SAN DIEGO | February 22-24, 2008
Mentors | Dave Black & Tony Corbell
RECAP
Dave Black said "if you want something to look interesting, don't light all of it." "Everyday, be inspired or inspire somebody" intoned Tony Corbell. With these nuggets of wisdom from our teachers, the San Diego Mentor Series Trek commenced. Friday dawned with steady rain enveloping San Diego, very unusual for a region famed for its consistently sunny weather. Our instructors urged us not to worry because there is no such thing as bad weather or bad light, its how one uses what's available. We ventured off to Balboa Park, right into the Botanical Gardens & surrounding areas. Sure enough, the freshly fallen raindrops were wonderful on the flora and reflections from the wet environs amidst the muted light provided many interesting still life studies. We learned about how Dave Black first uses the sky to backlight a subject then follow through with his trademark dual SB 800 setup with warming gels and deft use of the Kelvin scale to then illuminate and reveal the silhouette. We then crossed on to Coronado Island over the magnificent Coronado Bay Bridge giving us a dramatic overview of San Diego Naval Station, the largest Naval Base in the world and a marina that offered wonderful "drive-by shooting" opportunities. Tony Corbell scouted out a vantage point on the island offering breath-taking views of the San Diego skyline with ships and aircraft aplenty offering foreground interest. A massive white cloud formation broken up with just the right amount of blue sky hovered over the city prompting Tony Corbell to call it the "mothership" over San Diego ala ID4 over New York City. The first day of shooting ended with a frantic rush to select 5 images for critique by our coaches and we got a taste of what it must be like for PJ's working under publication deadline pressure.
|
|
 Travel with our mentors and try out all of the latest equipment from Nikon! Including world class digital SLRs, Nikkor lenses and the Coolpix line of Digital Cameras.
Saturday brought a picture-perfect sunny day of 65 degrees Fahrenheit and off we trekked to the Wild Animal Park, a large 1800 acre wildlife preserve where many of the animals can roam freely. Tony Corbell declared that this environment was the closest people can get to photographing uncaged large African animals without going to the Dark Continent. He said that the open safari trucks we were on would provide an ideal shooting platform with the correct angle of view especially for big game. Sure enough, the images we made had that "just out of Africa" look. The late afternoon was spent on Ocean Beach Pier photographing surfers amidst 6-8 foot rollers. Demonstrating impeccable long lens technique, our mentors soon had us producing images that any surfer would give up his last ball of surf wax to possess, even as the sun was setting over the Pacific.
The rain returned Sunday morning, but not to worry, the USS Midway and her massive flight and hanger decks moored at Navy Pier provided shelter to many stalwarts of naval aviation. From a pristine SBD Dauntless (the dive bomber that turned the tide to victory just 7 months after Pearl Harbor), a F4 Phantom (that ruled the skies over Vietnam), the Sea King helicopter (that recovered Apollo 10, 11, 12, & unlucky 13 from the era when man first landed on the moon), a F14 Tomcat (of Top Gun fame), to a F/A 18 Hornet (the current defender of the fleet), one could spend a lifetime uncovering many details of mechanical genius. You know that its been a good day of shooting and demonstrating off-camera strobes when Dave Black is running out of power on his twin pack SB800's and it is only noon.
Before we knew it, it was time to cull 10 images for the final slide show. Again, that pressure-cooker of a deadline -- just enough of the good kind of stress to bring out the best in our images just like a violin string needs to be tuned with just the right amount of tension to create music. The music that poured forth from the students' images were truly incredible. It is amazing what good teachers and the right environment can do. Both of these were clearly evident in the San Diego Photo Workshop. We all left happy with our treasure trove of images and the new-found knowledge with which to create even more. Enough said!
Jim A. Quejada
|
