I had to take mom to Omaha to catch a plane, so we left home at 4:00 a.m. I had planned on going home earlier Friday night to get to bed early, but of course that didn't happen. I got home about 10:00 like usual, ate supper and got to bed around 11:00 - up again by 3:30. I had dropped mom off at the airport and drove all the way across Omaha to the La Vista Conference Center by 6:45. As I pulled in the parking lot, I saw a big bus in front as though it had just gotten there. I figured it was probably Sandy's bus and later I found out I was correct. I thought about going in and offering to help setup, but I was tired and I had planned on taking a short nap in the car so that I would be awake enough during the day to actually soak in the knowledge. I did just that and woke up about 8:15. I went in and worked on some editing I had to do until class started at 10:00. I felt kind of bad about not at least offering to help earlier since they were running behind and didn't get their registration table setup at all (which was supposed to be up by 9:00). I don't know if they would have accepted help or not, but I could have at least offered.
I have attended several of Sandy Puc's tours before and they have always been very informative. This tour was quite different from her others - not that it wasn't informative, but that it wasn't just her teaching us. Sandy brought several other great photographers together to show us, hands-on, many different ways to get great portraits.
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| Brian DeMint's Booth Taken with simple incandescent lights |
The first photographer that I was with was Brian DeMint. If you look at his work, you may wonder what he would teach a basic portrait photographer because his work is definitely... different. However, he is a very funny speaker and has great fundamentals and ideas. He uses a lot of things in ways they aren't meant to be used. When he saw our first model come in with tattoos across her chest, he immediately knew he wanted her to model for him and how he wanted her made-up. His wife does his makeup for him and they got their gothic model ready.
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| Brian DeMint's Booth Taken with the exsame lights as the other just positioned differently |
One of the biggest things that I took away from Brian's booth was that it doesn't matter what you use to get the portrait, it's the end result that matters. Although he had multi hundred dollar lights provided for him to use, we used 3 chicken warmer style lamps with regular incandescent bulbs in them to do our lighting. This acutally worked really well because it is so much easier to control and move the lighting where you want and need it. Do these portraits look like they were taken with $10 chicken lamps? I've already incorporated this idea in to a portrait session I had Sunday - I didn't use chicken lamps, but I did use the general idea and it worked great.
Brian also gave us tips on working with and talking to the models. Another setup he did later in the day was using some plexiglass he found somewhere in the hotel and making a 'rainy day' scene with it. There are a few other things that he told us about that I plan on trying just to see what they do.
The second photographer that I was with for the day was Jordan Chan. Jordan was teaching us about off camera flash and using them to overpower the sun. He can take portraits in the middle of the day in blazing sun and still get an awesome exposure with beautiful background and sky color as well as a well lit subject. This is something I just started figuring out how to do a few months ago and have got the general idea of - I first used it for individual / team ball portraits this summer. Jordan showed us a much faster and easier way of doing what I have been doing, plus a few more tips. He also showed me a setting on my camera that I didn't realize was there.
I didn't take any photos at Jordan's booth, although thinking back I should have just to have them. I'm glad that I didn't skip his booth because it really helped me with one of the biggest techniques I've been working on the past few months. Now it's just more practice, practice, practice! Again, I have already implemented his technique in a second portrait session I had yesterday at the swimming pool. Great color for the pool in the background while still having a well lit subject.
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| Travis Gadsby's Booth - Fundamentals Taken with 1 light |
The third and final photographer that I worked with was Travis Gadsby. Travis is the owner of Silverlake Photo Accessories and also does portrait photography. I'm guessing that he took most of the portraits on their site showing their products. Travis's booth was on the fundamentals of lighting, posing, etc.
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| Travis Gadsby's Booth - Fundamentals Taken with a main light, a reflector, and a seperator light |
We had a beautiful ballerina for our model at this booth when I got to it. We started out taking portraits of her with just a single light. We then added a reflector in the front and finally we added a seperator light on the opposite side in the back.
Having a ballerina for a model, we also got to have some fun learning how to catch jumps in mid air. She was very patient and willing to jump over and over and over for each of us to get a chance and capturing her in mid air.
I believe all the backgrounds that were used on tour were provided by Travis with Silverlake Photo Accessories, so if you like the backgrounds you see, be sure to check out his page.
Overall, I was not disappointed at all with this educational day. Sandy always puts on a great show and bringing all of these great photographers with her just made it that much better. It's not too often that you find an affordable hands-on workshop - usually it's just sitting and listening. I would definitely recommend this workshop to any aspiring photographers - it runs through October 19th. The schedule can be found on Sandy Puc Tours, and it includes a stop in Kansas City on September 21st (just as close to us as Omaha was). She has different photographers with her at different stops, so you may not get to learn from the same ones as I did, but I'm sure it would still be well worth the money. If you do go, be sure to tell her I sent you. :)
To see a few more of the portraits I got during the workshop, be sure to check out my Facebook Photo Album.
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