First open studio day

On December 21, 2004, Michelle Poon, a local photographer, hosted a handful of amateur photographers from a web community in my studio. The idea was to allow people who would otherwise not have been able to experiment in-studio to try their hand at controlled lighting. A very broad range of backgrounds of the participants. Michelle is an industrial design and visual communications student at the U of A, Maurice is a makeup artist, and then three others who had backgrounds in finance and commerce and another person who was looking to get into some sort of graphic arts program. There was no cost to the participants. If there are any sessions like this in the future there will likely be a nominal fee and better screening of the candidates. Only two of the participating photographer's cameras were used . . . the rest had to resort to using my dSLR as they were either unable to get their camera to properly trigger the studio strobes or their gear wasn't suited for studio shooting. Furthermore, some candidates came without even basic knowledge of exposure and shutter speed! Good going, MICHELLE! =P

I'm guessing around $50 per person for a two hour block shared with another photographer next time. Ideally, makeup artists/stylists could be paired with more advanced amateurs to get some basic portfolio shooting done, too. I could have a printer on demand to make prints and included in the fee would be the use of a dSLR and an allowance of two 8 x 10 prints and then I could also catering. But most importantly, the nominal fee would (hopefully) help weed out those who are just toying from those who are serious and would benefit from studio time. Here's a list of current studio equipment that will be posted on klyment.com once I get the rest of the site up:

Balcar Concept P4 digital control unit (5stop range)
Balcar Concept Z2 lightweight flash heads (2)
Balcar PS Z4 focuseable flash heads (2)
Balcar opaque white vinyl 45" umbrellas (2)
Balcar diffusers for umbrellas (2, turns them into round soft boxes)
Balcar FX60 7" faceted reflectors (3)
Balcar LFX30 12" faceted reflector and intensifier
Balcar 65cm prismatic light box (2, can also be used as oblong softbox)
Balcar basic 7" spot grid set
Digital incident and reflective light meter
Many different 7" coloured gels
12' aluminium light stands/boom stands (2)
9' aluminium light stand
3"-2' aluminium backdrop stands (2)
Radio slave trigger
Backdrop support system
9' x 24' muslin backdrops (Black, white, and chromakey green)
Improvisional light table for small product photography

If you're interested in participating in a future open studio day please drop me a line or give me a call. It should go without saying but just in case . . . please come to the shoot knowing how aperture and shutter speed affect exposure! There are lots of books in the public library system to help you with photography and there are even a number of studio-specific books.