Last night, I attended the monthly meeting of the Professional Photographers of San Diego County (PPSDC). The featured speaker of the evening was Maria Bernal, a wedding, portrait, and fashion photographer based in Austin, Texas.
She was going to talk not just about fashion photography, but also about how its principles apply to portrait and wedding photography. All that was certainly interesting. The surprise highlight of her talk, however, were detailed live demos of the Photoshop techniques she uses for retouching portraits. While I certainly have been using a number of those in my own work, her demos included lots of additional tips and tools.
Another treat actually came at the beginning of the evening. Unbeknownst to me, my friend and first professional mentor Bill Fee was being awarded the annual Frank VanValkenburgh Award. It couldn’t have happened to a nicer guy.
Here’s a quick snapshot of Bill with his trophy:
Recording The Light 