After my 8-year wedding photography career, at a period in which I became bored of repeating the same things, I decided to attend as a last hope the Fearless Conference in 2016. This was a 3-day conference held in the city of Porto in Portugal. After the conference I decided to attend a workshop held by Brett Butterstain wedding photographer from San Diego. These busy and wonderful four days have been the turning point of my life. Franck Boutonnet, Lanny & Erika Mann, Citlalli Rico, Damon Pijlman, Dennis Berti, Mike Gerard and many others were important speakers. It was like a star-gate. All of them shared everything they knew openly. All participants were both learning and getting inspired. After Brett’s workshop, I had a different look at photography and found a way to get new and exciting things from all the photo shoots.
You can read the whole story at the bottom of the page…Being a Speaker at Fearless Photographers Conference
Afterwards, I constantly followed the Fearless Conferences, its live broadcasts, active groups and photo critics. Finally, I also attended Foundation Workshop, an organization of Fearless Photographers. This process really contributed a lot to me, both in terms of personal development and development in photography. Now I am a photographer who knows what he is doing, who works very consciously, enjoys and is excited about its profession.
Invitation
Speaking of excitement, what do you think, what happened in 2019? Huy Nguyen, founder of Fearless Photographers, wrote me a message. “Ufuk , are you ready for the big moment? Would you like to be a speaker at the Fearless Conference 2019? ”My answer was:“ Uhhh, I can hear my heart beat right now. Yes Huy, I think I can be :). Of course I would not try to teach something to the best wedding photographers in the world. For this reason, I decided to focus on the issues I felt good about.
After a 4 months of preparation for the conference we went with my wife Basak and my son Can to Aachen, Germany, where the conference would take place. There were about 200 photographers from all over the world. My speech was under the main title of “3 Important Rules of Success in Wedding Photography”. My subtitles were “Going beyond the standards, seeing the positive aspects of the mistakes and making success measurable”. I explained my own experiences and anecdotes as much as I could. I guess it wasn’t bad either.
On the Stage
It was really exciting to be on the other side of the stage this time. However, on the one hand, everyone was very embracing as if I was with a big family. For this reason, my excitement was replaced by pleasure while on stage. I think it was one of the most important moments of my photography career to be a speaker here. I will continue to attend these conferences as an audience every year as much as I can.
I thank once again to Huy, who trusted me and gave me this opportunity and to all the participants who listened and supported me.
Being a Speaker at Fearless Photographers Conference by Ufuk Sarisen
