2023 has been an exciting year for me! I started working with a business coach in January, and it’s helped so much to help me grow as a businesswoman. In February, my husband and I took a trip to Mexico City & Bahidorá music festival. And since March, I’ve had a whirlwind five months of photography education, travel, and work. I’ve been eager to write about all of these experiences. Today, I’m starting with a series of posts about the photography workshops I’ve attended this year, starting with my trip to the Hybrid Collective Conference at Amelia Island in Florida in April. 

Hybrid is “a collective of digital, film, and hybrid photographers learning and growing together” that holds an annual educational conference a different locations throughout the country. This year’s conference was held at the Omni Amelia Island Resort. The conference is attended by hundreds of photographers from around the world, most of whom specialize in wedding or portrait photography. I was thrilled to meet in person many photographers who have been my virtual buddies in online photography groups over the past few years and learn from many artists who have inspired me. I also made some amazing new photographer friends! There were dozens of instructors speaking at keynote and breakout sessions on various topics relating to photography and business, as well as optional workshop-style master classes and styled shoots every morning, afternoon, and evening. 

During this year’s conference, I was fortunate to attend six master classes taught by photographers Elizabeth Messina, Paul von Rieter, Daniel Kim, John Dolan, and Patrick Le. This first post is dedicated to the two classes I took with Elizabeth Messina, a renowned portrait, wedding, and fashion photographer. She is best known for her ethereal natural light studio portraits of women, couples, and families, as well as wedding photography. She lives with her family in Los Angeles, where she has a gorgeous studio on her home property, and has been commissioned by many celebrities to photograph their personal portraits and milestone moments. 

From my perspective, what’s most inspirational about Elizabeth’s work is that her artistic voice and style are so powerful and distinct, she practically precipitated a subgenre of photography. Elizabeth is an artist whose images are recognizable and whose style has been “often imitated but never duplicated.” A milestone that stands out in my own personal timeline was Elizabeth’s release of her book, “The Luminous Portrait,” on the same day my first child was born in 2012. In this instructional guide filled with her romantic film photographs, she taught her approach to creating ethereal natural light portraits. “The Luminous Portrait,” along with Jose Villa’s 2011 book “Fine Art Wedding Photography,” were influential guidebooks in an era when online visual resources were still evolving and wedding photography previously had been disregarded as a low-brow art form. At a time when digital wedding photography had trended toward dramatic flash techniques and trendy editing filters, Elizabeth & Jose had developed such distinguishable-yet-similar styles of film photography and large bodies of work that they influenced many young artists. One of Hybrid’s own founders was a student of Elizabeth many years ago, and I sensed that some young conference attendees didn’t realize the influence that Elizabeth’ work had on our industry or even on their own style of photography.

I signed up for two workshops to learn from Elizabeth at Hybrid this year. On the first day, in a class called “Goddess,” Elizabeth taught her approach to photographing women. On the second day, in a class called “Lovers,” She taught her approach to photographing couples.

For every workshop I attended at Hybrid, I had the goal of coming away with just one golden nugget that I could implement into my business. What I learned most from Elizabeth was how she creates a multisensory experience for her subjects through sound, smell, conversation, and breath, that influences the final result of her images. For both of Elizabeth’s workshops, we met her in a window-lit conference room as she was already photographing her talented and styled models on a beautiful backdrop in window light. She set the mood for the shoot like she does in her own studio, with the earthy smell of burning incense and the chill rhythms of Lauryn Hill and Young Thug. (Her musical taste is far more hip-hop than I’d expected for an artist with such feminine work. I was thrilled by the vibe the music created during the shoot!) I watched as she slowed down, demonstrated, and encouraged her subjects to breathe deeply, and watched her and her models’ bodies relax and get centered together. She would suggest, “What if…,” as they played, experimented, and tried new poses in creative collaboration. She speaks calmly and kindly and gives continual positive feedback. I was amazed by how she responds to her subjects so that together they arrive to photographs that feel real and beautiful. I loved her insightful analogy that she aims to create a sense of longing in her work, as if you were waiting by a land line phone for your crush to call.

For these workshops, Elizabeth hired models Nikia Phoenix and Emily Joy, as well as Khalif Boyd. Nikia and Emily are very talented models with whom Elizabeth works closely and often. Emily & Nikia collaborate with Elizabeth and seem to serve as muses to her. I’d seen them featured in Elizabeth’s work previously, and it was a privilege to photograph them. They worked for many hours a day for several days in a row to model for the workshop students.

After we watched Elizabeth shoot for a little while, she sat down and talked to us about her philosophy and approach to portraiture. She starts every shoot without a camera in her hand, just talking with her subjects and allowing everyone to become more comfortable and acquainted. I felt comforted when she confessed that she, too, enters every shoot with doubts that she knows how to photograph (I’m not the only one!). She said she starts the process by noticing what she likes, and the shoot evolves from there. She encouraged us to always be thoughtful and observant of our clients. While she recommended envisioning some poses for the session, any pose she suggests is just a starting point that will evolve naturally based on what feels comfortable for her subjects. She encouraged us to take direction from our subjects as much as we give direction, to look for our subject’s beautiful and unique features, and to look for subtle movements that help them look and feel more natural. Probably one of my biggest takeaways from Hybrid was that while I’d assumed that the best portrait photographers whom I admire came to a shoot with a specific vision of the end result, they rather maintain a curious desire to uncover something personal and natural for their subjects. 

After her talk, students took turns photographing the models on the studio backdrop while we continued to Q & A with Elizabeth. After the studio session, we went outside under the property’s old Spanish-moss-covered-trees to photograph the models again in a natural environment. Elizabeth encouraged us to take a mix of of wide shots of the scene, tighter portraits, and even tighter details, to create a collection of images that tell a story.

Here are more photographs that I made during these workshops:

Goddess: Portraits of Women

Nikia & Emily stunned in new Claire Pettibone designs. They were beautifully styled with jewelry from Elizabeth’s collection. On this day I photographed with my Nikon Z6ii and 58mm f/1.4 lens.

Lovers: Portraits of a Couple

On this day, I photographed with a FujiFilm GFX 50sii with 80mm f/1.7 lens.

A lovely piece of advice that Elizabeth gave to us is that if a subject ever feels uncomfortable, the most powerful tool we have the partner they love. She also reminded us to photograph them with their bodies together, separate, sitting, standing, moving, wide, tight, and individuals to provide our clients with a variety of photographs.

A note on the equipment I used: I’ve been photographing on the Nikon Z6ii for a couple of years, and had been eager to try the digital medium format Fuji GFX. When photographed on the GFX on day two, I was impressed by its wide dynamic range (meaning both highlights and shadows can be well exposed in the same frame), and lovely colors. The image below on the left was photographed on the Nikon, while the image on the right was photographed on the GFX:

Elizabeth also styled some pieces from her collection in still life “flatlays” for us to photograph while we waited our turns to photograph the models:

I was grateful to have the opportunity to learn from Elizabeth Messina at Hybrid 2023, particularly to observe how she interacts with her subjects to create a relaxed and collaborative atmosphere.

Workshop Credits:

Conference: The Hybrid Collective

Location: Omni Amelia Island Resort

Creative Direction & Lead Photographer : ELIZABETH MESSINA

Models: NIKIA PHOENIX, EMILY JOY, & KHALIF BOYD

Clothes: CLAIRE PETTIBONE & FREE PEOPLE 

Shoes: BELLA BELLE & MADEWELL

Hair & Makeup: BRUSHED & BLUSHED