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"Best Buy Summit in San Francisco"Workshop at the Ranch Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch.
For the past few years I have been invited to teach photography
at a very unique event, the Best Buy Summit. Kevin Gilbert and
Reed Hoffman of Blue Pixel, a leader in digital photography
education, bring me on board to join their staff in teaching
the top sales force from Best Buy stores from all over the country
about digital SLR photography. This is a fantastic program to
be involved with, I always walk away "amped up" and
inspired.
I had a great time .... We had a great time!
From old sailing vessels to an aircraft carrier, from Alcatraz
to the Golden Gate Bridge, we saw it all in San Francisco. I
really enjoyed the entire summit and sites, but especially the
Best Buy employees. These people were loaded with enthusiasm
and a quest for knowledge, but not just for themselves. Many,
many times after I would teach a photographic technique or an
intricate function of the camera to a participant they would
immediately say how they would take that knowledge back to the
home store and share it with their co-workers. Now that's giving
back.......... that's Best Buy.
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Image
#1 San Andreas Dawn ... Winging into San Francisco at
7:00 am is breath taking. The fog and clouds looked like
a blanket as the sun broke the eastern horizon. As is
my custom when flying I chose a window seat so I could
take pictures as I crossed the western United States.
Why sleep when you can make images. Nikon D3, ISO200,
1/1250 at f8 (it was very bumpy air), Nikon 24-70mm Lens,
WB 8330K, Lexar 8G Flash Card. Shooting pictures through
the window of a commercial jet plane can sometimes create
some interesting effects. In this case even though I chose
a warmer than daylight WB of 8330K to add some warm color
tones to the fog and clouds, the sky remained super blue
and resembled images of leaving the earth's atmosphere.
Image
#2 Main Sails ... Day 1 of the summit was a city wide
scavenger hunt using Magellan and Tom Tom GPS units,
a cell phone camera and SONY T-300 pocket camera. Blue
Pixel instructors were positioned all over San Francisco
while the Best Buy attendees walked, cable car-ed, and
BART-ed their way around the city obtaining clues, pictures
and valuable points towards the team building competition.
One of my two locations was Pier 39. To my delight,
this was the day of the Tall Ships arrival into San
Francisco. As I waited for the summit's participants
to find me and receive their clues to the next location
of photographic interest I photographed the ships as
they passed by me. Nikon D60, ISO200, 1/500 at f9, Nikon
55-200mm Lens, WB Daylight, Lexar 2G SD Card. NOTE:
I used the Nikon D60 with Nikon 55-200mm Lens rather
than my usual Nikon D3. The D60 and 50-200mm Lens were
standard issue to all those working at the summit. This
helped those of us teaching the DSLR portion of the
summit to relate one on one to the participants. I found
the D60 a terrific camera that was very easy to handle
and make great pictures with. There is plenty of detail
in this file and the color looked perfect.
Image
#3 Jimmy ... The next day we all took Ferries over to
"THE ROCK", Alcatraz. Our summiteers now had
their new Nikon D60 with choices of lenses and a Nikon
SB600 Speedlight. We took Alcatraz by storm and made
pictures both inside the prison walls and out around
the grounds. I was fascinated with the main cell block
and gave a short lecture/demonstration of how I use
a DSLR camera and Speedlight. My demonstration eventually
lead me to ask Jimmy, one of the Best Buy attendees,
to pose for a picture. Although Jimmy appears to be
serving a life sentence on the Rock he is really a top
employee of Best Buy and a great guy for playing the
role of an inmate for our Nikon Speedlight session.
Nikon D3, ISO800, 1/30 at f6.3, Nikon 14-24, WB 3850K,
One SB800 Speedlight power output of -3.0 with a "pinched"
LumiQuest Snoot, Nikon SU800 Commander to fire the Speedlight,
Lexar 2G SD Flash Card. For this image I used my own
gear in an effort to demonstrate to the participants
what I would do if I were on a job for a client. Thanks
for posing Jimmy, I'll put in a good word to the warden
for you.
Image
#4 Golden Gate ... A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge
began with overcast, but by the time we reached the other
side sunshine prevailed and pictures looked perfect. Nikon
D60, ISO200, Shutter Priority with EV-0.7, Nikon 18-55mm
Lens, WB AUTO, Lexar 2G SD Card. I went with all AUTO
program controls for this image. The D60 performed very
well in all respects. The Golden Gate Bridge is an architectural
marvel to see and to photograph.
Image
#5 Golden Gate Shadow ... After looking up during the walk
across the bridge, it was only natural to look down as well.
The height was a bit staggering, but I wasn't ready to reach
for the suicide hot line phone just yet ....... after all,
I wanted to make this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge
shadow over this channel marker building. Nikon D60, ISO400,
Shutter Priority with EV -1.0, Nikon 55-200mm Lens, WB AUTO,
Lexar 2G SD Card.
Image
#6 Fighter Jet Sunset ... The 3 days of the Summit finished
up in grand style abroad the USS Hornet aircraft carrier.
We had the run of the ship and were allowed to explore above
and below decks and photograph a variety of subjects. Like
at Alcatraz I gathered some participants and showed them
that one Speedlight could do a lot to make a picture more
interesting. As the sun set off the tail of the flight deck
the sky lit up with some soft pastel colors. A silhouette
of this fighter jet was impressive, but when I showed students
how to use one remote Speedlight they were sold on using
off camera flash. Nikon D3, ISO250, 1/60 at f11, Nikon 24-70mm
Lens, WB 6670K, One SB800 Speedlight with warming Gel and
a power output of +3.0, Nikon SU800 Commander, Lexar 8G
Flash Card.