David Tejada & Detroit

It's nice to have a pro looking over your shoulder. Though I have done most of my learning on photography via book, video or magazine, I have recently found that I have probably taken that form as far as I possibly can and that I needed some actual "hands-on" time with a teacher. Being a faithful reader of The F Stops Here and it's writer David Tejada, I was quick to jump when his workshop came anywhere near where I live in Chicago. In this case to a place I am quite familiar with, Detroit! Making the late-night drive with every conceivable piece of equipment I could put in the back of the van Kate and I arrived in Detroit. She was kind enough to go along for the drive, little did I know she would be part of the class!

David is one of the most personable people you might meet. He seemed very eager to get to know us and to also pass along his information. Erik Lawrence is the type of assistant that we would all want. I was envious when David would just motion with the fewest words and then Erik would move into action and have something all set-up while David continued his lecture. Though I'm sure some may debate this Erik however does not look as good as my wife. I have some advantages.

The morning session was the basics of lighting and how it affects your picture. The most telling of slides was how light falls off and it's effect on F-stop. That slide alone showed how little light you might need to creatively light a scene. I believe this is the Inverse Square Rule. After looking through information on that, I liked David's Slide better. I wished I had taken a picture of it to share.

I'll get into a specific example and how it has recently helped me in a moment. David's class was thorough and really showed how a working pro solves his problems and the equipment that he uses. A CD was provided with the list of equipment choices at the end of the class. The fun part of the class started in the afternoon. What we did as a class was work through a lighting of a scene to show how he develops what he sees and how to shoot it. He walked us through this in multiple areas, both inside and out. He highlighted the strengths of each scene and how you control the light that you not only have available, but also the light you bring. Nothing could be more telling than the following pictures below.

In this first picture we were in the kitchen and David is showing how bright this scene is. This is a kitchen with stainless appliances and shelving, you can see at picture right the large diffused windows that are glowing with beautiful diffused light. The problem is capturing a picture that controls the light you have available. You can see in the next picture that using the diffused light from the windows without bringing any of your own light into the scene. This would be exposing for the ambient light.

In the last example you can see what is done when you creatively control the light. I know if I saw these I would have guessed that they were taken hours apart instead of just minutes!



This lesson alone made a trip I made to Zion later in the year all that much better. I knew from this class that if I supplied the light I should be able to capture this scene with 8 stops of contrast and compress them so you not only could have Kate and I lit in the front, but the rocks of Zion in the back perfectly exposed. I walked through all of the items from the above class, checking my ambient light and then figuring out how to manually bring my own light creatively to the scene. I was giddy after this shot because I had applied something I had learned and designed in my head and pulled it off on the screen. I know it doesn't take much to amuse me.



I highly recommend a class with David, he also has a mentoring session out in Death Valley with Nikon in February. I also recommend both his and Erik's blogs.

After the class we all got together for dinner at a local eating place. We shared alot of photography stories and had a chance to ask even more questions not only of the group, but of David as well.

After dinner Kate had never seen Detroit before and I with a little nudging, well alot set out to see it again. Detroit has been beaten up in the news lately, but it is a very scenic city. It rests along the Detroit river and if you didn't have to go into another country to take shots there might be more of it. Belle Island Park sits in the middle of the Detroit River and allows you to bypass all of the customs officials to grab some sunset pictures from it's shores.

A nice trip.

As always you can see a slide show of all of the pictures here.

If you would like to go through them at your own pace go here.

As always please comment.