After Dark Portland: Overview

To say After Dark was amazing is actually an understatement. It was by far the most incredible educational experience I have had so far in my photography journey. It was nonstop, high energy, exciting, stimulating, crammed full of information kind of learning. I'm not even sure how to best describe it, but I'm going to do my best.

4 days.
35+ incredible mentors.
150-ish attendees.
Portland, Oregon.
The Red Lion Hotel on the River-Jantzen Beach

It all began on Sunday night, September 12th. My friend Alycia and I drove down from Lake Stevens, WA not really sure what we were getting ourselves into. I think we were both pretty nervous. We checked into the hotel and headed to the main meeting area, ready to experience whatever was in store for us. The first evening was a jumble of introducing myself to hundreds of people, getting oriented, and meeting the mentors. Pictured are just a few that I had the amazing opportunity to work with:

Left to Right: Mentor Chuckie Arlund, Mentor Lori Nordstrom, Mentor Mike Ridinger, Mentor Clark Marten, Mentor Steve Ragland, Mentor Jordan Chan.

We also wandered around the numerous rooms in the hotel that had been designated for our use. The main ballroom was filled with 10 shooting bays, vendor booths, and a model station with makeup and hair artists. Another room downstairs held work pods for sales and marketing meetings. There was a room that had been turned into an entire store operated by Midwest Photo Exchange. And we had full run of the entire hotel and surrounding property to shoot in.

This gorgeous view was what we saw everyday just outside the hotel ...



Mentor George Kuchler gave some great advice that I did my best to follow throughout the 4 days. He challenged us all to NOT do what we do at home. In other words, to step outside our comfort zones. To shoot in a different style. To try out new techniques. To break free from even our target client. To experiment and be bold and be innovative. It was great advice. Here are a few of my "breaking free" shots. Not my typical thing, that's for sure. But sooo much fun!:


Around 10:00 in the evening we broke off into small groups for critiques. I did an image critique with Andrea Zapatka and loved seeing my photography through someone else's eyes. She gave me some great advice, primarily on posing. Seeing as I am primarily a self-taught photographer, I didn't actually know there were posing rules. And apparently I break them a lot. I made sure to hit a posing class later in the week :)

Sunday night bedtime? 12:30 am. It was an early night.

One of the most incredible things about After Dark was how accessible the mentors were. At any moment you could stop one of them, ask a question, and they would give you their undivided attention. I had numerous one-on-ones with different mentors. They let me pull a chair up to their table at breakfast. They would walk me into a studio bay and give me a personalized lighting tutorial. One mentor sat down with me and showed me the ins and outs of Lightroom which has now totally changed how I edit. Every question I could think of was answered. Everything I wanted to learn was shown to me. Nothing was held back. At every moment the entire experience was about education in the truest sense of the word. It was unbelievable. It was refreshing. It was inspiring.

Monday and Tuesday were filled with dozens of places to be all at the same time. The most challenging part of After Dark was wanting to be doing numerous things at once. There definitely wasn't enough time to do it all. Every hour there were at least 20 different mentors you could choose to join up with ~ to do everything from shooting with them to discussing sales and marketing to learning posing techniques. There were indoor shoots in studio bays and there were outdoor shoots on location. You could shoot with available light or big softboxes and photogenix lights or learn off camera flash techniques. I saw a ring flash in action and was appropriately awed. I tried to do a little bit of everything. I started jumping in and out of groups so I could maximize my experience. At any moment I saw mentors without a group I grabbed them and started asking questions. I shot hundreds and hundreds of pictures. Here's just the tiniest sample. Some of my very favorites are going to get their very own blog post, so wait for them!

Working in a studio bay ...

An off-camera flash tutorial shot in the very middle of the harshest light. On the left is a pull-back shot so you can see just how close mentor Jordan Chan was ... and how the picture on the right was lit with just ONE little flash. Amazing.

Another pull-back shot ... natural light in front of a bright hotel window. We lit the model with a reflector and a small video light:

Love how ethereal it looks:

One of my best experiences happened Monday night around 1:00 am. (Okay, technically Tuesday morning). I was deciding if I wanted to go to bed or not when mentor Julia Radlick-Kelleher grabbed me by the arm and said, "let's go have some fun!" About 4 of us followed her into an open studio bay where she showed us exactly what we would need to know to set up a studio of our own. What to buy. How to position the lights. How to pose. She was full of energy and excited and we had a blast. AND she took pictures of each of us:

After Julia set the studio up and showed us around, she went and pulled it all apart. Moved the softboxes around. Changed the settings on the lights. Anything she could think of to make it a challenge. Then she told us to set it back up. She did this several times until I was convinced I knew I could do it on my own. And now have so completely caught the "I must have this all for myself" bug. Monday night bedtime? 2:00 a.m. Tuesday night? Almost 3:00 a.m. I'm convinced some of my best learning happened in those crazy early hours! The energy level was so high it was very hard to drag myself away to go to sleep.

I was able to prove myself on Wednesday. It was an open day when we were able to use any available studio bay and any available model and try things out on our own. I had so much fun setting things up for myself and taking some very fun pictures. Here is just one of my favorites that I set up for myself. I'm going to show more of the shots I took of this adorable girl next week!

Looking back at the entire experience, I would have to say the number one thing I gained was confidence. Confidence in myself and what I already know and confidence that I can try new things and experiment and push myself in new directions. Confidence that I can apply what I learned over these four days and continue to become better. It's been amazing just seeing what new things I have been able to do in the last week since I've been home. I'm loving this journey I'm on.

I know this has been a wordy post ... lots more pictures are coming in the next week or so (this has truly just been a sampling of what I got!) ... but I definitely wanted to share the "behind the scenes" first!