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July 1, 2009 - Engagements

lori + drew


















































June 30, 2009 - Personal

Small Strobes, Big Results Workshop with David Tejada

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When we made the leap to being full-time photographers, we knew that if we were going to make it as a business, we were going to have to stay in a perpetual state of forward motion. As artists, we place a premium value on any piece of knowledge that can move the images we produce for our clients from our vision into a reality of pixels and prints. Whether it's working on better or more creative positioning and posing or getting more intuitive with how light is effecting or COULD effect a shot, we feel we have to always try to make the next shot we take better than the last one we took, even if only infinitesimally.
I went to hear a photographer speak a while back who assured me that I was wasting my time if I wasn't seeking out the best possible photographers in the world making the best possible images to compare our work to. It's a lot easier on the ego to NOT do that, but he was absolutely right. If you ever start thinking, "Hey, this is good enough - I'm better than so-and-so other local guy," than you might as well put the camera down.
I'm typing all this to explain, in a way, how I came to be a big follower of David Tejada and his blog. I saw the images he was producing for his clients and I knew I wanted to study his work and learn what I could from him because he is at the very top of the industry. Luckily for photographers like us, coming into our own in this day and age, the information is out there because of guys like David who have devoted an untold amount of time and energy to sharing as much knowledge as possible, with the end goal being a better industry for all of us (and our clients to work with). He works his vision through the incredibly creative use of off-camera, hot shoe strobes, which made his work all the more accessible to us as we looked at the gear we had and the situations we regularly find ourselves in where speed and quick application of lighting can make or break a shot. Wedding days can not be re-shot, that first dance only happens once, ever, etc...you better get that frame right or someone else will get hired who can.
Anyway, my incredible long-windedness aside, I was reading David's blog a few months ago when he suggested that he would like to hold a workshop in the Toronto area since he had a speaking engagement at the Chautauqua Institution in June and had gotten a lot of interest from north of the border (David is based out of Colorado and his workshops sell out FAST). Brazenly I fired off an email saying how much we wanted to have him here in Buffalo and that we'd love to host the workshop if that was at all possible. Then he called me. Like, when my caller id said "Tejada, David" on it - I forgot how to speak a little bit. Luckily, he overlooked my brain malfunction and said he would feel out the interest in the area on a particular date and see what we could do.
Fast forward to Sunday, and there we were, all sitting in our little studio listening to him speak. Then, thanks to THE MAN, Derek Punaro, who got us access to the Buffalo Central Terminal, we had a jam-packed afternoon of shooting in one of the most amazing locations in town.
Here's a great TS shot Alyssa grabbed of David teaching. What he does for the practical application portion of his workshop day is shoot tethered to his MacBook and talk about why we might want to explore the particular lighting technique he's demonstrating while showing the direct results of creative choices he's making (one of the reasons he works exclusively with small strobes is the versatility that let's him determine his vision, not have it dictated by his equipment). He then passes out Pocket Wizards (a small, radio-triggering device for lights if you're unfamiliar) and everyone gets to go through the process themselves to not only see the results on their own camera (intensely gratifying), but to get a nice visual frame of reference for the technique being taught so it can be re-visited easily. The workshops are kept small and intimate, which made it really incredible. There was just constant dialogue.
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June 29, 2009 - Weddings

amy + mike








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