Checking In/VAL Update

Hello from San Diego!  It's been a pretty crazy trip so far, and we're really just on the tip of the iceberg...AKA 23 more stops after today.

Crowds have been great, we've had amazing feedback, and all in all, it's been an incredibly fun ride.

As for VALs, there's been a bit of confusion with the VAL system recently, and feel as though we should clarify a few things..

First and foremost, thanks so very much to all of you who've either volunteered already, or are on the list to do so on an upcoming stop ofThe Flash Bus Tour!

We offered everyone the opportunity to be a VAL with the specific intention of helping out students or emerging professionals who simply couldn't swing the price of a ticket, or for people in cities with sold-out venues who desperately wanted to attend.  Although we’re not going to turn you away if you've already purchased a ticket to the event and want to volunteer, we're unfortunately not able to refund the cost of your ticket either.

The “Call For VALs” yielded around 1,000 emails, for which we needed 150-200 VALs.  A lot of the emails were from people who legitimately needed to volunteer in order to get into the show for one reason or another.  If you have been confirmed as a VAL, and have already purchased a ticket, you are, of course, still welcome to volunteer.  But you will not be receiving a refund based solely on the fact that you are volunteering.

If you’d prefer to bow out and let someone else take advantage of this opportunity, please let us know ASAP by emailing val@theflashbus.com and use the word “CANCEL” and your city name in the subject line.

Thanks once again, and we’re looking forward to seeing you all in coming weeks!

CALLING ALL V.A.L.’S….

 

“A VAL? Whazzat?” Industry speak for “voice activated light stand.”  Which means you carry, hold, place or otherwise direct a light- preferably a small flash. In the loosey goosey world of speed lights, it’s common practice to toss just about anybody who’s out there with you a flash, and say, “Hold this, willya?”

I say small flash advisedly. The still life, car shooter crowd tends not to use V.A.L.’s. 

We need a bunch of you, 5 per stop, to help out on Flashbus. This is good news for those of you who are poor college students, missed out buying tickets, or just plain wanna help out:

 WHAT WE NEED

- We're looking for FIVE V.A.L.'s /volunteers for each tour stop to help out pre-show.

- Must have own transportation to the venue.

- Must get to the venue at 6:30AM, and be available for 2-3 hours, pre-show (no earlier, or we'll still be getting our beauty rest- while Joe cooks us oatmeal, which he does for us every morning).

- Must be able to stuff SWAG bags, and schlep some boxes, if necessary.

WHAT YOU GET

- A satin V.A.L. Pass (seen above), which gets you not only in for FREE, but also preferred seating.

- David Hobby's cell phone #, which is available 24/7 for any and all tech support questions.*

*ok, not really.

If interested, here's the deal:

- Send an email to: VAL@theflashbus.com

- Subject line should read: "VAL- (CITY NAME HERE)"

- The body of the email should only include the following: FULL NAME, PHONE NUMBER

- Please only send ONE email.  You'll receive a confirmation from us that we've received your request, and if you've made the cut, we'll be back in touch within 72 hours.

- We're running this entirely on a first come-first serve basis.

Give us a shout on email. The tour’s 85% sold out and what’s left of the tix are going steadily every day. So, if you catch the bus for the day, this is a good way of doing it. 

See ya out there! 

What's On Tap, Pt. 2

Geez, I gotta follow David Hobby? Did I think that through?

Even though David, in the rest of his life, is a bit of a night owl, he will take on the morning shift, as he says, employing manual control, where the photog drives the train. For me, I will try to wake everybody up from their post-lunch stupor by spinning up TTL solutions and building on David's direction and teaching.

Planet TTL, as I call it, is an uncertain place, where disaster lurks behind every choice of f-stop and power level! It is a bit of a high wire, in which the photog literally consults with the camera about the path and nature of the light, and there is occasional disagreement, or even an outright argument.

That doesn't mean I don't teach manual solutions, and the mix of manual and TTL. Do it all the time. The important message of what I teach is that it is all about the management of light, and it doesn't matter where that light comes from. True, I use Nikon flashes, but I have Canon (and other systems) users in my workshops all the time. Good light is good light, plain and simple, be it a Nikon, a Canon, or a car headlight. (We won't be using those for demo purposes, however.)

