A couple of years ago, when Zach & Jody Gray came to Los Angeles, I wanted to go to their amazing photography workshop. I had just attended a 3 day workshop with Dane Sanders and bought my wonderful 7D, so another workshop wasn’t in the budget. I have seriously regretted not attending this highly praised workshop ever since. BUT, one day while perusing the [B] School, I saw that they were coming to Southern California for a one day workshop on off-camera lighting. This very topic has been on my 2011 bucket list, so I knew I had to sign up! And I am SO glad I did!

I’m totally a life long learner and my favorite subject is photography! Why go to workshops, when I teach photography myself? There are so many aspects of photography, from composition to business and we can’t forget about the technical. And to run a successful business, you need all three. While in art school, I never learned how to use strobes and fancy lighting equipment, so with the desire to take my photography to a whole new level and to teach my photo students some cool lighting, a day with the Gray’s was essential!

Our first model was Keary Dee and she is actually a photographer herself down in San Diego. Isn’t she gorgeous?! And of course I love her jacket and those super cute shoes. She was a joy to photograph. But after using a strobe as I photograped her, I was giddy with excitement!And one of the other photographers, Shelli, brought her gorgeous daughter to model for us. Breanne was a trooper for sure! Having acted in a major high school play the night before, she drove all the way down with her mom from Bakersfield, to help us photogs out by modeling. And I am so glad she did, because she is stunning!!!One of the most magnificent things that I loved about working with artificial light is that you can make your model practically jump off the screen, as if they are 3D. So cool!And then we saw a rainbow. How cool is that?! Love it!And then we were graced with a rockin sunset and then BAM, got some pretty sweet shots!Ok, supermodel! Thanks so much for giving me your gorgeous eyes to photograph. And those cheekbones, ugh, I love! I hope you enjoy the rest of your senior year. Love every second of it!

A HUGE shout out to Zach & Jody Gray! You have been blessed with not only mad photo skills, but a special ability to teach super complicated stuff in the simplest of ways.  Thank you for opening a whole new world of lighting to me. I can now say, both figuratively and metaphorically…I have seen the light! Ha!