I spent some time in the southern Ohio area on October 8 – 11, 2010. Friday evening I did a “Making the Jump – Going Pro” talk with a large group of photographers in the Cincinnati area. Monday evening I spoke to 45+ photographers at Midwest Photo Exchange (www.mpex.com). I discussed portraiture, the ‘gesture’, lighting and working with subjects. We had a blast.

On the weekend, we had a workshop at the Red Door Studios, and that went really well too. All in all, it was a great weekend. Oh, and I had my first plate of Skyline Chili – which I really enjoyed – and met some very talented photographers. Special thanks to Tom Siebert – @lightandpixels – who helped put the whole thing together on pretty short notice. Also a big shout out to the guys at Red Door Photo (@reddoorphoto) Jason and Shad who provided studio space, and Frank Tuttle (@tuttleimages) who brought along some wonderful models and great fun! BTW, eerily interesting that their address is 224 and my address is 224. Heh,

Since I had some time to drive from Cincinnati to Columbus, I took all back roads and tried to stay off the highways as much as possible. I love to drive and think and listen to jazz, and there was plenty of time for that. My rental Kia “Soul” – the hamster car – was a very nice, peppy ride. And it had Satellite with “Real Jazz” on channel 72. I don’t need much more than that.

Plugging in the GPS and going for a path I had pre-chosen on Google Maps was easy. And the ol’ Tom Tom didn’t let me down once.

Workshop: We started bright an early on Saturday, and go right to the study of light characteristics. The workshop is mostly hands on and having that well-equipped huge studio at Red Door was a blessing. We worked with simple and advanced lights till dinner time and headed out for a local pub. Wonderful food with a neighborhood restaurant atmosphere.

Sunday started out early with a little walk about and some breakfast and then we hit it pretty hard. We had 4 models with three person teams, and did studio lighting as well as location work. One of the things that has become a staple of the workshop is the “Assignment” phase on Sunday afternoon. I give assignments based on real working editorial needs, and the teams go off to do the images. When they get back we put the images into the pre-made templates to see how they did and if the image is shot to the ‘specs’ that were part of the assignment.

I took this image of Chelsea with natural light and a pop-up flash kicker on my Rebel while the guys were setting up their lights:

(NOTE: Upcoming workshops are still online at www.LearnToLight.com. We will be in Norfolk (nearly full), Houston, Minneapolis and the big last of the year workshop in Florida. We have room at all, but Florida is filling up. Quick.)

At the last hour of sun, we decided to do something kind of different with our model. Students are always wanting to understand the process I go through to make a photograph. How do I ‘see’ the picture before I start shooting it. So we decided we would take a walk with Tarah in her long dress and shoot as many different types of images as we could before the sun went all the way down.

Along the way, I shared what I was thinking about as I was looking at the light, the environment and the model and how that would transfer into a final print. Visualizing is a big part of my photography, and I see a finished image in my head before I usually begin to shoot. Knowing what I want makes it easier to make the image at the point of exposure.

The first shot was taken right down the street from the studio. I had already decided to shoot only natural light in order to let the students do both natural and flash shots. And I only took a few images to set the image in my head – then let the students jump in and sequentially make some exposures. Some went natural light and some chose strobes.

More after the jump.


I love the architecture and the framing of the sidewalk and porch on this shot. Having Tarah turn toward the sun lit her face well and took her gaze off camera. I wanted a sense of place, a sense of formality to this image. Desaturation gave me the color palette I was seeing at exposure. There was too much color in the original capture for me. Her pose and attitude fit in well with overall feeling of the light and gave a ‘reason’ for her off camera gaze. Her graceful, subtle curves are set off from the geometric grid of the environment.

I love the edge of the light between the sun and the shadow. It has always been sort of a mystical place for me. I use it in the studio and on location. This big tree was the catalyst for the pose, and the placement of the subject makes the overwhelming size of the tree even greater.

We found this old, abandoned house down the street from the tree. This time the light was coming from behind Tarah and some students reached for flashes, others for shiny boards. I waited for a shiny board and made this exposure just as she moved forward and her face was in the lighted area of the porch behind her. I love light that separates, defines and delineates. The old house was a wonderful patina for the image of Tarah looking toward something off camera. Emotive and fun.

I asked Tarah to turn toward me with the gold reflector on her. I brought the camera into the direct sun and let the flare wash the image. It gave the image a warmth and naturally accessible feeling. Only took a few images and Tarah did wonderfully. You have to trust your model in a shot like this. The flare makes it nearly impossible to make out much of anything in the viewfinder.

On the corner of the old house, there was this cool corner. The light on one side, shadow on the other all seemed so metaphorical to me. A story of decision and choice, light and dark, left or right. The sun was nearly on the horizon now and a few very light clouds softened the feeling quite a bit. I put Tarah there on the corner and shot a few frames for reference. The students used small and big location lights and the images were wildly diverse of this little corner of Kentucky.

The students shot from this point on as the light was moving faster and faster toward the horizon.

This shot of Alli was made earlier in the day. It is natural light with a kick of on-camera-pop-up flash at -2/3. I just wanted to open the skin tone a bit and provide a clean wash over the skin.

Monday Morning:

I love to drive. Road trips are a cathartic experience for me. The bright, hazy morning gave way to a brighter mid-day sun and I was able to make a few exposures as I drove.

A small building in the clearing was begging to be photographed.

This house was kinda creep looking and the place was deserted. Lots of cool stuff to photograph, lots of ‘keep out or we’ll shoot yer ass’ signs. I stayed on the road.

The light was sculpting these two grain silos just perfectly so I had to get a shot. Somewhere south of Columbus about 50 miles or so. Wonderful rolling hills and lakes and homes.

Thanks for coming on this little post of images I like. Workshop Information here, and follow along on Twitter here.