Learning

Week 33

 

Learning

August 18, 2010

This past week I had the opportunity to attend a workshop put on by Mike Larson.  Mike is a wedding and lifestyle photographer, international speaker, and overall a super nice guy, and I feel privileged to have spent a couple days learning from him. The image above was one of many taken as the workshop participants all took turns directing the models, applying some of the things we were taught that day. While I can't take credit for direction on this shot, I loved the lighting and motion in the image all the same and so thought I'd share it with you.

One of the things I liked most about the workshop was the focused approach Mike brought. He spent time giving us some useful tools and knowledge from his years in the business, but didn't overload us with an unmanageable amount of information, just for information's sake. Could he have been more broad in what he covered with us? Probably. Would that have made the workshop better? Well, I'd argue no, not for his target audience, which was photographers in the first few years of their business. Mike stressed a few key ideas (as much if not more based in character than strategy) throughout his time with us, and gave us tools to accomplish the ideas he proposed.

I think we all too often go through life with an information-hungry attitude and forget to focus. We skim the surface of the ocean of information and experiences available to us and forget to dive into something with depth and intention. As a result, we look back over years of living with memories of pop-culture, 24-hour news network shows, and social network updates. I'd encourage you to explore ways to go deep into something that interests you and serves others. It could be intellectual, athletic, spiritual or otherwise, but I think the memories you create doing so will be much richer and provide a greater satisfaction with the journey you are taking.

image taken with Canon 5D, MII, 24-105 4L lens, 1/160 @ f4, ISO 100