Thanks David! Wow!

I awoke at 5AM and tapped the keys of my laptop. Check email, load my NetVibes page, check the feeds... and notice a new post at one of my favs, Strobist. Titled Glam I Am, I naturally click on it as I shoot a lot of glamour. Imagine my surprise and joy to see that David had reviewed my DVD. (I sent him one realizing he was very busy, and he said he would take a look.) I never expected such a long, and thoughtful review. We are all so busy, and David took the time to really look at my effort.

I only recently found "Strobist", and have been so busy that I haven't even joined his Flickr group, something I intend to remedy later today. What I love so much about his site is the constant learning that happens there, and the belief that equipment should be a tool of creativity instead of creativity being a slave of equipment.

My workshop on Saturday was all about that, and I will post about it later today as well.

Arizona-based photographer Don Giannatti has produced a multimedia DVD entitled, "Lighting Essentials 1".

Basically, he shows you how to make the lighting version of stone soup out of a couple of Home Depot work lights, some translucent material and some foam core boards. He moves to speedlights and bigger strobes, but the reflective and diffusion techniques are pretty much universal.

If you are into shooting models' headshots, senior portraits or anything of that ilk - or aspire to be - this would get you well on your way to being able to make some very cool-looking people shots on an utterly draconian budget.