Notes from the Field

So we did so much at the Paso Robles photo workshops with Joe McNally yesterday, that I didn’t have time to post anything from Day 2, and now it is Day 3. But that is just how it is here in Paso Robles, time flies when you are using TTL and speedlights. Syl Arena continues to impress the students and myself with the amenities of the workshop.

On Day 2, Syl took us to the depths of an abandoned warehouse that was used to process almonds some 50 years ago. Now it is filled with pigeons and enough pigeon crap to start a fertilizer farm, but great texture and graffiti all over. With so much space and interesting places to shoot from, the students had free range to roam all over the building and not get into each other’s way. The conditions did not phase a single person, even the models, which were top notch the entire time.

Joe took the morning to demo his window light solution to the students. I can’t really get into much detail about how Joe does it, you can find all that great information here, but it is safe to say that yours truly was running in and out of the building, working the lights per Joe’s instruction. That would not be a big deal if you were just running through a door, but this is a building that has not had any use for the last 50 years. This means opening a garage door 20 inches, which makes the worst sound ever, because of rust and damage. Sliding through dust and grime and hitting 90 plus degree heat. Running down a loading dock and working the lights. By the end of the demo I looked like and extra out of the Great Escape. You will never hear me complain, not that an assistant should ever complain, because this is the job. But when you have the privilege to grip and assist for Joe McNally, you would pay three times as much just for the honor. My head is still spinning from everything I took away from yesterday.

Krysten Cass, one of our many great models.

I must also compliment the quality of students we have in this workshop. It is hard to being an assistant in a workshop with such a talents group of shooters, they look to you for answers to some very tough questions, and you better have the answers.

If you have never taken a workshop class, do it, sooner than later, especially if you are a photographer with little training or just starting to working with clients. Because of resources, students are limited to one model per three students. So you need to learn to assist, grip and plan while you are not shooting, and they make a photo in a very limited amount of time when it comes you turn behind the camera. Great preparation for the real world when you find out that your clients don’t care that you needed more time or couldn’t think of a great idea.

Syl Arena, the man behind the madness, helping a student.

So today the students were taken from the muck and grime, and very cool backdrop of the warehouse, to on older one story Victorian home in Paso Robles. No pigeons inside this house, in fact it was so nice, I was afraid to enter because of what still might be in my system from the day before.

Joe McNally talking with the students.

Gone are the wide-open spaces of the warehouse. This is a small single story house, with a beautiful, but small, garden outside the home. Time and room are both in small amounts, but the real world is even more defined in this location. Syl has done a great job creating an environment that not only allows the students to create great photos, but realistic conditions to create them in.

I even got a few chances to work with models at the end of both days, after the students has finished their work. Trying out what I had learned over the day. You really have to hand it to the talent, not a single model declined my request to work with me after hours. And just like my fellow workshop attendees, I had very little time to work and I had to make an image. Still learning and struggling, sweating and cursing. Just think, I took time from the day job to do this. I really didn’t make a great image, but I was also in an experimenting mode, just seeing what can happen.

Tomorrow we go to the wineries of Paso Robles. Which may make these workshops better than others, because you get to have red or white with your TTL and high speed sync. More to come, to much to post.

M.D.