Intensive. Inspiring. Moving. Mindblowing. Comprehensive. Cool.
I haven’t won the lottery so the next best thing was finding a seat at the GoBoda-sponsored J. Garner Photography Bootcamp held here in hometown Seattle, WA this past week. What is J. Garner Photography and why did I go to this workshop? There are many answers Grasshopper. Kick back and check it out. Forewarning… It’s a gush fest.
Primary creative Jim Garner and the team of J. Garner Photography have built an award winning business that produces stunning images with progressive album design that remains focused on their own family while working as a couple from home. Sound familiar? Sound rad? It’s like a lot of people’s story… Except for the award winning part. I admire their work. Jim’s personality, enthusiasm and energy are undeniable. They are a husband and wife team running their business out of their home with two little girls and a crack team of skilled contributors. They are killing it. They are nice. Count me in. Yes please.
Beginning with a meet & greet session at The Garage on Capital Hill, photographers from all over the U.S. and Canada converged to spend a short week of intensive instruction consisting of Photoshop techniques, finding and following light, learning how to tell stories, Jim’s method of “free designing” album layouts in Photoshop, amazing lighting techniques, a business reality check and wake-up call by business consultant and girl-in-the-know Lanae Rivers-Woods in tandem with J. Garner Photography’s Katarina Garner and finally culminating in shoots conducted from dusk to night initially lead by Jim Garner and then transitioning to time for attendees to work independently with the multiple sets of camera loving models. Yes.
All workshops cost a chunk of $$ and value is measured differently from person to person, but I am one happy customer… The tuition I paid was far more valuable than any fast piece of glass. The pacing was intense and the information non-stop, but so was the love. So was the give. From thoughtful gift bags upon our arrival to crazy yummy food lovingly prepared by Julie Kramis Hearne to the farewell party at the uber-lovely home of Jim’s folks, the experience was infused with a sense of care and love that casts no doubt on their desire and commitment to inspire, educate, make new friends and build community. Yes.
The shout outs: Jim and Katarina Garner for opening up their home and expending so much energy, time and generosity, the aforementioned Julie Kramis Hearne for out-of-this-world food to keep us strong, Lanae River-Woods for scaring people straight with frank talk about business concepts and best practices, Gustavo Fernandes for bringing the awesome while helping with logistics and insight on marketing and social networking through channels like Twitter and Facebook, Hotel 1000 for letting us galavant around their fab premises while a rabid pack of photogs snapped feverishly, Katarina’s bro Stefan for lending a hand in the kitchen to help create all those delectables, all the very patient models (Taylor, Annie, Sylvia, Danielle, Eric and Lauren), Jim’s folks Jan and Gordy for opening up their home for our farewell party and Marla Ni and Claire Parkin back at J. Garner Photography for taking care of us attendees with warm hospitality. And shout outs to the attendees: Doug from Fresno, Doug from Lake Tapps, Doug from Tacoma, Doug from Ohio, Laura, Jen, Bill and Mark… Yes, there were four Dougs. Go figure.
During the waning hours of the workshop while we were all chillin’ waterfront during the farewell party, Jim shared that he was super jazzed on connecting with people like this and looks forward to doing more workshops in the future. Are you interested? Are you ready to take your work and business to another level and find your “A” game? Drop me a line and I would be happy to be a pest in an effort to get something to materialize.
Enough. This is a photoblog… Must. Stop. Typing. Now.
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