Santa Fe Workshop March 29 - April 4th

I just got off the phone with Reid Callanan, Director of the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops. We were discussing my up coming Small Strobes, Big Results workshop in Santa Fe March 29 - April 4, 2009.

This one week workshop is going to be fantastic, plans are being put in motion to guarantee a fabulous week for all who attend! I might also add that there are only 3 or 4 spots left. If you have been sitting on the fence about attending, now is the time to act.

The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops is an inspirational resource for all photographers. They offer over 150 educational programs a year! I have personally attended several workshops there as a participant and I can tell you that it is an experience that you will not forget. Reid has put together some of the finest group of instructors available to inspire your creativity and imagination. For more information about The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops click on this LINK.

Cultural Patterns

I'm currently working on a fun project for an old client of mine. My client is a global leader in the mining industry and has recently contracted with a traffic design firm to produce some new branding for them.

The design firm was contracted to produce a new global branding which will illustrate that my client conducts their business around the world. Rather than using a world map or showing a globe to illustrate my clients worldwide business interests, the design firm came up with the concept of using cultural patterns to illustrate their global interests.

I was asked to photography various pieces of artwork from those areas of the world my client conduct business in. I had several artifacts to photograph, portions of paintings, pottery, textiles and even a wood mask. The mask I had to photograph reminded me of the Jim Cary move "The Mask".

The design firm will be using only slices of the photographs as design elements on collateral material. Perhaps only showing an image an inch tall and perhaps 8 1/2" wide. This project is going to be an on going on as my client continues to collect more art.

Here are a few samples of the type of images I've been shooting.

Philly SSBR Workshop

Just a quick note to let you know I have only 4 spots left for the Philadelphia Small Strobes, Big Results Workshop being held at Eastern State Penitentiary on March 20th. If your interested in attending you will need to let me know soon.

I have two other up coming workshops in April you might be interested in. The first being San Francisco April 13th and the other Orange County, CA April 16th.

I'll also be teaching a week long workshop for The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in late March and in September I'll be in Maine teaching at Maine Media Workshops.

I am always interested in hearing for my readers, please let me know what subjects you would like me to post about. DT

Small Strobes, Big Results Denver Results

First and foremost I want to thank the two models we photographed at the workshop. Lorraine and Colin, they both really did a fantastic job and I want to thank both of them. We had a wonderful time at the Small Strobes, Big Results workshop here in Denver this past weekend!

Unfortunately we where unable to accommodate everyone that wanted to attend the workshop, we left about 4 people on the wait list. To those of you that we where unable to fit in, I'll let you know when the next Denver workshop takes place. Right now I'm thinking May?

At my SSBR workshops, I like setting up shooting situations that look realistic and believable. It's fun to take a situation your photographing using one technique and than switch it around and shoot it in a totally different way. Participants quickly realize with demonstrations like this, "you" can control and create the images that you have in your mind.

For this workshop, I rented an old 1950's style mic from an audio store in town. I brought a fabric background, white dinner jacket and Colin brought his soul. It is such a pleasure to work with such a talented model. Colin is totally comfortable in front of the camera.

The lighting on this shot was a single large Octa box with one SB-800 attached to the back of box via a Justin Clamp. The mounting of the strobe is similar to this illustration but using an Octa box instead. I photographed Colin with my Nikon 85mm f1.4 wide open. The power setting was at it's lowest setting of 1/128 power. The Octa box was just out of the frame, creating soft beautiful light.

I than changed out the lighting to create a totally different feel. I wanted to create more of a night club feel, stage lights and such. The lighting for this second shot was created using 2 SB-800's. One strobe was placed on a make shift boom with a the flash head zoomed to about 50mm pointed back into the lens of the camera. This light is intended to simulate a stage light overhead. The second SB-800 was gridded using this SET UP. I can't remember what size grid I used off hand, I think a 30 degree grid, it's not important. The gridded strobe was used to light Colin singing at the mic.

Lorraine put on a nice dress and sat down at the piano to finish the look of the shot.

