On the weekend of 20th and 21st March fellow photographer
Mark Pearson and myself organised a charity fund raising event for photographers in aid of
Help For Heroes. The event took place at
Chevin Country Hotel and Spa and was a resounding success largely due to the support from the hotel who were fantastic. The format was a full days photography training on Saturday by top trainers
Martin Grahame-Dunn and
Paul Haley and this was followed up by a seminar by top event photographer
Mike Weeks who gave all the delegates fantastic information on the skills required to run a profitable events photography business. The format of the day time training was to get great images using the available light and because it was a very dark day due to poor weather this was not the easiest of tasks. I must thank our models Jenny,
Liam and Natalie for their patience during the day. In the evening we had a party with full event studio and some fantastic prizes to give out in the auction and raffle. Our Guest of Honour for the evening was a true hero Simon Brown. Simon was shot in the face by a sniper whilst on active service in Iraq. He was retrieving a vehicle that had come under fire and was hit. One Hundred Hours of surgery has taken place and he has lost 85% of his eye sight. Simon's story touched everybody who was there and he is a true inspiration to all and we can't thank him enough for coming along.
Sunday saw a few sore heads but started off with a studio set up seminar with Phil Andrew of
The Image Mill, then it was back to the hotel for a seminar on controlling a wedding by Zoe Richards of
Dovecote Training. Then to wrap up it was a talk on the business of photography by Sean O'Brien and Mark Pearson. All in all it was a fantastic weekend and with money still to come in, we are hoping to hit the £2000 mark with funds raised.
I must also thank other supporters of the event,
Animoto,
GF Smith,
Heliblackpool,
DPM Wallbank,
Photomart, Jean Bennett,
Flawless Studios,
Everybodysmile Ltd, Light Blue Photo,
Loxley Colour,
The Complete Group and finally all those that came along.
Here are a few images I took from the day
From Left to right - myself, Trainer Paul Haley, Guest of Honour Simon Brown, Trainer Martin Grahame-Dunn and fellow organiser and the man who burdened the most stress in organising, Mark Pearson. This image is courtesy and copyright of Dorset Photo Event
