[b]ecker's rocking photography workshop in Calgary!

So...as many of you had known from my previous posts Chris Becker came to the wonderful and welcoming city of Calgary to share his knowledge with other photogs. And let me tell ya he was AWESOME!! We had a great turn around of about 160-170 people in total on both days! My head is still spinning from all the info [b]ecker poured on us, I mean wow!

How it all started...Well it actually started pretty simple. Since I go on his blog almost daily (as you can see I have it under my favourite links on the right hand side - yep, I am his blog stalker and not afraid to admit it! :D) I read about how great his workshop went in one of the cities (I think it even was Toronto) and I commented on his blog post asking when he's thinking about coming to Calgary. [b] is a busy guy, he shoots weddings all over the world, so you can imagine my surprise when I got an email from him the same day saying he'd love to come host a workshop here! I remember staring at my computer screen not believing what I saw. Chris requested that a local photo organization would handle all the details and here is when Patrick Kornak from Calgary Institute for Photography came into play. The only thing Patrick required from me was to prove photographers would be interested so I created a group on Facebook and had over 40 people sign up for it in the first week!! That was a success already! Right then Patrick and I knew we'd have enough people for at least one day. :) Heehee...wrong! We ended up with 165 registered and attending and a 2-day workshop! Patrick was able to get a killer deal on the pricing for the workshop which, trust me, made a lot of people happy and they were able to afford to come listen to Chris speak.

After hours of mind-blowing information we enjoyed great get-togethers in local pubs where photographers could share their ideas and takes on what we just learnt. (umm...side note...Kilkeney totally rocked! such an awesome place to hang out).

A real Cowboy Becker:





Becker in action! He actually shot everybody's headshots (165 people) in less that 1/2 hour!


One of the couple that models for us: gorgeous Polina and Stas. Becker has an amazing ability to make his couple laugh and smile at his jokes and that's how he gets his famous relaxed portraits.


One of the shots I was able to get: they look stunning!


Our other beautiful couple from day #1. Loved the veil cage!




What a great guy! He didn't hold abck anything, we could ask him any question on the business side of photography and he was very helpful!


My good photo friend Nancy Hana and I (I'm in red). As you can see we're REALLY enjoying the time at the workshop lol :))))


Q&A time: lots of interesting questions were asked. Photogs were wondering about pricing, albums, workflow, software, etc...

Love this pic of Becker, I think it shows his sparkling personality quite well. ;)))


Soooo...what did I get out of this workshop?

-Believe in YOURSELF! You're capable of more than you think you are!

-You need to balance your photos and your life (I seem to be having a problem with that but I'll be working on it :)) - Chris was talking a lot about the ways to do that and I'm hoping to implement some of them.

-Give your clients the experience! (I've been striving to do it before and know my clients are having a blast with me and I will do my best to better and better with every shoot!)

-I met a LOT of new potographers in the area and made new friends! I love photographer's community, they are so helpful and FUN! :))

- oh and I lost 2 lb in 2 days , lol...:)) - what? it's important, too. :))

Becker, thanks so much for your honesty and an amazing attitude! You're so much fun to be around and lucky are those brides who can afford you! :) You're worth every penny. Thanks for sharing the info about your workflow and pricing, I'm sure this will help me along the way. Oh and your wedding slideshow gives me goosebumps! It's so powerful! And thank you for being YOU! As I told you what struck me most was how real you are - you're exactly the same as you appear on the blog and I'm sure most people felt like they've known you for ages.

Thank you!!

And what did YOU learn from Becker? Post your comments below, I'd love to hear about your experience at the workshop!