Tampa Lighting Class (posted by wesley)

I didn't have a chance to highlight my trip to Tampa a couple of weeks ago, so I thought I would touch on that since we did not have a wedding this weekend. Since we are always looking to expand our techniques, I took a class on professional lighting. We shoot as much as possible without artificial flash, but there are times when there is no way around it in dark situations, and these courses always bring a fresh approach to it. The whole point was to take the flash off the camera and use it to make photos that were only achievable with off camera lighting. We did some cool tricks and even had our very own Elvis impersonator to model for us. This guy was no cheap weekend Elvis either, he was the real deal.....

Imagine being in a room like this during the middle of the day...


and pulling off a shot like this! Looks like a stage in a nightclub doesn't it?


We headed outside at dusk and took some shots of Elvis in an Alley...


This is another one of our aspiring young models.


I actually made this shot in a parking lot behind the young lady in the photo above...


We convinced her mom to model for us in this old elevator shaft... Not pretty surroundings in person, but made for really nice photos.


We actually put Elvis in front of a white wall and arranged the lighting to make it look like a gray background....pretty cool.


He had some serious bling....


On the way home I took a break and stopped at beautiful Fanning Springs State Park. I wanted to stretch my legs and check out the crystal clear swimming hole. In the bottom of the pic is the actual spring which is 20'-30' deep, and then it flows out to the historic Suwanee River you can see in the distance.


Fall is in full swing here in Florida....


This was a surprise to me.... There were 3 manatees swimming around the spring to my delight. You can see boat propeller scars on the one in the middle.


This was the baby in the bunch....


This is an underwater photo I made diving about 3 years ago for a little better view. Manatees are really cute creatures.