Nashville Bound
Every one wants to improve their skills no matter what they do. I attend various workshops and shooting get togethers with other photographers to learn what others are doing, compare notes and develop some new techniques. I love going to these kind of things because I’m able to learn so much, and able to share the things that I have learned.
And in every field, there are those who stand out, who are leaders by what they do. These are the mentors, the ones that set the standards. In my world, there are some that are art photographers or wedding photographers or commercial photographers or photojournalists. They are at the top of their game and folks like me study what they do to see how we can improve what we do. I have several such people in the world of music photography that I follow and try to emulate in some way to take my work to a higher level. I don’t want my photography to look like theirs; I just want to be able to do more in the work that I do.
One of these people of whom I am a big fan is Zack Arias. He is a music photographer and editorial photographer in the Atlanta area. What he does is much different from what I have done in the past, but I truly love his photography. He shoots a lot of portraits of up and coming bands and musicians using what he calls the One Light system. He uses a strobe or flash off camera and different light modifiers to light up his subjects in a very distinctive way. If you’d like to see samples of his work, check out Zack’s blog. Several months ago, I bought his One Light instructional DVD, and I learned quite a bit from it. I had heard about it from my friends, Mikey and Andy of lightenupandshoot.com with whom I got to spend a weekend doing street shoots a little while back and who also use some of these same techniques in their work. Some samples of what I shot that weekend are below. I am constantly trying to use what I learned from them and the DVD, and I can really see progress in my work.
Well, I’ve decided that it was time to do more. To up my game. To move what I do to the next level. So, I will be traveling to Nashville in the middle of July to spend two days at a workshop with Zack Arias. For me, this is huge. This is not something I would have done in the past. This is a commitment to being a much better photographer than I have ever been. This is a commitment to giving my clients more than I have previously. I will be in Music City, working with one of the best music photographers in the business, and having him teaching me and showing me ways that I could be better at what I love to do. To say that I am psyched is a major understatement! I am looking forward to this more than just about anything I can think of. Stay tuned because I’m sure there will be updates on this.
