What’s Gotta Stay

Lately I have been focusing my photography efforts in areas that help me learn and expand my creativity. As part of this I have reenergized my activity in local meetup groups a bit. I’ve long been a fan and helped organized activities with Photowalking Utah, but due to the more social nature and size of the events, I’ve been getting together with smaller groups in a less official capacity. I still love the ‘walks, but I’ve been needing more direct focus on improving myself and creating images.

With that in mind I’ve been offering to host events at the studio co-op, especially while the weather has still been hanging on to winter chills and spring showers. It’s been great to shoot and learn with many local photography enthusiasts like myself. Every time I shoot I enjoy the process and realize I how much more I have to learn. I have to remind myself that it is the process of learning that I am enjoying and forget that my skill level and creativity is still well below where I’d like it to be. I look at the work of others I admire and always wish it came more naturally to me.

The most recent shooting event was with the Utah Strobists, a loose assortment of Utah photographers organized on Flickr working on their off camera flash skills. I’ve been to a couple events in the past, and after a little inactivity the group is working on getting events going again. I offered to host a non-themed event at the co-op with only the idea that we would work on various creative lighting. We had a great turn out with 5 models and 20+ photographers in attendance. It was a bit busy on the lights at times, but overall I think everyone had a good time and enjoyed the practice.

Here are a few shots from the evening, plus more in a gallery on my SmugMug site.

If you are in Utah (even if just visiting) and would like to arrange a shoot together, hit me up. My fees are always reasonable and if we are just being creative together I’m typically available for TF work.

Tags: co-op, meetup, strobist, studio, utah