Gino Lucadamo | Story By Photo

Around 3-4 years ago, I was adding my business name to a ton of sites and I came across this photographer that blew me away. I wrote an email to him and he replied - most photographers are not nice like that - so that made even more of an impression on me and I joined his forumn (www.digitalweddingchat.com). It was one of the best decisions I had made for my business.

First of all the forum has some of the best wedding photographers out there (Gino Lucadamo, Robert Isaccson, Mark Ridout and others. The forum is very open and helpful and has helped us a lot as we've grown. I can't tell you how many times in four years that it has been a safe haven for us - seriously very high caliber of work.

With all that said, here is a review of the forum, a workshop went to and a dvd Gino put out that we watched...


Digital Wedding Chat Forum Review
cost: 75.00 a year
pros: The forum has helped our Google rankings quite a bit through it's well moderated SEO link program. We've also gotten advice from some of our friends there on how to structure our business and approach some of the more difficult situations we've gotten onto. There are several sections to the website including a main forum, wedding picture posts and various other smaller subtopic forums. Overall it has helped us get to where we are today more than almost any other single factor.
cons: Don't be mean or harmful to others or you will get kicked out =)


Digital Wedding Chat Workshop
cost: around 700.00 two years ago.
pros: There were so many to list... Gino Lucadamo teamed up with Todd Johnson (an amazing commercial photographer who does weddings as well), and presented one of the best workshops we had seen. I have a degree in photography and when Ken started working with me I fired him like three times then I prayed about it and I came to the realization that Ken was not trained in color or composition the way I was. I signed him up for a three day workshop, and it was the best money ever spent. I did not go to the workshop, I had just had my baby Julianna, so going wasn't an option but it was for Ken. He came back full speed after the seminar and his work def reflects the quality that he was taught, and has been a brilliant photographer since then (note from ken - I learn quickly when I get a few basic concepts down. The seminar exposed me to some of the best out there and it really opened up my ability to push past some mental roadblocks. The two guys are both at the top of their game and inspired me to think much wider than I had before about what was possible).
cons: Gino doesn't do seminars all the time and I suspect that was probably the only seminar Todd Johnson will ever do. Glad I got to be there for it...



Digital Wedding Pro Wedding Artistry
cost: around 260.00 one year ago.
pros: I couldn't stop playing the videos, they are really helpful. I snagged two as soon as they came out, def worth the money. Gino goes on location tells about light placement shooting style, the list goes on, and very helpful.

Some of the things he talked about in the video were:

1) Dealing with brides who are not professional models. Practically speaking you don't often get brides who know how to act in front of the camera so a big part of being able to take great photos at a wedding is being able to direct and guide the couple in ways that make them comfortable and beautiful in front of the lens, even if they aren't used to it.

2) Location Lighting. Probably one of the most difficult things for most wedding photographers is dealing with lighting on location. Weddings do not always take place in the best light nor do they give you lots of time to set up elaborate lighting. The dvd goes in depth into methods you can use to quickly light scenes and get the best pictures from a variety of circumstances. We use a lot of these methods every day and they have worked out very well in practice.

3) Overall wedding flow. Especially for those of you who are newer wedding photographers it is just nice to see how the more established shooters handle the wedding day in all of it's highs and lows. The dvd follows an actual wedding from start to finish so you really get to see how things work during the day.

We highly suggest this video, especially to newer wedding photographers for whom it is very helpful to see how more experienced shooters handle situations just like the ones you are likely to run in to.

Teresa & Ken