Simple thoughts from a Simple Mind: Small Strobes, Big Results

This past Monday I had the grand opportunity to attend the

Small Strobes, Big Results workshop with lighting master David Tejada! To put it succinctly, it knocked my socks off! If you are a photog and have not had the oppotunity to attend this seminar, go find out when David's coming into your region and GO!

I admit to being a rookie in the off-camera strobe world, being a mostly natural light photographer with my seniors, and what I learned has opened a whole new world to me in my photography. My previous attempts at working with strobes had often created a less-than flattering effects for my subjects unless the circumstances were truly favorable (IE: a small room with walls I could bounce it off)...now I have been armed with so many new techniques to really create everything from a natural look to the truly dramatic. To top it off, because we stuck to working just with small strobes and simple equipment, I can add this to my repertoire without selling a kidney (B&H and Amvona, here I come!).

Much thanks to David and his assistant Eric for a day filled with so much information and many laughs to boot!

Our gracious hostess, Polina Osherov -- who was much more peppy throughout the day than it looks here!

The tremendous Ms. Shawn Schaub getting some advice from the master himself

Getting things set up with one of our two great models for the day Chris.

Just a simple shot of Chris but what is amazing was the backdrop was white--a gelled strobe behind him created that beautiful blue.

Here was something I had never seen before--this shot of the stunning Rachel was done by shooting a yellow gelled strobe which was set off to the side through a Lightbreak (simply a clear piece of plastic with black patterns on it). Oh the drama! Who would believe this is early afternoon on a sunny day! (oh, and check out her shoes! they were kickin'!!)