The Next Step Up ~ Two Fish Photography

So it might be a little corny, but I have to say the past 48 hours have been amazing. A high that I can't really describe, but want to hold on to so badly. So I think I have been telling this story the entire past 48 hours. It's a story I am proud to tell, but by the same token, I can be very long winded about. So the short and simple version before you read on is this: I've found a great group of photographers, models, and friends. I've had the privilege to be in their company and share their experience with photography. What came out of a simple meeting of friends has opened a lot of doors for me as well as a feeling that I know being a photographer will always bring me joy and a sense of purpose.

Now, for the longer version. My buddy, Nick Pilch(here), and I were talking one day and found out we both used Flickr to upload our photos we shoot to the web. It was there that Nick encouraged me to look around his stuff. Now, he probably has come to find out that he's my first contact I've made on Flickr. And it got me thinking: what other contact opportunities have I missed out on cause I didn't go looking for them on this awesome site? So that led me to the Groups of Flickr and typing in the search field "Atlanta Photography". BAM! There is the first link, Atlanta Photographers Guild(here). I begin to check it out and see that in about 24 hours they are going to have a meeting at their favorite shooting place, Elliot Street Pub(here).

Okay, Now my whistle has been rather moistened. Here is a guild for me to join up and network with as well as I get to shoot things--with a camera, my camera! Pinching myself, I quickly opened up many tabs on my Chrome browser and googled the poop out of these people. Who are they? Why haven't I run across them in my earlier searches? Where has this possible gem been hiding? The awesome thing was that every time I'd research something about the guild I kept getting a ton of positive feedback. Seeing the variety of skills and styles of picture-capturing, I knew I was going to their guild meeting on the 24th of May. I was sold. I smashed in the address of the pub and prepared my stuff to shoot for the following day.

I quickly realize that the day of I've made this promise to myself to shoot 1,000 pictures this week with nothing but my Nifty 50. I began to freak out that it would be a terrible lens to do these pictures with. But a promise is a promise and I told myself, "Nope, you cannot change any lenses when you start shooting." As I was pulling in I had this really cool observation of 3 separate fire trucks turning off of side streets and on to my street in perfect unison--one of which was a giant ladder truck. I arrived a little early and began to blossom as my wallflower self. Eventually a hobbyist, Mike, came up and introduced himself. He was very out-going and friendly and helped settle me in. A little later on the meeting started and my premiere appearance was announced to all.

That really didn't phase anyone. Most of the people that were at the announcement section of the meeting were seasoned guild members with the minimum amount of time spent in the guild being around 9 months. I was impressed by the number of people that had plenty of guild time under their belt. At the same time I was bombarded with names I suddenly realized I was going to have to remember. Thankfully the inter-activeness of the the modeling stations helped me re-learn the names I failed to commit to memory. It was a flurry of flashes as the first photographer donned their remote triggers to their camera's hot-shoe. After that, the high of taking amazing photos kicked in and time flew by.

I remember coming up on my first station and was greeted by the beautiful Heather and Caddy--the immovable, weathered Cadillac that's size dwarfed the petite model. Nervous as can be, I shakily put the trigger in it's adapter on my camera and fired my first shot. Looked at the back of the camera and wanted to jump up and down shouting, "I got one! I got a good one!" Instead, I refrained and just buried my big nose in the LCD screen on the back of my camera, stuck my left eye through the view finder and kept firing. I think I may have said 3 words to Heather the entire I captured pictures. Then waddled over to her with a stupid grin and showed her the back of the camera. She smiled with approval and then I moved on from station to station doing pretty much the same thing. At the end of the night for my last station I was blessed to have Jason and Reihaneh model for me.

It was this last station that I actually start to pose the models. But, I have to say I loved ALL the models because they were nice enough to keep posing, knowing to change once every few flashes. I sure hope Jason and Reihaneh had fun, because I went back to my theatrical ways had them participate in some big poses. The lighting for the last station was pretty simple. Earlier though, Reihaneh and I had a difficult time on the Caddy station. It was here that I learned two key things. One: that studio lights don't make everything easy. Two: I'm going to need to understand how the "preview" light on a studio strobe works before snapping pictures and ending up with less than flattering light on my model. Reihaneh was very understanding of my growing pains and gave me a mulligan to try a different pose but with a better lighting setup up for her. The things I learned in that little time with about 5 people involved in the learning process made me so happy to be apart of.

In the end, I learned a great deal about modeling and shooting people. I look forward to getting to take as many opportunities as I can to shoot more people and to keep learning about that and the lighting involved. Since the shoot I was busy playing in post production making not only a full color set, but also a full black and white set. Both have their own style and even cropping. I encourage everyone who is a fan of my pics to take a stroll on over to my flickr, if you haven't already, and check out all the pictures from the guild meeting. As well, don't forget to comment on what you liked and what you didn't like. It only helps me be a better photographer. And who knows, maybe one day I'll be taking pictures of you!

Thanks for reading,
Two Fish