Have you ever wondered how the latest camera technology could transform your wedding photography? That's what we're unpacking in our latest Flash Masters Podcast episode. We dig into the innovative features of Sony's newest release, the A9III camera - from its remarkable 120 frames per second capability to its ground-breaking global shutter that eliminates banding. We also delve into the intricacies of its focus system, and how it flawlessly works with sunglasses, masks, and even animals.
We also congratulate the winners of Collection 9 of the Flash Masters awards and thank our judges; Marlies Hartmann and Scott Josuweit.
But that's not all. We take you behind the scenes of Neil's recent 3 day SHINE workshops, sharing the energy, camaraderie, and mutual support that defined these workshops. There were unforgettable moments, like the awe-inspiring double rainbow that graced us. We also tip our hats to the models who brought the workshops to life.
Finally, we get candid about the details of SHINE 3 and how you can attend!
Join us in the Flash Masters community:
Website: https://flashmasters.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flashmasters/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flash-masters
Flash Masters is hosted by:
Helen Williams: https://www.instagram.com/helenwilliamsphotography/
Neil Redfern: https://www.instagram.com/neilredfern/
Have you ever wondered how the latest camera technology could transform your wedding photography? That's what we're unpacking in our latest Flash Masters Podcast episode. We dig into the innovative features of Sony's newest release, the A9III camera - from its remarkable 120 frames per second capability to its ground-breaking global shutter that eliminates banding. We also delve into the intricacies of its focus system, and how it flawlessly works with sunglasses, masks, and even animals.
We also congratulate the winners of Collection 9 of the Flash Masters awards and thank our judges; Marlies Hartmann and Scott Josuweit.
But that's not all. We take you behind the scenes of Neil's recent 3 day SHINE workshops, sharing the energy, camaraderie, and mutual support that defined these workshops. There were unforgettable moments, like the awe-inspiring double rainbow that graced us. We also tip our hats to the models who brought the workshops to life.
Finally, we get candid about the details of SHINE 3 and how you can attend!
Join us in the Flash Masters community:
Website: https://flashmasters.co/
Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/flashmasters/
YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/@flash-masters
Flash Masters is hosted by:
Helen Williams: https://www.instagram.com/helenwilliamsphotography/
Neil Redfern: https://www.instagram.com/neilredfern/
Welcome to Flash Masters podcast. I'm Chuck from CG Weddings and I'm proud to be a member of Flash Masters community.
Helen Williams:Flash Masters recognizes and celebrates the best flash photography through awards education and community and to join us visit flashmastersco.
Neil Redfern:Here are your hosts, helen Williams and Nier Rattfern.
Helen Williams:Hello there and welcome to episode 56 of the Flash Masters podcast with me, helen Williams and me, Neil Redfern and it feels very weird. We've got lots to chat about. Do you almost want to say again we're back?
Neil Redfern:Yeah, we had another break. We say it's all the time, don't we?
Neil Redfern:but it has still been crazy times and we're going to talk about one of the reasons why in this podcast we've had two shine workshops over the past month or so, but I think we can say we're back now. I know. From my point of view anyway, light is definitely the end of the tunnel, thankfully, after it feels like two years already. Since that time I've not stopped, but now I should be up to date or being well, I'm gonna say, in three weeks time.
Helen Williams:Oh, I'm so jealous.
Neil Redfern:I mean this is never up to date. It's always worked to do yeah, but actual editing time up to date. I know you're not quite there so I don't like to say that. Feel a bit guilty.
Helen Williams:No, and I'm not there, but that's all right. When you're done with yours, you can just edit for me.
Neil Redfern:Yes, so we're gonna kick in this podcast. We're gonna talk about some photography news, because we are recording today's podcast on the day that Sony have announced details of the new A9III. Now, both Helen and I use Sony A9, so it's of particular interest to us and it is very exciting what they've announced. So we're gonna talk about that and then just have a little bit of a recap and talk about the workshops.
Helen Williams:Yes, we've been very, very busy and there's lots to cover today.
Neil Redfern:And next week's very busy for you as well.
Helen Williams:Oh yes, I've not got that in the notes, neil.
Neil Redfern:Oh, no, we'll talk about that, I'm pretending it's not happening. So first of all then, helen, do we have any Flash masters news?
Helen Williams:Well, first of all, I would love to give a huge shout out and a massive thank you to Scott Josuweit and Marlies Hartmann, who are judges for Collection 9 of the Flash masters Awards.
Neil Redfern:Hey, thank you very, very much both of you. Collection 9 was amazing, as always, so you have curated an amazing, winning collection of images.
Helen Williams:Yeah, they really have. And, of course, congratulations and thank you to everyone who entered and a big shout out to Jesse and Dallin, tim Campanin and Jeff Tisman, who topped the leaderboard this round, and all I could say is there's one round to go before we get to photographer of the year. First of all, that just blows my mind that we're at the end of the year.
Neil Redfern:I don't know where this year's gone.
Helen Williams:But yeah, we are so close. The top of that leaderboard between Tim Campanin and Jeff Tisman is crazy close.
Neil Redfern:What is the difference? Is it level? I can't remember.
Helen Williams:Literally there's one silver award between them. They have equal number of golds. There's 10 points in it and with 10 entries each, it could literally go either way.
Neil Redfern:I'm really pleased. I know that it's probably not good for both Tim and Jeff, but from an outsider's point of view, a neutral point of view, I'm really pleased we've got it this tight with one round to go.