I have several workshops coming up that you might be interested in. Philly, PA at Eastern State Penitentiary, San Francisco April 13th, Orange County, CA April 16th.

I'll also be teaching a week long workshop for The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in late March and in September I'll be in Maine teaching at Maine Media Workshops.

I am always interested in hearing for my readers, please let me know what subjects you would like me to post about. DT

More Orbis™

As promised, I used my new Orbis™ Ring Flash during my most recent SSBR workshop. I have two photos that I shot using the ring flash I wanted to show. The first is your typical up against the wall, ring flash shadow type shot. I'm not so much interested in using the ring flash for these kinds of shots, maybe on a rare occasion. This is our model Lorraine standing in front of the painted background hanging in the studio.

I plan on using the ring flash primarily for fill light. The ring flash is ideal for this purpose as the light it produces is basically shadow free. I use the ring flash for that very purpose in the illustration below. The first shot of Colin is without the ring flash.

The ring flash is a very convenient tool to use to provide some needed fill, provided that the fill does not need to be really soft. The size of the light source, the ring flash, is not very large. As you know, the larger the light source, the softer the quality of light.

This was really the first time playing with the Orbis™ Ring Flash, I'm sure I'll have plenty more opportunities to do so. I nice to have another tool in the bag for those special shots.

I have several workshops coming up that you might be interested in. Eastern State Penitentiary, Philly, March 20th San Francisco April 13th and Orange County, CA April 16th.

I'll also be teaching a week long workshop for The Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in late March and in September I'll be in Maine teaching at Maine Media Workshops.

I am always interested in hearing for my readers, please let me know what subjects you would like me to post about. DT

"Memoirs of a Weekend Photographer" Interview

Lawrence Atienza, the creator of the blog "Memoirs of a Weekend Photographer" has just posted a recent interview I did with him on his site. Lawrence is a sharp young guy with fresh ideas and a blog with some nice information.

You can find the interview I did with Lawrence HERE. I hope you enjoy it.

Yesterday was the 7th Small Strobes, Big Results workshop, yesterdays was held here in Denver. We had a full house of shooters all had a great time. I'll be posting about the workshop later this week. I had an opportunity to use The Orbis™ Ring Flash during the workshop and I'll photos to show you when I post about the workshop.

Hope you all had a wonderful weekend. DT

The Orbis™ Ring Flash

I recently received my Orbis™ Ring Flash from Jame Madelin, the developer of the Orbis™ Ring Flash. This is an extremely useful flash accessory for all of us speedlight shooters.

This first thing that struck me was how well made this product is. A lot of thought went into manufacturing the Orbis™ and I believe James has a winner here. The Orbis™ was designed to handle many of the popular flashes on the market, a list of those can be found here.

The light is very evenly projected around the face of the ring flash as shown here in this photo.

What I really like about the product is that it's light weight, well made and easy to pack. As a lot of you know, I posted a DIY project for a ring flash back in Dec 07. My DIY ring flash may have a greater output (about a stop and a third) but it is much larger (about 3 time as thick, front to back) it's differently not as easy to transport as the Orbis™

I just love the fact that the Orbis™ is not mounted to the camera, some might think this as handy cap. The Orbis™ comes with a convenient strap which I really like. I'm able to sling the ring flash over my neck and shoulder which allows me to easily make camera adjustments with both hands.

I use a ring flash primarily as a fill light and if I want try a few exposures without it , I appreciate having the ability to hang the ring flash to my side with the provide strap.

If you prefer to mount the Orbis™ to a stand you'll have no trouble doing so with a standard umbrella bracket as shown here. I have had no trouble firing the flash using the Nikon CLS system thus avoiding any sort of cord attachment connecting the flash to the camera.

Let's take a look at some sample images shot using the Orbis™ ring flash later. I'll be using it at the Small Strobes, Big Results workshop in Denver this weekend.

The Arnold Sports Festival

On March 6th, 2010, I'll be conducting a lighting workshop at the Arnold Sports Festival in Columbus, OH. This is one of the largest Sports Festivals in the country, it starts March 4th and runs through the 7th. If your in the area, I hope you'll join us!