I am an old dog, and I wanted to learn a new trick. I am a hands on learner, so when I heard about an OCF (off camera flash) workshop was coming to Boston, I jumped on it. It also fell on my daughter’s birthday weekend, so I brought her with me. (she has learned in one year what took me 26 years to accomplish!). We had an amazing time. Actually, funny story here…. I had about a million questions for Tim, the guy that runs the workshops, and also a FB friend (because he posts more controversial shit than me and my mom combined!) I’m sure I was annoying as hell… but after I got all my questions answered I knew Cadey and I were ON BOARD to attend. It was about 24 hours later that I realized I never actually SIGNED UP and PAID for the workshop. Only me… I will never get my shit together. Thankfully there were 2 seats left… and also thankful I didn’t crash the workshop, only to be called out that I never registered and paid. But crisis averted, we were legal attendees. This was Cadey’s first workshop, my forth.

All I wanted to learn was HSS OCF (high speed sync, off camera flash) because I am a chronic WIDE OPEN shooter. Like, I need a support group. I cannot take my aperture off f/2. Ever. I low-key hate my 70-200 because it’s a 2.8. (JUST KIDDING, I LOVE YOU 200mm!) Judge Judy would HATE my style, just sayin’. (P.S. Fuck you Judge Judy. It took my $3,100 camera and $2,100 lens to make my pictures to look this shitty, so deal with it). But if you shoot wide open, you need to get your shutter over the sync speed. Hence HIGH SPEED SYNC. My new best friend.

The Friday after the workshop Cadey and I had a prom photo shoot where we could test out our new things. I was instantly IN LOVE. Like, the pictures looked edited before they even left the camera. The skin was flawless… the light was perfection. In post, all I had to do was edit acne and bump the contrast a smidge. That’s it. DONE. Without OCF it would take me much longer to get the skin to look even, plus fight with the sun, clouds, shadows etc… this was SO SIMPLE. Why did I wait so long to learn!?

Yesterday was my second shoot with my new flash. A dancer, Lilly, celebrating her 15th year with The Dance Studio. (The owner gifts each girl at her 15th consecutive year dancing with a shoot from me! WONDERFUL for both of us!) Same experience. My images looked edited straight out of the camera. We had SO MUCH fun because her Dad brought his Golden Retriever with him and he wanted to be a part of the shoot. Anyone that knows me knows that I simply CANNOT say no to dogs. So we made it happen. I am 100% certain this picture will be on display SOMEWHERE so that Lilly will be able to show her own little dancers someday. This was not a picture that will sit in a drawer.

That being said…. the workshop, lodging, food and my new toys were almost $2,500… so when you ask us if we can lower our price it hurts our hearts incredibly. Our prices reflect our TALENT, TIME and TOYS… and not your budget or inability to see our worth.