Most people spend thier “Birthday weekend” nursing a hangover or two. Not this guy.
On November 23rd I pointed my VW Golf towards a Skyline Furniture – shoot location for the the local Calgary “Strobist” meetup. If you’ve not been to a strobist event before, you are missing out! This group believes in forming community around learning how to light. No egos, no expensive equipment – simply getting quality lighting from your existing equipment – commonly using off-camera flash techniques.
I arrived a little late for the meetup and was greeted at the door by 15 fellow shooters waiting to get inside. Our assignment for the day was to emulate the lighting style of Yousef Karsh (a famous Canadian photographer, most noted for his portrait of Winston Churchill). In addition to the formal assignment, we were lucky to have a breakdancer from California, stopping in Calgary on a nightclub / teaching tour – who was a star performer on our seamless paper set.
I took a small amount of video to give you the gist of the day, and the scale and scope of the event.
I made a few new friends and learned a ton (all for free!) by shadowing more experienced shooters, and firing off more than my share of frames. Attendees were eager to share knowledge (and equipment!) to those without – Calgary should be proud of their local community strength.
I’ll be at the next one for certain!
