The Educators: 10 Teaching and Tip-Sharing Photographers to Keep on Your Radar

A new wave of workshopping, tip-sharing photographers is taking over the industry. Get to know 10 of these noteworthy photographers (who also happen to have spoken at WPPI 2015).

BROOKE SHADEN
Specialty: Self-Portraiture
Resides: Arizona
WPPI Seminar: From Blank Spaces to Beautiful Images

Brooke Shaden describes herself as being “photographically born” in December 2008, after graduating from Temple University with bachelor’s degrees in film and English. Currently living in Arizona with her husband and three cats, she began creating self-portraits for ease and to have full control over her images. By using painterly techniques as well as the square format, she says, traditional photographic properties are replaced by otherworldly elements. “My photography questions the definition of what it means to be alive,” she explains.

Photo Philosophy
“When I started in photography, I had no concept of big budgets and supermodels; I wanted to create from my imagination, inexpensively and for myself alone,” Shaden says. “My images are largely based in nature and don’t require much technical knowledge. I am all about maintaining simplicity while still achieving personal style. I started realizing that the one thing every artist has in common is nothing—or at least, the ‘nothing’ factor of a blank space, a camera and our original ideas. That blank canvas that we are all presented with can be very daunting; I like helping other photographers discover how personal inspiration can overcome even the least inspiring spaces.”

Fun Fact
“I am a huge fantasy nerd and fan of science fiction. If you get me talking about anything like Doctor Who, Firefly, Battlestar Galactica or Stargate, watch out—I will not shut up. And that is about the only time I might not shut up, because I am extremely shy. Every year, I take a trip to Cardiff in the U.K. so I can visit the Doctor Who Experience. Now that’s dedication!”

SAMM BLAKE
Specialty: Weddings
Resides: Brooklyn, New York
WPPI Seminar: Strengthening Your Portfolio

With a fine-art background, Samm Blake has been shooting weddings full time since 2007, and was named one of Australia’s Top Ten Wedding Photographers by Capture magazine in 2009 and 2010. She migrated to the U.S. in 2013, settling in the Greenpoint neighborhood of Brooklyn, New York.

Photo © Samm Blake

Educating others: Blake began Art & the Heart, a photo workshop, with fellow Australian photographer Dan O’Day in 2012, which toured Palm Springs, New York, London, Ireland and Australia. She also operates the photography collective Yeah! Weddings in Australia, mentoring five emerging wedding photographers.

How she strengthened her portfolio: “About a year ago, I had to review about 100 portfolios in a little under a week,” she explains. “It made me identify the things I really liked and disliked, and what I think is the perfect website structure and portfolio. I obviously quickly applied all the things I had learned in this process to my own business. It was what made me question why we show certain images in our portfolios and I definitely made some drastic changes in this process.”

JACKLYN GREENBERG
Specialty: Artistic, Eco-Friendly Destination Weddings
Resides: Connecticut
WPPI Seminar: Creating Emotionally Charged Images

Since opening JAGstudios six years ago, Jacklyn Greenberg’s work has been featured in numerous bridal publications, including the first gay wedding in Martha Stewart Weddings Magazine and the cover stories of Destination Weddings Magazine, Cake and Whiskey, and Grace Ormonde Wedding Style. She’s also been honored with awards in Junebug Weddings, Fearless Photographers, ISPWP and PDN’s Top Knots Contest.

Photo © Jacklyn Greenberg

Ways to Create Images with Emotional Impact:
1. Conquer your fears.
2. Trust your intuition.
3. Become a pro at the art of un-posing.
4. Take advantage of your lack of control.
5. Gain awareness of your surroundings.
6. Accept the power of the print.
7. Rock the client experience.

Did you know that…
“My strong belief in conscious living has motivated me to use eco-friendly principles throughout my business. It’s also made me a valuable resource in the photographic community as studios and businesses become more environmentally aware.”

Fun Facts
• Was a competitive roller skater for over 10 years. • Learned to be a fire dancer while living in Australia. • Studied fine art and wine-tasting while living in Florence, Italy.

ERIKA & LANNY MANN
Specialty: Weddings
Reside: Canmore, Alberta
WPPI Seminar: The Art of Getting Lucky

Named among the Top 10 Photographers of 2014 by Fearless Photographers, Erika and Lanny Mann of Two Mann Studios discovered their mutual passion for light and photography during their first date on a mountain summit. They take their three-day workshop around the world, limiting the class size to ten for a more intimate setting.

