A kind of a hodge-podge post this morning. I am deep into the final shooting for the Lighting Essentials II book to be published by Amherst Media sometime in the moderately distant future. These days it seems like a year from completion to seeing it on the shelves. I am hoping for a closer publication date, but not sure that will happen.

On the new book:
Working through the concepts of “Subject Centric Lighting” has helped clarify things for my own work. Sometimes we do things by ‘feel’ that are actually rooted in science or technique. I rarely have to think through the lighting, even multiple light set ups, these days. That doesn’t mean I am hasty or sloppy, only that I have done it so many times, that some of it becomes rote.

Taking what I do and breaking it down into bite-sized chunks that can be taken in by someone and digested, and then acted upon, is the real challenge to the writing.

What may seem like a simple shot to me may not be so simple to someone who hasn’t done it couple of hundred times. So I break it down. Look at the subject, ‘see’ my light, and explain why I am doing what I am doing. I think the process of tearing it apart has also made me see where improvements can be made.

I will be taking the month of July and August to completely redesign the workbook for the workshops to reflect the stuff I am working on with this book, and the first book (due to be released on Amazon in August, book stores in October).

The first book was written mostly around images that had been made, the new one was written and is now being illustrated. Both methods have their merits and challenges. Next book will be done as a cohesive unit… shoot, edit, write. Hoping for less angst and overly dramatic fits of terror accompanied by night sweats. Heh.

Strip lights? I got yer strip lights right heah…
The header image is a setup shot from one of the images in the book. It shows my new 85″ tall strip lights. They are from a company called Fotodiox, and they are fantastic. These things go together in less than a minute due to some excellent engineering by the Fotodiox folks, and high quality material. BTW, they come in very nice carrying cases, are baffled internally and even include a grid. They can be used without the diffusion scrim as very tall reflectors.

I am using strip lights more than I used to. Maybe it is the control or the way I can create dramatic fall off, but I used to have only two and now I have 6. Small, medium and large. These are the large. The image shows them with the Profoto 300’s. Did I mention they also come with the Profoto mounting ring? They do.

I got mine from Amazon.

Fools and Straw Men Arguments:
T Hawke skewers Jay Meisel and calls him a hack because Jay took decisive action against someone who simply scanned one of his images, turned it into 8Bit and stuck it on a cover of a CD of music he had sampled down to 8Bit.

There is much push back in the comments section of his two posts – here, and here – but he defends his claim of ‘extortion (opinion)’ because J Meisel is rich and a hack and the other guy is some poor schlub who inadvertently found himself being screwed because… well, because the rich guy was such a bastard. The guy in question is very familiar with copyright and licensing issues, so that poor pitiful me thing just doesn’t wash.

Hawke then puts up the second post where he creates a totally straw man argument, without even a shred of relevance to the first incidence, and calls it done. Carving a Shrek character on the side of the road versus taking an image and simply sampling it to 8Bit? You gotta be kidding me? Critical thinking FAIL.

OK. Whatever. (Keep stamping your feet, maybe hold your breath for a while longer… you’ll eventually get your way. Maybe. Well, no actually, there is the law, and ethical challenges galore.)

I will always come down on the side of the original creator. If T Hawke and the rest of the ‘CC’ community want the right to give their work away – something I think they have the right to do – then it should also follow that those who wish to NOT participate in giving their work away be allowed to maintain their rights.

Goose/Gander sort of thing.

No long tirade from me on this, it has been talked to death. There are those who will do anything to defend their position of hand in cookie jar as being totally irrelevant to the missing cookies. I’ve had kids, I know how they operate.

Three last things:
1. I am in Portland next weekend (1 spot left), and Vancouver the following weekend (2 spots left). Also, don’t miss the three day workshop with Kirk Tuck and I in San Diego in August. It will be a blast, and the ability to have an intimate workshop (only 10 students) with two instructors is not something that is available all that often. See Learn to Light for more info.

2. The Lighting Essentials Second Bigass Photography Contest. Did you know about it? Sign up and get shooting. Lots of great prizes (seriously, check them out).

3. Project 52 is at the halfway point. We are at week 26, and just did a preliminary portfolio project you all may be interested in. You can see the work the students are turning out here. And you can join anytime you want here. Come on and join us for weekly projects and reviews.

Thanks as always. Follow me on Twitter, Visit the Facebook Page or find out more About Me.