Comments, Tips and Questions

I kept up the one-to-one email thing as long as I could, but it just got too crazy. At this point, I could not possibly ever have enough time to write everyone back.

Therefore, I am no longer able to respond to gear, lighting, career, portfolio review, business propositions, etc. questions via email.

I wish I could, but I can't. There is just not enough time, and I work very long days as it is. So please, please, please do not send them directly to me. I will just have to spend time reading them -- and then feel like a jerk for not replying.

If you have any kind of a lighting gear, lighting technique, career, portfolio, etc., question, much better to ask it in the Strobist Flickr discussion group. Signing up is fast, free and easy, and there are over 60,000 photographers involved in a lively, ongoing discussion. You will find your answers -- and a lot of nice people who are all into off-camera lighting -- there.

If you have a tip or comment (or if something is seriously borked on the site) just message me on Twitter or leave a comment under a post. (This post does not have comments enabled, but most do.) I promise you I will see it. If a comment is not for publication, please begin the comment with the phrase, "Do Not Publish".

If you have a question about a current post, ask it in a comment on that post. You'll likely get an answer from another reader in short order. For questions relating to older posts, ask in the Flickr group as your comment/question will almost certainly fall upon deaf ears on the archived post here.

I do travel and do some speaking/teaching engagements. But as a one-man band that create significant pressure and disruption on producing the site -- not to mention family time. With the advance work and catch-up work, it cost about 3x the time I am actually away. For that reason, I am not looking to add any more speaking/teaching engagements at this time.

Lastly, PLEASE do not send me free "promotional" or "evaluation" gear. I do not do pay-for-play reviews, etc., and just receiving that stuff puts me in a very uncomfortable position. In fact, there have been times when I planned on writing about something and had to cancel the piece because someone sent me a freebie -- which created a conflict of interest where non had existed.

This has long been my policy, even though the FTC is finally catching up with this sort of thing, making it a legal issue now, too. Kudos to them for that.


Thanks much,
David Hobby