Wirken Photography Blog

As you saw in Tyler’s post, we were both in Dallas last week for the Foundation Workshop, the most life-changing wedding photography workshop that I know of. I had the privilege of being assistant to Huy Nguyen, founder of the workshop. Our team was bolstered by the help of supershooters Mark Adams and Sergio, who were out in the field with the participants, coaching them towards stronger shooting.
I have handpicked some of my favorite frames from each of the shooters on my team. Check em out…
Leigh Miller did a story on a retirement community center. Leigh is so much fun. She was constantly making us laugh late at night when we were critiquing, and her sense of humor is evident in her connection with her subjects. I was so impressed with how she worked the graphic elements present in her scenes. She had a keen eye for detail that relayed nuances of how it felt to be there (see her first image- don’t you just want to hang that in your house?!)


Erwin Darmali spent two days at a local fire station. Erwin was totally fascinating to me. He is such a concise shooter- I told him that his raw files looked like my first edit. To explain it another way, I am a verbal processor. I come to my conclusions as I express them verbally. I shoot that way too. I find THE frame through a process of visual exploration, and I shoot my way through the journey. Some folks process all of their thoughts internally and construct perfect expressions of what they’re thinking before actually letting it out of thier mouth. Erwin shoots like this. It is impressive in it’s precision. At the same time, for him to get to that next level in his work, he had to discipline himself to shoot with less perfectionism. To get free with the shutter . He’s an incredible photographer. I’m sure Foundation made him even better.


Andrew Mejia covered the daily happenings at a rec center in McKinney. Andrew has a natural eye for composition. I could see him layering and anticipating moments where all of the elements of the graphic image and peak action come together (see the first picture below). Andrew’s biggest hurdle after his first day of shooting was feeling comfortable getting close to his subject. He was hindered by the common fear of not wanting to invade a subject’s personal space. We basically said, “you’ve got to get over that”. The thing is, there couldn’t be anyone nicer than Andrew. I’m sure the general public would be absolutely fine with him invading their personal space. Take a look at these two wonderful images. Just love them. When the first picture came up onto the screen at our final presentations, there was a sweeping cheer. A bunch of photographers in a room know how hard it is to get a complex layered image like this.


Joe Gidjunis, affectionately called JoeG, is really kind of a Foundation Hall of Famer at this point. He has been a participant three times now, and, thank God, this year was the first year that he didn’t get either severely ill, or put into a cage with wild animals….his story last year was at a tiger sanctuary). Anyway, I must say, Joe outshined himself this year. It’s cool to see how his work has evolved each year. He did a story on a family with four adopted children. Joe really developed affection for these guys, and worked some wonderful angles, experimenting with off camera flash, staying long hours…he really worked it. I just love these two images. They stand on their own as art to me.


Last but not least, a local gal, and part of the Jessica, Jesseca team at EpagaFoto, here is Jesseca Hattey’s work. I was so impressed with Jesseca. She put so much thought and care into her assignment. From the first night, before tackling her story early in the morning, Jesseca was thinking through how to approach her assignment of a high school cosmotology class, without just using the crutch of making graphic images of makeup, hair, reflections, etc. that we all see so often in wedding photography prep images. She was approaching it from a very relational point of view, wanting to get to know the girls, build trust, and take the story out of the bounds of her assignment. That is what Foundation is all about. Telling the story within and outside of the obvious objective story. After day one, Jesseca decided to venture out into telling a broader story of high school life, where she made som fantastic images of athletic practice, passing period, teen interaction in all it’s awkward glory. Here are two of my favorites. I just love the first one. The second is a really interesting thing she did in the cosmetology class- kind of showing it from the mannequin point of view.

Another wonderful year being involved in Foundation. Thanks to all of you for making it so positive!