Today’s Better Portraits with Your Phone or Camera workshop at Pacific Design Academy was one of those sessions you wish you could bottle up.
We had about 30 participants in the room, and the energy was high right from the start. Everyone came ready to learn, experiment, and actually do the work, which makes all the difference.
A huge thank you to our models, Maria and Emily, who were absolute pros. Patient, kind, and completely dialed in. When you’ve got great models, the whole room levels up fast.
Throughout the session, we focused on what actually matters in portrait photography:
- Working with window light vs. continuous LED light
- Understanding how small changes in direction and distance affect the face
- Exploring side lighting and Rembrandt lighting
- Seeing how light falloff shapes a portrait
No fluff, just hands-on learning.
Participants rotated through setups, shot headshots, experimented with angles, and got immediate feedback. You could literally see people improving shot by shot.
Massive shoutout as well to the PDA staff, who were incredibly supportive and made the whole experience smooth and welcoming.
For me, this is the best part of teaching, watching people go from “not sure what I’m doing” to “oh wow, I just took that.”
And the good news…
I’ll be teaching Fashion Photography at PDA again later this year, which I’m really excited about 👀
If today was any indication, it’s going to be a strong one.
