This is one of the most exciting blog posts I'll get to make as I got to meet one of my favorite photographers, Doug Gordon, at his wedding workshop in Chicago on October 21, and it was amazing!

It was an exciting honor to meet Doug in person. This is a guy who has studied under Monte Zucker and carved out a fantastic business, doing about 1,000 weddings a year with his large New York studio in addition to tons of portrait sessions and he's no doubt a multi-millionaire. He's a highly awarded and certified photographer who's taught on CreativeLive and continues to shoot and teach the art of posing and lighting and how to restore credibility to the photography industry.

Doug went through his usual inspirational talk followed by lighting, posing and post production. It was great to watch Doug go through flow posing live and see how he finds the light and the adjustments he makes. I've been studying Doug's system for some time so all of the poses were somewhat familiar, but it still was refreshing to see them done live and see how Doug notices the details that need to be taken care of.

I also asked a couple of questions, mainly how to determine height of the light if used. The answer is about at the neck level or a little higher if it's fill. I tend to go a bit higher but that's a simple adjustment. I also asked why everyone uses Lifetouch instead of a real photographer, and his answer was something about Lifetouch giving a commission on portraits, which is understandable but not a good reason to choose Lifetouch. Lifetouch is a giant machine and while it may be well oiled that doesn't make it the best option for school portraits. Any professional can design a system to generally replace what Lifetouch does at much less cost, and Doug has done exactly that in his New York area.

I got to snap a few shots of my own as he went through the bride and groom flow posing sequences. Below are shots out of my camera with just a couple minutes of minor editing in Lightroom. I'm not bragging by any means because these are workshop shots that Doug posed and I simply snapped. They're not the exact product I would shoot at a real wedding because I didn't have the exact angle, light or lens I wanted, but they represent the general idea of what I would provide at a wedding. I also need to point out these shots work, even if they're not perfect, because the lighting, posing and expression tell a story, and this isn't even a real couple. This visual storytelling is what the wedding industry is missing.

There are too many novices thinking they can make it by just showing up and taking pictures. What I'm about to say will surprise you: Anyone can take wedding pictures! In fact, I'd recommend not paying for wedding pictures and having a friend or relative do it for free. What you hire and pay me for is to create a fairy tale story that'll floor you every time you look at the metal print on the wall or open the storybook album. There's a huge difference between taking pictures and creating a story.

Doug Gordon Workshop Chicago, October 21, 2013.Doug demonstrates lighting and posing at his Chicago workshop on October 21.

(Above: Doug Gordon at right)

Doug Gordon Workshop Chicago, October 21, 2013Image of posing and lighting setup led by Doug Gordon at his Chicago workshop on October 21.

Doug Gordon Workshop Chicago, October 21, 2013Image of posing and lighting setup lead by Doug Gordon at his Chicago workshop on October 21.

Doug Gordon Workshop Chicago, October 21, 2013Image of posing and lighting setup lead by Doug Gordon at his Chicago workshop on October 21.

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Doug Gordon Workshop Chicago, October 21, 2013Image of posing and lighting setup lead by Doug Gordon at his Chicago workshop on October 21.

Are these workshop images? Yes. Did I take them with my own camera and settings? Yes. Did I pose or light them? No. Do they look awesome? Yes. Why? Because the lighting, posing and expression work. Can I do this at your wedding? Absolutely yes, and in every case a bit better because I'll have the exact lens, angle and lighting I want, and every image will be processed through my eye. Honestly who doesn't want to look like this on their wedding day? You can, if you hire me. It ain't the models. Without a skilled photographer, these models would look horrible.

Doug was using his D4 and a Nikkor 85 mm f/1.4 lens, which is an incredible combo. I used my D300 and the 50 mm f/1.8 (which views like a 75 mm). But at the distances I was at the 70-200 would've been better. I normally use the 70-200 for all wedding portraits. I just didn't feel like lugging it down to Chicago. I was using a minimum ISO of 1000, which you can't tell because the lighting and exposure are perfect. I used spot metering, which Doug recommends and is one of my preferred modes, with some minor manual adjustments because I was too far away to get a perfect spot reading off the face.

Thanks for reading and if you have any questions for me, please feel free to ask.