I was recently privileged to participate in a photography workshop hosted by Lance Thurman in Montreal, Quebec. The trip was super interesting from the start. A road trip to Canada, with several people I don't know, being challenged to create art in a foreign place utilizing models I have no prior relationships with.
The drive to Montreal provided all the indications that this trip was going to be insanely great. Between a running video commentary of what songs were playing in each car. To the jokes and dancing at each has stop. We all bonded quickly. Unfortunately though we faced an early stress test when we reached the Canada border and one of us were sent back to the USA. However, the show must go on and some of us continued on our at while one car load retreated to the Detroit airport so that our model who couldn't get through could fly home.
Gas stop somewhere close to the university of Illinois
We continued through Canada, eventually stopping for a meal in Toronto. Now, those of you who know me, you all know I love sushi. But, I do not love sushi enough to eat on a road trip in a foreign country.
After our meal, someone decided it was time to stretch their palate and enjoy some sushi. Let's just say it didn't end well, and the bottle of Rolaids I keep in my car was utilized.
We continued our trek to Montreal. We made several stops, to either switch drivers or for restroom breaks. Now one thing I didn't anticipate was driving 15+ hours and being fresh minded enough to navigate road signs that are in French. They aren't hard to figure out, but after a long day of driving, they might as well be written in kanji or some other non alphabetic character set. After a few wrong turns and going the wrong way down some one way streets we made it to the first loft.
The space we were staying at was amazing. To me I liken It to the vibe from Janet jackson's music video "That's the way love goes".
Candice having a moment with Naomi Banks.
Waking up on the first day in Montreal, it was a bit of nervous energy and eagerness to get started. However, we were still with out our leader Lance on this trip so we would have to improvise while we waited for him to arrive with the others.
Cedric and I decided to do some exploring while we waited. It was rainy and gray outside. No problem as we walked and took in the city.
We discovered a nice camera shop, which had amazing prices. I'll have to give them a shout out after I find my receipt. They were courteous, prices were great. And I didn't feel prejudged when CED and I walked in.
At this point Gustavo called us and was ready to do some exploring with us. So we ran back to the loft and got in the car to find a grocery store along with some lunch. Of course we don't know where we are going, and the gps in my car seems to be happily ignorant of one way roads and of all the detours that we faced since Montreal appears to be under reconstruction right now.
Gustavo checking out already prepared food.
Finally after twists and turns and U-turns we found an IGA grocery store inside of a shopping mall. Now we all know you should never go into a grocery store hungry. Cedric and Gustavo started meal planning in the store and walked away with Kebobs, a whole chicken, preseasoned leg and thighs, salads. In the meantime I was so hungry I was just thinking about something that I could eat right away. I bought some ready crisp bacon, breakfast ham, pastries, and instant mashed potatoes (irony here is, I absolutely abhor instant potatoes) .
After shopping we figured we should eat now. I ran off to McDonald's (I know it's terrible). Here they have robots that take your order with humans that being the food to you.
All smiles after our bellies were filled.
Returning to the loft was an ordeal. Traffic was horrendous and I didn't have a good idea of how to avoid it. Of course I made some wrong turns. But even wrong turns lead to something great.
Cedric, Gustavo, and myself lucked into discovering a view point of the city that we knew would be useful at some point during this workshop trip.
Gustavo and myself wanted to see more of the city, so after returning and parking the car. We grabbed our gear and Angela and took a walk. Walking to a set of channels for the river we were enjoying the sites. I was charting out several places I'd like to shoot (making some assumptions about what the workshop would be about).
This building in the background was once he major source of industry in Montreal.
There was a lot to be seen, and I was just excited to see and capture it all.
This is for the birds.
We got back to the loft, shortly after our return Lance, Charles, and Dustin arrived. Also the people who were flying in begun to arrive. Together we drove to Resto Griffintown and shared a meal and many selfies.
The next day would be when the magic started, so we all got to bed shortly after eating. (Some earlier than others) some stayed up dancing.
Early morning rise for Friday, our models would be arriving at 8am for makeup and hair. In the meantime unbeknownst to me this is where the stretching would begin.
