Europe and Singapore 2013 workshops open for registration! (updated)

Europe:

The polls are in and the people have spoken…I’m pleased to announce the Europe leg of the Making Outstanding Images Workshop series: three cities, three dates. There will be two big changes over the USA workshops: firstly, they’ll now run for four days instead of three so I can cover even more ground; and due to demand for shorter workshops, you can now attend and pay for just the days you find interesting – so for all of those who wanted a 1-day workshop option, here it is.

The cities will be:
Amsterdam – 25-28 September Currently full, but accepting standbys
Prague – 2-5 October Currently full, but accepting standbys

The syllabus will still follow the core fundamentals from the USA tour: throw everything you thought you knew about photography out the window, and start again. All you need is a camera and a couple of perspectives – one wide, one tele. It could be either end of a zoom on a compact, or it could be medium format and a couple of primes – it’s up to you. What I’ll be teaching is subject independent: make great images, any time, with any subject, any camera. Put it this way: it’s easy to spend thousands on equipment that you may use a handful of times a year, but what about the knowledge that lets you make the most of that equipment, in any situation?

Over the four days, you’ll receive the distillation of my 13 years of photographic experience and investigations into learning to see, framing, composition, balance and postprocessing. It’s hands-on and exercise based, which is the fastest way of learning; the days take the form of a series of lessons, followed by demonstrations, assignments, and live feedback against the backdrop of street, travel and architectural photography. The syllabus for the recent USA tour is here, and the workshop report will be up in the next few days.

Day One: The Basics

• Learning to see
• The importance of light: recognizing it, finding it, and dealing with it
• Understanding metering and creative choices
• Subject isolation
• Proper use of perspectives
• Recap and review/ image critique

Day Two: Telling a Story

• Leading lines
• Natural frames
• Balance and quadrants
• Secondary and tertiary subjects
• Depth, layering and storytelling
• Recap and review/ image critique

Day Three: Exploring and Developing Style

• What is style?
• Consciously identifying your individual stylistic traits
• Experimenting with four common styles
• Individual participant review and
• Recap and review/ image critique

Day Four (subject to sufficient demand): Detailed critiques and Photoshop Workflow

• Introduction to workflow – Bridge, Photoshop, file handling and organization
• The process of editing and review
• Getting the most out of Camera Raw
• Demystifying Photoshop, understanding critical tools and how to use them
• Basic level demonstration
• Processing for style
• Individual tryout and help sessions

The cost of the workshop is US$550 per day for days 1-3, and US$650 for day four (I learned the hard way that meeting rooms are rather costly), or a special price of $2,150 if you take all four days. You can do individual days. Places will be limited to ensure maximum focus for all of the participants, so please send me an email if you’d like to make a booking; I’ll need a 50% deposit now to secure your place, with the balance due two weeks before the workshop start date. Participant cancellations are fully refundable up to 1 month before the workshop date; refunds thereafter are only if I have to cancel due to unforseen circumstances. All sessions are subject to a minimum of five participants to go ahead; if this is not met, full refunds will be made. Previous workshop participants or Email School students receive a 25% discount off the total.

Singapore, Saturday 6th & Sunday 7th July 2013 – Workshop complete – the post-workshop report is here.

Since it seems that there are a healthy number of people interested following the last poll, Singapore is ON for July! This workshop will be an amalgamation of the first two days of the Europe syllabus, and like Europe, you can attend either or both days:

Day One (Saturday 6 July): The Basics

• Learning to see
• The importance of light: recognizing it, finding it, and dealing with it
• Understanding metering and creative choices
• Subject isolation
• Proper use of perspectives
• Recap and review/ image critique

Day Two (Sunday 7 July): Going further

• Leading lines and natural frames
• Balance and quadrants
• Secondary and tertiary subjects
• Depth, layering and storytelling
• Preliminary exploration of style
• Recap and review/ image critique

The cost of the workshop is SGD$500 per day for one day, or SGD$900 for both. Like all of my previous sessions, places will be limited, so please send me an email if you’d like to make a booking; I’ll need a 50% deposit now to secure your place, with the balance due two weeks before the workshop start date. Participant cancellations are fully refundable up to 1 month before the workshop date; refunds thereafter are only if I have to cancel due to unforseen circumstances. All sessions are subject to a minimum of five participants to go ahead; if this is not met, full refunds will be made. Previous workshop participants or Email School students receive a 25% discount off the total.

