The FlashBus Tour came town yesterday -- hit the link for tour info - http://www.theflashbus.com/
David Hobby aka www.strobist.com, with his in the trenches technique of homemade black straw snoots and Joe McNally, www.joemcnally.com, wielding the endless stack of Last-o-Lite panels brought the FlashBus to SLC Sunday.
Hobby and McNally are a good fit with two different techniques, approaches, gear setups, and presentations.
Hobby didn't use the term "Tupperware" once -- and McNally even in the middle of an 3-mile island equipment meltdown in the afternoon session didn't even swear.
Strobist started the event at 10am with a slide presentation of techniques of approach; layering a scene with Ambient as a base, Key, Fill and more. Many photos of the on-site setup displayed the before, during, and after, of the shoot.
Prizes for participation surprised the crowd - hit the sponsor list.
He didn't flinch at any question asked from the crowd, and he knows his craft very well, as obvious because he's the Strobist. I asked the first question -- and was labeled, the guy who is always going to ask questions -- there is always that guy... Sweet !
Hobby's style is Gurilla - and for me that means creative, and by all means necessary - some of his gear is homemade and some isn't. But I took away that Hobby and his roots and technique are earthy - but his product is polished, and the thought that if Hobby can do it - well than I may just have a chance.
-- lunch --
McNally takes the stage and with a quick introduction displays a slide show of some of his best work. Most of which I've seen and some of which I haven't. I've read his two books and Kelby Training work.
He was all hands on - as I tweeted "he has assistants, whoa!!"
A tethered Nikon D3s with a 24-70 af-s was handed to him and with a shutter click - nothing - another click - nothing... A total equipment meltdown as there was a hardware malfunction.
In true professional form McNally held it together, didn't skip a beat and in a few minutes - ok - a series of painful minutes - everything came back on line.
The majority of the equipment was Lastolite - and of course a crazy amount of speedlites - and as with Hobby - there was a layered approach but with different gear.
And, it was live - he was making it happen - every once in a while as an assistant would try to anticipate a move, McNally would change it up and do something different - on purpose or not it, was evident he was in control.
Toward the end he introduced a member of the crowd, a dancer who volunteered to be photographed - and McNally with a 3 tree'd speedlite setup some 60 feet away produced some McNally esque work. It was excellent.
Manual - TTL - it didn't matter - McNally is a superstar with flash.
It was wonderful seeing the creative process develop, unfold, succeed and sometimes collapse on itself.
Did I mention that these two were in the room for only $100 admission - bargain -- Winning!!!
These two were very well worth the price of admission - Adorama was the sponsor and without their help it probably would have been more - I'm glad they came - I took away some some good techniques and more so - hopefully some of their passion for the craft.
