Workshops
I typically run small group workshops in Norwich with small focussed groups. It’s in an environment that is far removed from sitting in rows of chairs staring at a projector for hours with one way traffic. With a maximum of 7 attendees sprawled over sofas it’s a very relaxed environment that encourages lots of questions to be asked so the content is understood and followed by all. I’ll often do followup sessions via google hangouts and setup online groups for attendees to bounce ideas off of one another.
The workshops spring up sporadically. Any confirmed dates for upcoming workshops will be shown below. If you’d like to be added to the mailing list to be amongst the first to be notified when new workshops are announced please sign up below by registering your interest.
1:1 Mentoring Days
I regularly run mentoring sessions for photographers with a wide range of experience during the less hectic months of the year (November to April). Typically sessions are either a half or full day and content is bespoke for your own unique requirements.
I’m an open book, happy to cover anything you’d like me to discuss and am willing to share my thought processes, workflow, adoption of software, processing methodology and lessons learnt over the last 10+ years of shooting weddings.
Frequently Asked Questions
I get numerous emails from photographers asking similar questions & have listed the most common ones below. If there’s something you’d like to ask that’s not listed below ask away!
Nikon or Canon?
SONY! :-p I was intially a Canon man since buying my first DSLR (450d) in 2008 having shot with 5d mk2’s the mk3’s and a few seasons with the 1dx’s. I then switched to the dark side in early 2015 and shot with Nikon for two years later. With the arrival of the Sony A9 I felt mirrorless had matured to the point of being tech I could work with. Decent battery life, insane responsiveness and AF performance, great selection of top quality Sony & Zeiss glass. Couple those features with the ability to shoot silently and for me it’s a killer combo to shoot weddings the way I like.
What gear do you shoot with?
I primarily shoot weddings with 2x A9 bodies. The 35mm 1.4 stays glued on one body pretty much all day and the other body sees it time shared between the Batis 18mm 2.8, Batis 25mm 2, Sony 50 1.4, Sony 85 1.4 G Master, Sony 24-70 2.8 G Master. The little 50mm Macro is in the bag for the occasions when it’s needed too. Flash wise I’ve migrated fully to the Godox family. 2x xt1-s, 2x tt350s, 3x ad200. In combination with a bunch of magmod grids & gels the flash units cover all my bases for Weddings.
What’s your favourite lens and why?
Sony Distagon T* FE 35mm f/1.4 ZA . If I had too I could shoot a whole wedding with that one lens. I love the focal length and it’s what I naturally see things at before I’ve lifted the view finder to my eye. I’ll always shoot primes over the standard zoom I’m not anti zoom lens as such, I just find overall characteristics and of course the ability to shoot wide apertures for low light work suits my style better.
PC or Mac?
Both!! I’m not emotionally commitment to one particular camp and like to take the best of both worlds. In my eyes it’s undoubtedly the case that you can build a beast of an editing station with PC components at a fraction of the cost with a Mac compatible counterpart. Coupled with a normal tower case allowing internal hard drives it makes life easy. That all being said I love macOS and am more productive day to day with some awesome productivity apps that I couldn’t live without that are unavailable on PC. So I have top spec Macbook Pro for day to day work and a fast PC as a dedicated editing station.
What computer software & hardware do you use?
Photomechanic (culling), Adobe Lightroom with PFixer (for 99.8% editing), Photoshop (0.2% editing), Proshow Gold (Slideshow creation – PC running specifically for this software). Wacom Intuous Tablet, Behringer BCF2000 custom mapped midi board.
How do you edit your photos?
Through constant evolution my editing style is continually being tweaked. Lightroom is incredibly powerful and flexible as an editing tool despite having a finite number of controls. It’s just a matter of understanding how those controls work to play & get something you personally like. I’m a huge fan of Midi2LR after discovering it last year. It meant I could ditch Pfixer and that in turn enabled me to switch back to a PC setup for editing. I’ve considered and played with Loupedeck which is a great out of the box option. If you’re happy to tinker though you can get the same level of responsiveness with Midi2LR and a decent midi board (currently a Behringer Xtouch Compact).
What systems do you have in place to manage the admin side of the business?
Behind the scenes I’m a fan of Zapier to link together Gravity forms, Google Docs, Google Diary, Things 3, Eventzilla. I use this to automate; eContracts, diary entires, spreadsheet entries etc.
Where & how did you learn?
I’m self taught with no formal photographic training. There are loads of great free online resources available. You just need to have time and a hunger to learn. For those that don’t have time – great courses exist to act as shortcuts to obtain best practises. My only advice would be to spend your money on workshops and courses with people whose work you love or from positive feedback of trusted sources.
Can you offer second shooting or assistant opportunities during your shoots & weddings?
I tend to work solo. When a particular job requires a second shooter I normally book another established professional photographer to cover the required work. That may change in the future but for the moment that’s how I’ll continue to work.
Do you have work experience positions available?
Sorry – no. I can’t see this changing in the foreseeable future. It’s possible to flourish as a professional photographer with no training or experience. All you need is a passion to learn and a will to succeed. I’m a small single person business working from a modest home office so don’t have an environment to suite housing someone doing work experience.
Register Interest
If you’d like to register interest and be amongst the first to be notified as new workshops are announced please provide some details in the adjacent form.
If you’d like to discuss 1:1 mentoring drop me an email (james@jamesrouse.com)