Bonus for all students: The Email School is the perfect way to keep yourself developing over the longer term after attending a workshop, and to go into further detail on specific aspects of photography you found challenging or interesting. For workshop participants, I’m offering a special rate to add on the Email School afterwards: US$500 instead of US$900 for the full course including the Introduction and Intermediate Photoshop postprocessing videos. MT

Testimonials from previous workshop attendees (you’ll notice some names appear several times, I guess they really love my workshops!)

Chris Suan (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): I have recently been reflecting on the workshop and my picture taking. I seem naturally to be gravitating toward the principles of your class. Because I never had any real instruction prior to your class, your principles filled the vacuum nicely so that I naturally reach for the structure of your instruction. In other words, in the absence of other competing instruction, my mind seems naturally to gravitate toward what you taught. Thanks!

Peppo Aragon (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): Fantastic workshop. Tks Ming. Hopefully you can come to Panama some day.

Peter Boender (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): As a participant in one of the workshops (April NYC, the big guy in blue) I can attest to the feedback of the others given in the report above: the workshop is highly instructional and valuable. The learning curve is steep, but (and someone already mentioned this) if you have an open mind and approach you will learn a tremendous lot. I really liked the deconstructive approach: it’s a bit like starting all over again and built from there with basic elements from an artistic and compositional standpoint (you should know your technical stuff and camera specifics). Finding good light and using (natural) compositional elements (leading lines, framing, mirroring for a second story) really forces you to look with your eyes again, and not so much with the camera. After the course I did notice a change in my photography and my approach to shooting: I now look much more consciously and with more predetermination about my desired results. Quite a feat for such a relatively short course, which for me made it invaluable! Great job Ming, I really did enjoy my time in NYC with you and the other participants. Seriously and highly recommended!

Andrew Marrero (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): I had a great time getting to learn from you was well as getting to meet both you and your wife. I’d love to be able to join you again in the future with camera in hand. I had a blast, would love to get with you again soon Ming!

Jim Lozier (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): Thank you again for an excellent workshop.  In looking over the images I took over the course of the two days I can definitely see a progression which is pretty amazing for such a short period of time.  I hope that you enjoyed your time in the states and have a smooth trip back home.

Dr. Paul Lewis (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): Thank you for sharing your vast knowledge of photography with our group of nice people. I enjoyed meeting everyone and the amount of instruction that was presented during the three days. I would need at least two or three more workshops to get all the information that was given…Your workshop exposed me to a lot of things that I knew nothing about before attending…If I live long enough, I would certainly attend your workshop again. Thank you very much for sharing your knowledge with us. I had a good time.

Chris Suan (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop) : Thanks for a great workshop.  I really feel much better about knowing how to take some great pictures.

Jed Best (Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): I just wanted to thank you for a very interesting and informative three days. While I may not have showed it, it was great and I learned a lot. Hopefully, if ever I am in Asia or you are NYC again, I can take another workshop with you. In the meantime, I look forward to reading your blog and site assiduously.

Jill Maguire (Apr 2013 San Francisco Workshop): Ming, I had a great time at your workshop and learned so much. Safe travels home for you both.

Jesse Hall (Apr 2013 San Francisco Workshop): Thank you, Ming! I did learn a lot — although I’d read what you’ve written about these topics, spending real time practicing specific things and getting feedback helps much more than reading. Plus, it was a lot of fun!

Gian Dionisio (Mar 2013 San Francisco workshop and Apr 2013 NYC workshop): I can confidently say that attending this workshop has been the best investment I’ve made for my photography; the knowledge and techniques that he taught us apply not only to street photography, but all photography in general. From the fundamentals of finding good light and basic compositional balance, to more advanced concepts such a layering and storytelling, all of these ideas can be applied to any style of photography. Ming’s teachings have completely restructured the way I see the world photographically, and I would definitely attend his workshops again in the future. PS: One of the most important point of this workshop is being near the master himself. Watching him in action as listening to his commentary as he shoots is in itself incredibly insightful. Additionally, having instant and personalised feedback during the shooting process is…. I’ll let you assess the value of that. 🙂

Ciao Pui (Mar 2013 San Francisco Workshop and Apr 2013 NYC Workshop): Sitting next to Ming in San Francisco while he was processing these photos, I can attest that his “judicious application” [of Photoshop] is faster than using any presets, not to mention consistency. His workshops will demystify and challenge your views on photography… if you’re open.

