seminars, conventions and courses each year. I have always strove to keep up to date in the wedding photography business and to learn. Surrounding myself with my professional peers to achieve my personal goal of wanting to improve. Who knows, I may even have passed on some knowledge along the way.

So what am I talking about and why was this meeting so different?

At a seminar you can sit in a darkened room, listening intently, agreeing or disagreeing as the talk goes on. Whilst on a photographic course all of the delegates are in the same boat and the real spotlight is on the tutor.

At "The Photography Parlour" G2G (get together) things were different and I have to admit that not only was I nervous but felt awkward and outside my comfort zone.

I don't think I was alone.

In my real life, I am in control of what I do. I am (usually) the most knowledgeable person (as far as photography is concerned) at the event and whilst I am nervous the confidence that I have in my abilities carries me through.

I have to go backwards now in order to take this tale forward, so here is a brief history of the journey to a Bristol dockside to join about 30 other pro and aspiring pro photographers.

When I started in this business, I'm not old but the world has moved at a hell of a pace in the last two decades, there was no such thing as the Internet, a web was something a spider made and a computer needed to be the size of a room to work out the simplest sum.

Business in those days relied on either having a high street presence or word of mouth advertising. Because I became reasonably successful this way I allowed the first few years (more than a few to be honest) of the web to pass me by. I saw no benefit to having a website, after all you can only take on so many weddings a year. I hadn't considered such things as corporate identity.

About a year ago, for reasons mentioned in another post, I decided to change all of that. Part of my market research was to look at other sites. All of which is a long way of saying that during my travels on the www I came across a fairly new blog called The Photography Parlour run by Rosie Parsons.

I joined, I saw a G2G being talked about amongst the members and so it was - I was sitting on the side of Bristol docks, a coffee in one hand, my equipment bag in the other and thinking "what the hell am I doing".

The journey down the motorway had thrown up a million questions in my mind. Would they be a bunch of wannabees (not sure how to spell that)? Was I going to be the only male there as the forum seemed to be predominantly women? Am I too old for all of this "networking"? The list went on.

At 47 years old, I no longer felt a man. Just a boy at his new school.

What - the - bloody - hell - was - I - worrying - about ??????????????

It turns out that a number of people felt the same way that I did. There were people new to the business. There were the up and coming "bright young things". There were established pros and those new to the business, produced amazing images and looked like they had been around for years. In fact, like life, there were all sorts but all with a common desire - to improve their photography.

From the very start of the day, which was a welcome meeting, it was obvious that it was going to be a great success, and given that the photography parlour is only a few months old, I think we should take our hats off to Rosie for what she has achieved a in a very short space of time. She and her group of helpers and suppliers had arranged models, props, meeting place and location. She even supplied us with superb weather - boy does this young lady have good connections.

We split into groups, with a model and off we went. Some of the images from the day can be seen at www.flickr.com/groups/thephotographyparlour They are well worth a look - so many talented photographers have contributed.

Not wanting to give a blow by blow description of the day, a we took pictures approach, I want to tell you about the most important aspect of the day for me. Some of the people I met, not everyone but a few of those I went on walkabout with.

Gemma - is not a tog but a model. What a pleasure to photograph (she is in the pics above - the lady with the tattoos) and at only 19 years old a bright future ahead of her. As we were walking along the docks she asked me how long I had been a professional for. When I told her she replied "so longer than I've been alive then". How kind of her to point this out.

Craig - is young, good looking and talented. I should hate him, but, he is also charming and fun to be around. In business with his wife, Chanelle, ( who I didn't get to meet), they run Segerius - Bruce Photography http://www.segeriusbruceblog.com/ . Having arrived from South Africa some ten years ago, they made Surrey their home and set up as photographers. There is little to nothing that this couple cannot achieve. Craigs images are on the flickr site mentioned earkier or visit his/their website to check him out.

Dasha - Reminds me of a young Jasmine Star. There is not much that will stand in this young womans way. She knows where she is going and I have no doubt that she will get there. Check ou her site at http://www.exhibitemotions.blogspot.com/

Antonina - has the charm of not knowing how good she already is or how good she is going to be. Talkative, bright, energetic, enthusiastic, caring, helpful and without doubt a free spirit. Take some time to look at her images to see how subtle talent can be. http://www.antoninaphotography.co.uk/ or http://www.memoriesenclosed.co.uk/

Given that this is a very small cross section of the people that attended the day, you can see that out there, in the UK, we have a wealth of talent.

Finally, I would like to say "Thank You Rosie" for arranging the day and also a big thank you to those of you who helped her make it a great success.