Introducing Bobbi Lane!

Portrait and wedding photographers check this out!

Portrait Lighting: Natural and Flash 

with Bobbi Lane

May 26-29, 2011

We're bringing the famous Bobbi Lane back to the Central Coast for 4 incredible days of portraiture. Bobbi will take you through all the ins and outs of the professional portrait including how to work with natural and strobe lighting. This is a great course for anyone trying to improve their technical skills in portrait lighting and perfect for those looking for a little creative inspiration!

As a teacher on the regional, national, and international level, she brings insight and enthusiasm to her classes, each year inspiring hundreds of students. Bobbi's excellent rapport and open communication with her students stimulates creative thinking, while her straight-forward teaching style motivates students of many different skill levels.

Check out this video for a sneak peak of Bobbi at work and get a taste of what you can expect to learn at her upcoming Portrait Lighting workshop, happening here at Light May 26-29, 2011.

Get more information or register today by visiting www.LightWorkshops.com or call the office at

805-528-7385

Fiat Lux!





Off We Go

Loading everyone onto the yacht this morning.  Not sure I have ever seen so much camera gear for such a small group.  Makes sense though, although the focus of the trip is eagles there is so much subject matter from macro to panoramic, HDR landscapes and more.  Never hurts to be prepared for anything that might wander in front of our lens.

Fiat Lux!

Petersburg, AK

Quick shot of the north harbor before dinner.  Will be able to shoot a bunch more in town tomorrow.

Our first photo tour of the year is here.  We have a couple of folks here already and everyone else will arrive tomorrow.  Rick Sammon should arrive in the morning and the other four participants will be here in the afternoon. 

Everything is lining up perfectly for us this trip.  The yacht is in top shape and will be fully loaded tomorrow.  The timing of the herring spawn is spot on and the eagle/whale/sea lion/otter/etc. spectacle should begin very soon.  I cannot wait to get out on the water and start shooting.  We are on the Northern Song this year and it is an incredible yacht for photography; luxury accomodations but small enough to get us in the middle of the action.

Last year I was fortunate to field test the Really Right Stuff PG-02 (gimbal head) prototype.  This year the full-up production model is in my bag and will be helping me track with the Canon EF 400mm f/2.8L and the EF 800mm f/5.6L.  Tracking and long lens, action shots with this kit are awesome.

We will try to post as often as possible but there is some limited coverage when we are deep in the fjords. 

Fiat Lux!

A Bit of Painting

© 2011 Jane Conner-Ziser



Day five of Jane Conner-Ziser and Jack Davis.  We are painting a little bit today with both Corel Painter 11 and Adobe Photoshop CS5. 

This has been an awesome week for the class and for the Light staff.  When you are surrounded by talented, creative, and charismatic people like Jack and Jane you cannot help but learn and laugh. 

We are planning to bring Jack and Jane back several times this year and next.  They will also join us at the California Photo Festival in October (California Photo Fest) Try and check this pair out, you will not regret it.

Going international,  Jack, Jane, and Hal will be leading a photography tour of Italy in springtime 2012!  This will be very cool.  Wet concrete details soon.

I decided we should finish this post by comparing a Painter Master (Jane Conner-Ziser) and a Painter zero (Hal.)  He has a long way to go.  Both images were shot and painted (Jane) / mangled (Hal) during class.

Hal's feeble attempt.

Fiat Lux!

Jack and Jane

Jack Davis and Jane Conner-Ziser are here this week with a Photoshop, Lightroom, Painter, and shooting extravaganza.  I cannot say enough about this course.  The amazing tips, tricks, and techniques from these two Masters are nonstop. 

The multi-instructor workshop is an excellent opportunity to pick up two unique points of view for the entire digital workflow.  To me one of the great things about photography is the ability to apply our creative vision to the shoot and after capture process.  There are very few cookie cutter approaches when shooting and optimizing.  Listening to two instructors, we are forced to accept and use multiple techniques and options to achieve the final image.

Jane Conner-Ziser fine tuning a pose

The attached shots are from a location shoot we did here in Los Osos.  Jack and Jane are masters of light, posing, and composition.  The shoot was an excellent break from the computers and a huge learning experience for all (also made some cool images.)

Jack Davis shooting (note big camer over shoulder and iphone in hand)

We are back in the lab today hitting it again.

Fiat Lux!

Happy to be Home

8 shot pano ready for optimization

Back in Cali after a 16 day adventure up north.   I was fortunate to make it back in time to say hello to Rob Sheppard who just finished a "Magic of Wildflowers" course. 

Looking forward to this weekend as we shoot Easter specials and I get to judge a Bloody Mary contest!

While I was gone we picked up Corel as a full time sponsor; will be perfect as Jane Conner-Ziser is here next week with Jack Davis for shooting and painting.

Hope to see ya'll at the Topaz Webinar next week.

Fiat Lux.

Free Webinar with Hal 19 April - Output Sharpening with Topaz Detail

Working on an eagle from one of my Alaska tours.

I will be holding a free webinar on the 19th of April.  The basic content of the webinar is listed below.  As many of you know we do a lot of printing and print testing here at Light.  I have been looking at incorporating Topaz Detail into my sharpening workflow, both for content and output, for a while now.  The simplicity, speed, and effectiveness is definitely worth a look

Click on the link to register.  Hope to see you online.

19 April Free Topaz Detail Webinar  -"Join Hal as he builds and demonstrates an effective and efficient output sharpening workflow using Topaz Detail. Output sharpening is one of the most challenging and contentious subjects in digital imaging. With a strong understanding of sharpening Why's and How's, and a simple, repeatable workflow using Topaz Detail, you can master this critical step."

The full April schedule for Topaz Webinars may be found at Webinar Schedule