Helen Williams:I know, and honestly, like we have, you know, different judges every single round, every image. There's no metadata, there's no name. These judges have no clue who took any of these images, and to be genuinely so close at the end is crazy exciting.
Neil Redfern:Well, the good news is, there is no bad winner. That's the main thing. Whoever wins is going to be absolutely, insanely talented and very, very deserving. But, like you say, it's all to play for. I can't remember who this is. I'm throwing you under the bussle bit here, but didn't just as a note for every listening. Somebody won an award this round that has been entered in every single previous round. Don't know. If you can't remember who, it doesn't matter but I just think it's a good thing, just to mention.
Helen Williams:Jennifer Garza.
Neil Redfern:Well done, jennifer, and well done for being persistent as well, and that's something we always try to stress that if you don't win an award in a particular round, that does not mean that that image you've entered is not award worthy. It just means that on that occasion, with those particular judges, it didn't win. But keep on going and eventually you'll get your reward.
Helen Williams:Yeah, and I remember I'm the person who sort of goes through all the the images, I rename them, I sort the judging process and do all the boring stuff on the back end of the website. I keep seeing this image and every time it's been entered I'm like, oh, I like that one, so it was yeah when, when it came through, it was an award winner. This time I was like I'm sure this must have won by now because it's gorgeous and it hadn't, and it was just such. Yeah, it was really nice for Jennifer to say publicly you know, I've won an award and I've entered this every single round.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, that's your poll through that somewhere.
Helen Williams:Yeah good.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, congratulations, jennifer, and I say I'm just particularly pleased that you didn't give up. It's a great, great signal and message to everybody else out there to not judge your image, whether it's good or bad, on one round, whether it won or not. You should never do that.
Helen Williams:No, definitely not. But yeah, congratulations to all of our winners.
Neil Redfern:Yes, congratulations to everybody who entered, everybody who won and, as Helen said, two are two incredibly talented judges.
Helen Williams:Yes, thank you and as always.
Neil Redfern:I'm sure everybody knows this. Who's in the flashmaster? Community entry to the last round. He's now already open, so get your images in one round to go.
Helen Williams:Oh, honestly, that is going to be so tough because I'm obviously going to know ahead of time who's won. Yeah, oh, every round it's so hard. Who's?
Neil Redfern:your money on?
Helen Williams:Oh no no, I'm not going to say that at all, but yeah, to keep that secret for probably close to two weeks is going to be tough.
Neil Redfern:Helen can be bribed, tim and Jeff, that's all I'm saying.
Helen Williams:And then, actually mentioning Tim, I need to say thank you in advance, because tomorrow, from the day we're recording, this Tim is actually coming live into the flashmasters members group and we'll be talking through some of his incredible, award-winning images. Yeah, I don't have the stats in front of me, but Tim has won probably at least 30. I think it might be 27 awards something like that.
Neil Redfern:That's ridiculous. It is, it's mad.
Helen Williams:He wins every single round. He's definitely got the keys to success. He understands what makes an award-winning image.
Neil Redfern:Very true. That'll be actually an interesting thing to discuss, not just how he's created these incredible images and obviously Sam Sarees and his work is insanely good but how he selects his images.
Helen Williams:Yeah, last round Kassidra and Yonia had 10 images to enter. He won on six six out of ten is huge and it's very, very rare on any of the awards rounds we get one particular photographer winning so many.
Neil Redfern:It's a skill in itself, the curation of what you're actually choosing.
Helen Williams:Yeah, I absolutely hate curating my work and there's a reason why I need to in the next couple of days, which we'll discuss later. But it's such a difficult thing to be able to look at our own work and and really critique and and sort of choose what you think will work work for awards. So yeah, well done, tim, on that, and we cannot wait for your live stream.
Neil Redfern:Actually then yeah, really looking forward to him. So that's going to be tomorrow, in fact, the day that this podcast comes out, if I get edited in time so yeah.
Neil Redfern:So that's going to be brilliant and, as always, the first half or the first little bit of that amazing interview will be on our YouTube channel. The full version, obviously, will be available to all the flashmasses members in the video zone of the website. Before we do move on to the A9 talk, though, helen, let's you just mention there you have a little bit of a oh. In the next few days you need to curate your images. Why is that?
Helen Williams:because I am speaking at nine dots and I am doing a live shoot in front of, you know, an audience of amazing photographers. So, yeah, it's part of the thing you know. Whenever you speak at conferences and these kind of things, you of course have to have the slideshow, of course you do you have to start your slot with like, yeah, here are my greatest hits. Bam yeah, and I'm I'm kind of shuddering at the thought of having to do it what the slideshow are.
Helen Williams:The other shoots well, another curated of my images, if I'm honest, and just to try and pick out ones that I think will resonate with photographers. And, of course, when you're there, you want to impress them. You don't want to show them like some mediocre ones or or images that don't resonate with the people who are there.
Helen Williams:So, yeah, just making those decisions on what I feel will speak to photographers because if I'm being honest, it might be a slightly different selection to what I would put on, say, like an end of year slide show interesting or things that you might want to show. Couples might be slightly different to what you want to present to photographers well, maybe as well.
Neil Redfern:Once this is done, the slideshow. I assume you'd be happy to post it in the Flashmasses Facebook group.
Helen Williams:Of course I will.
Neil Redfern:Like you need any help with doing that.
Helen Williams:Oh dear.
