Recent Trip to Chicago

Sunday morning I traveled to Chicago to update my SAP skills. Sunday afternoon I had a small window of time to photograph family "C" and present them with Christmas Card templates. Here are a few photos from the shoot and in another day or so I show you some Christmas samples I'm offering this year.

Dad and the kids were having a great time here. As dad bent forward then back up the kids felt like they were on a roller coaster ride. The laughter was contagious.




After the laughter slowed I was able to capture quieter pictures of the boys.

October Fest

Lees Summit is in the middle of Octoberfest and it's great entertainment for all. Loved walking around hearing all the kiddies scream as the rides raced by. The colors of the night and entertainment was loads of fun for all.







My wife Nancy and daughter Dani

Photo's from the OneLight Workshop

Here's a few photo's from the OneLight Workshop just held in Kansas City.





Richard

Zack Arias - OneLight Workshop in Kansas City

WOW!!!! First of all my hat goes off to Zack for taking time to mentor other photographers and share how he creates such beautiful and unique pieces of art. We had a great time watching and learning from Zack as he shared his concepts of using just one light for a photo shoot. I was blessed having bought his OneLight DVD and watched it several times before the workshop. While many struggle to write down their notes, I filled in missing pieces of the puzzle, which easily fell into place during the workshop. Just so you understand, I'm not making a dime off his DVD. But, I will gladly promote it as the best explanation of off camera flash. Flash outside the studio without a light meter has always been a struggle for me and the inconsistency has really frustrated me. After watching Zacks DVD and trying the techniques on 3 shoots, his methods have proven easy and very repeatable. I respect those who use natural light, but I love the creativity that flash brings.

Having now pimped his DVD, if you get the concepts you still need creativity to produce a piece of work that stands out from other photographers. One thing that stands out for me is how creative Zack is with one light. To show you how stuck I was, the thought never occured to me to take a shoot through umbrella and point it away from the subject. The results are stunning.

One last thought. For those of you who think you cannot produce outstanding pieced of art with one off-camera flash and one light modifier valued at $200-$300, think again.

A Special Thank You to Stacey Schmitz Photography for opening up his studio for this workshop. Stacey
Now, I want to share with you photo's from the workshop. I am very pleased with my results, but when compared to Zack I have a long way to go.Thanks again Zack for sharing your wisdom and raising the bar!

Mack

Tonight I had an opportunity to take Mack out for a quick photo shoot. We arrived 30 minutes later then I wanted to but had a awesome session. I learned a lot about Mack, he has a passion for golf and politics and he works hard as he pursues both.
You can see we had a great time and the last bit of lighting was the icing on the cake.

The sun was dropping fast, we had just minutes to get this shot set up.


Mack performing his best Camilo Villegas imitation.

Heidi Part II

I couldn't help myself, we had so many great photo's from Heidi I just had to post a few more.

Socks

Today I had an opportunity to work with some clowns as they brought loads of joy to a bunch of children. Our church, Abundant Life Baptist Church ,had it's annual carnival where all the entertainment, drinks, hot dogs, candy, and cotton candy are free. It's just one of the many ways they reach out to the community. I took over 300 pictures of the children as they posed with my new friends. Here is some of their colorful garb.