Bits and Pieces, July 27th

Just a few notes to keep you up-to-date with the goings on at Strobist's International Headquarters.

New Podcast Coming

This one was with the very personable (and probably very sleepy) Chris Marquardt, of Tips Fron The Top Floor podcast. Marquardt's shows are really quite good. If you have not heard them, he's worth listening to.

Because of the 6-hour time difference (he lives in Germany) the only time when our schedules intersected for the week was at midnight for him. That was very gracious of him. So if he sounds sleepy, you'll know why. (I have no such excuse for myself.)

And as a courtesy to my regular readers, I insisted on doing the entire interview in English. Also because my German skills could most accuarately be described as "nonexistant." France, Spain, Italy - I'm fine. But the last time I was in Germany, my communication pretty much resembled a non-stop game of charades.

I will post a link when it is up. In the meantime, give him a listen.


Trash Bags and Tupperware

I had a wonderful food shoot yesrterday with a designer from The Sun.

The whole thing (three small set-ups) was done in her kitchen with two SB-28's (only one on a stand) and a variety of Tupperware, cutting board and garbage bags used as light modifiers. I am very pleased with the results, mostly because of the pure bootstrap lighting that was employed to make the shots work.

Of the results achieved compared to the resources used, I feel rather wlike my wife does when she finds a great pair of shoes marked down 70%.

Cramming all of the stuff into one "On Assignment" piece would read like (a very poorly written) War and Peace. So I am going to break it up into thee more managable OA's, each one of which will probably be too long on its own.

The paper will be running the story next Wednesday, so look for the first installment shortly after that.

Keep Those Book Reviews Coming

I have gotten a wonderfully diverse group of book reviews, many of them not at all what I expected. Please keep them coming. I am getting ready to start running them so that all may benefit from your ideas.


First Strobist Seminar Coming Together

Finally, if you are interested in attending the first-ever Strobist Lighting Seminar, please reserve the afternoon of January 13th. It will be in the Baltimore/Washington metro area. As we discussed on the Flickr thread, I am aiming for high value on the what-it-costs-to-what-you-learn scale. So expect it to be short on luxury and long on usable knowledge.

It is being presented with the assistance of a local photography guild, whose members (thankfully) are handling the logistics and detail work. My wife will tell you (as she frequently does me) that I am not a strong person in the "detail" area. My job will be to show up with cameras, lighting, a lesson plan and a caffeine I.V. drip and go from there. It should be fun for those of you are are able to attend.

More details on the location, price and other specifics when we have them nailed down.