Neil Redfern:But what are you actually doing at 9.10?
Helen Williams:I will be doing a presentation or a live shoot on how I like family formals and group portraits.
Neil Redfern:Excellent.
Helen Williams:Yes, obviously using off-camera flash, because here in the UK we often battle really bad weather and we're stuck in small venues which don't really have an allocated space for family formals, so we're often backed up against backlit windows and not ideal conditions.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, I think it's a really useful thing to talk about, and I'm especially looking forward to seeing how the natural light photographers take to what you're doing. Because, let's face it, like you just said, for UK weddings, especially when we have, you know, winter weddings, it's great dreary. Our venues are often sometimes quite small, very dark, inside wood paneled. I don't know what you do. If you're natural light, you try to do group shots, so it'll be interesting to see whether you can convert some of the natural light photographers into becoming flashes.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it's going to be interesting. I still haven't sort of put my slideshow together or I know how I'm going to shoot, because essentially I'm going to get a group of people and shoot them how I would Exactly.
Neil Redfern:you've got to do what you're doing already.
Helen Williams:I can't really prepare that. I'll have to see the space and go well, this is what I would do. But yeah, it's certainly interesting. I haven't sort of thought too much about and I don't have a long time there as well, but how much I speak about like why we should be using flash or how much do I really push the natural light, photographers or sort of like poke the bear a little bit.
Neil Redfern:Poke them, poke them.
Helen Williams:Proper, poke the bear and f**k them off, oops.
Neil Redfern:Oh, I've also just thought that, although it said at the beginning of this podcast that we're back, that means that there won't be a podcast next week because you're going to be at nine dots oh whoopsie, so yeah, but the podcast, the next podcast. We will ask Helen all about how it went at nine dots.
Helen Williams:Oh, part of me is like let's just pack up the gear and do a podcast at nine dots, but I think that's going to be a bit too wild.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, but best of luck at nine dots. I know you're going to be amazing. Why, thank you? So shall we talk about today's photography news? It's a new segment that we've been introducing after 56 episodes photography news of the week. Oh, and Sony have today announced their long awaited details of the Sony Alpha A9III. Now Helen and I both use A9s to shoot our weddings, don't we? So what do you make of the new A9III? Have you even looked at it very much? Because I know that I'm not really ever that interested in cameras. I actually found them quite boring, and all the techie geeky things don't really interest me. I don't know if you're similar.
Helen Williams:Yeah, I'm not particularly someone who's going to sit down and read through all the information or actually know what half of it means. If I'm honest, I just pick up a camera and off I go. But yeah, I have looked through the specs and I think there's some very interesting additions.
Neil Redfern:Following on from that, I use an A9II and I love it, but it was a very small upgrade on the A9. For me it was just all about the quieter shutter and it had a better grip nothing massive to write home about. But I was watching the presentation today and I say I'm someone who isn't really that into all the latest and greatest camera. But there are some really really good features in the A9III that I think are going to be especially useful for wedding photographers. Now it's interesting because this is clearly look at the overall specs designed for sports photographers. But there are some things that I think are going to be really useful so I thought it'd be good to talk about, like, for example, 120 frames a second. I think pretty pointless.
Helen Williams:I literally need to go back to 220 frames per second. Can you imagine the speed right at the card? I'm bad enough. If you had 120 frames per second I could probably fill 128 card just on a confetti walk.
Neil Redfern:You'd never need that. I mean, to be honest, I don't think you often need 20 frames per second, which is what the A9 is capable of. So to have what six times faster is crazy talk. So I think that's pretty pointless. I can't think of any situation of any way you would You'd need that. But the big news is the global shutter, which will basically mean, in layman's terms I don't understand how this works particularly well, but it will mean no more banding ever. Now the A9, because it had a stack sensor was very good. You don't really see the banding very much at all, but it was still there. And again for winter weddings, when you have these horrible LED lights, you can literally see the banding, sometimes going up and down, and it's like oh no. And then obviously you have to drop your shutter speed and then you're in the realm of are you going to get camera blur? So to have no banding ever is like whoa to me. That alone makes it a viable camera to buy Straight off the bat.
Helen Williams:Definitely.
Neil Redfern:If it works. Of course I mean, I don't know and I also. I'm not very technical, so I'm just going off what I've taken from it, but I'm pretty sure no more banding at all due to the global shutter Plus. Very interesting as well for those of us that use flash. No more high speed sync. Sync speed is a thing of the past now.
Helen Williams:Now that's an absolute game changer for certain and certainly will change sort of the landscape in terms of how we teach off camera flash as well.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, it definitely will. It will. I don't understand how it's going to work because my understanding of what high speed sync did was always just well. I won't go into it now because I'm not going to be able to explain it very well, but I don't know if it's going to be as simple as we can just use our existing speed lights and just shoot as we would at any shutter speed. I think there may be more to it than that. Maybe we would need new speed lights. I'm not sure. But the fact that we don't need to worry now about sync speed is pretty huge, because obviously when you do use high speed sync, you're losing a lot of flash power. So in theory again, I don't know what I'm talking about, but in theory it feels to me like we can go into very fast shutter speeds with more power from the lights that are not as powerful as what we've used before.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it'd be really nice in certain conditions where you've got a bright, sunny day and you still want to shoot it like f1.2. Yeah, exactly. But, use some full flash. Yeah, it will be interesting to see if we can harness the full power of our flashes, whereas, obviously, with high speed sync, the actual output was greatly reduced, so it will be interesting to see how that works.
