I'm very excited to be coming to Seattle! I'll be conducting my Small Strobes, Big Results workshop on Aug. 19th and a speaking engagement on the 18th.
I'll be speaking and showing some work at the 
in Seattle on the evening of the 18th. This event is open to the public, however you need to RSVP if you plan on attending. You can RSVP at info@urbanlightstudios.com We only have space for about 125 people so please RSVP early.
Austria
I have finally arrived in Austria! I say "finally" because I had about 8 hours of butt time worth of layovers which made for a total of 24 hours to get here. Anyway, I've arrived and now spending some personal time with my friend Eric and his wonderful family.
The photo above was taken in the town of Linz, Linz in about 25 minutes from Eric's home. We stopped here to pick up some ice cream for the house. I'll be visiting Linz to explore more of this charming city later this week. DT
Just wanted to add this photo: Taken just before landing in Vienna.
Shoot Out In Michigan
During my visit to the UPAA symposium, held in Michigan the participants of the symposium held there annual shoot out. The winner of this years shoot out would win a Nikon D90 kit. The subject for this years shoot out was "patterns".
The day of the shoot out, we started our morning at the Traverse City State Hospital, asylum for the insane. The Traverse City State Hospital was built in 1885 and closed in 1989. The hospital is currently under restoration, but they still have several old abandoned building on the hospital grounds. We were allowed to photograph is one of those abandoned buildings that was deemed safe.
There were plenty of patterns for to be found at this location, I of course was not part of the shoot out so I just shot things various things I found interesting. Here are a few images from the my stay at the hospital that day.
I found this wonderful chalk board in one of the empty rooms and decided to throw a little light on it. I used a single SB-800 with a Lumiquest snoot on it. I just love empty spaces, this was a wonderful location to shoot at. I could spend a whole day there, or even hold a workshop there.
I decided to shoot this doorway on the 3rd floor, I shifted my WB to 3030* kelvin and placed an SB-800 with two CTO gels on it. The first CTO gel was to bring the color of the strobe to a normal color and the second to add the warmth I wanted.
2 Spaces Remaining for London Workshop
I want to reach out to my friends in the U.K. There are 2 spaces remaining for the London "Small Strobes, Big Results" workshop. Learn how to get Studio Quality Light on Location from Small Strobes! The workshop well be held downtown London at the Plaza Hotel Westminster Bridge.
The London workshop will be held on July 14th, if you would like to join us click HERE for more information, I look forward to seeing you there. DT
Chris
I had an opportunity to photograph my son Chris this evening. We stepped out into the field just outside the back gate of our backyard. I wanted to test out the new diffusion sock for my DIY beauty dish that my wife made for me. Chris wasn't particularly excited about modeling for me, I use him a lot and I'm sure he's bored with it.
The sun had not yet set but was behind large clouds to the west. I metered for the clouds behind Chris and then underexposed them by about 1 stop. I then turned on the strobe. I was using a single Nikon SB-800 at 1/2 power, 1/1600 @ f/2.8 for the photo above.
Here are a few other images from this 10 minute shoot, when your only getting one look from your subject... There was a light breeze this evening, beauty dishes are idea if you have any sort of wind. An umbrella would have taken off across the field had I used it.
I really like the quality of light from this beauty dish, unfortunately it is so hard to travel with. I really only use the beauty dish when I'm in town shooting. When I'm on the road, I use a small softbox that produces a similar look.
I have several up coming workshops, for a list of those click HERE.
Sujan With Chairs
During a recent Nikonian Lighting workshop in the Oakland/San Francisco Bay area I photographed Sujan in a variety of locations around the hotel. After photographing her standing inside this conference room, I wanted to use the repetitive pattern of the chairs as a design element for the above photo.
I moved the boom with the 43" umbrella over to area where I had Sujan seated for the photograph. I moved the row of chairs directly in front of her in order to place a bounce surface in front and below her. I then took the background light I was using in the previous shot and turned it around and used it as a rim light on our subject.
Just as a reminder, I'll be leading the Mentor Series Trek to Newport Rhode Island in July. If you would like to join me, check out there web site for more information.