I started out shooting film in the late 1980's as a kid. It's also what I learned on in the late 90's in high school and later still in college. Many in the professional photography industry only started to use digital around 2002, which was also the beginning of the shift to digital. I owned the first generation digital rebel.  For many years the 'look' between digital and film was very apparent. Now you can recreate the look of digital images with software modification that emulates film, so I enjoy learning from people employing a unique look and style that only film could once create.

I have started to follow a number of photographers online over the past year, and found myself intrigued by Hunter Leone and his style -- his imagery is sometimes dark, yet ethereal, and always with a creative perspective and a fashion edge. He's also known for his Gatsby style workshops.  It's hard to get to know people in a large group (there was about twenty attendees + more than three other people supporting the shoot), but from my perspective, he's professional, fun and creative and completely down to earth too.

I enjoyed picking up a few tips he shared about his editing style, which I put into place here with the help of an Alien Skin Vintage Kodachrome 'action' with additional tweaks to bring a vintage yellow hue to the whites and cool blues to the shadows, but I enjoyed watching his creativity even more.

We used glass with vaseline, tinsel, and a fog machine to bring a creative flair to the imagery. This isn't something new to me – we did this sort of thing in college photography courses – but it is something I haven't done since. Attending this course reignited my creative energy and stimulated ideas. Hunter shared business ideas and practices he's put into place and he showed us how to make fantastic images with just a little well draped fabric in the background. A little ingenuity and a vision can change the quality of the images that can be created. I'd recommend his workshop, which was also a lot of fun with such an easy going photographer leading the effort, to anyone getting started in the industry or to anyone in a creative rut. He inspires his clients and his students to try "crazy" things to get the image, such as putting your bride in the water in her dress (the day after of course) but that's the thing, you have to push yourself and your clients to create epic images.

Three Nails Workshop
Styling & Workshop: Three Nails Photography
Make-up & Hair: Meka Bennett Reliford
Dress: Anna Campbell
Photography & Editing: Amber Porter Photography