Not long ago a photographer friend of mine mentioned the name Dane Sanders to me.  Who?  According to this friend he was some popular SoCal photographer who had recently written a book…  Big Deal, I thought, I have lots of photography books and sure don’t need another one.

In the months that followed, I felt like Dane Sanders’ name was everywhere. Have you ever been on the verge of buying something new and then magically started to notice that new thing  EVERYWHERE? That’s kinda what happened to me with Dane. I finally checked out the guy’s website and read some book reviews,  and soon caved  in and bought his book just to see what all of the fuss was about…. I flew through the book in two days, and lets just say the fuss was very well warranted. Dane’s writing blew any preconcieved notions I had of  it out of the water. Yes, it was a book about photography (sort of), but it was far from typical. In stead of tech talk, posing, and lighting tips he focused on attitude, self image, community, branding, and our photo industry as a whole. Trying to describe it to you won’t do Dane justice, but it suffices to say that I put the book down with a far different (and much better) attitude and a brand new motivation.

Fast forward a month or two… I heard through the grapevine the Dane was travelling the country speaking and giving workshops, and yes, he’d be coming to Portland. Photography workshops (especially good ones) are not cheap, and since I had already blown through my workshop/schooling budget for the year I quickly became depressed at the thought of missing out on the chance to learn from this man who had had taken on a celebrity-like status in my head.  Long story a little shorter, once Corey had read the book too, we threw our workshop budget out the window and I signed up up for Dane’s two day workshop, chalking it up to an investment opportunity we couldn’t pass up (and we were right).  In the week before the workshop, so many people had signed up that the original workshop location was too small. I called up Sara (another great Oregon photographer and the workshop coordinator) and offered my studio as a back up, back up location. In a crazy turn of events, she took me up on it. In a few short months I had gone from never hearing Dane Sanders’ name, to buying his book, to idolizing him, to having him come to my house for his workshop. Whoa!

The workshop was nothing like I expected, yet everything I had hoped for at the same time. With 15 or so folks piled into my little studio, Dane took us from a group of competing strangers to a close knit group of new friends. We even had an engagement photo shoot (with 15 photographers!) in my “under-construction” back yard! I’d venture to say that Dane’s workshop was one of, if not the most valuable one I’ve attended. So, if you’re a photographer and you’re reading this trying to decide if the Fast Track Roadshow is for you, rest assured that it is. And for my past and future clients who are reading this, the workshop reinforced my gratitude to you for trusting me with something as important as preserving your memories with my pictures, please don’t be strangers!