Wireless Lighting Workshop

My heart was beating, my head was spinning, everything was happening so fast! Before I knew it, Virgil was introducing me and I was ON!

I’m scared to death of public speaking. But I LOVE what I do and love sharing my passion with others! So after the initial jitters wore off, everything went great. My Wireless Lighting Workshop was held at Virgil’s gorgeous studio at CVI Photography. It was hosted by the Professional Photographer of South Carolina. And it was sponsored by folks like Nikon, RadioPopper, Zenfolio, MPIX, and Canvas On Demand. We had a fantastic turnout with about 40 photographers from around the state, some as far away as Greenville! I did a short presentation about the principles of wireless lighting. Then we went out into the historic alley behind the studio and did a LIVE photo shoot…no pressure there!!! J That was followed by dinner, fellowship, and networking. Finally we reconvened to review the images and have more discussion on tools and techniques. It really was a BLAST!

We couldn’t have pulled it off without the generous contributions of many talented folks. I have to thank Virgil, Eddie of ProWedding Entertainment, Frankie of Flowers by Frankie, Juliet of Juliet Elizabeth Photography, Molly of D’Lish Desserts, Dwight of Royal Limousine, Pamela of Makeup Artist Charleston, and my lovely model and favorite client, Brittany McDougal. The best part about the workshop is we raised a ton of donations, including lots of dog food, to donate to the Charleston Animal Society. Many thanks to everyone who participated and everyone who attended!!!

Posted via email from Chris & Cami Photography

Dixon-Hughes Executive Portraits

I just wrapped up shooting Executive Portraits for Dixon-Hughes, one of the largest accounting firms in the nation. The firm celebrates it’s 50th Anniversary this year!

They had me set up in their conference room. And I used my totally wireless system that I LOVE!!! This time I fired two SB-800 flashes into a large softbox (seen on left) instead of using the Westcott shoot-through umbrella as my main light. Fill was provided by the reflector (seen on right). I almost used the dry erase board that was already there instead! 😉 Hair light was a Westcott Apollo with a domed SB-800 in it. It was triggered by RadioPopper. The others were fired by Nikon CLS.

I popped up the Old Master’s canvas background and fired away on the Nikon D2x with 70-200 f2.8 attached. I used the D2x instead of the D3 because I have the WT-2a wireless transmitter on that camera, allowing the images to magically appear on my laptop as I’m shooting. Each indevidual can then go through their shots right then and there to make sure they’re happy with them. 🙂

Strobist Gathering

Recently a bunch of us Charleston photographers, David Hobby followers, and Strobist aficionados got together for a little “Strobist Gathering”. My good friend Charlie Thiel did a great job organizing it and helping the Canon folks with their questions about E-TTL. My buddy Robbin Knight set up an outdoor location-type shoot and helped show off what Radio Poppers can do. My friend Mahmood Fazal helped folks with Pocket Wizards. And finally, I set up a completely wirelss studio and helped answer questions about Nikon’s CLS system. It was a total BLAST and we all had a great time…especially once we hit the pizza joint at the corner after we were done. 🙂 Part of the purpose of the gathering was to raise awareness and support for http://www.charlestonkidswithcameras.org/.

Here’s a “before” shot while I was setting up, taken by my friend Kip Bulwinkle.

Here are a couple shots I took with my lighting setup.

I used my Nikon D2x with the WT-2a attached. This allowed the images to magically pop up on my laptop, allowing everyone to see exactly what I was getting.

Here’s a crude (HA…understatement!) diagram of my setup.

Here’s a quick grab-shot of the scene outside with some of the location shooters.