You guys know me, I love, Love, LOVE teaching others about photography. That’s why it’s so super awesome that I was brought on last year to teach at the Virginia Museum of Contemporary Art (thanks again Jackie 🙂 ). Because I had such a rough start in my photographic journey, I have such a desire to help others as they begin down their own path! A few weeks ago, Jackie and I teamed up to our combined awesomeness and teach a lighting workshop at MOCA.
Armed with technical know how, the gear to practice with, and a group of students that were ready to learn, how could the day not go well?! We started the workshop going over off camera flash, specifically focusing on how to control your external flash (and make it do what you want it to!), then moved quickly into the hands on portion of the day.
I’m a big believer in practicing what you learn right then so it will stick. All my intro class students will tell you that I’m mean because I make them look things up in their manual and figure out how to do it themselves.
Could I take their camera and adjust what I want myself and have it take a quarter of the time?
Absolutely.
But that doesn’t help the student.
Because when they get home and go to try and manipulate the settings on their camera, they will have a tougher time because it was done for them last time and now they are not sure exactly how to do it.
Once that portion of the day was done, we moved onto studio lighting (my specialty!). I had a great time explaining how different lighting set-ups work, the in’s and out of studio lighting, and how to make the most of your equipment whether you’re using one, two, three or more lights!
All in all, a great day spent teaching and learning!
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