Started the day trying to go to CVS to buy blank CD’s to fix Phil’s internet. No luck- CVS was closed till 8am. Hung out w/ Phil drinking coffee and talking about old stories. Rick called in the morning, and gave me the address for the workshop. I drove there, and could not find the place. The GPS told me where to go, but I could not see it. I drove around, and finally called Rick, to find out where it is… sure enough, it was EXACTLY where my GPS had taken me to! After parking my car, I walked in through those giant metal doors that guarded the way to Club Crome. I shook hands and introduced myself… it was easier than I thought. I covered the event a bit, then photographed some of the girls. Hung out in the “I’m advanced, leave me alone” group. The way the workshop worked is that the photographers (about 20) get broken up into multiple groups of 4. Each group gets “a set” (part of the club), a model (sometimes two), and a strobe. The groups are selected by experience level… beginner, intermediate, and advanced (leave me alone). Each set lasts a certain amount of time. Then there is a few minutes break as the models change outfits. Each group then moves to the next spot, and gets the next model with the next outfit.

The club was quite beautiful, with chains, motorcycles, big metal doors, bars, lights…. When I interviewed Rick & Frank the next day, they had mentioned that this is what they offer…. a nice venue, smaller groups, nice models, nice wardrobe, nice make up artists…. a combination of things that many photographers do not necessarily have access to all the time. I’ve worked my way into pretty open access to some superb clubs on a regular basis- Hollywood Choppers, Pangaea, Gryphon, Mansion, Pearl, Prive, Opium, Revolution, and various restaurants and hotels. I’ve always had great models, and I couldn’t be happier with my Make Up Artists. So, I can totally see that availability being an attraction factor to workshops. One photographer I interviewed, Simon, was also in the advanced group. His experience his huge… so, I asked him- if you are in the advanced “leave me alone group” then why are you here? And he said that the $300 price for the workshop is less than it would cost him to get a model and make up artist for 2 days. Others wanted a chance to work with models…. they shoot nature, or macro, or portraits… but wanted experienced models with good makeup to practice on.

My shin is cut / bruised because someone left a table in front of the door. Those things are solid — very solid!! - metal.. ouch! Still hurts when I touch it (even a week later).

Met cool people… took fun pics. Kept my own style- the models knew that I’m the one to make goofy faces for. Learned about White Balancing to compensate for the light- as compared to RAW workflow… hmmmm… can see that being useful.

Made it back to Phil’s before they made it out to dinner. Got to meet Kathy, his future wife, and their friend Ginger. They made for very pleasant conversation, and then took off for dinner. I made myself those Tyson hot wings TV Dinner that I bought @ CVS when I was there buying blank CD’s so I can fix Phil’s internet. I fixed it by getting on his neighbor’s internet, downloading the drivers, and burning them onto CD. This was necessary because his computer was so old that it did not have USB ports, so I could not use a keychain chip, or an external harddrive. His computer is also so old that it did not have a DVD reader, so CD was the only way to go… but I only had blank DVD’s - so CVS was the way to go. I fixed it and he was happy. It was not DSL though, as I had thought… but at least he’s happy.

The rest of the night is basically journaling

When they returned from dinner, I took a few photographs of them. This is great, because they have been together for a while, have plans to get married, and did not have a single photo of them together.

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