Neil Redfern:I don't know whether you would need to change triggers, possibly because I usually on a trigger you'd need to put it into high speed sync to allow the shutter speed on your camera to go over to 50th.
Neil Redfern:So yeah, again, it will all come out in the washers you say but either way, there is no more sync speed, so that that's exciting, even just that one sentence, without really understanding fully what it's going to entail. Also, I watched on the presentation that they did, which was not actually that. The actual presentation was fairly amateur when you consider what Apple are often doing, but on that presentation they showed a video of the new focus system and in particularly, the eye auto focus and how well that was working, and it was crazy. There was a video of a gymnast going round and round on a bar and even when her face wasn't looking towards the camera light and you keep in the eye of the focus button pressed down, it was soon as you saw her face again. It was bang on it. It looked crazy good. Plus, the eye auto focus works if people are wearing sunglasses masks, they said and it works on all animals as well, which is pretty cool.
Helen Williams:Oh, I missed that bit. But yeah, that sounds really good.
Neil Redfern:It just looked crazy, crazy good. I've missed that. These are promo videos, but if it works even close to what it looks like they do on those videos, it's going to be a massive upgrade. I also thought it was interesting they didn't make a big deal of this, but I think again for us as well in photographers, it will be very, very useful. The tilt screen now goes in any direction. You can pull it out, reverse it round, because one thing about the A9 is it doesn't tilt very far.
Helen Williams:Yeah.
Neil Redfern:So I love the fact you can now almost have it completely straight down and vertical, which is very, very cool, I think.
Helen Williams:Especially for little people like me and you got your arms up in the air and that happens quite a lot.
Neil Redfern:being quite short, yeah, plus, if you want to. You know, if you're shooting with the camera very low on the ground, you could really tilt it so far, but now it will come out completely, which is really nice. And another thing which, again, they didn't make a big song in dance over, but I thought whoa is it? Now has eight stop in camera stabilization, meaning that you can now hand hold as they were. They said it should just be as slow as one eighth of a second.
Neil Redfern:Oh which again, obviously that's not going to help if you shoot in a moving subject. But if you are maybe I'm thinking in a church, where you know people don't move very fast at all even if you're not shooting at one eighth, if you are even shooting at like one one 25th or something like that, then it just shows you that you can now lower your ISO and shoot a slower shutter speed and still get very sharp images because of the in camera stabilization Again for wedding photographers, really useful.
Helen Williams:I'm just thinking about nighttime portraits as well, and one thing I'm just noticing recently is I used to wait previously until it was fully dark until I did my nighttime photos, and then sometimes you just want a bit of detail in the sky and if it's quite a dark night it's quite difficult to pull that back or you have to massively up your ISO to do that whilst hand holding. But yeah, I'm just thinking, you know proper dark situations. That's going to help a lot as well, reducing your ISO for your nighttime portraits too, especially if using flash, because that will freeze your couple as well. So, yeah, I think nighttime shots, that would be very handy.
Neil Redfern:Yep. And then the other big one was you can now shoot a shutter speed as fast as 80,000s of a second. I can't give me a head round that, but it will mean again that you can shoot in really bright conditions at very wide apertures, so great for portraits especially, I would say.
Helen Williams:Yeah, there's been certain times even going down to ISO 50 and I think is it currently 30 or 32,000?
Neil Redfern:32,000 if you're in electronic.
Helen Williams:Yeah, but sometimes at 32,000. If you want to shoot at f1.2, they have speed times. I've needed to stop down my lenses.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, if you're in crazy bright conditions.
Helen Williams:Yeah, so that that would be really nice portraits if you're on a sunny day. But yeah, the other thing, well, it's not a thing at all actually, and this is where I'm going to look like an amateur Just seeing. Like, obviously the a1s etc. They all have like the massive, like 50 megapixel sensor. I think I would definitely choose an a93 over an a1 because I don't want all those pixels and to see, it's still the 24.6 megapixel sensor. I would not want to have the storage space required of an a1.
Neil Redfern:I totally agree. If you get right in camera, then you don't actually need to crop in anyway. Obviously. Plus, people have this misconception that if you take a shot on a 35mm and then you crop in, it will look, make it look more like a 50mm or an 85mm, but it doesn't because of the compression, it just looks like a more cropped in image. So I agree with you. I much prefer to have 24 megapixels because of the storage space, rather than 50, which is huge.
Helen Williams:Yeah, so what about the price? Fine then, neil, how? How was your reaction to that?
Neil Redfern:Oh, just before we get on to that, I want to say one other thing which is very cool, which is that the a93 will also allow you to. If you half press the shutter, it will actually be continually taking photographs, but it will be dumping them away straight away and then, when you press the shutter, it will also give you the previous one second worth of photos, if that makes any sense. It's a bit like live view on an iPhone, I think. So it means, if you are.
Neil Redfern:Again, it's not really useful for wedding photographers. I can certainly see why it'd be useful for, say, a sports photographer who wants to take a shot, maybe of a golfer and you want to make sure you're getting the moment that the impact happened between the golf club and the ball. Then you can actually start, you can press the shutter when you think it's happened, but you've also got the previous second worth of images as well. It's really amazing technology. Again, it's not very useful to us, but it just shows you, like what, it's just good to know what is the camera's capable of.
Helen Williams:That's all the super quick first kiss.
