Photography and the Encaustic Process @ Inspire Photo Retreats, 2014

New England Photography workshop | encaustic photography

I had the pleasure of speaking again at the 2014 Inspire Photo Retreats in Sturbridge MA a few weeks back. Their mission is to “…to foster & maintain a supportive community where photographers are encouraged & equipped to grow in Craft, Vision & Business.” You can check out the video from this years conference HERE (and watch for me at the 14/15 second mark pontificating about god knows what.)

Last year was a little sad for me, as it was the first Inspire i’d ever missed due to surgery nonsense. So when it came time to consider submitting a proposal for 2014, i’d basically had a full year to think about it, and decided to try something different–something more ‘hands on’.

Having fiddled with encaustics for a few years now, I thought it could be a cool addition to all the other varieties of classes offered, as no one had really ever done what I was calling my ‘arts and crafts class’ . To be honest, I didn’t know how it would be received since a lot of folks still don’t really know anything about it. When I describe it (“Well ummm, you glue down a photo and sorta-kinda pour hot wax over it”) eyes generally glaze over with confusion or I get that ‘you’re nuts’ look ( but i’m kind used to that day to day anyway)

Signup started slowly and for awhile I thought it would be just me staring at a hotplate full of wax for 3 hours, but by the end we had to turn people away to keep the class manageable as well as safe! After my basic rundown of the process I let everyone get started and to my delight, they were going to town all on their own. Not only that, but I was thrilled to see how CREATIVE so many were getting their first time out of the gate!!! The 3 hours went really fast (despite a 20 minute shutdown since we kept blowing fuses) and I felt like we could have easily had it be another hour.

I asked a few attendees to share their finished piece here-check ’em out!

oh and PS– the 2015 Inspire will be held in super-cute Portland Maine at a brand new facility minus gazebos [inside joke] —here is some info

It was so fun seeing which images everybody whose and how they decided to work with them. Thanks to everyone who attended and sorry for those who asked to join in after we ran out of room—maybe next year?!