Our First workshop is completed and you can see the images and a blog on each day of the workshops in my blog section of the web site. If you are interested in coming to future events please email me at colindixonphotography.gmail.com to be but on to the mailing list. At present we don’t have any dates for future events fixed. Possibility of May 2019.
Amber and I flew out to Lake Garda in October to do shoot at some of the locations we will be using so this will give you an idea of what can be achieved.
First of all we visited Lazise del Garda. We were a little worried about the weather but when we arrived the sun was trying to come through the morning mist. There are, as in all of Italy, stunning streets and alleyways . The soft light given by the thin mist was amazing creating the feel of a huge soft box. These first few images were taken in the backstreets of Lazise using only natural light, as with almost all of the shots in this blog. I was using my Nikon 105mm DC prime lens on my Nikon D610 camera. I went for shooting fully open to give a shallow depth of field.
We then moved into the harbour area, which is a fabulous area to work in. I wanted to shoot down by the lake as the mist over the water gave a very interesting backdrop. These were again shot using the 105mm DC lens set at between F3.5 and F5.6.
We then found a lovely Italian cafe to sit in and Amber performed to a crowd that had surrounded us showing them all her amazing poses.
I decided it was time to move on and after another quick change of outfits we took the short drive to our second location of Pescheria del Garda, which is about a 10 minute drive away.
Here the town is surrounded by city walls that are so wonderful for photography. On the outside wall of the town there is large moat which makes it even more magical.
I did try flash fill in here but found that as before, the overcast day was giving stunning light. Unfortunately it did start to drizzle but being the star she is, Amber continued to pose so this did not effect the output of the shoot. Here I used a mixture of my 50mm Prime and the 105mm DC lenses, F1.4 on the 50mm in the Door frame and F2.5 with the 105mm lens.
Amber and I decided to use the city gateway as a catwalk as it was undercover from the drizzle. Here I used the 105mm again and I walked backward as Amber walked towards me to keep the distance around the same. However, as you can see she walks faster forwards than I can backwards. 🙂
We then returned to the Garda Resort Village Complex that we will be using for future workshops and where the accommodation is. Unfortunately the rain increased and made it a little more challenging but the light was still amazing. So with a very brave model, doorways and hallways, we managed to get some amazing images considering the weather. Of course the normally good weather in Italy will mean that during the workshops the 3 different swimming pools will be great for some stunning photography.
Day 2. Again we woke up to rain but we delayed the shoot long enough for the weather to start to break. So we set off to Desenzano Del Garda, which is about 10 minutes from the accommodation. This is another beautiful harbour town at the South end of the Lake.
We took some more fashion type images with 2 different costumes and I again used my 105mm DC lens as I really wanted to ramp up the Bokeh. At F2.0 the bokeh is amazing with this lens.
Our final stop was shortened due to a delay for the rain but we eventually started to see a break in the clouds.
The light conditions for the long shots on the pier were very challenging and a limited amount of time meant that I had to make some compromises. I used bracketing of 2 stops on 3 different images and blended these in Photoshop to give the correct exposure for Amber and also for the lake and mountains.
We also got a little creative on the pier with Amber on the stairs and also lying down. Again this will be a stunning location for future workshops in better weather conditions.
As we packed the car for our return to the UK the sun, which had greeted us on our arrival, returned just as the camera bag closed. But if we can achieve images such as these in bad weather the opportunities in May will be endless. I hope you can join us.