Why do I say stretching, well while the models were getting ready we learned what the first challenge was. We first read the poem phenomenal woman, by Maya Angelou. By reading this, we were introduced to the story we had to tell through photography. Next, we were given our locations and finally our models. This sort of put me in a weird spot. So many unknowns, and so much to process. But, this is a workshop to make us grow both technically and qualitatively. It was hard to imagine what it would take to put all this together. I've never met my model (which would be normal in most photographic situations) I've never previously scouted out my location (a little more unnerving) and I hadn't enough time to really study the poem and reflect. When I read anything for the first time it takes several times of rereading before I get the spirit of what I'm reading. So in this I was stretched.
My partner in this process was stretched even further as he was shooting Nikon for the first time. So he was dealing with everything I was, along with a new piece of equipment.
Everyone got with their models and headed out to their respective locations. We were having to our assigned spot. Mount Royal. (Coincidentally I just learned this is where Montreal gets its name from?). While we were in route I began talking to our model. And I soon realized she too was being stretched in this process. When we get to the location the sky opened up and started raining down some of the harshest light ever. We quickly make changes to our cameras while our model gets posed up. As soon as we prepared to shoot a billowy cloud rolled in. We adjust again and start shooting. Things still weren't quite popping, so we went for a new location where we might be able to control lighting a little more.
At this point, we began to freelance in order to allow our model to shine. You see, before leaving we had story boarded some shots to go along with our interpretation on the poem. But we quickly learned in this instance that thinking out of the box can't nescessarily be pre planned. We kept shooting away, at one point two park employees came and parked their truck within the frame of the pictures. Our model, with no fear or trepidation, broke away to request that these men move their truck. We kept shooting hoping to luck into what we needed to tell the story. Eventually Lance made his rounds to us to check-in. He was able to immediately take control and get some unique poses and shots. I took note of what he did and how he handled this. Both his efficiency and confidence were amazing to watch. As quickly as he came and gave advice, was as quickly he left.
Will and I returned, not quite sure if we accomplished the goals. While the pictures are great, did we convey the poem in a way that was believable, yet not obvious, while taking great pictures.
As the others returned and I started getting glimpses of what my cohorts produced, I had a sinking feeling that we may have missed on this one. That rankled me as I'm very competitive, and I generally don't like to make mistakes. If I get beat, I want to get beat knowing I gave it my all. And to be honest I want sure if I had or not. A lot of second guessing that limited myself. To truly think outside of the box, most times I considered doing things with items in a way they weren't designed to. While staying within a given boundary. In this case, I feel like I missed because I didn't step outside of the boundary.
Oh well, I needed to shake it off. We went on a walk to get some magic hour shots, it was fun to see everyone's face light up as they got the shot. It was a bit too crowded for me so I just worked on my exposure techniques off to the side for most this walk.
Afterwards, most of the team went out to eat. I stayed back with Cedric, Dustin, and Devin. When I saw Dustin and Devin getting ready to go out, I asked if I could invade and tag along. Cedric joined us as well. Now in this case Dustin and Devin were dressed well and being our models they just looked fantastic. I had to step up as well, so at least I looked like I belonged. Ced, on the other hand didn't care.
We head out and walk. We find a spot that sounds like fun. We begin to go in. But are quickly turns back because Ced and his flip flops. Continuing I we find another place "Philemon". This time we arranged ourselves tightly in line and got in.
I loved it here. Great mixture of hip hop music from last and present.
Enjoyable night, the bartender gave us a round of shots just because we were enjoying ourselves. However after waking up early, that shot was enough to make me immediately sleepy. So shortly after we left.
Now, I have to point this out, Montreal enjoys their exotic car. On the walk back I was astounded at seeing these cars out and about.
