After a busy weekend, I took a late flight out to San Francisco to attend Gene & Jose’s one day workshop. I was really looking forward to meeting some new photographers from the bay area and to hang out with Gene, Ann, Jose & their entourage. My good friend Gustavo is hosting me again this week and everything was going smoothly until… well, let me explain with some photos:
There was about 30 photogs in attendance. Gene and Jose tagged teamed back and forth sharing their views. I really appreciate that their approach to photography and business is so different. It emphasizes how we can be unique at what we do and still be recognized as being successful in the industry. I am the type that likes to apply little bits and pieces from each photographers.
Jose is a photographer by heart. He loves to shoot and for him business comes second. I love looking at Jose’s images. It never tires me to even look at the same ones over and over again.
Some of the attendees wanted to try shooting in film. Here’s Jose giving Brianna tips on how to load a film properly. Isn’t it amazing how film has now become almost a lost form of art?!
Gene covered lot of ground from A to Z, including some helpful tips on how to get published in a magazine. Gene is business first and photography second. His approach compliments his personality and style and is the reason why he is so successful at what he does.
Then we took a break and walked down the street for some lunch at Koh Samui – a fun little Thai restaurant. I love asian food so this was perfect to fill my hungry hippo tummy. I had Pad See Ew and my neighbor had this. I wish I ordered that instead. 
Food + Fellowship = Fun!
After lunch we dove back into more topics. I took a quick break and decided to shoot some photos for Maria Chang (The ever famous professional make-up artist). She does some amazing work and I wanted to capture some images for her in action. If you read this Maria, contact me and I’ll send you some images!
Here’s Maria prepping our models Caroline and Tyria for our afternoon photoshoot:
Then we wrapped up the seminar part of the workshop and head out for some photoshoot. Here’s Tyria, one of our models, excited for a fun shoot!
Half of the group went with Jose and the other half went with Gene. I started w/ Gene first. Before any shooting began, Gene specifically gave us details on what he looks for when shooting his brides. His tips from lighting, composition, techniques were extremely helpful.
One of Gene’s actual bride was walking by so we snapped a shot for Gene. Talk about small world!
We were having so much fun that we must’ve been causing some ruckus. A SFPD cop came by and asked what was going on. He was a friendly guy and told us to keep it down.
Gene explained what we were doing and did what he could to get rid of the cop.
Few minutes later the cop came back and told Gene how we couldn’t be here.
I thought it was funny so I stepped back and started snapping some photos. Then the cop took out his hand cuffs and began to arrest Gene. At first all of us thought it was a joke so we started laughing…
Wait…maybe he’s not kidding…something’s not right…
Then Gene got really scared when he realized he was going to be the first photographer ever to get arrested during his own workshop.
So I stepped in and try to talk to the cop about his outrageous reasoning for arresting Gene…and I end up getting cuffed too…
Then I pleaded for my life and pretended to act like I didn’t know Gene at all.
So….
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Okay, before anyone freaks out, that whole story was fabricated by me. Sorry if I scared anyone. The real story is that the cop is actually really interested in photography. He did come by first to see what was going on then few mins later, he came back to talk to Gene about taking one of his workshops. It was my idea to do a photoshoot with the cop pretending to arrest Gene, then handcuffing me too after. Needless to say, I got lot more out of this workshop then I expected.
By the way, in the midst of all the joking around, I did manage to grab this shot of Tyria that I liked. Funny thing is I wasn’t even looking through my viewfinder when I shot this and it turned out to be my favorite. So I did some photoshop massaging on it.
Then we switched the groups and went with Jose.
I didn’t take too many photos of Caroline as I was busy listening to what Jose had to say about his approach to shooting his brides. Here’s couple shots I did manage to get of her.
I must of done a good job because she gave me a kiss on the cheek after the shoot. (Thanks Gustavo for snapping this photo of me)
I took couple of shots for Jose. Hopefully he likes them and uses it for his new profile.
All in all it was a jam-packed fun day. I had a blast with this wild bunch. Thanks to Cameron Ingalls for catching me off guard while twittering on my iPhone.
KENNY KIM PHOTOGRAPHY, LLC | contact@kennykim.com
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