A Flash of Inspiration

-by Jeff Greene /

 

Last week, during his recent visit to Seattle, I had the great pleasure of meeting the Strobist himself, David Hobby.  David writes The Strobist, a daily blog that focuses on creative flash techniques and maximizing the potential of small camera strobes. He was in the Emerald City presenting a couple of Strobist seminars where he proceeded to stun the audience by creating beautiful, on-the-spot portraits in a sterile hotel meeting room by using just two or three strobes, an umbrella, and some water glasses. Yeah, you kinda had to be there, but trust me, there were audible gasps in the audience when the results were projected up on the big screen.  Both seminars sold out far in advance, so book early if your city is fortunate enough to be graced with a future appearance. 

 

I have been an avid reader of The Strobist for nearly a year, and after thirty years of professional photography, I still learn something new every week from his amazing posts.  So far, my favorite tip is the "shoe mount" trick that was submitted by one of his readers. By simply sticking a remote strobe into a tennis shoe, you have a quick, adjustable, and portable flash mount that can be placed anywhere for optimum lighting angles.  

 

Brilliant. 

Note: Speculation that cross-trainers offer faster recycle times than dress wingtips has not been confirmed...

 

That's the cool thing about this site... David's years of experience shooting for the Baltimore Sun provides his readers with a fountain of knowledge, and in addition, his readers contributions are as creative and innovative as he is when stretching the bounds of a strobes' intended purpose. The Strobist offers regular online instruction such as Lighting 101 and Lighting 102 and offers an amazing collection of tips, tricks, and techniques in the On Assignment section for professional lighting results from small lightweight strobes. Best news of all?  It's free. There is a ton of creative content here and I could easily spend the next year photographing all the new ideas they have inspired.  Hell, after reading the blog for a week, I was was tempted to revamp my entire vacation so I could do just that.  However, my wife and eight-year-old son had something more entertaining in mind.  Curse you Mickey....

 

Trust me, read the archives and you'll never look at a campaign sign, rubberbands, and a bunch of black drinking straws the same way again.  Cryptic? It was supposed to be....check out the Strobist and get inspired.

 

 

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Comments

• Anonymous
  August 28, 2007
  The comment has been removed
• Anonymous
  June 18, 2008
  Jeff Greene  Thank you for this clarification.