Gill Taylor Staffordshire UK Wedding Portrait Commercial Boudoir Photographer: A Week in Tuscany ...

"Italian cameramen grow up immersed in an awareness of light.
It is part of their mythology. " Barbara Steele

I chose this quote for my Italy blog post because this is exactly what my week was all about ... finding the light and using it effectively, and boy, the quality of light doesnt get much better than up in the hills around Florence ...

Anyone reading my blog posts will know that I am very proud to be associated with Jerry Ghionis, multi-award winning photographer from Melbourne, Australia. Jerry has probably the most energy I have seen in another human :) so not only is he still actively shooting weddings, portraits and fashion, he also runs workshops and seminars, as well as devising and selling his training product range.

Of the European workshops he was running, I decided that Florence would be a good one for me to travel to ... even though I am half Italian I have not been there since I was 10 years old ... I know, shocker ! I found out the week before I went that my Grandmother had attended a convent school in Florence, but sadly no-one could remember where, so I could not investigate further this time around.

So, me and a few other photographers landed in Florence for a week of insipiration, model shoots, critique and, of course, networking and fun :)

I spent the week in the Villa Il Poggiale, a beautiful setting for a workshop ... the food was fresh and home-grown, all organic, but of course with all that wonderful pasta, bread and buttered croissants, my jeans were a tad tighter by the time I came home :(

We spent Wednesday out and about in Florence, with 2 models, a load of camera equiment and the promise of italian ice cream ... I spent most of the day with Jerry's wife, Georgina, and helping out with rounding people up once they had their 15 minutes with the models ... Jerry also asked me to document what was happening, so no pressure there, then *eek*

I won't go into specifics ... let's face it, if you want to know what I learned, you are either a bride already booked with me and will find out soon enough, a bride NOW going to book with me :) or a photographer who should really book to go see Jerry for themselves ... talk about worth every penny ... I am so inspired (brides already booked ... WATCH OUT !!! :) )

Here are a few photos from the week ... please note that any of the posed shots are not fror my own self-promotion ... lets face it, Jerry, Georgie and Melissa did all the hard work organising the week, I just turned up and pointed my camera where I was told to !!! But I wanted to share with you what a total experience this has been ... enjoy !!

As always, comments welcome ...look forward to hearing from you !

This is one of our beautiful models, posed by Jerry ... processed by me to show you my take on her :)