One couple, from the first email to the finished gallery AND AFTER.
The Whole Way Through
[ THE INTENSIVE ]
Photography mentoring intensive · Sunshine Coast & Brisbane
Sixteen hours. Two months. Ten places a year
4 hrs
The Morning After
four
4 hrs
Shoot Day
three
4 hrs
The Design
two
4 hrs
The Enquiry
one
The morning after
[ what this is ]
Not a workshop about how it might work
You bring a couple who'll be your muse. We take them through exactly as though they were a paying client — the enquiry, the reply, the questionnaire, the planning, the shoot, the edit, the delivery.
And we do it side by side. I'll show you mine first, then we build yours together — my hands off the keyboard, your words, your business name, and me talking you through it as you go. Same with the questionnaire. Same with the timeline, the lead-up sequence, all of it.
You're never left staring at a blank page. But nothing gets written for you either, because the point is that by the end it's yours, in your voice, and you know exactly why every line is there.
Four sessions later you have a full client experience, finished and ready for the next enquiry that lands. Not a folder of my templates with your name swapped in. Yours.
So they arrive knowing exactly what's happening and feeling like they already know you.
What to send and when
08.
Every message between booking and the day. You write them, from your address, in your voice
The lead-up sequence
07.
You'll build one for your couple, and a template you can reuse.
The timeline
06.
How to build a day around two people rather than around a location. Light, timing, where you'll be at four o'clock and why.
Designing the session
05.
Designing the day, and the emails that carry it
A week or two later, once the first lot has settled.
[ two: four hours ]
Pricing said out loud, deposits, and what happens when someone hesitates.
Booking, contracts, the money conversation
04.
What to ask, what not to, and how the answers shape everything after.
The questionnaire
03.
The one email that makes someone book you or keep looking. You'll write it, send it to your couple, and we'll look at what comes back.
The reply that decides it
02.
We start where every booking starts. I'll show you mine, then you write yours.
The enquiry, and everything before yes
01.
The enquiry, and everything before yes
Zoom, or in person wherever I am. Lunch on me if you're with me
[ one: four hours ]
[ how this works ]
Watching it happen is worth about half
That's true of me too. When I'm being taught something, if I only listen, half of it goes. If I do it — badly, in front of someone, with them telling me where I've gone wrong — it stays.
By the end you're not holding my system. You're holding yours.
Your shoot. I'll lead if you want me to, step back if you don't, and answer anything from the side.
Two hours with your couple
10.
Just us. Nerves aired, questions cleared, the plan gone over once more. Nobody shoots well straight out of the car.
Two hours before they arrive
09.
The shoot, and the two hours before it
Two hours together first, then two hours with your couple.
[ three · four hours ]
a month Later. That gap is deliberate — Once the system has had time to stop being theory.
Anything still open, finished while it's fresh. You leave with the set complete.
Closing out the templates
14.
What they receive, when, and how it's presented. The last impression is the one they tell people about.
Gallery and delivery
13.
How I choose, how fast, and how I stop. Side by side, on your own files from yesterday.
Culling and editing
12.
What worked, what you'd do differently, what you nearly missed and why you didn't.
The debrief
11.
The edit, and the last impression
The morning after, while it's all still fresh.
[ four · four hours ]
Then a month before the shoot. That gap is deliberate — it's when your couple starts to trust you, and it's when the system stops being theory.
Your own client experience, built by you
— Your enquiry response, written and tested on a real person
— A client questionnaire in your own voice
— A full email sequence, booking to delivery
— A repeatable session design process
— A timeline template
— Your own edited gallery from the shoot
— A month of using it before the shoot day
[ what you leave with ]
Photography is art. There's no right or wrong here.
I'm not handing you my style and asking you to use it. On shoot day I'm guided by your energy — if you want to lead, lead, and I'll guide from the side or just be there for questions. If you'd rather watch first, watch. Either is fine and I've done both.
You lead the art. I'll handle everything underneath it.
[ one thing to know ]
Photographed by Nicci at Venture Folk Retreat, Byron Bay 2025. A guest at our first retreat in 2024, and came back to the next one, Byron Bay 2025, with a ticket and a second job — to capture the behind-the-scenes, the in-between moments and the frames I'm never free to take myself. Forever grateful.
[ nicci: sunshine coast
@niccikphotography ]
Real words Nicci Kershler
I attended the first Venture Folk Retreat back in 2024 on the Sunny Coast and again in Byron Bay 2025, and honestly, the experience was nothing short of amazing. Right from the beginning I felt really welcomed — not only by the host, Carissa, but by all the attendees.
Sometimes workshops can feel a little bit hustling — like you’re hustling in to get the shot. It just didn’t feel like that. Carissa just made it feel really effortless, and I was able to capture some incredible images that have completely built my portfolio. My portfolio has built beyond what I thought it was going to be, and it gave me the courage to go out and style my own elopements, my own weddings, and do really cool storytelling with couples in the city.
I’ve actually gained a lot of work in the elopement space since doing that very first retreat. From there it’s just completely taken off. I’m booked out months in advance, and I’ve hit all my financial targets — well above what I thought was possible in my first year of photography.
So if you are on the fence about joining a Venture Folk Retreat — just come. You literally have nothing to lose. … Just do it. It’s going to be epic.
[ from a photographer ]
Three payments, one per stage. No extra cost to spread it.
Before shoot day
$1500
Before session one
$1500
Payment plan
On booking, to hold your dates
$1500
sixteen hours
$4500
Four sessions across two months. Sunshine Coast or Brisbane, with the first two on Zoom if that suits you better.
Ten places a year. That's all I can do properly, and when they're gone they're gone until the following year.
