I’m taking bookings for my newest photography talk: The Charro, and the Unexpected Rewards of a Long Term Photography Project.
The Charro has a fascinating mythology that inspired me throughout this 5 year project. I spent months, deep in Charro Country, getting to know the people, their traditions… and being taught some cool rope tricks.
This talk isn’t just about Charros though, it’s also a look at the challenges and rewards that come with taking on a long term photography project like this.
This is my second multi-year project. My previous one, The Aztecas and Storytelling for Photographers, has been booked over 250 times. In fact the feedback was so lovely, I decided to create another talk in a similar same format. A mix of narrative, behind the scenes footage, photo/process breakdowns. And a liberal sprinkling of photography philosophy…
I think you’ll really enjoy this talk.
“Your work is mesmerising! Your presentation was an inspiration.” Gladstone Camera Club
“Our members were on the edge of their seats for the entire time!” Hillsborough Photo Society
Ready to book? Got more questions?
TOPICS DISCUSSED IN THIS PHOTOGRAPHY TALK
- I look at the technical hurdles that come with a new project. Like learning how to correctly light horses and huge hats!
- I walk through my process for finding concepts, models and locations.
- I discuss how it feels to slowly shift from community “outsider” to “insider”.
- This talk combines “behind the scenes” video footage from my shoots with sketches, location shots, test shots and final photos, to show the details of how a project like this comes together.
- I close with the unexpected benefits I get from taking on long term projects. Because they go beyond just improved technical skills.
GET A FEEL FOR WHAT MY PHOTOGRAPHY TALKS ARE ALL ABOUT
My YouTube channel is a good way to get a feel for who I am.
PHOTOGRAPHY TALKS TESTIMONIALS
See what people who attended my photography talks had to say:
Interesting, fantastic, and inspirational!
Thank you for last night. The presentation was interesting, the pictures were fantastic, and the thought process was inspirational. We are still talking about it tonight and looking how we can plan and move things forward incorporating what we have learnt!
Enjoyed your presentation very much!
Enjoyed your presentation very much and you gave us some great ideas and practical suggestions. One good thing that came out of the pandemic is the acceptance of distance learning and great presenters being available for small clubs like ours.
Informative and inspirational!
I want to give my extreme thanks for your talk you gave thursday night. It was very informative and inspirational. I am extremely grateful for the time you put into it!
Very striking and well curated images!
Thank you very much for your talk. It was very enjoyable and informative with some very striking and well curated images. The portrait, documentary and street photographers amongst us will have picked up many tips. I will certainly think more about the intention behind my photos to help make them more powerful.
You have reset our perspectives!
Your presentation this evening to Sale Photographic Society showed a refreshing approach to our art. In fact you have reset our perspectives on what we should seek. The images which you used to illustrate your approach were superb. We will think more about telling a story with our images in the future.
Thank you so much for your excellent presentation!
Thank you so much for your excellent presentation last night to the Duluth Superior Camera Club. There were so many positive comments about your presentation and our club and visitors took away so many helpful tips and new ways to look at the way we might be photographing. Again, thank you!!!!
Our members enjoyed it and were inspired!
Thanks so much for the knowledge and insight you shared with our club. I know our members enjoyed it and were inspired.
Our members are still talking about this talk!
Haslemere Camera Club members thoroughly enjoyed an inspiring evening via Zoom with JP Stones in which he took us through his recent professional development – how he recognised the need to develop a new photographic philosophy, the steps he took to perfect his new approach and how he applied this to theatrical, sporting and cultural portraiture, creating a clear and compelling narrative in each case. Our members are still talking about this talk - a great success!
Cool presentation and great insights. I really enjoyed the talk.
Cool presentation and great insights. I really enjoyed the talk.
In awe of your fabulous storytelling!
It was an absolute pleasure to host you on Monday evening. Our members felt totally inspired and in awe of your fabulous storytelling! Many many thanks for your time given to entertain and educate us all with some absolutely jaw-dropping images.
Your approach was fascinating!
Your presentation was exciting and took most of us out of our 'comfort zone'. Your approach was fascinating and your fluency and willingness to explain in a very articulate way and with good humour were very much appreciated.
Wow! That was the best presentation I’ve seen in a long time.
JP. Wow! That was the best presentation I’ve seen in a long time. Your images are absolutely brilliant! The use of the word “story” in the context of photography has always troubled me. But the way you explained things, it really gave me a much better understanding of the term and how to go about visually communicating it. Thank you so much for the presentation. I have a limited number of living photographers that I call my favorites and I have now added your name to that list.
I found your talk both engaging and inspirational.
I would also like to personally add my thanks for last night. I found your talk both engaging and inspirational, and the photography was excellent. Thanks once again.
Brilliant & very easy to listen to.
