Seattle Wedding Photographer

On 2/23/10 I had the opportunity to be one of the attendees for the inaugural Sean Flanigan Workshop, a.k.a The Flanishop, in Sean’s hometown of Tacoma, WA.  Joining me were about 20 other seriously talented photographers and truly wonderful people from all over the country and various parts of Canada.

The workshop kicked-off in a familiar fashion with a meet and greet dinner the night before where we could start to get to know some of the new faces and stories while connecting with those that were already familiar.  Right from the get go there was something unique about this group of people, our host, this particular workshop and the short time we’d be spending together.  What a group, what an experience!

On the day of the actual workshop Sean welcomed us, directed us to the coffee, pastries and fruit before getting us to share a bit about ourselves, our personal journeys that brought us to photography, where we were at in our careers and where wanted to go.  There were some heartfelt and amazing stories.

As this was the maiden voyage of the Flanishop, it didn’t feel like a polished program or often repeated spiel… It was very organic and tailored to us as a group from a series of questions that were presented to each attendee shortly after registering.  Some topics covered in the early part of the day were a general description of Sean’s approach to building a strong relationship with his clients, how to attract the right clients for you, the importance of clear communication for absolute success when working with your clients, branding, a rundown of his pricing and business practices and then a deeper look at what he perceives his purpose of being a wedding photographer to be.

He admitted to us that business was not a primary focus in his career or for the workshop.  As such, this probably wouldn’t be the workshop for you if you’re looking to sell $100K worth of canvas per year with sales of photo mugs, mousepads and every conceivable product you can ram down the throat of your clients with an image on it.  His focus as a photographer is to make impactful and amazing images while giving everything he’s got to his clients.  And it was at about this point that he begins discussing the gift…  The gift we can give and why it matters so much.  Things were resonating pretty fierce at this point.

And then in steps Heather Gilson of One Love Photo.  Heather was invited to speak to us as a person that is doing her own thing and standing tall in a saturated sea of wedding photographers.  Whether through the use of homemade lenses, medium format film cameras, or unique photo presentations on wooden boxes coated in beeswax, Heather’s business offers something uniquely different than 99% of the other wedding photographers out there.  She is truly inspiring and has an impossibly infectious personality… Definitely one of my favorite photographers and someone you need to check out.

After Heather’s presentation and a quick lunch, we piled into a granny-driving school bus and cruised around T-Town with a model couple.  Our female model was none other than the talented photographer Julie Harmsen and her beau Andy Fitts of the band The Banyons.  Sean showed some Julie + Andy on his blog previously and they are quite the fetching couple.

As this was not the kind of workshop where Sean lined up the pretty people for the group to shoot them down firing squad-style, I only snapped a few frames from the whole day.  My objective was to watch how he worked with the couple, what direction he provided, how he set them up and so forth.  The shoot was telling, enlightening and didn’t result in 20 photographers having the same couple at the front of their portfolios.  Those are all good things.

We worked through a couple of locations before heading back to the loft and a jump straight into workflow and post-processing.  While workflow is very subjective and I’m firm on my own, the secrets to Sean’s processing was what I was DYING to know.  I love his black & whites, but his color is something I would give a limb to know how to achieve.  And now I do… The post-processing portion of the day was a no-holds barred look at basically every technique he uses for his signature looks and each step necessary to achieve them.  Seriously… he showed us the Colonel’s recipe and gave the keys to the kingdom.

The workshop wrapped up with a little more inspirational talk and some anecdotes about situations he’s found himself in over the years.  It was a long and action-packed day that culminated in a beautiful meal at Tacoma’s Indochine where conversations continued, info between photographers was exchanged, bonds were built and friendships were founded.  Highly recommended.

Check out some of Sean’s frames from the day:  http://seanflanigan.net/blog/?p=5046

Attendee posts: Jeramie Shoda, Micah Cordes 1 and Micah Cordes 2, Ali Walker, Chris Kirby, Morgaine Owens

Contact Kip – View my wedding portfolio – Join my newsletter