San Francisco Photographer – Bay Area Portrait Photography

Zack Arias‘ OneLight Workshop was 15.5 hours of discussing, learning, playing, shaping and creating light all packed into one day.  Yes, it was a long day but it flew by (well, except for the ‘I’m freezing’ part – it was 20 degrees colder than forecasted and I was not prepared)!  What I really appreciated about this workshop was that it was very hands-on.  But hands-on in a way that really made you think, pre-visualize and make your own settings so you really ‘get it’ and have those ‘a-ha’ moments.   Zack was around to help you think through it if you got stuck but essentially, after the lecture part, let you play with all the equipment and most importantly learn to KNOW the limitations of the equipment.  That part of it was super huge for me.  I’ve tried some cool lighting set-ups before and sometimes getting some cool results but not fully understanding why or confident that I could reproduce it.  This workshop helped me feel confident about the how and why so I can concentrate more on being creative and having fun.

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Below are some of my favorite shots.  These first 2 shots were taken in the back parking lot within minutes of each other but with very different approaches and outcomes.  This first shot I call my ‘rock star’ shot.  Love the flare on the glasses and the blue sky with Emily rocking the pose.

Taken minutes later at a different part of the parking lot.  Doesn’t Kati look like a super hero contemplating the world?  🙂  I love how the clouds frame her too.

The models were so great.  It was literally freezing with crazy wind and snowing at times.  You can’t tell but Kati’s shivering to the bone.  We had to get our photos in quick!  This was taken on the roof top of ZumaPhoto, owned and operated by the very talented Mitch Burt & Pepper Nix, our gracious hosts for the workshop.

Pepper was super great and gave me permission to use the guitar as a prop.  Little did I know that Nate was a musician and just started playing.  Can anyone name the cord he’s playing?  I love this ‘moody musician’ shot I took of him.

Oh, and we had some fun with grids too.  This was shot at night in a dark little alley.  We went off in small groups and photographed each other.  This is Aubrey, one of the participants.  Funny, I didn’t even realize the wall was red until we lit it!

Same set up as above but taken from a different angle.  She looks like she’s just about to go on stage.  It is sooo amazing what you can find by asking yourself, ‘I wonder what it looks like from here?’ and playing!  🙂

I highly recommend attending this workshop if you can get in.  Zack is an open book and gives you everything he’s got.  He literally will not leave until everyone has every single question they have answered.  The earliest he’s had a workshop end was 11am and the latest was 5am.  For us it ended at 1:30am.  Even when we thought we had it, he made us go out and practice some more and that of course raised more questions.  It was super cool.  One last thing I’ll say is that even if you buy the OneLight DVD, which I did, the workshop is still worth it.  The DVD for me was was like learning that E = mc(squared) and the workshop was the practical application of that equation.  And just like physics, there is always something to learn about lighting – the practical applications are limitless.  I’m super excited to continue to explore the possibilities!  Thank you Zack and thank you Meghan (Zack’s wife) for sharing Zack with us.

March has really rocked my world, both professionally and personally.  I have so much to share that I think I have to break it up into parts.  Earlier this month I attended WPPI (Wedding, Portrait Professionals International) in Las Vegas.  I was really excited about it.  How can I not be excited (and a little intimidated) meeting up with about 14,000 photographers from all over the world?  The convention coincided with my sister Maria’s birthday and also the 2nd anniversary of my father’s death.  I knew that I needed and wanted to do something special to commemorate them, especially my father.  So when I saw that Jesh de Rox announced that he was going to be doing his ‘Upward Spiral’ event, not knowing exactly what it was but knowing it would be special, I changed my flight and hoped I could find a place to crash that night.

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Well, I have to say that making that last minute change was one of the best decisions I made in a long time.  I had never met Jesh but knew his philosophy of life through his twitter/fb posts so I was excited to meet him. And wow, what a way to meet him.  His event was an interactive concert.  Him telling stories, playing music, and challenging us to explore what holds us back from living & loving fully in the NOW without any caveats.  He had us draw our fears/what holds us back, he had us wish the hardest and most sincere wish we could ever for our neighbor to to let go of those fears, he had us sing like no one & everyone was listening, and laugh and be human with each other.  All of this surrounded with his lovely voice and original music.  And all of this building up to one of the last experiments.

