VerveCast

We’re please to be hosting the June 2009 Milwaukee Strobist Meetup here at Z2.

On Tuesday, June 23rd, 2009 we’ll be welcoming the folks from the Milwaukee Strobist on Flickr to the studio to have a meeting, do some shooting, and hopefully, have a good time. :)

Photo by Dustin Diaz

If you are unfamiliar with the strobist techniques, you should check out strobist.blogspot.com. The basic idea is using off-camera flash with your DSLR camera to take your photos to the next level. (Or the next ten levels.) Small, inexpensive speedlights (which typically mount on top of the camera) are used on lightstands, or placed on the ground, or held by an assistant, to get some pretty amazing lighting effects.

You can follow the discussion on Flickr to find out more, or RSVP on Upcoming…

Chrome Engine by Generac. Shooting Chrome is always a challenge. Last week I was given two engines to shoot. The direction was simple: we need a cool shot straight on.

With lots of cleaning, lots of white boards and NO Photoshop work… this is what I came up with. It was a fun one. Oh yeah, there’s also a mirror involved.

Photo by Cory

It took a while… deadlines loomed large, but we managed to get it done. Well, some of us managed to get it done.

Rather than push it off another two weeks, we thought it best to call this one, so we could critique and move on.

So we present to you the second “Z2 Photo Challenge” with the splendid “Self Portrait” as the challenge this time…

Again, keep in mind, not everyone at Z2 is a photographer. The challenge is not about technical abilities, but about how you look at things… how you see things. If people needed technical help, they got it, so no one had an unfair advantage.

The photos are below… Enjoy!

Photo by Cory.

Photo by Justin.

Photo by Kerry.

Photo by Mario.

Photo by Pete.

Cory’s comment on these photos was that they all looked like album covers…

We mentioned before that we are sponsoring PhotoCampMilwaukee… It’s coming up soon! Saturday, May 2, 2009 at Bucketworks in Milwaukee, Wisconsin… and now you can register for it.

Visit PhotoCampMilwaukee and register now for the event.. It’s free, and if you love photography, you should be there… We will be!

Last month we held the first “Z2 Photo Challenge” where people were challenged to shoot a specific subject, which just happened to be this old red chair that was in the photo studio.

Now, keep in mind, not everyone at Z2 is a photographer. The challenge was not about technical abilities, but about how you look at things… how you see things. If people needed technical help, they got it, so no one had an unfair advantage.

We ended up have having a nice little critique of the photos when we were all done. (No one got to see all of the photos until the critique, and everyone got to explain and discuss their work.)

Since it’s near the end of March, we really need to get the next challenge figured out. It’s a great way to take a break and do something different, and see how others you work with view things.

The photos are below… Enjoy!

Photo by Cory.

Photo by Deb.

Photo by Kerry.

Photo by Pete.

Photo by Troye.

Photo by Justin.

Photo by Mario.

Photo by Tony.

Photo by Dana. *

* While this wasn’t really a competition, and there was no “winner”, Cory did have a favorite shot, and it was Dana’s. (Congrats Dana!)