Meetup with the Lighten Up And Shoot crew

Andy & Mike of lightenupandshoot.com show their light stand setup process.

I first learned only two days ago that two photographers from Colombia would be having a free photography & strobist workshop at The Pier in Saint Petersburg.  I checked out their website to learn about them and liked their philosophy for shooting--light amount of gear, high level of skills and just have fun.  The name of their website is a very clever play on words that suits their attitudes perfectly:  lightenupandshoot.com

After a bit of a delayed start, and a much larger than expected turnout (40+ photographers), Mike and Andy began to generously go into how they setup for a shoot, what specific gear they use and most importantly why.  They took questions, all the time bringing a lot of energy.  I should mention here that they were doing all this for free!

Mike let me remotely trigger his westcott softbox as he explained the settings used in this situation to the other photographers looking on.

Not only were they generous with their time, but also with their gear!  The whole time I used their remote triggers, YONGNUO RF-602TX, and got to take a few shots using their strobe and softbox too!  I will definitely be buying those YONGNUO triggers as they are cheap and work great.  The trigger and receiver both have hotshoe mounts, so you do not have to velcro anything to your strobe.  They worked flawlessly with my Nikon D300.

Andy & Mike also posed for a few photos when a model was in need.

The workshop went on all the way up until 8pm I heard, although I left before that to watch the gold medal hockey game (sadly the U.S. lost in overtime).  Mike & Andy will be visiting other cities in the U.S. and having more free workshops, so if they come to your town I would definitely recommend meeting up with them.  You will learn something about photography, meet other photographers in your area, get a chance to shoot a model or two and talk to two photographers who make it work with a list of gear that will not break your budget.  

Thanks a lot to Andy, Mike, Nicole (my 5-minute model shoot with her) and the rest of the lightenupandshoot crew!

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