Winter School 2016

Written by Christian Espinoza

We’ve just delivered our first ever Winter School course, and we are pleased to say that it was a great success. We challenged our students every single day, for five days, and what resulted was incredible. They really blew us away.

Our group of six students ranged from all ages, and came with little to no knowledge about studio photography and lighting. Half of them made the pilgrimage from other towns, coming as far away as Christchurch. Day One kicked off with a morning bootcamp session on Grip, Stands, Frames, Softboxes, and Booms! After a quick break, we plunged straight into constant lighting in studio. The students were able to see immediately the effects of using bounce and diffused light, as well as hard, raw light, and also negative fill. By the end of Day One, our eyes were opened.

Day Two introduced Flash Lighting to everyone. After a morning theory session, we were soon straight back in the studio and hands on with the gear. We used a range of Mola Softlight dishes, Chimera soft boxes, octaboxes, and frames, and Broncolor lamp heads. The students paired up and experimented, and it seemed the more they discovered the more exciting it got. I met with each student for a one on one to get a sense of where they were, what they hoped to achieve, and to understand what drives them.

Day Three begun with a workshop in Product Photography, lead by Fraser Chatham. This was a total shift for the class: there was a different teacher, a different studio space, and instead of shooting each other we were shooting bottles and shoes! This really made an impact on a couple of our students for the rest of the course. Fraser, by all accounts, was a fantastic teacher and made sure to explain everything clearly and was very encouraging. Go Fraser!

Day Four and Five saw the students engaged in their own self directed projects. This was the last phase of learning through total immersion, and full experimentation. We saw a combination of still life, agency models, champion athletes, and of course our very own Ultratec made an appearance.

Over the five days, the students made themselves at home at Kingsize and we are grateful for that. Each of them was driven, and had the passion to learn and thus opened themselves up completely. We wish them the very best for their future and hope to see them again at Kingsize!