Last weekend I attended the strobist meet at Patapsco state park outside of Baltimore. It was definitely a learning experience, despite the chaotic atmosphere.
That morning I woke up bright and early at 6:43 AM, grabbed a quick shower, a full tank of gas, Jeff Slater, and our modeling victim Desiree Shaffer. One important detail I don't want to forget is that made a pit stop at McDonald's in Brunswick. If you know what's good for you and value your time, don't go there. It's one of the only fast food restaurants in town and everyone goes there on a Saturday morning. It was packed. We managed to squeeze in and pig out without wasting too much time, but it was close.
After the pit stop we continued on our way. We reached Patapsco state park at almost exactly 10:00 AM and passed by the group of people with a ton of camera gear waiting on the side of the road. That was our group. Me and Jeff gathered our gear and I made Desiree carry tripods and light stands. We headed over to the group and introduced ourselves, receiving name tags. After a short wait, David Hobby, the creator of the Strobist, walked up carrying a giant _____________. Oh right. I'm not allowed to tell until he post up. Needless to say it was a very creative way to blow a pocket full of dollars and everyone that appreciates his work and the DIY projects will go out and get one of these.
After the short talk with David we split up. I went with Des and several other people to the other side of the river to the foundation of an old mill. That was out first location. After a minute of millin' (pardon the pun) around, we kind of got things rolling.
No one new what was going on. Most of us were under the impression that once we got there, there would be people experienced in the strobist technique and could give us all tips and pointers. That wasn't the case. Eventually we ended up with light stands scattered apart and snapping photos, tentatively giving Des direction. Everyone was still a little shy at this point.
After shooting around a bit, we packed up and moved down the hill back to the bridge. Things were starting to warm up and we were getting better at the giving order things. Another half a gig wasted on the memory cards and we moved on again.
Those two locations were OK for me, but the next is where the fun started. One of the guys told our group of a tunnel about a mile down the path. So everyone headed that way. He exaggerated a bit as it was only about a five minute walk. It was worth it though. It's a large tunnel that acts as drainage and runs beneath the railroad tracks. People were already shooting a man and his two children. He was just a passerby, but he ended up having some great family portraits taken by some good photographers. We got to the tunnel mouth about the time the family was getting ready to take off. The rest of us unloaded and we started taking even more shots of Desiree.
After what seemed to be another thousand pictures, we had her stand in the middle of the tunnel for an idea I had. I setup my Vivitar 285HV directly behind her with no diffusion, and one of the other photographer's Nikon SB-600 on a light stand with a shoot through umbrella, above her and to my left. That was where I got one of my best photos of the day.
There were about fifteen photographers in the tunnel trying to get pictures. We almost had two mishaps. The Nikon on the light stand almost tipped and was caught and another person's flash on light stand with and umbrella fell, just dipping the umbrella in the water and almost getting the flash. Oh, and the guy almost dropped his camera while trying to catch it. Des saved the day by grabbing the umbrella and allowing the guy to get everything stable. Crisis Averted.
After we wrapped up there, we decided to head home as it was already 1 PM and I needed to make a stop in Northern Baltimore. If turned out to be a very fun, but chaotic event and I did manage to learn a lot from the critique of others from my finished photos.
That morning I woke up bright and early at 6:43 AM, grabbed a quick shower, a full tank of gas, Jeff Slater, and our modeling victim Desiree Shaffer. One important detail I don't want to forget is that made a pit stop at McDonald's in Brunswick. If you know what's good for you and value your time, don't go there. It's one of the only fast food restaurants in town and everyone goes there on a Saturday morning. It was packed. We managed to squeeze in and pig out without wasting too much time, but it was close.
After the pit stop we continued on our way. We reached Patapsco state park at almost exactly 10:00 AM and passed by the group of people with a ton of camera gear waiting on the side of the road. That was our group. Me and Jeff gathered our gear and I made Desiree carry tripods and light stands. We headed over to the group and introduced ourselves, receiving name tags. After a short wait, David Hobby, the creator of the Strobist, walked up carrying a giant _____________. Oh right. I'm not allowed to tell until he post up. Needless to say it was a very creative way to blow a pocket full of dollars and everyone that appreciates his work and the DIY projects will go out and get one of these.
After the short talk with David we split up. I went with Des and several other people to the other side of the river to the foundation of an old mill. That was out first location. After a minute of millin' (pardon the pun) around, we kind of got things rolling.
No one new what was going on. Most of us were under the impression that once we got there, there would be people experienced in the strobist technique and could give us all tips and pointers. That wasn't the case. Eventually we ended up with light stands scattered apart and snapping photos, tentatively giving Des direction. Everyone was still a little shy at this point.
After shooting around a bit, we packed up and moved down the hill back to the bridge. Things were starting to warm up and we were getting better at the giving order things. Another half a gig wasted on the memory cards and we moved on again.
Those two locations were OK for me, but the next is where the fun started. One of the guys told our group of a tunnel about a mile down the path. So everyone headed that way. He exaggerated a bit as it was only about a five minute walk. It was worth it though. It's a large tunnel that acts as drainage and runs beneath the railroad tracks. People were already shooting a man and his two children. He was just a passerby, but he ended up having some great family portraits taken by some good photographers. We got to the tunnel mouth about the time the family was getting ready to take off. The rest of us unloaded and we started taking even more shots of Desiree.
After what seemed to be another thousand pictures, we had her stand in the middle of the tunnel for an idea I had. I setup my Vivitar 285HV directly behind her with no diffusion, and one of the other photographer's Nikon SB-600 on a light stand with a shoot through umbrella, above her and to my left. That was where I got one of my best photos of the day.
There were about fifteen photographers in the tunnel trying to get pictures. We almost had two mishaps. The Nikon on the light stand almost tipped and was caught and another person's flash on light stand with and umbrella fell, just dipping the umbrella in the water and almost getting the flash. Oh, and the guy almost dropped his camera while trying to catch it. Des saved the day by grabbing the umbrella and allowing the guy to get everything stable. Crisis Averted.
After we wrapped up there, we decided to head home as it was already 1 PM and I needed to make a stop in Northern Baltimore. If turned out to be a very fun, but chaotic event and I did manage to learn a lot from the critique of others from my finished photos.
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