Neil Redfern:Those couples are literally just going to get a little bit, yeah, yeah, you're gonna get it now. Got it, no excuses.
Helen Williams:Yeah, I love it when that happens. Or, you know, to be fair, I have a Mr First kiss in. I don't know if I ever have.
Neil Redfern:Actually I would have done back on.
Helen Williams:There was one in a Catholic church because he didn't obviously didn't announce it and they literally just pecked back on the days on my Canon 5D Mark 3. But yeah, they managed to time. So people have done super quick kisses and the red straw of the vicar turns around and be like have you got that? And you're like, yes, mate. Yeah, exactly, but that way, yeah, the quickest of kisses. As long as you kind of know it's coming up, you can get it.
Neil Redfern:But yeah, sorry I introverted you there so I'm gonna throw it back on you. Can I buy one? No, six and a half thousand dollars.
Helen Williams:I thought it was six thousand.
Neil Redfern:Oh sorry, is it six? Either way, let's not split hairs. Then six thousand dollars.
Helen Williams:I'm not gonna rush out right now to buy one. Well, to be fair, I'd steal one of your A9s and I'm currently. If I look at what I have, I have one A9 and still got an A7 III. I do think that maybe, like when one comes to failure, I would be very, very tempted.
Neil Redfern:Right, I wouldn't know that price. It needs to come down for me. But is that with anything the price will drop after six thousand dollars? Yeah it will.
Helen Williams:I'm hoping that none of my camera is breaking the immediate future but, yeah, going on, maybe like towards the end of next year or the year after then it's definitely a camera I would love to have.
Neil Redfern:Oh, so would I, so would I. And let's say, even if you're not gonna buy it first off, it gives you an insight into where cameras are going. It's incredible, really when you think where we've come in the past five years or so. It's it's crazy. So yeah, we don't often talk about the actual photography news on this podcast, but we thought that was a big one because there are some really big advancements in that camera that I thought is well worth chatting about, especially it's only announced today.
Helen Williams:Yeah, I'm still going. Oh, it's good and bad that I focus. Tracking back in the day like Culling was like right isn't in focus.
Neil Redfern:Basically. Yeah, it made Culling easier and now it's going to become even harder because everything you take is going to look half decent. I know it's all going to be in focus.
Helen Williams:Literally, that was, you know, back in the day, isn't in focus for that first Culling mine anyway, and now they're literally all going to be in focus.
Neil Redfern:I'm not, yeah, and there's 10 times more of them because you've been shooting at 125 seconds.
Helen Williams:Oh no, I won't be doing that, you know I would still be on low. But yeah, she says that now.
Neil Redfern:So, yeah, we thought what we'd also do in this podcast is talk about the two Shine workshops which we did. So Let it shine. Exactly, let it shine.
Helen Williams:So if you're not, I love the fact he goes Shine. He's probably shaking his head.
Neil Redfern:I actually think it's a very cool word, but we're just making a mockery of it.
Helen Williams:I thought. If I'm being very honest, I thought it was rather cheesy.
Neil Redfern:However, it's stuck though. It really has yeah, people who have been on the workshop don't refer to the workshop. They said, oh, I really enjoyed Shine. It's going to be another Shine, so I'm actually really pleased about that.
Helen Williams:I will stand corrected.
Neil Redfern:when you first told me the name, I was like I think we spoke about on this podcast when I first bought with it, and you were just laughing in my face.
Helen Williams:Yeah, but like I said, having done two Shines now and they all just they call themselves like Shine Run and Shine Two, don't they the attendees? And I go back on my initial thoughts? Thank you, my initial judgments, I apologize, it's been, it's been a good word.
Neil Redfern:I accept your apology, thank you.
Neil Redfern:So, yeah, obviously I've done workshops for years and years, but I wanted to talk about these a little bit more because these were very different to what I've done in the past. These were two, three day workshops. We arrived for both the workshops on Monday afternoon in a really amazing, big, huge mansion in north Wales which we had completely to ourselves, had some about 14, 15 bedrooms. We arrived there on Monday mid afternoon and then we stayed there until Thursday morning, and both of them I know it's the case of all you would say that, but both of them were really good, weren't they, like, really really enjoyable. Very, very full on, but really really enjoyable.
Neil Redfern:And I'd first like to say a huge thank you to to everybody who attended, because, as with any workshop, especially for a residential workshop like this, because we all stayed in the same venue, everyone was together basically 24 7 for that time, and it really required for the workshop to work well, everybody to bond, to support each other, to get on, to just muck in as well, and everybody did so. Everybody got the vibe and that made them as successful as it feels, as though they were. So a huge thank you to everybody who attended. I'd also like to say before we get into everything, a special, very special thank you to you, helen, because because it was a residential workshop and we did everything ourselves, including the behind the scenes things like making food, we provided everyone with breakfast, lunch and an evening meal, and there was nobody else doing that apart from you, helen.
Neil Redfern:So thank you for that and not only that, but you also were teaching as well, on the workshop as well. So on shine rather. So thank you for everything you did. So, before I get into what I thought about everything, what was your experiences of shine to shine?
Helen Williams:I loved it. Obviously they were exhausting, but they filled me with so much I don't even know the word to say, but I felt like I got my is cheesy now, isn't it? I felt like I regained my shine at shine, yeah don't say that Motio, motio but I do. I came back feeling a bit more on. I feel a bit more sparkly and shiny. No, it was just fantastic the conversations that can take place in a residential environment. You know what you can learn over breakfast?
