MPAX Studio Lighting Keynote and Pet Portraiture Workshop

This past Saturday, I went to hear a keynote speaker on an Introduction to Studio Lighting.  It was fabulous.  Before this I knew very, very basic things, like what a backdrop was and that you could have softboxes or umbrellas reflecting your light.  I'd heard terms like ringlights (or is it rimlights?), and strobes (I still don't quite understand those because I know they're a different breed than the studio lights we talked about).  But I didn't know how you got the lights to work together, I didn't know what wattage you should have or how many lights you should have, and it was basically all foreign territory to me.  

It's still pretty foreign, but now I feel like I have a basic understanding of all the various pieces and how they work together, and the lecturer, Dan Harper, went through all the basics from even camera equipment we should have to the minimum lights we should buy, to what types of backdrop material he prefers.  He gave us a handout with it all written out, too, which was wonderful and I have tons of extra notes written in the margins and between paragraphs.  

I don't have the money yet to set up a proper studio in our house, but it's also summer so I can happily shoot outside.  But this was the perfect introduction mini-course to let me know what I'll need to get eventually.

We all were able to hook our cameras up to the lights and take a few shots of the model, I was so in love with how the light turned out!  Here are one in color and one in a tinted monotone:

After the Studio Lighting lecture, I walked back to the main area with two women I met at the lecture, Sharon and Marian, and the three of us had lunch together. It was fun and of course we had tons of photography stuff to talk about! Also, both of them grew up on farms and I was so interested to hear and imagine what daily life was like for them.

After lunch, I went to a Pet Portraiture Workshop, taught by Craig Koshyk (who also started and runs the Prairie View School of Photography). I took tons of notes as he was talking about getting good dog portraits, good dog action shots, and also ways of getting dogs' attention. I loved that he told us exactly what settings he generally uses, I like hearing what seasoned photographers do for their own photos. And I also discovered some new settings on my camera that I need to learn how to use much better. It started raining during class, but the rain thankfully let up for just a little while so we could go outside and shoot photos of our model dog, the sweetest black & white Border Collie!! I need to review my notes from this class, practice with my new settings, and then get Ferd and Enzo outside to practice with them! And I'll try using some of the same tricks and techniques with James and Emma, too!

Here are a few photos from that afternoon: