It’s this time of the year again. December. Christmas coming soon. Time to spend with your family and friends. Time for traditions.

One tradition I started last year is to invite my wedding photographer friends from all over Switzerland for our annual Christmas dinner in Berne – the Wedding Crashers Switzerland Xmas Splash ‘10. We spent a wonderful evening at the restaurant Altes Tramdepot Bern with good food, some drinks and a fun little Pocketbooth app on our iPhones ;-) The freshly baked cupcakes we did with the Cookie Chicks Jeanine, Nadja and Karin at the pre-event were delicious and so were the home-made roasted almonds from Stephanie - yummy! I’m very happy to see the network and friendships grow. It has been a great year, thanks ya’ll!

In the picture (or not), in order of appearance: Nadja Oeler, Andreas Feusi, Philippe Wiget, Richard Overtoom, Katharina Wernli, Urs Anderegg, Ruggero De Pellegrini, Tobias Schmid, Daniel Daeppen, Stephanie Greter, Karin Näf, Jeanine Linder, Colette Dewan, Karin Vonow, Ildiko Varga, Daniel Knecht, Ilsuk Sun, Matthew Anderson

Eva Longoria and Tony Parker, Paris 2007. Copyright Bob & Dawn Davis (www.bobanddawndavis.com)

Being a professional wedding photographer doesn’t only mean to use professional photo equipment and to have a backup plan. Which is important, though. But it also means to really specialize in weddings and to have a lot of experience. Wedding photography is very different from other fields of photography. Fashion or commercial photography has other rules and needs other skills. And even a great press photographer doesn’t necessarily have to be a great wedding photographer, even if both work in the documentary field of photography.

That said, continuing education is very important and another thing that separates the men from the boys in the wedding photography field. I personally like to travel and attend workshops with the best wedding photographers worldwide. It not only gives me the opportunity to learn from the best, but also to meet new people in other countries that share the same passion than I do. I would say if you attend a workshop the networking part is as important than to learn technical stuff. In the last years I have traveled several times to London, to Toronto, Atlanta and New York to learn and meet great people.

As much as I enjoy it to get further education and explore a new city or country at the same time, not everyone has the means to do so. It takes a lot of time and money. That’s why I thought why not bring the world’s best wedding photographers to Switzerland? To teach us and to get the best knowledge available. Combine this with networking with a lot of other swiss wedding photographers you might have heard of but never met. I’m sure this will have a big impact on our industry over here. That’s the boost we need.

With this ideas in mind I partnered with Light + Byte in Zurich and it was a special pleasure for me that I could win my friends Bob & Dawn Davis from Chicago for the first workshop. They don’t only belong to the best wedding photographers worldwide, but especially are just very nice people and great family guys. Despite their success and fame they are still down to earth and always have the time to help. Even if it’s just an unimportant swiss wedding photographer asking some silly questions :-) Thanks for your friendship and for joining the passion for this adventure, Bob & Dawn!

Details and registration: http://www.lb-ag.ch/weddingworkshop2010

Here is the original media release in German:

Exklusiver Workshop mit Celebrity-Fotografenpaar Bob & Dawn Davis aus Chicago

Zweitägiger Workshop zum Thema Hochzeitsfotografie am 28. und 29. März 2010 in Zürich

ZÜRICH, 8. März 2010 – Nur für einen einzigen Workshop kommt das US-Fotografenpaar Bob & Dawn Davis nach Europa und wird auch in Zürich sein Publikum zu begeistern wissen. Die beiden Amerikaner gehören längst zu den Weltbesten im Hochzeitsbusiness und dürfen Eva Longoria, Salma Hayek oder auch Oprah Winfrey zu ihren Kunden zählen.

Spezialgebiet Hochzeitsfotografie

Die Hochzeitsfotografie stellt ein sehr anspruchsvolles, aber oftmals unterschätztes Spezialgebiet der Fotografie dar. Erstmals findet jetzt in der Schweiz ein mehrtägiger Workshop speziell für Hochzeitsfotografen statt. Ganz nach dem Motto „learn from the best“ bietet sich den Teilnehmenden die einmalige Gelegenheit von der jahrelangen Erfahrung dieser beiden aussergewöhnlichen Profis zu profitieren.

Einzigartiges Programm

Das Programm wurde von Bob & Dawn speziell für diesen Workshop zusammengestellt. Die beiden Tage sind inhaltlich so aufgebaut, dass sie entweder zusammen oder auch einzeln besucht werden können. In den zwei Tagen gehen Bob & Dawn auf sämtliche Aspekte des Business ein. Vom Schaffen des perfekten Lichts in jeder Situation, Fotografieren bei schlechtem Wetter über die Vorbereitungen, den digitalen Workflow, die Postproduktion bis zur Gestaltung des Albums, Marketing und Branding werden keine Fragen offen gelassen.

Der Workshop richtet sich an Hochzeitsfotografen jeder Stufe, Anfänger wie auch Fortgeschrittene, und wird in Englisch durchgeführt!

Internationales Publikum

Mit Teilnehmenden aus der Schweiz, aber auch aus Deutschland, Holland und den USA bietet der Workshop ausserdem die perfekte Gelegenheit mit Hochzeitsfotografen aus aller Welt Kontakte zu knüpfen und sich auszutauschen.

Der Workshop wird von Light + Byte AG in Zusammenarbeit mit Daniel Zihlmann (Internationaler Hochzeitsfotograf / WCS – Wedding Crashers Switzerland) organisiert.

Datum

28. und 29. März 2010

I hope everyone spent a great time with their families and friends over Christmas and New Year. Now the new year has begun and is moving on fast to become another exciting year! After last year’s huge worldwide economic problems the future can just look brighter. However, if you’re going to get married this year it will become one of the most exciting years of your life! For the rest of your life you will look back and remember the blue sky on the wedding day, how the sunlight hit the windows of the church and let the smiling bride glow in this terrific white wedding dress, the little girl that was singing in a church that seemd to hold its breath and how the smiling couple left the church with a whoop of joy of their family and friends.

The beginning of the year is also the time of all the wedding fairs here in Switzerland. This market was exploding in the last years, culminating in 2 different wedding fairs taking place in Zurich on the same day last year. Crazy. I guess everybody is happy now that we are back to normal and this weekend everybody, the couples and the vendors, can concentrate on just one wedding fair in Zurich. I will visit it myself tomorrow, not just to see what’s going on in the industry, but mainly to meet good friends, wedding photographers, coordinators, graphic artists. A great opportunity to connect! Hope to see you there!

Hochzeitsmesse Zürich

And if you are still thinking about if all this social media stuff like Facebook and Twitter is worth it, read this amazing story of Keith how Twitter let him connect with people he didn’t know in Guatemala and how they became friends.

So, my recommendation for 2010: Get you a Twitter account and follow Keith Ferrazzi @keithferrazzi

Have a great 2010!