On to the next day. This would be the individual challenge day. After feeling like I failed the day before. I was out to prove to myself that I can do this. I was paired with a different model and given my location assignment. Of course the nervous energy returned as I had not developed any repoire with this model. She was really quiet while getting her makeup and hair done. Well, I was certainly in for a surprise. While driving to the location she told me that with English being her second language. She's normally really quiet until she gets into the flow of things. She was really helpful in getting me comfortable and able to focus on the task at hand. So we walked and snapped pictures, the theme was artistry (as I took it). So we went for shots that promoted art.
i was extremely happy with the our work that day, and this one,I knew win or lose, I did do my best.
This evening after shooting, we had our first editing class lead by Angela. I learned a new way to do somethings. The methods I learn will help with editing speed for sure.
Tonight we planned as a group to hit the nightlife of Montreal. We all got ready, and tried to take the town by storm.
Well the first place we went turned us back because we didn't have reservations. Odd, as this is was a club. I assume they meant we weren't on the list. We continued walking and found are way to club that was mostly dead. We brought it to life for about thirty minutes.
I guess a decision made to go somewhere a little more "live". Which would normally be cool, but moving twenty people is like herding cats.
So the group with me grabbed the address and hiked it back to my car. However upon arriving we realized we had some how got two additional people with us. Well we made it work. 7 people in a compact Mercedes, not comfortable for anyone. But we got there.
We had VIP access here, didn't have to pay. But wow it was crowded. But I will say we were in the right place. Upon entering they were playing STL's own Nelly. The team danced the night away. Afterwards, I had to take the model that was with us home. It's a promise I made, but wow it was a long trip. I crawled into my bed at 5am. shortly after the sun came up
Waking up later that morning. It had begun to rain hard. I heard the team drumming up plans for a rain shoot. In the meantime one of the team members needed a ride back to her loft. I took her back assuming that the rest of the team that stayed in that building would be there as I had some editing and work to do. However, this was not the case. By the time we got to the place the other team had left. I tried figuring out where they went via find my friends. But it wasn't clear. So I headed to see if I could get my own rain shots of the city sans models. Didn't work out to well, ally that happened was me getting soaked and acquiring some very drab cityscape pictures.
I also had intended on getting some rain pictures of Devin and Dustin working out in the rain, but I missed on that too while I was searching for the rest of the team. I was pretty much in my feelings here. As I wanted to maximize all my opportunities here. And now I was losing precious time.
Gustavo was up next with teaching. And wow I learned a lot about creating double exposure pictures and the appropriate use of masks in Photoshop. Again extremely helpful and I feel empowered by what I learned. After eating a nice home made meal by Cedric, we headed out for a night shoot. This was fun and the pictures are amazing that came from it. I'll share soon.
The last day started, and it was pretty much running people to the airport and getting judged on our work. There were hard truths shared with me and pushed hard because I had already beaten myself up over it and it was just going on all over again. I had to sit there and take it. Knowing that I could and should of done better. Toni and Ryan executed awesomely on the first challenge. And Toni followed it up with a very bold submission for her individual shot. Bravo here. There was great work presented.
So as I sat back and wondered what if. We decided to out and get one last shoot in. All of us were tired. But we had to take advantage of what was in front of us. After this shoot, a lot of miscommunication occurred and it left Gustavo and I together for one last meal. So we hiked up the road for some beer and food. While we were eating my model from the first shoot appears randomly. Well since given the opportunity, we took full advantage and asked if she would allow us a small sliver of time to photograph her with thee cityscape behind her.
We literally had ten minutes once we got to the location to get shots we needed. We snapped them up and got what we came for. I felt redeemed as I think these will be good. (Normally I go straight out of the camera, but there are some light touch ups needed for the environment)
i went to bed satisfied, but also worried about the long drive back.
Next morning, we planned to leave at 7am. We weren't quite ready to go. So 7am turned into 7:30ish
heading out of Montreal it began to rain and rain hard. We drove through it, then made a turn for Niagara Falls. Now I have to speak for a moment here. If you ask someone to set a course for a destination. I figure that means you are going to follow them. Also, when caravanning wait on the others.
Anyhow, let's say getting to the falls with everyone together was another adventure worthy of its own post.
Anyhow 14 hours after reaching the falls. We got home.
As they say in Montreal. Fin.