What light is appropriate for what face and situation? Hard light or soft light? One light solutions or multiple light scenarios? Lights from up close or and far away? Soft box or umbrella? White light or gels for color? All lighting approaches say a different thing, and describe the subject at hand differently. It is language that we speak.

The afternoon session will be filled with real time demo, and playing out another round of the ongoing game of making little lights look and feel like big lights. Under that umbrella (ouch!) anything goes.

What's On Tap, Pt. 1

David Hobby here, AKA the "morning guy" on The Flash Bus.

Some folks have asked for a little more "specificity" about the day. And after looking that word up, I think I can answer! Well, at least for my time slot.

I'll be teaching lighting and light design from a full manual perspective. Meaning, you control everything. Because everyone should know how to drive stick.

We'll be in F/stop and shutter speed mode, too. So you should know what those things are. And if you look like you don't, I just may quiz you. Also, we won't be thinking in terms of cookie-cutter recipes. They tend to fall apart in the real world, where everything is relative and nothing is absolute.

So "relative" is the route we'll be taking. Solve one variable. Get one thing nailed down. Then build on that one step at a time.

Being as though we are working in manual, the morning will be very transportable to whatever brand of gear you use. True, I am a Nikon® shooter, but the physics of manual control work for all. So no brand "specificity" (fresh vocabulary FTW!) is required. That said, I guzzle Diet Mountain Dew®, eat at Chipotle® and live in R.E.I.® cargo shorts. And this post is being typed on a Mac®.

Seriously, everything in the morning (and much of the theory the afternoon) will be very transportable, regardless of your brand of camera or lights. But please understand that this stuff will only work if you use Manfrotto® light stands.

Kidding! Gravity is brand agnostic!

But speaking of brands, Adorama and our sponsors do have some things in store to amp things up a little. More on that front soon enough.

Some of you have asked what kind of photography we'll be centering on. As far as photographic subject matter, we will not be teaching any one specific genre other than to say that Joe and I are basically people shooters. So don't expect a day on how to shoot car brochures or Architectural Digest spreads.

And as for my segment specifically, I'll spend the first 30 mins or so hitting the basics so we don't leave anyone behind. (And/or to allow some of you to fully wake up. Including me, not being, technically a "morning person".)

But by 10:30 I expect to be (mostly) awake and theoretically capable of forming complex thoughts. So who knows how far we might get before lunch time.

Mmmmm… lunch time…

Road Trip!

Numnuts here. 13,000 miles. Cross country in 42 days. Geez, that’s a lot of turns of the wheel.  When I graduated college, there were two main mandates one had to follow. First was, don’t get a job. Being a largely freelance shooter for more than 30 years, I figure I’ve fulfilled that one quite nicely. (Or, if you did have a mind towards gainful employment, it had to be radically, you know, out there. One of my friend’s entire business plan for post-college life was to go to Katmandu and sell Swiss Army knives. Hmmmm. Haven’t heard from him in a while.)

The other was go cross country, man. (You can supply the inflection—Tommy Chong, Spicoli, Firesign Theater.) Never did that. I mean, I’ve logged lots of miles, but it’s never been in a string that starts on one side of the country and ends on the other. Come March, David Hobby, Drew Gurian, myself and crew start playing out that long held string.

And we go in style. The bus looks amazing. I have questions about it. Top end? Capable of a wheelie? Can I drive it for a while? I drove a bus in college, and I’m sure it would all come back to me, just like riding a bike. David’s already filled you in on URLs for video, tweets, and Flickr groups. We’ll be heading to 29 cities, spread over 5 weeks, and hitting rest stops, truck stops and f-stops (couldn’t resist!) all along the way. We’ll tweet locations and routes. We’ll publish, ahem, behind-the-scenes videos of life on the bus. It'll be a blast, and a touch on the weird side. (Huh? Let’s be straight up here. It’s going to be really weird, and a ton of fun.)

Really, really excited about something else. The opportunity to teach with David. We both get to the same place, which is good light, but come at it in very different ways. It'll be a good mix, and a great day of teaching. 

So keep checking here, David’s blog, and my blog for updates. The road is calling, and there’s a bunch to do.