Oh, man. My head hurts, but it’s a good hurt. I spent all day Sunday holed up in a conference room at the Seattle Airport Hilton attending the Seattle Strobist Seminar and getting my head crammed full of lighting information from the Strobist himself, David Hobby. So much information was covered in the 9 hours I was there that I’m having a hard time separating what I already knew going into the seminar and what new material I learned that day. I suppose that’s a good thing though. It means everything I’ve been reading and practicing over the past couple of months has been sinking in and becoming almost automatic for me.
I won’t bother detailing the actual material presented in the seminar, because most (if not all) of it is available on the Strobist website. David gives away this information for free, so why bother paying for a day-long seminar? You get to hear, firsthand, David talk about all the concepts he presents on his website and then see him apply most of that in actual shoots. You can read all the websites and books you want, but you gain so much more by watching a pro at work, hearing his thought processes as he’s shooting, and asking him about the choices he’s making to get a particular photo.
The best part of the seminar for me, though, was hearing about how David builds rapport with his photo subjects and then actually seeing him do just that as he was shooting. As I get more and more into portrait photography, I realize that I can’t just treat the model like a still life. I have to engage and interact with the model beyond “chin up, eyes over here”. Compared to that, learning all this Strobist stuff is a piece of cake.
The only “downside” of the seminar was not getting a chance to actually shoot with the light setups. However, I can completely understand why it was a seminar and not a workshop. With 40+ people in the room, it would have been a logistical nightmare making sure everyone got proper shooting time. Also, we would have spent too much time dealing with individual photographers rather than staying focused on the Strobist material. There’s plenty of time to shoot later. It’s not everyday that we get to meet David Hobby and pick his brain in person.
I do have one major regret from the day. Chase Jarvis showed up to hang out for part of the seminar, but I was too much of a chicken fanboy to go over and introduce myself to him. He walked in, and I just froze. He just seemed so… intimidating. In reality, I know he’s a cool guy, especially since he stopped in to hang out just for fun, and David also said so. Oh, well.
I am SO envious!