New CPPA newsletter / WPPI / Northern

Hello All,

I know it's been a while since I posted. It was a busy holiday season!

Shot a wedding in Los Angeles, Xmas and a lot of reorganization of business stuff.

For everyone in CPPA wanted to let you know that a new Photoshop tutorial is on its way. The next one has to do with creating actions. I know a lot of people are out there selling actions, and many of them are very good.

With a little knowhow and patience though, you can create your own actions and save a lot of time in your Photoshop workflow.

If you're going to WPPI, let me know. I'll be there Feb 13 - Feb 18. I hope to learn a lot and catch up with a bunch of great people that I met around.

I also hope to see people at the Northern Illinois print competition. I just joined Northern or PPANI.

Print competition is a great way to improve your photography. It's not about creating images that are good for the customer. It's about pushing yourself and going up against the creme de la creme. By pushing yourself technically and creatively, you'll be able to up your talent and create EVEN BETTER images for your clients.

Hope to see you there, and I promise to post more.

All we need is one light

To crib from Nas. Sometimes all you need is 1 light.

I'll admit, personally I like to mostly shoot ambient light. I use the Canon 5D and 50mm f-1.4 (hopefully soon to upgrade to the 1.2L) to get a lot of light.

Sometimes it's good to go against your own style to create new stuff and to grow creatively.

The picture at left - f-5 / 1/30 / 42mm / ISO100.

I just used a single speed light (canon 430EX) to camera right to provide some modeling and shadow.

The results speak for themselves.

Try stuff that's a little different from your norm and you might even surprise yourself.