Helen Williams:or sat outside just having a cup of tea. Just that communal learning and being able to just pick up different bits and tidbits off everyone who came. It was just really, really amazing. Yeah, I had the absolute best time and I felt rejuvenated, although completely exhausted. Yeah, it was just nice to speak, photography with photographers and people who are there to learn and to. Yeah, I don't know.
Neil Redfern:No, I do agree, and I thought this is my time to say something a bit cheesy now, because although you get a real sense of bonding on a one day workshop, it does not compare to the bonding and the relationships that you see being formed when people are together overnight.
Neil Redfern:And when they're together, you know, all through the day and they're chatting into the night, they're drinking you know, having a drink in the evening, having some alcohol and stuff like that, and and it's just everything just a bit more relaxed because no one's got to drive home or anything like that and you can feel the difference.
Neil Redfern:And I think one of the things that people maybe who haven't attended a workshop don't or will probably underestimate is the value of a workshop, not just on the actual teaching part but on the getting to know the other attendees and building those friendships, because they can really really help you in business in many ways. Not just, you know, if you get to know other photographers, not only will they hopefully you know you can refer work to each other, but also when times are tough and this can be a very lonely job wedding photography they can also be the people that you call on for advice or just chat to during the day and you get your little team around you that way as well. So it's that as well which is so useful. So I really felt that and it was probably the nicest thing for me just seeing everyone get on so well outside of the actual teaching parts of the days.
Helen Williams:Yeah, there were so many highlights and I haven't put down any notes here, but I'm going to throw you under the bus then, apart from like the camaraderie and sort of like the teamwork, like what were your three particular like highlights or moments?
Neil Redfern:Oh three. Well, one thing I will say is we got really lucky with the weather. I mean, this was two workshops in October in North Wales. I was expecting nothing but rain, cold wind, just yeah. I wasn't expecting to do anything outside, but on the first day, what I'll always remember is it was like a summer's day, yeah, when everyone was first arriving, because people came, you know, sort of staggered over two or three hours before we actually sat down and started the workshop properly. We were just sat in the huge garden at the back just having drinks, ordering pizzas, and it was like a summer's day. It's like being sat in a beer garden.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it was like 23 degrees as we pulled up at the venue.
Neil Redfern:I remember thinking like, oh, we could just sit here all night. Yeah, and that was the first highlight, even though it wasn't even part of the workshop just the feeling of everyone being sat there having a drink, and it felt a bit like a holiday. Yeah, so that was definitely number one. I'd also have to top my head as well. I think there's lots of things. I think big shout out to Martin, who attended the first one, who's also been a very good photographer. He's also a brilliant magician. He's been doing lots of tricks, which is just really cool to see. Yeah, Drew's group shot. On the first one, Drew Dodd, who's a Flashbusters member, took a group photograph of all of us Nearly I think it might be 11 o'clock at night after we'd come back from a pub quiz.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, that was amazing. But just how funny that whole process was of him doing that. The results of that are in the Flashbusters Facebook group if you want to see. But yeah, drew did an amazing job. So that's the highlights from, I think, shine 1. Shine 2, that I'll always remember was the rainbow.
Helen Williams:Oh, not any rainbow, a double rainbow.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, so it was. I can't get my head around it even now how amazing it was to see. So for the middle day, which was we have two basically full days of shooting as part of the three days, the first day, helen and I split the group up. Helen takes half the group and you were teaching how you use off camera flash to like ceremony and group shots, whilst I was showing how I use off camera flash to like speeches and dancing. But as well as that, I also wanted to go outside and show people how I use a fake sunset, so I was going to do that and it just started raining.
Neil Redfern:Everyone gets a bit excited and we had, oh, I'd just say, a huge thank you to all of our models Darcy and Matt, who were there for two days of both workshops, demi and James, who were brilliant, as always, to Klee and to Kit as well. So we had amazing models across both shines and they were really good, not just at modeling but also just of helping the whole vibe, because they got involved. They're having a laugh with everyone. They just got what Shine was about and it wasn't like the models and the attendees. Everyone was just a big team and it was real, obviously. Everybody chatting together, joking together, like Darcy and Matt, were sat up whilst we were doing the podcast which we recorded there and drinking with us. It was so lovely eating with us. Yeah, it all just felt like a big friendship group. So thank you to all the models.
Neil Redfern:But yeah, on this particular day we were outside and as I was doing the fake sunset, it just started raining. So everyone was very, very excited, because everyone loves a good off-camera flash rain shot, so we're taking those. And then I just happened to turn around after taking some rain photographs and I will post all these in the Flashmasters Facebook group and behind us was the most incredible rainbow, Almost. It was so good and so strong. It looked fake almost. And I then because half the group, as I say, were inside with you, helen, as you'll remember. So not only did I, I thought we forget everything. We're doing, we've got to drop all the tools, just go for the rainbow.
Neil Redfern:Darcy and Matt then got into position. I ran, literally ran inside, said to run into the room where you were teaching. I said forget everything, we've got to come out. It's a massive rainbow, everybody runs out, and I thought that rainbow would be there for I don't know a minute and it was just like just get it in natural light, just get it quick, quick, quick. And it didn't go. It's okay, maybe we can play around. We flashed, then went inside, got some flashes. You very kindly held the flash, then it was like it's still there, let's go and change our lenses, and it must have been there for 15 minutes.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it was incredible.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, during which time, though, Darcy and Matt are again amazing couple models. We're just getting drenched, but what I loved is they were just laughing their heads off. Their energy fed into the photographer's energy, which it was all everyone fed off each other so, and then everybody who was shooting was getting so pleased what they were getting, so they were like, oh wow, this is amazing. I think Darsky and Matt fed off that and it was just like one big circle of energy and it was so, so nice. And, yeah, for about 15 minutes, that rainbow was out and it just looked insanely good. And firstly, thank you, helen, for holding the flash for everyone, because you, very kindly, didn't get anything, because you were helping everybody else get something.
