My Hoffshop Experience

I just got back into town from one of the most rewarding experiences of my life. I spent three days in Memphis for a photography workshop called the Hoffshop. I have been following the work of Hoffer photography for a few years now and they have been one of my biggest inspirations in this industry. I debated long and hard on if it was worth spending that much money on a workshop when there was a great chance that I’d come away with just a few tips and a little practice and not much else. I had a feeling this one would be different.Thank god I went for it, because I really am changed as a photographer and person after these last few days.

I know it sounds crazy to feel that way about basically a class, but I feel very fortunate I was able to grow so much with so many awesome people in a short amount of time. I feel lucky that it just happened to be that it felt like everything Tony and Farid and Amy taught me were the key few things that I was missing and holding me back from getting to that next level. I had my approach backwards and I was doing a few things that were causing me to block my creativity. They helped me switch that mindset by showing us how they shoot so much more slowly and methodically. Also getting challenges to work on without the pressure of pleasing clients allowed me to push past boundaries I placed on myself. It was fun to see my new friends in the course doing the same, and cheer each other on. I look forward to seeing how this new mindset of challenging myself and going for it along with my new skills will take all of us.
The structure of the workshop was perfect. There was a good balance of Critique, Teaching, and Practice that allowed us all to actually improve in our own way. They also crucially didn’t over teach. They didn’t say hey set something up this way and do it like us. They covered fundamentals and then gave us interesting challenges we had to figure out on our own while giving us advice along the way. I think with how humble and nervous Tony was about the whole thing he would appreciate knowing that he utilized what my teacher colleagues and myself are taught as the most effective learning cycle out there. If your a photographer looking into his hoffshops in the future I would highly recommend it. And for everyone else I would say don’t be afraid to push yourself and get uncomfortable, because it paid off big for me.

I have shared my favorite images with some explanation of the challenges below for some context.

 

5 Shots 1 spot. 

This was a cool challenge as we were to pick a location and shoot 5 unique shots using different techniques in one location. Great chance to practice my new approach to structuring a session and getting more natural posing. Proud of how I cleaned up a busy background.

Lighting Practice

Nothing too fancy just had to practice using artificial light in different ways than before. First one was using feathering with a softbox which I don’t normally do. Nice soft light. The second was a chance to play with my new magmods and gels. Yay free stuff.

 

Crap Shoot

This was a fun challenge where our fellow photographers had to choose something very ugly to include. Great way to get creative. See if you can guess where the first few were shot. Answer below.

 

Orange construction barrels come to every shoot now! Thanks Dustin Gleason for the BTS shot.

Crap Shoot #2 + Magmod

Ok I admit Tony kind of gave me an easy location. A metal security gate. But it was pretty bent up in spots. I saw a dash of light and put a pelican case down to sit on so the subjects head could block the bent messy part of the gate and have their face in the light. While waiting for the subjects I had Tony sit in for me and really liked his. I used a Magmod to grid some light on tony’s face to make it look like he was being lit by the streak of light. Did the same for the couple.

Motion

My final challenge was to somehow add motion to the photograph. I decided to keep it simple and have interesting motion from the subject with her hair. I wanted it to look like the wind was blowing hair over her face and to have either her eyes or lips exposed. I noticed her bright blonde hair and decided to find something dark to contrast behind her. I found a nice gray building and chose the side with the best soft light and had the model brush her hair over her face and then flick it to the right to look like the wind was blowing it. I am so proud of this photograph because it is NOTHING like anything i’ve shot before or would have shot before this workshop. And luckily it just worked out to look so amazing. I will always remember how proud it was to hear tony and other photographers who impress me on a daily basis tell me how much they loved it. Such a great feeling.

The second photo I decided I wanted to find a pocket of light that I could make the model dance in. We walked around for 15 minutes and almost ran out of time until the last second found this k shaped box of light on a wall and tried to pose the model to mimic the shape of the lightbox.