I admit, the 1st day I was not fully prepared when soimeone asked what my background was…. I recited every single thing I had ever done in my life– eek! Thankfully, a lot of that is mildly relevant. The seminar improved as the day progressed. The model was a sweetheart, Anastacia. Hair and makeup took a while, and we didn’t get to have too much time to shoot her. The look I did for Anastacia is a chick w/ a Flame-Thrower, flame-throwing a giant frog…. I just have to add the Giant Frog part to it. It was a great idea, because it showed them how to do the posing, the acting, the concept, the props, the lighting– alternative lighting, really, because I used the flame thrower as the primary source. The way the concept worked was I needed a prop… The hairspray guy kept coming by and hairspraying the model…. I thought – hey… hairspray! “Who’s got a lighter??” Anastacia’s eyes widened with fear, as all my participants’ eyes lit up with glee…. “A Flamethrower!” Someone yelled from the small crowd. “That’s right!!! A flamethrower!” And thus, in an instant, I had come up with Anastacia’s idea for a cool image…. A woman launching a fireball at a giant frog that’s trying to snag her with its tongue. Where does it come from? I had a model, had a can of hairspray. What do I think of when I think of hairspray? I reminisce about the days in middle school when my friends and I would use hairspray or WD-40 as flame throwers, and torch G.I.Joes and Frogs…. But a model torching a frog is cruel…. and not interesting…. but a model torching a giant frog is a lot more interesting.

The 2nd day’s model was an actress…. This was superb… I did not have a very “actable” shot for the 2nd day… but it was great, the expressions that she pulled off. I highly recommend using Actresses when making extreme images… The crowd was quite advanced this 2nd day… which was awesome. I spent a lot more time on where the ideas come from… where to inspire new ideas…. I discussed the Frog picture, and how my ideas were brainstormed with Abigail. We had more studio time, and everyone got to shoot Abigail.

One gentleman was Paul Robisoin of Gary Fong was there, and gave all my attendees (and me!) a free LightSphere. I’m pretty excited about using it. I’ll post the interview I did with Paul, shortly.

Everyone was so excited about the workshop and what they learned, that I went and set up a Forum so they can post ideas and pictures to collaborate or critique.