This weekend I didn’t actually get out to do any shooting. I spent most of Friday through Sunday watching the online photo seminar put on by Creative Live with the presenting done by Atlanta based photographer Zack Arias.
I have followed Zack for some time via his blog and through Twitter after I found his tutorials on shooting on a white seamless background. Zack is known for this background and has made it into one of the shooting characteristics that helps to define his style. Zack is a big proponent of using what you have and making the best of it. After hearing some of what he said in his presentation, he is kind of like the Dave Ramsey of photographers saying that you should only buy gear if you have the cash to pay for it instead of running up credit card debt.
Zack covered the use of various types of light modifiers and he was using Alien Bee lights which happen to be the brand that I own, so the seminar was extra beneficial. Another aspect of the class that was very helpful was seeing how Zack interacts with his clients and how he puts them at ease which is really one of the most important aspects of the job. Zack kept reiterating how he is in the service industry and his job is to serve his client.
Zack is posting some of the pictures that he took throughout the weekend up at http://www.zarias.com/live-blog-post-creativelive-class/ and he will be adding more to this post as he is able to finish some post work on it etc. Zack was a great teacher and you can tell that he is not only passionate about photography being his job, but he is passionate about sharing his knowledge with other people so that too can enjoy photography as much as he does.
A normal class that Zack conducts cost around $1600 dollars and this was presented for free with the option to download the HD videos of the class for $79 if you bought them in advance, or $129 after the course concluded. This class was definitely worth every penny and would have been a bargain at twice the price. If you are a photographer or someone who wants to get into photography, I highly recommend reading the training category of blog posts on Zack’s site, as I guarantee that you will find it useful.
