Alright, strap yourselves in cause here we go with post number 3. I am a blogging fool. ha.

I briefly mentioned in my first post about Jonathan Canlas and the workshop that he holds called FILM IS NOT DEAD (FIND). I know there are a lot of different workshops you can go to, my testimonial is that this workshop and Jon are both LEGIT. Taking the workshop won’t make you a better photographer, unless you WANT to be a better photographer. The knowledge and experience of this wildly successful photographer are there for you to take as much as you want. What you take away from it is entirely up to you. Before I get into the details immerse yourself in the warmth of the weather and people I spent time with in Miami. (insert Will Smith’s song, Miami, here, because trust me that song recurred during the workshop at least once everyday. In fact click this link and listen to the song as you scroll through the photos for the full effect. Come on, it’s fun.)

So what is FIND?

FIND is a workshop for anyone interested in photography, but as the name would lend, focuses on technique and instruction in properly shooting with film. My experience at the workshop was life changing. Sound overly dramatic? Well I kid you not. I came out the workshop not only creatively charged, but with a new confidence, understanding, and ability to really take this on. Did I learn to use my camera? No. I had done that before I came to the workshop. Thanks goodness for that because if I was fumbling around not knowing how to use my camera I would have missed so much great information on technique and learning from what my fellow attendees (and now friends) were doing. What I gained was insight, refinement, and great things to consider and pay attention to help my work to get better. And yes, I have gotten better…from this 3 day workshop.

Let me explain, how I came to know of FIND. A number of years ago I became really great friends with an awesome guy named Kristopher Orr. As life has a way of doing, it moves right along and it had been a few years since I had had any contact with Kristopher. One day, out of the blue, I got an email from him. Little did I know that that email would affect my life to this day.

He said that he had remembered that I was into photography and design and that he had been working on developing his photography skills and wanted to know if I would give him some feedback. I was elated as well as humbled by his request and just flat out happy to hear from him! I clicked the link to his work, but wasn’t prepared for what was to come. I was completely floored by the quality of his work and that he contacted ME for feedback. I felt completely inadequate to give a critique as I was an immediate fan of his work. Let me clarify that my surprise wasn’t that I thought he would suck, it was that after seeing his work, I knew MINE sucked. It was humbling and invigorating at the same time. It lit a fire inside of me that made me want to be not only good, but great. I felt immediately compelled to revisit what I thought was good. I began to email him for tips and help. He responded with information that was honestly a bit confusing, and some of it was like a foreign language to me, which was interesting because I thought I knew what I was doing with photography before. Yeah… apparently I didn’t. At least shooting fully manually I didn’t. But damned if I wasn’t going to figure it out. I put myself to the task and was trying and trying to be a self taught fully manual analog photographer…….on a digital camera with a crap lens. It wasn’t working. But an interesting observation about life is, that when you put out there what you want to accomplish and you pour everything you have into it, it seems that when the time is right thing unfold to take you to the next level.

Enter stage right, Jonathan Canlas‘ film movement. Film Is Not Dead. This is where things really started to meld together and where I knew without a doubt that this was the path that I am to be on. As I mentioned, it seems that life has a way that when you really want something, and you put your energy and effort toward it, it will begin to work out for you to obtain it. I had been trying to work toward my goal like crazy, but nothing was changing… but then I found out that I am simply too impatient for the universe’s timing. One random day friend purchased a copy of Jon’s FIND Guide for me as a gift, after I had recommended it to her. This gift, while seemingly nothing big to her, meant so very much to me. I read the entire guide that night. Then re-read it the next night, and the same the following. It was after reading it over and over that I began to find answers and fully understand the details and techniques that had eluded me previously. It was literally like a lightbulb was turning on for ALL of the things that I simply couldn’t understand before! I immediately sought out a spot at the workshop and as good fortune would have it, I landed a spot in Miami.

For the first time in the workshops history we were all staying in the same house at this workshop. Think Real World and everyone there is a photographer… yeah we thought it would get wild too. Everyone behaved, but it was amazing to get to know everyone spending 3 days and nights straight, talking about our craft. Some of us becoming life long friends, and now having the resource of being close with some of the best photographers across the nation. I am a man of good fortune and was so grateful to attend.