In Hollywood, most production companies will attempt to make a sequel film if the first one ends up being successful. But we all know that in most cases, the sequel is never as good as the first one. One might have expected the same result when Ray Santana and I decided to do another Portfolio+Workshop down in Miami, FL – in just three months after launching our first one back in September 2009. But when we factored in the warm weather, gorgeous models, amazing sponsors, great teaching and enthusiastic students, we knew it was going to be another hit. The Biltmore Hotel agreed and love the idea so much that they allowed us to use their facilities again during one of their busiest time of the year (week before the Super Bowl).

I just returned from Miami few hours ago back to the cold tundra of Chicago. My normal reaction would have been to cuddle up in a warm blanket and watch some TV or sleep to catch up on rest. However I think the adrenaline from returning from such a fun/successful workshop still has not worn off. So I decided to use that energy to blog about the experience.

We had attendees that flew from various locations throughout the US and Canada. It was so refreshing to see many photographers passionate about wanting to take their craft to a new level. From the starters to the seasoned pros, they all came to learn something new – not just from the instructors but also from one another as they shared and networked. The first half of the day was filled with classroom style teaching by Ray Santana, Jim Garner, Dave Cross and yours truly. I loved how each of us brought different elements to the table. But when combined together it became useful and practical things that we can all take away. When we were not instructing, we became like one of the students all learning from one another as well. Then the second half of the day was filled with portfolio shoot. Ray, Jim and I all each took our models and spent our time photographing them in separate groups while the attendees got to jump around from different instructors to another to capture all the models. In my group I allowed each of the attendees to have a few minutes to take time to lead our group in posing the models while we helped and shared with each other our camera settings and posing ideas. We shot until it got dark and to be honest, unless the darkness stopped us, we could have gone all night long.

I can go on and on talking about this but I wanted to share with you guys some of the photos that I captured during the shoot. I cannot wait to see what the others have come up with. I mainly worked with Lucy – who flew in from Utah the night before to join us. Even she gave us some good advice on how to pose and work with models.

I got to take a few shots of another model Barbara

Here is our group - So thankful for everyone that came to the workshop.

I think we made a pretty good team

We would like to thank everyone that came to the workshop – instructors and the attendees. Please leave a comment here with links to your blog and twitter so that we can follow up with what you guys have done. Follow us on twitter @PP_Workshop as we will keep you posted on more events and news in the near future.

We also would like to thank ALL our sponsors that believed in what Ray & I are doing. We could not have done this without your help! Big thanks to: Our models Lucy, Thalita, Ken and Barbara for doing an awesome job in helping us capture some amazing images. To Ines Di Santo for sending us incredible wedding gowns. To Xquisit Events for providing us with amazing flowers. To the Biltmore Hotel for allowing us to use their beautiful venue again despite their busy season. To all our friends that gave us a hand before, during and after the workshop. By the way, check out Kenny Nakai’s blog for some behind the scene coverage of this workshop. Thanks Kenny for helping us out.

We cannot wait to do this again. We have some awesome ideas in the works so stay tuned for more! Portfolio+Workshop

In the mean time, I have another workshop coming up in two weeks in Italy. If you are interested in traveling with a group of photographers around one of the most beautiful place on earth (Italy) on a PhotoVenture of a lifetime, visit this site.

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