Have you ever attended a class or workshop where you were almost jumping out of your seat wanting to put into practice what you’re being taught? That is EXACTLY how I felt when I listened to Zack & Jody Gray talk about lighting this past weekend at their In-Camera Workshop in San Diego. The focus of their workshop was off-camera lighting and how to use strobes to get dramatic, crazy-beautiful images.
I’ve never attempted the use of a strobe, mainly because the entire concept seemed so difficult and complicated. That and I HATE using flash in my photography, so I just stayed away from any off-camera lighting as much as I could. The whole idea of mixing natural light with flash just seemed… wrong. And being the lighting novice that I was, I lumped everything that wasn’t “natural light” into “flash”. And I am really happy to be proven wrong.
I was already familiar with Zack & Jody from their incredible photography. But what I wasn’t expecting was how GREAT they are at teaching. They have a gift for taking what appears to be a complicated topic and explaining it in a way that makes sense. After only a couple of hours of classroom instruction, we were outside setting up our own lighting pattern to shoot one of our models. And the first shot out of the camera for all of us was PHENOMENAL.
Check out these images…
Zack & Jody have this incredibly refreshing way of looking at photography – not just in technique, but in how they view it as a profession. They don’t see themselves as “celebrities”, they know where photography fits in their lives (it doesn’t define them), and have a incredibly passionate (yet realistic) love affair with photography. It’s inspiring to say the least.
That, and they are two really cool peeps to hang out with! 🙂
Thanks Zack & Jody! You guys rock!