one light workshop

The day after we got back from our vacation was my b-day. I woke up to Monkey Pants and Shane waiting for me with a big box. Before I opened it Marlie proudly announced "Its a mixerchine!" ... and it was. I have been wanting one of these for a few years so I was pretty excited.

After that Jen and I headed out for the One Light Workshop with Zack Arias. I'd heard great things about Zack and his teaching so when I heard last year that he was coming to St. Louis I signed up right away.



I guess this won't mean much unless you know some things about photography, but we learned a ton about off camera flash. Its something I've been wanting to learn about for a long time so I was pretty excited. If you are a photographer, I highly recommend Zack's workshop. It was intense, 10:00 a.m. to 12:30 a.m. the next morning, but it was worth it. Everything I had heard was true. He is a really great teacher, very down to earth, transparent, and has a great sense of humor.

Maybe most importantly, he knows what is talking about. I admire his minimalist approach to photography. In the world of photography people tend to make it all about the equipment. People have told me on more that one occasion "Well, I could be a photographer too if I had a good camera like yours." Um...ouch. When Zack opened up the workshop with this quote, I knew I was in the right place...

"The fact is that relatively few photographers ever master their medium. Instead they allow the medium to master them and go on an endless squirrel cage chase from new lens to new lens to new paper to new developer to new gadget, never staying with one piece of equipment long enough to learn its full capacities, becoming lost in a maze of technical information that is of little or no use since they don't know what to do with it." - Edward Weston

I really don't want to be on a endless squirrel cage chase. I want to know my equipment, to know my craft.

I also watched this video that Zack created and could really identify. Again probably not really interesting if you aren't a photographer, but it really spoke to me.

I learned a lot at the workshop. Phrases and tips and hints from that day are still swimming around in my head. I'm looking forward to playing around with the lighting equipment more and putting what I've learned to work. I'm learning to be patient with myself. Perhaps my favorite thing Zack said all day was.."Try to remember that anything that grows slowly is usually pretty awesome." I'm trying to remember.

Here are some of my favorite shots from the day...