Strobist Workshop

On Saturday the 16th of May, we had our first Strobist Workshop. So. Much. Fun. I will be honest here, and say that I was trying REALLY hard not to get too interested in this. Not because it wasn't interesting, but because I've already spent too much on photo stuff this year. However, as hard as I tried, I utterly failed.

I've spent the last 2 weeks looking at what there is to know. Here is what I've found so far to get started:

According to Strobist, the LumoPro LP120 Manual Flash is the best flash to start with. It sells at the Midwest Photo Exchange for $129. Why is it so much less than the Nikon/Cannon/Sony flashes? Because it is not TTL, so you are not paying for all the stuff that you won't be needing to shoot in the strobist style.

Here is the description of this product via Midwest Photo Exchange:

Developed in conjunction with the Strobist community, this flash is ideal for professional and amateur photographers alike. The LumoPro LP120 is the most versatile all manual flash in production today. In its one size fits all design, it offers 4 ways of synchronization with your camera through its PC port, miniphone port,optical slave sensor and hotshoe (PC/Miniphone cord included.) This diversity also provides you with backup options should, for example, your existing radio slaves lose power or you forget your sync cord at home. Using your flash off your camera has never been easier. With its 270-degree swivel and 180-degree tilt, you will be able to bounce the light off any wall, ceiling, and most light modifiers (using your forehead is not recommended.) The manual zoom function allows you to focus the beam regardless of your lens focal length. The wide-angle adapter helps disperse the beam to a greater degree. The standard flash head design insures that almost any light modifier on the market will fit securely. The LP120 is color neutral and offers 6 power variations. This flash has replaced the Vivitar 285HV in all of our strobist kits.

Item Includes:

• LP120 Manual Flash
• PC to Miniphone Sync cord
• Wide angle adapter
• Instruction manual

For Strobist's second and third choices for flashes, go here. They already said it, and better than I could.

The Midwest Photo Exchange has several strobist kits available, starting with:Strobist Starving Student SX1 lighting kit
This is the basic kit, This kit is available both including the flash ($219) or everything but the flash ($99)

(Wanna double up? Get two of everything for $389, $154.99 w/out the flashes)

All the way up to:

Strobist Pro PT3 2 light kit

This the biggest, professional kit. It includes pretty much everything you could possibly need to be the professional strobist. However, it runs about $999.

For all the kits, with both the 1 and 2 light sets, go here to do some independent fact finding.

I'll tell you what though, I've only shot in this style twice, and I'm well and goodly hooked.

Happy Shooting !

The People Mover

Ahhhh the People Mover day. This day started with a phone call 10 minutes before I was supposed to meet everyone to go downtown. I say "started" because I was sound asleep at 9:50 am, and was supposed to meet everyone at 10 am. Ugh. So, this is my very special Thank You to Kelly for that kind wake up call :)

Fast forward 40 minutes later, and we were pulling into the Downtown Detroit Parking Garage. The day was beautiful. Sunny with a breeze coming off the river, warm.. oh yes a good day.

This was yet another meet dedicated to our 2 Faces of Detroit Project.

We made our way into the Ren Cen and bought our tokens. Our goal was to get off at EVERY stop. So we as a group get onto the People Mover, and the very next stop .. was across the street.

Haha.. oh yes. Across the street. That was OK because we all got some great shots.. but seriously, we could have walked there LOL.

From there it was over to the Financial District. We kind of broke off into many groups at this point. I think we spent the most time at this stop as well.

From there we hit JLA and then Cobo Hall, walked around the roof parking at Cobo, and we all kind of slowed down, so we decided to grab some lunch.

We went to Greek Town and ate at a Tex Mex place. This time without the margaritas (well, I had one, but they made me drink alone, as sad as that is). After that we headed over to Grand Circus Park, and shot some more until the rain started coming down. At that point we high-tailed it back to the Ren Cen, shot a little in there, and then headed down the back way along the river to our cars.

There, along the river front, we found the most interesting fire hydrant

Then we talked about Petcha Kutcha night, then went home.

For more (and in many cases better) photos, including of course the very cool hydrant, have a look at our RODP Flickr

The Train Station / Tiger Stadium

We decided about a month and a half ago to go to the the defunct Detroit Train Station. After the meet was set and we were ready to go.. the Detroit City Council started making a big deal about the building. Talking about what a blight it was on the City's landscape.

While I agree and disagree with this, I think the City has MUCH bigger problems than this one building. But that is another blog.

At any rate, the security is beefed up as a result, and it is harder to get into the building undetected. Especially with 13 people with cameras. Crazy, I know.

This was the first meet that we car pooled to. Before this, we all just met somewhere, took pictures, and left. This time, we met in Royal Oak, car pooled to Detroit, with the intention of getting into the Train Station, taking some amazing photos and leaving.

However, Fate had other plans for us.

For reasons I won't go into, we took photos of the outside of the building first.

And like colorful bait on the end of a fishing line, we attracted the police. Not the best decision I've ever made, but hey, I learned from it :D

The police didn't approach us while outside, and we did get some pretty cool shots.

Then we made our way, en masse, to the entrance to the building.

Yeah. It's in there.

We climbed in, some of us with more help than others (sorry guys.. )

and I shot a little more

Yeah. It was pitch black. Luckily I had a cool flashlight that sat on my head. Yeah, I know, you're jealous.

Unfortunately, as the last of us climbed into the building, the PoPo arrived. About half of us were all for going in anyway (they weren't following us in.. just sitting there) and half wanted to just leave. The first half of us left... and the second half of us waited a few minutes, deciding what we wanted to do. We decided that staying a group was better than NOT staying a group, and climbed out and joined our friends with the Police.

Yeah. Not our best moment. But oh the stories we'll have for our grandkids, right?

Anyway, only SOME of us got tickets, because apparently she didn't actually SEE some of us come out.

To make the best of a sour situation, we decided to head over to Tiger Stadium..

not to break in this time, but to shoot thru the fences. (Lesson learned, right?)

The day was just about perfect weather-wise. And we turned our Lemony day into Margaritas at Mexican Village to finish it off.

For more photos from the meet and other meets, check out our RODP Flickr group