Photo by John Michael Cooper

He had us partner up with someone near us, a stranger, look into each other’s eyes and say, ‘you are not alone’ to each other.  Each time saying it in slightly different ways.  It was incredible how deep it was to sincerely look into someone’s eyes and say this.  Really mean it.  Really feel it.  Really accept it.  Even more incredible was how a slight inflection, change in spacing, in emphasis, in softness can change the impact of the message.  It was a lesson in being present, in letting go of fear, in language, in love, in community, in being human.  I was lucky enough to do this experiment  with Jesh.  This is how I met him for the first time.

Photo by John Michael Cooper

So this is what set the tone for me for WPPI.  I felt love and accepted and more calm because of it.  In a sea of 14,000 people it is ironic that you can feel alone, isolated, a newbie who doesn’t get invited to all the parties or dinners.  Yes, it can feel a little like high school.  But with this amazing experience I was able to just relax and be in the moment and enjoy my first WPPI experience.  Not worry about what others are doing and be present with the people I was with.  Just talking to Jesh was a good lesson in being there.  Being locked in.  Even after the concert, he hung around and talked and loved people.  And even though there were tons of people waiting and wanting to speak with him, he never looked away.  He never lost connection.  He was locked in and engaged no matter what was happening around him.  He makes you feel special.  He made me feel special.  I am so lucky to have meet a new friend, Lucia Castaneda, who was also there at the concert and took these 2 photos of me and Jesh just talking.  And we talked for a while.  We talked about music, singing, the lose of my father (well, just the physical lose, we are still connected)… it was amazing!

Photos by Lucia Castaneda

Can I tell you?!… I”m also majority excited about his Beloved project and how he’s applying this philosophy of life to photography and helping couples reconnect and make their love even stronger.  More on that later.

Oh, and I _did_ find a place to crash that night.  Not only did I meet Lucia, but I also met Kirsten Lewis.  Wow, what another twist of fate!  She’s an amazing photographer and person with a super contagious smile and laugh.  She got me excited about The Foundation Workshop and so much more.  I could go on and on about her and her friends that I also met, Kathryn, Oliva & Beth but I will stop there.  Just know that they are good people and I feel so grateful to have met them!  🙂  Wow!  This was only day #1 and I was already flying high.  🙂

Big thanks to John Michael  & Dalisa Cooper of altF for opening up their rocking studio for this fantastic event to happen

So every year, photographers from all over the world attend this conference in Las Vegas:

This year I’m super lucky to be able to attend WPPI in Las Vegas for the week and learn, mingle and party with the best in the industry.  It will be my first time and I can’t tell you how excited I am!   Along with all the classes (and parties!), another great thing about this convention is the trade show. I get to check out first-hand all the great and varied new products there are out there and deciding which ones to offer to my clients.   Seriously, it is _the_ major event for photographers every year and I’m so grateful to have the opportunity to go.

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With so much going on, I will not be in communication much for the week but I promise to get back everyone once I return (and have some cool photos to show too).  Gracias & Viva Las Vegas!

So this year for me is one of continual growth and exploration in photography (actually which year isn’t? LOL!).  I love learning and I especially love learning photography from such down to earth people as The Bui Brothers, Lan & Vu.    Yes, they are brothers and yes, those are their real names.  They hail from Southern California and are fantastic photographers, videographers, social media masters and educators.  This particular workshop was organized by Gustavo Fernández, awesome green-certified wedding photographer and organizing guru of SF East Bay Photography Meetup Group and many others.  The goal of it was to explore light both natural and artificial and really put into practice that you can take a great photo anywhere (after a little location scouting).  We focused a lot of headshots and they taught us their formula for the perfect headshot.  So be warned, this post is very headshot-heavy.  🙂

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We started off just talking about different angles of shooting and scouting out locations that at first you think will not work but they do!   This was taken in a regular backyard:

Next came exploring side lighting – love this kind of lighting!:

Then we got to play with lights.  They showed us a 2-light system.  Once with a fancy Profoto set-up and then the exact same set up with regular hot-shoe flashes.  I loved their minimalist approach!

Then we got to play with overpowering the sun for this really awesome effect.  For this we had to use the more powerful Profoto set up at full power – it was suuuper bright out!

Thank you Lan & Vu for spending the day with us and for being an open book.  Thank you Sara & Chris Goetz for hosting the workshop at your house.  You guys rock!  🙂  And thanks to the models for the day, Madison, Crystal, Sam, Marissa & Goldie – you guys did great!