Richard Sandor (Mar 2013 San Francisco Workshop): A short note of thanks for having provided such an informative workshop. I’ve been to a number of workshops, but none have had the structure that yours did.

Leslie Gleim (Mar 2013 San Francisco Workshop): First let me say thank you very much for truly pushing my work and thinking around how to use the language of photography! I did want you to know that you made Photoshop more understandable than any person whose tried to explain/teach it me. It seemed FAR more intuitive — today was mainly me figuring it out and playing!! Thank you so much for your insight and help! Safe travels and thank you for making the journey over! Your workshop was invaluable and I learned to look through “new” eyes. Awesome!

Azhari (Nov 2012 Melaka Workshop): Truly a work of a master! Love them all. Glad i attended this workshop and had the opportunity to see how the master did it. Thank you very much Ming.

Doyle Shafer (Oct 2012 Tokyo Workshop): It was a challenging and interesting workshop. I would have never forced myself to see Tokyo in different ways. To be honest I was happy with my photography for the most part and had little interest in branching out. But as I mentioned earlier, after the workshop it’s like seeing The Matrix for what it really is: some basic “code” and infinite possibility. Now when I walk through Ginza it’s going to take me much longer than before the workshop. It’s funny because I used to think that place was kind of dry and boring! It’s all still sinking in, but my photography has already tightened up quite a bit. And I won’t even get into post processing…that rocked my world like when we did layering in Ginza @. @

Erwin Kindangen (Oct 2012 Tokyo Workshop): I had a great time there and my photography definitely improved after the workshop. It taught me how to “see” scenes and what scene would actually make a good photo and not just randomly shooting at people. Plus the basic wizardry of Photoshop at the end of the workshop definitely ties it all up. In the meantime, I’ll keep perfecting what I’ve learnt before I jump to the next workshop (I hope there will be a follow up).

Andrew Yaw (Sep 2012 Finding Light workshop, Kuala Lumpur): It was an awesome day out. Second round of beating from the master after the ‘Making light workshop’ . This workshop changed my perspectives on street photography. Looking at not only the life around you but also the architecture, reflections, natural frames and much more. I have never walked around KL that much before. I plan to do it again alone this weekend. Who says you need to travel far to take pictures? The challenges were all interesting and some tough to train us into seeing things in ways never before. It really sort of reminded me of the “Wax on, Wax off” training technique in ‘Karate kid’. Lol. Really, for me it was. Especially the part where we had to shoot with our 2 second timer on and stage the subjects on a particular part of the frame. Epic fail at 1st. After a while though you slowly learn how to anticipate the subject’s movement and then.. ‘click’. Success! and then again and again. It was a full on day with tons of learning and perceiving. Ended the day at 8 PM after a slight debriefing and chattering in a cafe. Thanks Ming for a great day out. Can’t wait for the next one. Have a great time in Japan.

Andrew Yaw, (Sep 2012 Making Light workshop, Kuala Lumpur): Excellent workshop! Great teachings from honing the basics of photography to managing light in a controlled environment followed by hands on guidance while shooting the model for the day. The day ended with a bonus. The shared knowledge of the art of printing which is a totally different ball game. Went home feeling overwhelmed with awesome knowledge and information. Thank you Ming for sharing so much of your knowledge to all of us! Can’t wait for the next workshop!

Ciao Pui (Sep 2012 Making Light workshop, Kuala Lumpur): What a great day! Between the inspiring morning session studying Ming’s jaw-dropping photos and an amazing afternoon shoot with the gorgeous (and funny) Aliza, what Ming didn’t mention was the mouth-watering Malaysian Beef noodles lunch he took us to across the street at the road-side stall! I’ve been reading this blog for months, but I didn’t realized how much more I could learn in person until I took his recent workshops. For example, I’d have missed out on the important training where he raised both arms (see pic #13) waving them vigorously while shouting “Light on, light off” to perfect my shooting methods. Ok, just kidding about the above. On a serious note, the man is a machine! He got in way before everyone else (I know because I arrived an hour early). Then he spent the whole day teaching, instructing, demoing, shooting, working with model, showing his equipment, while tirelessly and patiently answering every questions the workshop participants had, not to mention the 2-hour impromptu print demo/admiration session after the workshop. Great value, great company, great images. I would take his workshops again. Highly recommended.

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