It sounded like an April Fool’s joke when I was invited to a photowalk during the Southwest Professional Photographers Association convention in Frisco, Texas.  That was the first thing crossing my mind as the executive director was talking on the other end of the phone.  I was pleasantly surprised that the call was real and I was expected to make the photowalk a teaching program.  OK, I was very excited for this opportunity.  It was like being called up from the feeder team to play with the big boys on a regional level.  When I say “big boys”, I’m really saying amazingly talented and gifted photographers willing to share their knowledge with others.  Here is a link to the speakers that presented during the conference.

The first walk was on the evening of April 1st.  Now you can see what I thought it was a joke.  I planned for three different lighting set-ups to show how you can control exposure better in the dark since you are bringing the light.  Well, I didn’t figure in the time change that occurred a few weeks earlier.  Remember, I was planning this back in September of 2015.  We didn’t quite have the dark of night I wanted but we managed to adapt to demo different styles as we moved to the grand finale of playing with fire.  Everyone really enjoyed that part of the presentation despite me having two flashes run over by a bus.

The second photowalk was a daytime presentation on Sunday morning.  Probably a little more relaxed and more comfortable to most since you have plenty of available light.  The demos for that morning were mainly to show how to fill shadows with flash to create very natural looking portraits.  The wind was howling pretty good in Texas that morning but nothing like we deal with here in Oklahoma.  Our model Michelle was a trooper and pushed on through the dust in the eyes with constant pops of flash hitting her from all sides.

Terri and I feel it’s important to share our gifts with other photographers, specially at Professional Photographers of America sponsored events, so they may develop the skills to earn a living from this craft.  I want to thank our sponsors for the great gear that helps us create beautiful images daily.

XP PhotoGear    Interfit Photographic    Vanguard Tripods

Special kudos to Eric Epperly Models for arranging talent for the shoot. Here are a few images from the PhotoWalk and some behind the scenes shots of me in action.