Sam Abell on Whideby Island – Kitsap Lifestyle & Documentary Photographer

During the first week of June I was able to attend a week long photography workshop on Whidbey Island.  This workshop is pretty easily ranking up there with one of the more surreal experiences of my life.  You know, one of those experiences where all you want to do is go back in time about 3 or 4 years and tell your past self what you are up to just for the sheer enjoyment of watching their head implode a little as they stare at you dumbfounded and utter, “You’re kidding me, right?”

Not only did I get to spend a week away from my home, my family, and all the random obligations associated with home and family; but I got to spend that week in a little house on a charming island with my friends Lacey and Natasha (who, side note, flew all the way out from freaking Australia for this workshop).  After starting Sham of the Perfect back in late 2014 the three of us have been chatting on, more or less, a daily basis and this was the first time all 3 of us were in the same location.  Totally freaking nuts.

Oh, and we spent that week studying under Sam Abell.  If you aren’t a big photography nerd and/or that name doesn’t quite ring a bell, there is a very good chance you are familiar with at least a few images made by him and published during his 30 some odd year career with National Geographic.  Well, here, it’s best we all just take a hot minute and go ogle his website.  Go ahead, click here, I’ll still be here when you get back…

Pretty mind blowing, right?  So yeah, I got to spend a week listening to Sam tell our class incredible stories from his travels and guide us through his thought process when making and analyzing documentary photographs.

It’s been a few weeks since the workshop now and I’ve been mulling over what to say in this blog post while still letting the entire experience digest.  I know that there are a few people that will click on this link wanting some nitty gritty details about the workshop and I’m not going to give those here because merely divulging details about what topics were covered somehow seems to do the workshop a massive disservice.  (That being said, if you have any specific questions about my experience, please feel free to email me.)

But I will say the big thing you get from this workshop is Sam.  Sam, who has a brilliant portfolio to back up everything he says 10 times over and somehow manages to still be genuinely humble and entirely approachable.  Sam, who can take a room full of people with varying photographic styles and interests and critique each of their images in a way that is not only kind but chock full of useful information that the entire class can pull from.  As a teacher, he walks on water.  End of story.

I would also be super remiss if I didn’t also mention the wonderful Keron Psillas who assisted in the workshop and has worked with Sam for many years.  She was like the icing on the already decadent cake of the whole experience.  Equally as kind and approachable, she was available to step in and answer questions about marketing and showing your work in a time that looks and functions so differently than when Sam was at the height of his career at Nat Geo.

Basically, I got to spend a week learning about making complex, rigorous, and “inevitable” photographs.  Photographs that make this genre of photography look “easy” because the images just look right and completely disguise the amount of effort that went into making them.  Photographs that attempt to include the whole world in a single frame while presenting a clean and clear story.  Photographs that pull you in because their 2 dimensional form doesn’t extinguish the life they hold.

Here’s a few favorite images from my week on Whidbey.  Some I presented in class and some are simply some personal favorites from the week.