Both photos © Erika & Lanny Mann

How did you build your style and business?
When we were just starting out in wedding photography a few years ago, we felt that we were just getting lucky on most of our weddings; the circumstances just seemed to be working out in our favor. It took us a long time to let go of this deep-seeded assertion that we were just “faking it” out there, and capitalizing on “accidental success.” We came to realize that we were basically “good” at getting lucky, and that the conscious pursuit of luck is essentially an art.

When is luck an art for you?
Every time we pick up our cameras! Preparing to be lucky is all about capitalizing on opportunity and knowing what to pay attention to. When those cameras are in our hands, everything we think and do is geared toward pursuing and capitalizing on luck. There’s art and strategy at play. Otherwise, it’s just useless hoping and praying.

What kind of challenges have presented themselves?
Oh boy, do we have challenges to overcome? Working together can be an absolute nightmare! We’re swinging the transparency window wide open at WPPI to show our dysfunctional “behind-the-scenes”—our egos, fears and failures (there have been many). The thing is, we haven’t really “overcome” any of these challenges; we’ve embraced them and harnessed them in ways to enhance our performance as wedding photographers.

MICHELLE GARDELLA
Specialty: Weddings and Lifestyle
Resides: Austin, Texas
WPPI Seminar: The Art of Listening

Some would argue that Michelle Gardella is part photographer, part poet—her Instagram feed serving as a clear window into her brain and its depth.

“I know what it feels like to have a million other people’s opinions and voices crawling on your skin. Here’s to the ones who create anyway,” writes the wedding and River Stories photographer. In another: “Sometimes, right before I fall asleep, I picture myself smudging ashes across my face, warrior style, from the bridges I’ve burned along the way.”

Photo © Michelle Gardella 

Her WPPI seminar “The Art of Listening” is a perfect reflection of her free-spirited approach to creating art, exploring the importance of “not only the stories unfolding before your lens, but the ones locked deep inside your own bones, too.”

KATELYN JAMES
Specialty: Weddings
Resides: Richmond, Virginia
WPPI Seminar: Dueling Identities—Ten Steps to Balancing Personal and Professional Marketing

Katelyn James may be rather new to WPPI, but she’s practically a staple in the eyes of Brides, Southern Weddings and The Knot, among others. With a newly redesigned website and brand, she offers coaching sessions, a newsletter with “Quick Tips,” mini guide books covering various topical tricks, plus an e-book called The Bridal Guide, which is full of portfolio layouts and helpful information for her brides.

Her biggest challenge: “Being taken seriously,” James says. “While that issue stemmed mostly from my young age at the start of my business [in 2008], I know so many other photographers deal with this on a regular basis. Over the past seven years, I have enjoyed growing my business and showing our audience that being a professional [wedding] photographer is so much more than just taking pretty pictures.”

Photo © Katelyn James

Her secret to balance: “The more professional you are, the more freedom you have to share who you are personally,” says James, who shoots with her husband, Michael. “Over the last several years, we have grown both of those identities equally. If you’re going to make a great leap in the professional realm (new site, big promo film, new branding), you must also move forward in the personal aspect of your business as well.”

Why brides love her: “Our personal marketing has led to the creation of a tight-knit community between us and our brides,” she says. “They are in a Facebook group together, they meet up once a year for our annual spa day, and they are constantly using the #KJBride hashtag on Instagram to feel connected to our online community! It’s a rewarding way to run a wedding photography business both relationally and monetarily.”

BEN SASSO
Specialty: Lifestyle and Weddings
Resides: Los Angeles, CA
WPPI Seminars: Editing and Workflow; Style and Brand

Much respected for his philosophies like “Community over Competition” and “Encourage New Talent,” former Rangefinder Rising Star Ben Sasso is a photographer of the people, willing to share his knowledge and squash ideas of jealousy in the industry.  In his 2014 blog post, “The Photographer’s Manifesto,” Sasso revealed his integrity:

“Somewhere along the line someone thought it would be a good idea to view each other as competition, and I have no idea how that stuck. You are my fellow artist and I’m on your team. I want to see you win. I want to see you create gorgeous things. You might think that there are only so many jobs to go around, but I assure you, there are plenty. Every artist out there has their own style and every potential client has their own taste.”

