Union Square Photography Friends

About this workshop
Ophelia doesn't perform for the camera. She inhabits it. Warm light, cascading hair, eyes that open and close like she's deciding how much of herself to give you — she is full presence, full confidence, and absolutely in control of the room.

This workshop is about heat. Not the obvious kind — the kind that lives in a glance, in the angle of a jaw, in the moment just before a smile becomes something else entirely. We'll work with warm, raking available light to sculpt mood, chasing that golden-hour-at-midnight quality that makes a portrait feel like a memory you're not sure you earned.
What you'll work on:

• Working with a high-energy, expressive model without losing control of the frame
• Warm available light — how to read it, shape it, and let it do the heavy lifting
• The difference between sultry and obvious — and why restraint is your sharpest tool
• Timing: catching the in-between, not the pose

What this is not:
Four photographers. No audience. No shortcuts. You'll be challenged to slow down precisely when everything in you wants to fire the shutter — and to fire it exactly when you've been holding your breath.

Practical details:

• Maximum 4 photographers
• Bring your camera and a fast lens (f/1.4–f/2.8 recommended)
• All skill levels welcome — intention required
• 18+ event, full nudity, no exceptions

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Freek Dirkx is a Dutch portrait photographer based in New York City. His workshops are small by design — four photographers maximum — because real learning doesn't happen in a crowd.

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Spots fill fast. Reserve yours.

Lucy exists somewhere between a daydream and a dark fairy tale. Blonde, bare, introspective — she holds light in her hands like she's deciding whether to keep it. This workshop is built around that quality: the strange, quiet magic of a subject who is entirely in her own world.
We'll work in available light against a deep blue-black background, chasing mood over perfection. The goal isn't a clean portrait. It's a feeling — that suspended moment where whimsy tips into something almost melancholy.

What you'll work on:

• Reading and responding to a model who moves intuitively
• Using blue-toned available light to build atmosphere
• Finding the frame inside the stillness — when not to shoot
• Posing that feels discovered, not directed

What this is not:
This is not a test drive. You won't be handed shots. You'll be guided to find them yourself — which is harder, slower, and worth every second.

Practical details:

• Maximum 4 photographers
• Bring your camera and a fast lens (f/1.4–f/2.8 recommended)
• All skill levels welcome — curiosity required
• 18+ event, part nudity, no exceptions

***

Freek Dirkx is a Dutch portrait photographer based in New York City. His workshops are small by design — four photographers maximum — because real learning doesn't happen in a crowd.