Just got back around midnight last night from the Flashbus Tour in St. Louis, featuring David Hobby and Joe McNally, two photographers I greatly admire. The BAD news about the Flashbus Tour is that as I was speeding along the freeway back to Kansas City, my entire box of dark chocolate Raisinets upended themselves and spilled all over my lap and onto the floor, where they were squished into a chocolately mess by my feet as I was driving. And I had only finished less than half the box, people. *sigh* Thankfully I was driving my husband's car ;-)
The GOOD news about the Flashbus Tour was... pretty much everything else! For those who don't know what this "Flashbus thing-y" is (was?), check it out here. Alas, it is fini, kaput, done, and St. Louis was the final stop. But I am very thankful I was lucky enough to attend and learn a whole lot from these two accomplished photographers. Between the two of them, they have quite the client list including numerous years working at the Baltimore Sun, Sports Illustrated, Life, Time, Fortune, National Geographic, photographing many national celebrities... you get the idea. This ain't their first rodeo, iykwim.
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| by keepon |
The first half of the day was conducted by Mr. Hobby, who did an excellent presentation of how to build lighting schemes from the ground up. The second half was more of a live demonstration of Mr. McNally shooting tethered and using a slightly different technique. I enjoyed both of them and learned a lot. They also gave away a lot of swag, and I won a pretty sweet Manfrotto photo vest for being the first person to present an uneaten banana from my bag! Yessss!!!!! LOL
However, although I definitely squirreled away many a technical nugget to incorporate into my own shooting style, what I really appreciated most was the inspiration I received. Here were two incredibly successful photographers, and while undoubtedly savvy businessmen, they were also amazingly generous with sharing their knowledge and experience. Photography can be a very cutthroat industry sometimes, so that was cool and inspiring to see. And if I may venture briefly into slightly political territory (I promise not to make it a habit), as a woman and thereby definitely a minority in the crowd, I felt very comfortable and welcome at the event. I was not talked down to, nor did I feel I received special treatment. It was simply a non-issue.
So expect to see some of this new and exciting knowledge informing my work at Striking Photography over the next few months! A whole bunch of seniors should be rolling through here soon, as well as some business headshots, wedding work and more...
And may you, dear reader, continue to grow and learn, whatever your field of work may be!
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