Impromptu Seminar

I meet up with a random group of photographers every once in a while, and you never really know who's going to show up, how much experience you have etc.  Although someone else was putting together a demonstration on studio shooting, there were a few too many people there for just one set-up.  I grabbed a few people and ran a demonstration of some off-camera lighting techniques.  No "models" here, just normal photographers who don't usually get in front of the lens.  This is Andre, who had a great smile and a good look.

All of these were shot with shutter speed pulling ambient about 1.5 to 2 stops below ambient. A gridded CTO gelled flash camera right on Andre's face, and an un-gelled snooted flash as rim light coming from over Andre's back right shoulder about 8-12 feet back.

This also was my first opportunity to try out my new radiopopper JRX. They allow me to manually control and adjust the my flash powers directly from my camera. They're terrific.

It was great fun getting to teach and talk about taking pictures with people who are actually interested and willing to learn, and as always, I learn from everyone else just as much.

Sharin' the Upsherin

An upsherin is Yiddish for "cutting hair". And marks the first time a Jewish boy gets his hair cut and when he starts wearing a Kippah and Tzitzi. It also happens on his 3rd Jewish birthday.

Took this for the Chaim's upsherin invitation. It wasn't the cover because we couldn't see his face or all of his long hair, but it appeared on the inside, and I think it's a treasure. He had just gotten back from a fair where he got his face painted like a tiger, which apparently still left an impression (and orange face paint his mom almost couldn't get off.) If it's one way to get cute pictures of kids is to have them make funny faces!



We also couldn't resist getting pictures of his sisters. But getting two kids to cooperate with you at the same time is even more challenging. Luckily my wife (a child magnet) was able to challenge them to silly face contest.