Every time I pick up a camera, I try and learn something new.  I want to become more confident in the final result of each image I shoot.

The most important ingredient for a great image is lighting.  You can have a beautiful subject and the greatest camera ever, but if you can’t see that subject because it’s too dark or if your lighting is too flat or adds no drama, you have an image that could be much better by changing one thing…the light.  I’m not only talking about artificial lights either.  Natural light is absolutely amazing!  Seeing the light in any given situation is an important part of photography.  Harnessing that light is sometimes even more important.  Chances are good that you will get into situations where the ambient surroundings look great, but because of the time of day or the specific location, there is not enough natural light to get what you want.  It’s a situation like that where having a good working knowledge of artificial lighting techniques can make the difference between an amazing, dramatic image and no image at all.

I love being able to go pretty much anywhere and still have access to near-studio quality light available whenever I need it.  Obviously working with studio lights versus Speedlights (the external flash units you put on top of your camera) can be quite different.  However, there are many times that I would prefer using Speedlights over studio lights.  There are also times where using the smaller lights renders such a great picture that you cannot tell which type of light was used.  Most of the time, I only use (or need) one Speedlight.

Here are some recent examples of all three types of lighting (natural, studio and Speedlights).  I hope you enjoy them.