Don’t Believe The Hype
Gathering 2019
- Heather Jowett
- Susana Barbera
- Anna Ambrosi
- Franck Boutonnet
- Sam Docker
- Ross Harvey
- J Dhillon
- Jennifer Moher
- Lawson Films
- Nadine Van Biljon
- Claire Penn
A humongous thank you to Ray and Sarah McShane for the video at the top of this page, and also to Chris Barber and Alline Beatrici for their photography of the 2018 NineDots Gathering – see more of their photos right here.
Gathering 2017 was always going to be a tough act to follow, but here at NineDots we’re well known for building on past successes, never resting on our laurels, and striving for constant improvement. And under our mantra of “Don’t Believe The Hype” we went into Gathering 2018 full of optimism that this was going to be the best Gathering yet and we were right!
Heather Jowett’s practical talk was an energetic opening to hit the ground running for the gathering 2018. Titled “When the shit hits the fan”. The topic covered customer service and why empathy is a vital part of the entire customer service process. The talk went into depths of how to listen to your clients and practical ways to over deliver on your services. A talk full practical advice you can implement in your business right away.
Susana Barbera’s emotional talk began with a personal story that lead into the importance of shooting for yourself and shooting what you feel. The deep and meaningful talk expressed how much control we don’t have during a wedding and that making images of things that just happen naturally is so strong. This emphasised that moments cant be copied. Susana spoke about the power of street photography and how this is free school to capture both things that are happening naturally and the beauty that is everywhere. A great point was understanding that our eye is a tool that needs to be trained with just as much as out camera. “Let the universe inspire you”.
Heather Jowett’s practical talk was an energetic opening to hit the ground running for the gathering 2018. Titled “When the shit hits the fan”. The topic covered customer service and why empathy is a vital part of the entire customer service process. The talk went into depths of how to listen to your clients and practical ways to over deliver on your services. A talk full practical advice you can implement in your business right away.
Susana Barbera’s emotional talk began with a personal story that lead into the importance of shooting for yourself and shooting what you feel. The deep and meaningful talk expressed how much control we don’t have during a wedding and that making images of things that just happen naturally is so strong. This emphasised that moments cant be copied. Susana spoke about the power of street photography and how this is free school to capture both things that are happening naturally and the beauty that is everywhere. A great point was understanding that our eye is a tool that needs to be trained with just as much as out camera. “Let the universe inspire you”.
Anna Ambrosi’s practical talk covered finances, planning, mediation, inspiration and being an artist. A great talk stepping slightly outside of being a photographer and how being proficient in living will naturally make you better at taking images of peoples lives. Anna shared personal information about he financial goals along with practical advice on how “knowing your numbers”. Anna’s talk gave information that can be instantly implemented into our businesses and can change the way clients perceive us from the moment they hit out home pages.
Tell better stories. This is what Franck Boutonnet wanted to get over in his talk. And he did. Well. Teaching us all that as photographers we are photographing connections. When we “feel” what is happening in front of us, this is what we must show. How we interpret things is very important. A huge focal point of the talk was that “its easy to miss something you’re not looking for.” Teaching us that “beauty is where you see it” and there is always something to see and there is always something happening. We learned that if you’re patient and hard working sometimes everything falls into place.
Ross Harvey never fails to deliver when speaking at the gathering. His talk this year gave some killer editing tips and advice on capturing his images. Giving us all a mini editing session on exactly how and why he edits his images that way he does. An incredible eye opener and incredibly practical. Along with his editing, he opened up to give us the order of importance of how he takes a photograph. A great talk so in which you can implement right away in how you take your images to how you edit them.
A sought after speaker for the gathering Jay Dhillon gave his talk on light. This super practical talk included a live shoot demonstrating how he uses light in tricky situations. He was able to show us the differences between good and bad light. His practical tips will help photographers in enabling them to always make their wedding subjects look amazing. He also shared some of his inspiration behind what he does. “The light will always guide you”.
Sam Docker’s valuable talk was incredibly moving and highly practical. He shared some key changes that he’s made within his website and copy and illustrated the power of this by sharing websites and copy from companies such as Apple. This talk was incredibly broad including; why fitness is so important, how being brave and stepping outside your comfort zone is incredibly powerful. He included his favourite marketing tip as well having faith and belief can grow your confidence.
Claire Penn shared her experience of shooting destination weddings, including some highly practical tips for making the most of the travelling and taking the stress out of shooting weddings overseas, in her trademark down to earth, no BS style!
Sales and selling can be a tricky subject for photographers and many within the industry are photographers first and business people second. Enter Nadine Van Biljon. As much as we all have a thirst to create better images and deliver stronger work. We need to make money. Nadine’s talk gave numerous methods she had gained over working with the sale industry before becoming a successful wedding photographer. These methods gave everyone listening a new skill set in which we can use to build up trust with out clients in a really sincere way. This dramatically helps the sales process become a more natural process and less “salesy’.
Movies. Storytelling. Emotions. If anyone understands storytelling it’s Hollywood. Jennifer Moher’s talk was strongly led by exactly how they do this and how we have the power to do the same during our weddings. Teaching us how actively watching movies can change the way you see a scene during a wedding. Jennifers talk was really interesting in how she displayed examples of how directors give a sense of feeling, sound and emotion just by the compositions used. We all want to make better images for ourselves and for our clients. Every bit of this talk has helped us all do this.
THANKS TO EVERYONE WHO CAME TO NINEDOTS GATHERING 2018 – SEE YOU ALL IN 2019!
ADAM, RAHUL AND ANDY
DON’T BELIEVE THE HYPE
Thanks to our awesome friends from Loxley Colour and Shootproof for your support for the 2018 NineDots Gathering!