Neil Redfern:So that was really nice and I really admired that, that your first priority was helping everybody else get something. So thank you for that.
Helen Williams:You're very welcome. I did have a little time trouble. When I came in I was like darn it everyone's gonna come up with the rainbow and I don't. Yeah, I said this at the time in 16 or 17 years now of shooting weddings.
Neil Redfern:not only have I never had a rainbow like that, I've never had anything close to it. I don't think I've ever even seen a rainbow, and this was like the best rainbow. In fact, it was a double rainbow at times. And then to have it rain at the same time. Usually if that was a wedding day, you might get a couple outside, but you're gonna have them for 20 seconds.
Helen Williams:Yeah, are they gonna be under an umbrella? And they're not just literally gonna be laughing and swooshing dresses and just enjoying themselves.
Neil Redfern:Exactly, but no, Darsky and Matt were drenched because I was a little bit jealous as well, because what I would have loved to have done is actually made a video like an actual.
Neil Redfern:YouTube video under them circumstances. But again, I'd try to get two or three shots and then just help everybody else get them. But it was an amazing experience. And thank you again to Darsky and Matt, who got drenched. I'm gonna say drenched, I mean to the bone, drenched To the point where, as soon as they gave me and I said, forget what the plan was, now go and have a shower, relax for a couple of hours, because you've done more than enough. But the reason I like that so much is because the energy amongst all the attendees everyone had got an amazing rainbow shot was so good. Everyone was on cloud nine and I'll always remember that and it felt it just felt so good that the energy and the atmosphere then was like amazing. I think it really bonded everyone so well and I loved it.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it was amazing to see you know everybody. You know this is a once probably a once in a lifetime opportunity to be within those circumstances and having a couple standing in the absolutely. Yeah, it was raining quite heavy at times to have that rainbow, and yet everyone was still so considerate, they were so thoughtful, they all took their turn. You know, have you got it? Have you got it? What lens are you using?
Neil Redfern:Can.
Helen Williams:I have another go. Yeah, it was just lovely to see the consideration and everybody helping each other out on those images as well, and I will agree that was a huge highlight.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, and then later on that same day we shot. Then we shot Demi or I did, because you would say you were doing your own teaching at this time shot Demi, who was brilliant, again for a little bit because Darcy and Matt's same wood would have drenched. And then we said, oh, we will shoot you again. And then I think we started shooting Darcy and Matt again. It might have been 11 o'clock at night.
Helen Williams:Yes.
Neil Redfern:We were doing composite shots indoors on the staircase until gone midnight, drinking at the same time and again, you can't do that at a normal workshop but to have everyone so excited it was like a party atmosphere, but we were all creating and learning at the same time. That is what I wanted Shine to be and I just love seeing it all come together. And yeah, there are my highlights. It was just so good. The atmosphere is what made it and I don't think I could ever do a one day workshop again because I think it's not enough time. It's not enough time to get everybody bonded, it's not enough time to teach what I want to teach. So even two and a half days flew. Even people who were leaving, especially on the second workshop, said could we do another day? I could do another day.
Helen Williams:Yeah, nobody wanted to leave. It was amazing.
Neil Redfern:People were actually saying I don't want to go home, yeah, and I thought I can't get a better compliment than that.
Helen Williams:No, and I will say there was one other part to the course that I saw that you didn't, and something that was really, really fantastic to watch. And whilst you were doing the editing portion, particularly the second group who had time then just with the models to do what they wanted to do yeah, so just before sorry to interrupt, just in case everyone who came on Shine One was listening, as always.
Neil Redfern:Because Shine One was the very first three day workshop I've ever done. As we do with our work, I and we critiqued it. I thought what could we improve in terms of the structure of the three days? And I did tweak things. Let's cut that bit down, let's lengthen that bit and things like that. So I did slightly tweak the format of day three for Shine Two, which cut down the editing time and we half the group size, so that would allow half the group to shoot for a bit longer.
Neil Redfern:So I'm sorry, that was just to explain to Shine One is what Shine Two people did.
Helen Williams:They're gonna be fuming because they got a rainbow. They got the first one.
Neil Redfern:They'll always be the OGs exactly.
Helen Williams:But yeah, that was fantastic to watch because obviously we then split into small groups I think they were shooting in pairs or threes and they all had a model for sort of 10 minutes each and there was two sets of models and just to be able to see just the experimentation, the confidence growing and to see certain there were attendees who were coming who hadn't really used off-camera flash before.
Helen Williams:So to see them literally two days later come up with a concept themselves, go. I want to shoot a model here. This is what I want to get and to be able to witness that. And it really wasn't honor just to go through that creative process, just to hold the light and just be that reassuring person there. But, yeah, to see I felt in that moment that you could really see the growth of everyone who's coming. That was really special for me.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, no, that's lovely. And, again, thank you for everything you did. So, yeah, I'm looking forward to Shine Three, which will take place at some stage, and I can't honestly, I really, really can't wait. It did feel like a weird hybrid between workshop and holiday, like retreat almost, and it was better than I could have ever imagined. So thank you again to everybody who attended. I hope you enjoyed Well, I know that you did, because you very kindly left feedback in the form of words, of videos and all sorts.
