I feel so fortunate to have been able to participate in an off-camera flash workshop this week, sponsored by CPPA and taught by Bob Harrington from Focus in Close in Connecticut. I am the vice-president of CPPA this year, so I was heavily involved in the planning of this event. I am grateful to my awesome niece and two of her friends from high school for being willing to model for the workshop. Honestly, we could not have hired better models from an agency! Look at how gorgeous these girls are, plus the great wardrobes they brought along with them were just perfect. They all had awesome attitudes and were really patient as the photographers tried the different lighting techniques we were learning.
It ended up being a bit rainy that day, so we didn’t get to do as much open outdoor shooting as I had hoped. I think the biggest thing I leaned at this workshop is to think outside of the box. The bulk of the images you see here were shot in a parking garage. This is not a location I would normally consider shooting it, but I am stunned at the amazing results. This location might not be the best idea for photographing small kids, but for high school seniors I think it’s absolutely perfect.
All of the images you see here were shot with either one or two speedlights (SB800′s in this case) on stands or somehow otherwise supported or balanced off the camera.
Thanks to Bob Harrington, my fellow photographers who participated in the workshop, and of course our fantastic models. I enjoyed spending the day with all of you, and now I have a brand new set of creative tools to add to my lineup.































I went to a cookout at a friend’s house today and was asked for these two recipes. I decided it might be fun to occasionally share some recipes on my blog. The beer cheese is one of the best appetizer dips ever. Whenever I bring it to a party, lots of people ask for the recipe. I cannot take credit for it though because I found it on a Green Bay Packers tailgating website. The spinach squares side dish recipe is an old family one that my mom and aunts have been making for family parties for as long as I can remember. My family actually refers to the spinach squares recipe as “spanakopita” which is crazy because spanakopita has feta cheese and phyllo dough and this recipe does not. Plus we are Polish not Greek, so I have no idea where the spanakopita reference came from. Maybe Polish spanakopita is made with american cheese and no phyllo dough? LOL!







by Jes
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