The Flashbus Workshop {a review}

I have been wanting to learn more about flash photography so Monday I skipped out on my motherly and wifely duties and attended the Flashbus workshop in Durham, North Carolina with my sweet sister-turned-partner-in-camera-equipment-addiction, Kirstie.

The “Flashbus Tour” is a traveling workshop featuring two big-name flash photographers Joe McNally and David Hobby (The Strobist). Over the course of two months, they are traveling across the United States on their infamous bus, stopping in 29 cities to do the workshop. My sister lives in Raleigh, a city slapped up next to Durham, so I went up a couple of days early and visited with her before attending the workshop.

Aside from standing in line outside longer than expected, trying to see past wood poles obstructing our view half the time and sitting in wooden chairs which were not the most comfortable nor that organized, I had a lovely time. Content wise, the workshop was wonderful! I learned so much and had so many “a ha” moments that helped connect the dots. Goodness, I don’t even know if they did connect the dots since I knew so little there were hardly enough dots there to connect. They put the dots there for me and then connected them!

The first half of the workshop was with the “Strobist,” David Hobby. He was personable and normal and real and sensible and I really, really liked him! His approach to flash photography is much more simplistic, which I can really appreciate and want to emulate. The shots he has captured with just one or two flashes are out of this world! He might be my new photography hero.

Many people have asked for me to share things I learned, but will not do that. They worked hard on their material and have endured a grueling schedule to share it with attendees. I will, however, share little tidbits that have been shared before at their blogs or are general information. I say these are little tidbits, but I thought they are important; they resonated with me.

Here are some real gems from David Hobby:

• Lighting is relative.
• Lighting is less like math and more like cooking, like making soup. You use some main ingredients and then add in little of this, a little of that until it tastes right.
• Try lots of things, then find the ones you like. Pick those apart, find what it is you like about them and then push further down that road.

During our break for lunch, they tried hard to cover the HUGE windows that the room had; I do not think that this venue was thoroughly scouted. Having a dark room was kind of important for a FLASH photography workshop. 😉 There were a few windows they were not able to cover, plus there were windows in the ceiling, impossible to cover. A great location for a natural light workshop, though, if anyone is looking for such a venue. LOL

The second half of the workshop was with Joe McNally, a photographer who prefers to use many different flashes to create beautifully creative pictures. He had one statement that made an impact on me:

• Your path to a good photograph will be littered with tons of bad ones.

I loved it when he brought out reflectors, because you know how I love reflectors, right? He also demonstrated how to shoot through the filter base of a reflector (most of them have a filter base, on which you zip on the reflector material cover) to soften and spread out the light from a flash. I would never have thought of doing that.

Joe is brilliant with layering flashes, changing strengths and positions, producing a slightly different effect each time. He did a lot of demonstrations, which proved that there isn’t an exact recipe, that each photograph will go through a bit of trial and error. That will be a confidence boost when I begin my flash journey.

Now, my challenge is to find the time to be able to put all that I learned into practice!!