Neil Redfern:So thank you so much for everyone Because, again, let me stress one thing you can never be in control of whenever you're on any sort of workshop is who's going to attend, and that literally makes or breaks it, and one of the things that I was concerned about before we went there was thinking, oh, it's three days residential. If people don't get on, it's gonna be awkward at times, but the fact that everyone got on so well and just got it is what I will always be thankful for. And, yeah, huge thank you to everyone who attended. Thank you to you, helen, thank you again to Darcy and Matt, to Demi and James, to Clee and to Kit, because again, you made it what it was by being just the best model possible.
Helen Williams:So, neil, you're never, ever going to say this yourself, because you never like to push things, but say someone was listening to the work you know, to this episode, and be like do you know what I wanna be on Shine 3. What could they do now to make sure that they know about the details? As soon as it's ready.
Neil Redfern:I will say that I didn't ask you to say that.
Helen Williams:No, he really didn't, and I know that you won't ask me to say that, but you should have.
Neil Redfern:Well, I'm in the past with workshops. I've asked people to sign up to my main list and you can still do that on my website. But because it's residential and because I prefer knowing a little bit about people who are attending, I am only gonna be posting details within my Patreon group, just because that way I feel like I have a better understanding of who's going to be attending and things like that and I can also make sure a little bit more that people get it and get the vibe. It is important that people understand it is residential, it isn't a posh hotel. It is a bit like we need people and also yet, like Matt who came, and Paul as well.
Helen Williams:I think who were making breakfast. Yeah, they were super dulls.
Neil Redfern:Which relieved you, which I know was invaluable, because the next time, one of the things that I know I need to change is having somebody behind the scenes who is doing that rather than you doing it, to alleviate that from you. It's too much for you to be able to try and to look after everyone behind the scenes making drinks, making food and teach. So, yeah, I will be having another person there to do that next time, but yeah, in the meantime, like everyone was mucking in on both workshops and that really made a difference. But I think I maybe need to make sure that people understand that and just get the vibe a bit more. So I feel like I can do that better if it is just open to members of my Patreon. So so, yeah, if you are interested, then please do sign up to the Patreon.
Neil Redfern:There's a free weeks trial if you ever want to do sign up. You also get instant access to 350 hours now of exclusive live stream content, and I think now we're up to 128 live streams covering all sorts over three years. So, yeah, that's all available to you as soon as you join. But yeah, that's where I'll be posting details of Shine 3. But don't join this second, because I don't think I'll have details until might not be this year, but certainly early next. I would say.
Helen Williams:But either way, join anyway. It's a fantastic great Well, why not Exactly exactly?
Neil Redfern:So, yes, there we go. I think that's a. We'll draw a line under this episode, but yeah, I hope you've enjoyed listening. Again, thank you to everybody who did attend Shine. Really really can't thank you all enough. And again, helen, good luck for your talk at 9.0. Hopefully actually doing the, because at Shine you were you basically doing a much longer version of what you will be doing at 9.0. So did that fill you a bit more confidence?
Helen Williams:Yeah, definitely. Well, yes, I feel more confident in terms of delivering. It's just that I know that I'll want like three hours and instead of have 30 minutes.
Neil Redfern:So yeah, yeah, I won't come back to say that, what actually happened. So at Shine we each gave our. We won't go into it again. We're going to split the group and then half the group go with Helen, half with me and we swap over. So everyone in small groups is getting the same content. And we scheduled an hour and a half to two hours tops for each talk before the turnaround, and I think your first one was over three hours.
Helen Williams:But it was worth it. Let's just say it was intriguing. It was very, you know, it was great content that you know asked for lots of questions.
Neil Redfern:It was Exactly, there was lots of learning. So it took you three hours to cover everything, and at 9.0, you've got how long 30 minutes. Yeah, you're going to have to do basically an A93, beacons 120 words a second.
Helen Williams:And you'll be fine. Yes, like Eminem, we'll get someone to record it at like super speed and then we can slow it back down and then watch it back at any time.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, so again, everyone. So you're aware there won't be a podcast next week because Helen will be doing her thing at 9.0. But the week after we'll be talking all about Helen's experience at 9.0.
Helen Williams:If you're not hungover, oh well, that's a given. We also have Jesse and Moira Laplante over at the UK as well.
Neil Redfern:Our ambassadors Can't wait to meet them. That's going to be amazing.
Helen Williams:Yeah, it will be. Yeah, I can't wait to see you guys.
Neil Redfern:Yeah, If you're listening. See you soon, Jesse and Moira.
Helen Williams:They do, they listen nearly every week.
Neil Redfern:We are saying that they're in Scotland at the moment.
Helen Williams:Yes, they are Nessie.
Neil Redfern:Hunting, I believe.
Helen Williams:Yeah, they didn't find the long last monster, unfortunately, we could have left that as a cliffhanger.
Neil Redfern:Oh, sorry Did Jesse and Moira see the Loch Ness Monster. Find out next week That'll do. Thank you very much for listening. Everyone. Remember, as always, if you'd like to join us in the Flash Masters community, you can do so at flashmastersco. But until next time keep flashing.