It’s rare that I get the opportunity to and learn and talk shop with other photographers.  This past weekend I took my assistant, Morgen, loaded up the Jeep, and headed to Little Rock, Arkansas.  We went to a hands-on flash seminar.  It was a really great experience.  We learned new things, met some really amazing people, and drove 2000 miles in a 4 day weekend.  I am so excited to use our new knowledge and make some great art!

We started the day with some lecture in a classroom situation.  If you know me, you know that sitting still is not much in my wheelhouse.  From there, our room of 30 broke off into 3 smaller groups to go off with the instructors.  The first stop was a display of how find the right ratio of background light to artificial light while still making the image look nicely even.  The second stop was a headshot clinic that covered the basics of on-location headshot shooting.

From there all of the groups came together for a study on how to change the sky color in-camera, in combination with a gelled flash, to make a dramatic change from just plain old grey skies.  It was great to see how easy it actually was.

After the break, things started to get interesting.  We went to the parking garage to play with some back-lighting and other directional light.  This is the kind of stuff I love playing with!  This is where things start becoming art and not just images.

I’ve really never played much with gels to change the color of a situation but that’s about to change!  The blue background above is actually a red brick wall outside of the hotel!

Now for the fun stuff!  Urban street photography has never been my strength and after this I am having quite a palm-to-face moment.  Too easy.  Why was I afraid of trying these things?  All my years of insomnia – – and I could have been doing this!  Now I have so many ideas and things I want to try!

By the time 9pm rolled around people were heading off, but a handful of us die-hards weren’t done yet!  So we threw Morgen in as the model.  Of course, as part of the selfie-snapping generation, she was all over being the model.  And good at it, too!  We played some more with our blue gels and just had fun with it.

I was very pleased with the seminar.  I was impressed how everyone worked together.  Everyone shared.  Everyone helped.  Everyone was just happy.  It certainly sparked my inspiration to go out and create.  I needed that.