kicking it old skool

I finally got over my denial: my work horse flash is definitely faulty. The problem is that it stops firing intermittently, even at full charge ready to go, and registering on the camera. A little experimentation revealed that if I rattle off a few shots with it mounted on the body, and gently pull it back towards me it starts firing again. So I’m willing to bet £50 (postage and packaging excluded) that it’s the hot shoe seating mechanism that needsa replacin’. Better than the £200 “send it to Canon” option. My theory is actually that heavy light modifiers like the ring flash or the Lumiquest Softbox I’m very fond of may have added to the situation. But shit, I’m still going to use those, so, whatever.

Where was I? Oh yes:

Saturday morning, after meeting up with David Hobby and the other guys at the Crosse, I got all my gear together and headed down to the Brunswick Gallery, located near Russell Square. BEEEEEuatiful day outside, just epic. Had to remember to water my plants before I left the house (I kicked off a planting project on my balcony a few weeks back, and they are growing fast and thick).

The day at the seminar was spent covering the basics of lighting, getting everyone up to speed with ambient and added light balance and techniques to do so. We then got into some of Dave’s more famous pictures and he walked us through the thinking process, fielding questions as he went. And this was my main attraction to the event: getting inside his head, how he approaches a job and gets the shot. The key to his process is layering light. I know about this a bit, but he’s changed up his thinking of late. Whereas previously he was solely focused on what the key light was doing, now he’s switched it round, to instead focus on the ambient fill, creating a safety net, as it where (your image will never be darker than this) and then adding layers of light on top of that. Really great technique and one I want to play with at home. (did I mention I was sat next to Drew Gardner, Award Winning UK photographer? Oh, well, I was!)

We had a lunch break in between and the entire Brunswick centre sprang to life while we where in the basement Gallery: food stalls and people EVERYWHERE, sun out in full force, smells mingling with sounds, just so cool! I grabbed me an Argentinean Steak sandwich and walked on over to where Dave and some folks where getting Thai. I then had the privilege of having a “real” discussion with the man, about the chances of him heading to Cape Town sometime since he has a big fan base there, why there aren’t more world class photographers from South Africa (“what’s stopping you?”, I was asked…) and just other random bits of cool conversation, just me and him, like we where old buddies catching up. Odd to think that I would be able to carry a conversation like that. I would not have been able to do so a few months ago…

Back in class for the second session and we got our hands dirty with practical. Dave did 3 shoots, different techniques and created portraits. I volunteered to be in one of them (not that he asked for volunteers! I insisted! Again, wasn’t gonna sit on my ass and let this moment go by!) We finished off the day with a quick review and a very touching speech from Dave on what his vision is for a project he is heading up in his home town.

I gave my thanks, shook hands and got my picture taken with him before I headed to the nearest bar for an Extra Cold Guinness.

The day was far from over though. Kwok, a neighbour I met at our on-site gym invited me the week before to his BBQ so I decided to look into that. Lot’s of folks there, good food (I have made an official threat to raid his recipe book!) and interesting people. One of which was Selina Lo, who casually says “I’m an actor” when asked the “so what do you do?” question. Turns out she’s done a few things, one of which is a Disney movie called The Prince & Me: The Elephant Adventure. She’s been doing martial arts all her life and her vision is to be the world’s greatest female action star. I’ve been checking out her work online and she’s been getting rave reviews, mostly because she is hot! But also because… well, she kicks ass! Best of all, she’s just a really cool chick, with a dark sense of humour to boot and really cool to hang out with.

Spent the rest of the evening with these guys and eventually hit a few bars in the area. Came home at 04:00 and decided: that’s it! Today, I’m doing NOTHING. And that’s exactly what I did. Slept in a bit, watered my plants, cleaned the apartment and heading down to Regents Park and just chilled, read, slept, whatever.

With so much to process and so many cool things back to back, I think it was the best thing I could have done. A little voice was protesting in the far back recesses of my mind that I haven’t achieved anything this weekend. Crazy talk, of course! I just smiled, nodded my head, and slept more on the soft, fluffy grass under a tree.

Another week beckoned.

Bring it on.

[G], out

The moment it clicks