I have been a busy lady these past few weeks. I’ve been traveling for work and am finally back home for an extended period of time and it feels so good to sleep in my own bed and see my family! The first trip that I took was to Minneapolis Minnesota for a seminar on using small flash units to create similar lighting as large flash units that you would normally find in a studio space. I was super excited for this seminar, because any time a photographer can lessen their equipment load they are going to be happy. I was hoping to pick up some tips and techniques to bring back to our studio at Kimberly Clark because many of our shoots are on location.
I drove to Minneapolis from Appleton all by myself in our company van, a lonely but peaceful trip. It took about 5 hours with stopping for lunch and gas to get to my hotel. I stayed at the Hilton Garden Inn which is right across the street from the convention center where my seminar was being held. It was great to be so close so I didn’t have to worry about driving too far. The hotel room was nice, and I ended up ordering room service for the first time ever in my life. They make it look much more glamorous in Hollywood and in the movies than it really is, but it was nice to be able to just eat in my room after a long day of learning.
The seminar was led Joe McNally, an incredible photo journalist known throughout the world as one of the top photo journalists. Overall it was a really great learning experience. In the beginning it was somewhat of an overview of techniques I have already learned and mastered, but many of the people in the audience were amateurs just starting out, and I’m sure Joe had to gauge the education level of the entire crowd. I plan to go into the studio and try out some of the techniques that I learned, but first it will require purchasing a few light modifiers such as soft boxes made specifically for Nikon’s flash unit, the SB910’s, that I think will be particularly useful. Stay tuned for some images that will explain some of these techniques.
I didn’t have a lot of time to go out and explore the city, and since I was traveling by myself I didn’t feel comfortable enough to go out on my own late at night. I did end up going a bit further into the down town area to visit the stone arch bridge, one of the oldest still standing stone arch bridges in America. From the bridge you could see a majority of the Minneapolis cityscape. The moon was also out the night I went to the bridge, and it was nearly full shrouded in wispy clouds making for a beautiful photographic opportunity.
Of course I took photos documenting my time in Minneapolis. Enjoy!
Charlene Champion Photography 
Lovely photos! Looks like you had lots of fun there! 😉 Are some of them in HDR technique?
Thank you, and yes the night images are all processed with a bit of HDR. Hope the effect isn’t distracting for anyone! I usually don’t process HDR but I thought it worked well for these.
Thank you for the happy black & white self portrait! I like the sky line with the tiny plane! Broad, bold, sunset clouds, glowing church tower, & reflecting base are glimpsed in the strange light before sunset cast on buildings that make people what to hurry outside to see where they are. I enjoyed the angled, & rounded lines of buildings above neatly planted, slightly wild trees in another photo. Sunset coloring shapes buildings. You brought moon lit clouds to the city scape, drawing separateness together. The bridge draws to a city within an infinite sky. Walk past the starry street lights, look up, buildings block sky, but from here you see it all! Wonderful color self portrait seen before the real wild child on the bridge!