Photo © Ben Sasso 

Coupled with his consistently happy, sun-washed photography, it’s hard not to want to hear more from an artist like Sasso. He will oblige with the launch of his new online platform for education, inspiration and community (Open Hand Collective), as well as two classes at WPPI 2015. “Editing and Workflow” covers Sasso’s three-step workflow system, and in “Style and Brand” Sasso explains how photographers can foster a recognizable style and build a brand that brings out the best in them.

MEG BORDERS
Specialty: Senior and Teen Portraiture
Resides: Eastern Washington
WPPI Seminar: Purpose Over Product

Meg Borders is a natural-light senior portrait photographer living and working in the Pacific Northwest. Married to “the love of her life,” and mother of three daughters, Borders worked at an eating disorder clinic in her early twenties and graduated college with a degree in psychology with the hopes of becoming a counselor for teen girls. That was until photography grabbed hold of her.

Photo © Meg Borders

Purpose Over Product—Meg’s Mantras:
1. People don’t buy what you sell; they buy who you are and why you sell it.
2. Base your business on a cause, something beyond the photos.
3. Create an intentional experience for each client.

“My wholehearted focus is on building the self-esteem of young women,” Borders says. “My photography is aimed at revealing natural beauty and refocusing how girls view themselves, drawing out the ‘true you’ in each image—perhaps a ‘you’ that you didn’t realize was there.”

EWAN & BRIANNA PHELAN
Specialty: Boudoir
Reside: London, Ontario
WPPI Seminar: Bridging the Gap—Shaking Off the Norms of What You Think Boudoir Has to Be

Ewan and Brianna Phelan are entering their tenth season in business together, and they’ve got the powerhouse portfolio to prove it. Also shooting weddings, engagement and family, they’re focusing on their alternative, fine-art boudoir photography at WPPI.

What does boudoir do for your clients?
With more and more clients coming in and telling us their stories, we discovered how important boudoir is to them—how for some of them it changes their lives. It allows them to be who they are, without judgment. It allows them to see themselves as beautiful, sometimes for the first time. We get to change the way people see themselves, and change the way the world views nudity and sexuality.

Photo © Ewan & Brianna Phelan

There must be some challenges associated with your work…
We live in a very conservative city. It has fewer than 400,000 people living in it, and at first boudoir wasn’t their thing. In a society that teaches women that they can’t express their sexuality, our work was like a hit in the face. We received hate emails condemning our work, but on the other side of the coin, we had people who loved us, loved what we were standing for—that we were unapologetic about our work. The shoots gave them the confidence to be themselves.

What else do you do to shake off norms?
Any time we teach we ask the question, “When the world comes to an end and all that is left is your work, what will your work say about you?” We don’t shoot boudoir in the traditional soft, pretty way, because that isn’t our message. We want to polarize people with our work. Love us or hate us, just don’t only like us. The people who love us have to have us; the people who hate us still talk about us.

AMY & JORDAN DEMOS
Specialty: Weddings
Reside: Arizona
WPPI Seminar: Getting Published in Five Simple Steps

In 2014, Amy and Jordan Demos crisscrossed the country on a national speaking tour with Showit, equipping fellow photographers with the tools to get published. They publish educational tidbits on their blog and free newsletter, The Monday Minute, and also offer workshops as well as online and in-person coaching to empower photographers to get from where they are to where they want to be.

Both photos © Amy and Jordan Demos

Bet you didn’t know…
Before running a successful photography business full time, the Demoses were elementary school teachers at the same school. “We carpooled to work together, taught in next-door classrooms and even covered recess duty together,” says Amy.

Catapulted to Editorial Stardom
At the start of 2013, the Demoses had never been featured nationally—anywhere—so they set a goal to get their work featured just once in a national publication. “Our very first feature was an editorial inspiration shoot for a one-year-old’s birthday party,” Amy says. “It was featured on Grey Likes Baby, which is a really adorable national blog for new moms with style.” By the end of that year, their work had been published nationally in over 15 publications—including People, E!, The Huffington Post and Style Me Pretty—and they were able to build enough momentum to double their bookings and prices for the following year.

Fun Fact
“We are high school sweethearts who went to senior prom together and have enough embarrassing photos of it to last a lifetime,” Amy says with a laugh. “I rocked the biggest, poofiest pink prom dress this world has ever seen, and Jordan wore an all white-tux—we thought we looked awesome. The pictures, on the other hand, prove otherwise!”

Related Links

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Bold Talent: Three Contemporaries Turning the Wedding Industry On Its Head

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