Friday, May 22, 2009

Digital WakeUp Call ~ David Ziser

WOW! What a night ~ pure genius!!! I had the opportunity to attend David Ziser's Digital WakeUp Call Seminar last night here in San Diego. Now, having read his blog and trolled his website for hour upon hour, I know David Ziser is a master of flash photography lighting for weddings, parties and portraits....but he doesn't stop there! He is also a fountain of knowledge on the business of photography and with something like 30 years in the industry, he has a ton of info to share. I mean really....for just $59.00 (I had a promo code from B&H for $20 off!!!) I was treated to 4+ hours of continuous David Ziser knowledge!!! My head was spinning with all the sage advice he parted with! I can tell you...this was one of the best investments of the year! The richness and depth of his photos and his carefully crafted lighting technique is accomplished somewhat magically...and I'm talkin' Lord of the Rings Gandalf-style magic making!!! The images that he is able to get on location with his Canon 5D Mark II (oh how I aspire!), a couple of flashes and his ziser umbrella is pure genius! See, I'm a gorilla photographer at heart...on my round-the-world trip in 2005 it was me and my Canon A80 capturing 4 continents. When I got back to the states I purchased my first digital SLR and spent 3 years with it before taking off again last year on a 4 month backpacking trek through Europe and Egypt. I took my Canon 20D, my 70-200 mm Canon lens (oh so heavy!!) my 10-22mm Canon wide angle lens and a tripod. That's pretty gorilla if you ask me...I mean it's not a pinhole camera or anything...but it's a bare set up just the same! Feel free to check out some of my travel pics! David's blog Digital ProTalk is full of information so of course I excitedly signed up for his seminar to hear everything he had to say! Little did I know that he can (and does) say a lot!!! From 6 pm ~ 10:45pm (with a very short break) David spoke on subjects ranging from on and off camera lighting practices, post-production techniques and tools as well as how to build your business! And I can't even begin to tell you how awesome his door prizes were...I kept hoping he was going to say "Andrea Scott" but the closest I came to hearing my name for a door prize was when he said "Andrew." Oh Andrew...what a lucky man you are (sigh)! Andrew received a gift certificate for two free entries to the WPPI Convention in 2010!!! How exciting is that?!!! I also got to meet Brian Auer from Epic Edits!! His is one of the first blogs I found while perusing the web and it's filled with incredibly useful information for a photographer. Did I mention he's also handsome, talented...and kind!?! ~ I mean let's face it..my brain was tired after all the Ziser info and I could barely string a sentence together. Happily Brian was cool with my rambling and didn't seem to mind. I highly suggest attending Digital WakeUp Call when it gets to your town! Here is the link for upcoming dates for Digital WakeUp Call Tour 2009! Thank you again David for a great evening!