Thank you so much for your presentation to our club. It was very interesting & thought provoking. Your delivery kept our attention the whole way through. Some of our speakers are very knowledgeable but aren’t able to articulate in a particularly captivating way. You on the other hand were brilliant & very easy to listen to.
Insightful and inspirational!
JP’s presentation to our club was insightful and inspirational. His story of where he began and his behind the scenes imagery set the stage for a better understanding of what it takes to truly create in-depth stories and photographs of such a culturally rich community.
A very entertaining, inspirational and thought-provoking session.
A very entertaining, inspirational and thought-provoking session. JP's passion for photographic storytelling is obvious and his message contagious. He inspired our members to consider how to best weave a narrative into their images. I purchased a smoke machine and have the inspiration to include in my portraiture!
A passionate and inspiring photographer!
A passionate and inspiring photographer, JP gave our audience plenty to think about and was an excellent start to the new year for us!
Our members were inspired to get out and try your intentional approach!
Excellent presentation! The club really loved it. Many of our members were inspired to get out and try your intentional approach to visual storytelling!
Your work is mesmerizing!
You just finished giving a presentation on zoom to a few photography clubs, I was part of that zoom meeting and I just wanted to say thank you! Your work is mesmerizing! I've been feeling very stuck with my photography lately and your presentation was full of some great information and inspiration for me personally.
A truly excellent illustration of the topic
Thank you JP for your great presentation. Wonderful work that clearly shows your connection with the people, and a truly excellent illustration of the topic. Lots of food for thought!
JP’s images were amazing and really told a story.
Our photography group thoroughly enjoyed this presentation. JP's images were amazing and really told a story. He explained his ideas and processes in a clear and concise manner. It took us out of our usual realm of Irish landscapes to see some stunning Mexican cultural images
We came away with a better idea of how to tell stories.
JP gave us an energetic and informative presentation. His theme of "intentional photography" was something we hadn't seen before and was quite refreshing. I particularly appreciated the critique of his own work with the hope that we might learn a thing or two. We all came away with a better idea of how to tell stories with a simple picture.
We highly recommend this talk!
Thank you for the presentation. We all thought it was a great learning lesson about Intentions and Lighting and Storytelling in photography. We highly recommend it to anyone or group that wants to increase their "narrative" abilities!
Extremely interesting
Your talk on 'Storytelling for Photographers' was well-received by our members and extremely interesting from a Mexican cultural perspective, it was also very valuable in terms of lighting techniques, use of smoke and and model-management. Thank you!
Blown away by your photos!
Thank you JP. That was an exceptional presentation. Very informative. Blown away by your photos! Really Fabulous. Thank you so much.
An Incredible Presentation!
Thank you for your incredible presentation.Your talk was like a gift that kept on giving, or maybe like a good story that keeps unfolding. You were so effective in creating a mindset of not just striving to capture a nice image but to establish the framework for conveying a narrative. Your images had so much depth, not just conveyed by creative exposure but through luring the viewers’ imagination into the image. You successfully created captures that prompted questions about the character, more that just viewing a model. Reading between the lines, it was evident though out your presentation that you think and plan your images.
So many positive comments from our club!
It was great - so many positive comments from our club. Its talks like yours that make us bless the invention and use of zoom.
An informative and thought provoking evening.
An informative and thought provoking evening. Really helpful in stimulating the thought process to help us achieve the sort of ‘narrative’ we want to get across but sometime fall short. The devil is in the details, and we could see that in the way you reframed your images to demonstrate the point and achieve the intention. Thank you so much JP.
Very unique, very innovative, and very professional!
Storytelling for Photographers, by JP Stones, is very unique, very innovative, and very professional. His quest to build a narrative into his still shots puts a whole new slant on what we can do with photography, and really got us thinking through a whole new paradigm of what we can do with our cameras. He shared with us how to work with models, clothing, background, lighting, the use of smoke, where to have the models looking (not at the camera), things we sometimes don't consider. We recommend him to you!
JP demonstrated a different way of looking at things, for which we are grateful.
We really enjoyed seeing how JP constructed his images to express stories. The resulting portraits are superb! JP demonstrated a different way of looking at things, for which we are grateful
Ready to book? Got more questions?
ABOUT JP STONES
“I started my Cultural Photography Workshops because I was frustrated at not being able to create the travel photos I wanted to. Candid photos are fine, but I wanted my portraits to show the personality and history of the people I was photographing.”
“A great portrait is a blend of multiple factors: the model, the environment, the lighting, and the composition. But as a tourist you can’t control many of these factors. I wanted to change that, bringing tourists and local communities together, in a harmonious way. The more we learn about someone else’s culture, the more we’re likely to embrace and respect it. As a foreigner in Mexico, that idea means a lot to me.”
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