Had a very cool week in Venice. A VSP workshop with Joe McNally. Great bunch of people too from all over the world, the US, Canada, Australia, Germany, Switzerland, Italy, Bulgaria… It was all about strobes, the SB900 flash from Nikon. Canon shooters not welcome here. Made “the switch” 3 months ago, never looked back. Coming from a 580EXII Canon strobe felt like moving from a PC to the Mac. Most of you would know what I mean by that. Great to have buttons at all the right places.  Never knew how much you can actually do with flash, it’s like havin’ day light in your pocket. You need to learn a lot though as “photons go everywhere”.

I love the unpredictable and I love light, so 1+1=3 for me. No time for a workshop ? Read Joe’s book or pay a visit to strobist. People ask me a lot about what camera do I use, what lenses, what settings… the tech stuff. My feeling is good gear gets you the last 20% or so but the first 80 is predominantly eye and light. Now if you can mould light to your benefit that certainly helps.

If you have a backdrop like Venice that sure helps as well too. Great town, great people, great food as well. If your there try “sardines e scampi in soar”. It’s a nice starter from the days the Arabs influenced the Venetian cuisine. D E L I C I O U S. Pensione Wildner and Aqua Pazza are two reccomendations to go wild on the Venetian Cuisine. Visited Wildner last year three times or so came back this year and the waiter said, so mr. Vandevorst “Va Bene” ? Amazing memory that guy has, I mean 12 million people seem to visit Venice every year.

Last but not least a big thank you to Jonathan Mahler and his wife Marzia Gasparotti from VSP, they did a great job. Please visit their website here. Best regards to all participants, you were all great company willing to share knowledge and great stories

participantsVenice

It was a very cool week, beautiful models, great food and wine and one of the best backdrops of the globe, as Joe would say “a day in the field is a lot better than a day in the office”

Keep following lights…