prior to attending this workshop, i think i used my flash maybe a half a dozen times and i even considered selling it. i've disliked using flash as long as i've been making photos, mostly because i was afraid of it, which was a direct result of not understanding how to use it to my advantage. after spending two long days with close to 40 fellow light-confused photographers and a crowd of incredible instructors on hand to guide us to the light (pun intended), i now have a new way of seeing images, and a new confidence encouraging me to make portraits in a new way.
on friday we spent most of the time in a classroom-ish setting where we had the treat of hearing both david honl and tim mantoani speak. that was kind of awesome, and if you missed it...bummer for you.
equally awesome was the rest of the weekend. friday afternoon we had our first photo session. my group was making portraits inside of a hotel ballroom, while the other groups shot at other locations which included the hotel roof and parking garage. in the ballroom, however, there were two backgrounds set up for us. one was huge and grey and the other was small and white. neither of them really appealed to me, but i did fancy the green wallpaper in the room, so i decided to use that. the following two photos were made in front of said wallpaper with a beauty dish as my light source.
after a few hours of everyone taking turns making photos, i thought our time shooting was over until two roller derby girls ("P.I.T.A." and "Agata Chokabitchski") entered the room. i was told i had five minutes to shoot them, so i went straight for the ring flash and white background. my five minutes magically turned into 20, during which i made the following photos...
the white background worked well for the ring flash, but unfortunately it was a small space for two people, so i moved the girls over to the larger grey background and photographed them using a softbox. during my shoot, michael goulding grabbed another strobe with a blue gel and pointed that behind the girls, which created some nice separation as seen in this next photo...
if you ever want to make some hilarious photos, grab some derby girls. they certainly aren't camera shy.
on saturday we had three shoots: soccer, gymnastics and baseball. it was a pretty long day of shooting and i learned tons about what created/controlled light can do, and now i have a solid foundation to bring to my world of portrait making.
education is power. i can't wait to get my hands on some lighting gear and put my new knowledge to use on future assignments. HUGE HUGE HUGE thanks to sportsshooter.com and all the volunteers who helped put the luau on. and thanks to all the other photographers who attended and helped one another out. i had a great time working with everyone and am incredibly inspired.
