Washington Photo Safari is pleased to offer for the first time a comprehensive, locally-taught course in professional wedding photography, taught by Bob Blanken, one of the premier wedding photographers in the DC area.

Weddings offer one of the most lucrative fields in photography, but if you plan to shoot weddings, you MUST know what you are doing!  As once-in-a lifetime events, weddings are NOT a field in which the casual amateur should dare to tread without proper training!  Limited to 12 students who are serious about getting into wedding photography as a career or part-time avocation, this course has three parts:

Part I of this three-part course will therefore first provide a half-day introduction to all the planning that must be done BEFORE the first picture is even taken, a review of minimum equipment needs, scheduling of the wedding, meeting with the family, shotlist negotiation with the families, and location scouting.

First Session: September 6, 2008, 9am - noon.

Part II provides another half-day training in how to pose brides and their family groups, practice in the use of strobes and ambient lighting at Bob Blanken’s professional studio, shots at a staged wedding rehearsal, what kinds of shots should be taken at the wedding itself and at the reception, the use of photography assistants, and proper lighting. Good posing techniques will also be discussed in this section, and it will also review suggested wedding photography contract provisions.

Second session: September 13, 2008, 9am - 1pm.

Finally, Part III of the course, lasting a full day, takes participants to a church and to a reception facility with live bride and groom models for on-location shooting practice on how to photograph a wedding from church entry and procession, the ceremony, the reception, to the final departure of the wedding couple. Back in Bob Blanken’s studio, it also covers work flow, placement and delivery of wedding albums to the clients, and billing arrangements.

Third session: September 27, 2008, 9am - 5pm.

Bob Blanken, who has shot several hundred weddings during his career, is a member of the Professional Photographers of America and its local affiliates. He is also a regular instructor in indoor and outdoor portraiture for the Washington Photo Safari and a member of the International Special Events Society (ISES) and the Meeting Professionals International (MPI). Bob has been certified as a Professional Photographer by the Professional Photographers of America and has received their esteemed Craftsman degree. His photographs and albums have won numerous awards including 17 nominations as Best Photographer of the Year and was the 2006 ISES Capital Award Winner for Best Social Photographer. Today, his company provides full photography services including onsite printing for special events.