David Bergman workshop | NYC
March 10, 2010
Finally, the reason I actually went up to New York in the first place, David Bergman’s workshop.
The workshop was a lot of fun, and extremely useful. Of course, my “gear to buy” list just got a whole lot longer. If you’re looking for a lighting workshop, I’d definitely recommend this one. More time is spent on the “why” than the “how”, which I think really gets to the point of it. Sure, you can tell me you’re at this f-stop, with this shutter speed and that aperture. But unless I find myself in a completely identical shooting situation, that information isn’t helpful to me. Tell me WHY you’re at those settings, and now we’re on to something.
I didn’t spend much time taking photos, but I did get a few sort of behind the scenes shots.
David, doing his thing on the roof at Adorama (oh, they let us on the roof!)
The basic premise here was to overpower the existing light (which is, uh, the sun). If you look at how bright that sky is, you can see the problem with trying to do this with a softbox.
Edible Red was nice enough to come out and pose for us for the day. Here they are demonstrating “The Band Stagger”.
It was really interesting to watch David set up shots, and also talk through his thought process. Useful and entertaining. So glad that I went, and I really can’t wait to try out some new lighting techniques.
Street Shots | NYC
March 8, 2010
The last of my photos from Saturday, these are all the street shots that I got while I was walking around.
Oh, right, and I did sleep at some point on Saturday.
Poutine and Cakeshop | NYC
March 4, 2010
After the show, I walked around looking for dinner somewhere, and ended up at Poutine. Apparently, poutine is some kind of Canadian cheese fries.
They also had fantastic creamsicle floats.
Then, off to Cake Shop. It’s a record store, a bar, and a live music venue. Oh, and they have cake. I was so excited when I went downstairs to see that the ceiling of the stage was lit all over with white Christmas lights, but they turned them off before the bands started. Don’t they care about my lighting needs?
I did get a shot of the bathroom walls. Every inch of the place looked just like this:
And snapped this one from the bottom of the stairs
ABC No Rio | NYC
March 1, 2010
We landed back in Pittsburgh, and three days later I was back on a plane. This time, headed up to NYC for David Bergman’s “Rock n Roll Portrait Lighting Workshop”. I’ve been looking for a really good lighting workshop, and figured New York wasn’t too far to go for it.
I started off on the tiniest airplane I’ve ever been on – only 3 seats across – which landed in exciting Newark. A tram, a train, and a few blocks walk later, I was at my hotel. Where I didn’t have a reservation, because the site I had used to book it had me down for January. It’s times like this I’m super glad that I travel light. Eventually I found a Doubletree where they did have a room, AND they gave me a chocolate chip cookie when I checked in, so kudos to them.
I was super excited to head up to the ABC No Rio, as they had an open darkroom, and I had some film to develop. Unfortunately, the volunteer that runs it had already left. Luckily, the have a hardcore/punk matinee every Saturday. Give me an hour in a new town, and I always find the punk kids.
What, exactly, does the cinder block do?
My more observant readers may have noticed that there’s a different watermark on these photos. This blog started out as a 365 project, then it was an addition to my wedding photography site, and now it’s my main page. The business has grown, so I’ve had to adapt my web spaces to keep up. Some time ago, I set up a separate web space for my music photography, and now it has it’s own blog!.
Most brides aren’t all that interested in my work with bands, and vice versa, so I’m splitting them into their own blogs. All the old stuff will still be in the archives here, but any new work will be on the new Studio C blog.
Florida: Busch Gardens
February 27, 2010
Our last day there, at least for me and John, we went to Busch Gardens. Which Abby adored, although she kept pointing at the enormous coasters that flip upside down and saying “I wanna ride that!”. Maybe next year, kid.
As soon as I picked my camera up, this guy started strutting over.
Sorry ladies, he’s taken.
This one, too.
If you somehow haven’t seen enough of these, again, they’re on Facebook. Next up, NYC.
