The Milwaukee Strobist group on Flickr met at Z2 Photo on June, 23rd 2009… Here’s a time-lapse video of the event.
(This video is also available at blip.tv and at Vimeo and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution License.)
The Milwaukee Strobist group on Flickr met at Z2 Photo on June, 23rd 2009… Here’s a time-lapse video of the event.
(This video is also available at blip.tv and at Vimeo and is published under a Creative Commons Attribution License.)
I’ve been interested in the strobist technique of photography for a while now, but just haven’t found the time to really get into it… and the fact that my flash died at PhotoCamp certainly didn’t help things…
So when I heard about the Milwaukee Strobist group on Flickr I had this cunning idea… Invite them all out to Z2 Photo for the meetup! This was one way to ensure I’d be able to make it. :)
And come they did! We had at least one guy from Chicago, and I think a few from Madison… We had RSVP’s for about 15, and I’d guess we had about 30+ photographers there, as well as 5 models. (Here’s a group shot we did quickly at the end, some people had already left, but we got a good majority of the group.)
And hey, I even got a few shots that I was happy with… (Thanks to everyone who loaned me equipment. Someone gave me a SB-600 to use, and at least once there was a lens on my camera that weighed 3 times as the body itself, and probably cost 4 times what my camera did!)
I sort of felt like “well done lighting” plus “experienced models” made it easy to get above average shots… I know that when I’ve been left alone with lights and someone who needs a portrait, it’s a lot tougher, and good product photographer can be even more difficult. Walking into a situation where it’s all set and you just snap the shutter takes about 90% of the work out of it. :) (But hey, I’m not complaining, this was still a great experience, even if all you did was watch how other photographers do things, and I did ask a number of questions, and get some really good information in the process.)
I’m hoping at the next meetup there’s a bit more talk of “why” the lights are set up a specific way, and the many factors involved in getting a good portrait shot. Still, this was a really good experience, and a lot of fun.
I’ve been buried with work for the past few weeks, and this has crept up on me… but we are less than a month away from our very first PhotoCamp here in Milwaukee.
We’ve got a website at PhotoCampMilwaukee.org where we’ve been publishing profiles of people who will be attending, with the hopes that you can get to know about some of your fellow campers, even before the event starts.
And if you’re still a little cloudy, the About page explains things:
PhotoCampMilwaukee is a BarCamp-like event fully focused on photography. It’s an ad-hoc “un-conference” where people who love photography can get together and teach what they know, and learn what they don’t. It’s about sharing in an open environment. Everyone has experience to share, and getting everyone together in one place, for a full day, seems like a great way to do it.
We’ve got a great bunch of sponsors helping us make this event happen, including:
And if you’re interested in sponsoring, or otherwise supporting PhotoCamp, just get in touch with me.
If you love photography, and are within driving distance, please join us on Saturday, May 2, 2009 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin… We’ll see you there!
For the Web414 March 2009 Meeting we’ll be discussing Creativity Challenges on the web.
Have you taken part in National Novel Writing Month, or the RPM Challenge (record an entire album in a month) or maybe taken a photo every single day for a year for the 365 Days Project?
These are challenges (not contests) and there isn’t a winner or a loser (unless you beat yourself up about not finishing) but if all goes well, attempting to “meet the challenge” will force you to be creative when it’s so easy not to be. It’s too simple to come home from work, plop down on the couch and consume the latest piece of “entertainment” that someone else created, but if you like writing, making music, or photography, why not step it up and see what you can really do by giving yourself a challenge to be met?
It can be difficult… most of the people I know involved in these challenges have day jobs, friends and family, and other responsibilities. And often, things just “get in the way” or go haywire and you just can’t do it. Equipment breaks, computers crash, files get lost. I saw a post in the RPM Challenge forums from a guy who said he couldn’t finish due to the fact that he had to get divorced. Life can get in the way of things, and that’s all part of the challenge.
If everything goes right, you complete the challenge, you’re proud of what you’ve created, and hopefully you’ve learned something in the process, had some fun, and make plans to continue creating things and being creative.
If discussing this further sounds interesting, please stop by Bucketworks Thursday, March 12th, 2009 at 7pm and join in…
It’s coming… PhotoCampMilwaukee is set for May 2, 2009 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin…
So… what is PhotoCampMilwaukee?
PhotoCampMilwaukee is a BarCamp-like event fully focused on photography. It’s an ad-hoc “un-conference” where people who love photography can get together and teach what they know, and learn what they don’t. It’s about sharing in an open environment. Everyone has experience to share, and getting everyone together in one place, for a full day, seems like a great way to do it.
You don’t have to be a great photographer to attend, you just have to bring your passion for photography. The event will be free (thanks to our sponsors) and the only entrance fee is your participation.
You want more info? We got more info! Visit photocampmilwaukee.org for all the details. The sign-up will be coming soon, but for now we’ve got a PhotoCampMKE Google Group for discussion and planning, and a PhotoCampMilwaukee Flickr Group for photos and what-not…
(If you’re interested in sponsoring PhotoCampMilwaukee, please get in touch with me…)