Learning to See

I want to show you a couple more pictures I took during Ibarionex Perello's workshop. (I'm proud of this one.)

When you arrive at the workshop, which begins at Memorial Park and takes you trekking through Old Town, you'll be greeted by Ibarionex, his wife Cynthia, and probably a few of their friends. With smiles. And hot coffee. It sets the tone.

Then, like ducklings following your leader, you head out into Old Town in search of challenge, texture and, most of all, light. Ibarionex will give you some basics about using your digital SLR camera, then you're going to start chasing the light and learning to see in new ways.

For my first couple of years of blogging I worked with an Olympus SP350, a nice, purse-sized point-and-shoot that had some manual settings I never used. I still shoot with it sometimes (with the automatic settings) but not as much. I learned a lot and I was ready to move on to a better instrument.

I met Ibarionex at a local blogger event about two and a half years ago. We had already met online. Some time after that first meeting I bought a Canon 20D from him. It might have some of his mojo, but I'll never know unless I learn how to use it. I've been trying to teach myself and I've made progress, but I'm lazy about reading manuals. So when the chance came along to take a workshop with the man himself, I jumped at it. I'm going to jump again this Saturday. It's his last workshop of the year that isn't full yet.

(I'm proud of this one, too.)

I can recommend the class because I've taken it and I already see results. If you want to make the leap, go to the Candid Frame Workshops sign-up page, ignore the other discount codes and get the workshop for $50 by entering this code: perellovip.

I was out shooting today and got a few good pictures, although I admit several were overexposed. It's not like this stuff comes easy. With practice, though, it comes. I could set everything on automatic and let the camera make all the decisions, but in that case I might as well use a point-and-shoot.

Dorothea Lange said "A camera is a tool for learning how to see without a camera." I love wrapping my mind around the meaning of that statement.

Bug and Bokeh

A photographer who inspires me is Ibarionex Perello. He's a student of light and color, a fantastic portraitist and an artist to his core.

Ibarionex teaches photography at the high-tech high-fab Art Center College of Design in Pasadena. He also teaches online via his hugely popular podcasts at The Candid Frame. He travels, lectures, leads photo safaris and is a very busy guy.

I'm fortunate to call Ibarionex and his wife Cynthia my friends and I want to keep it that way. So when I get a chance to go walking at Hahamongna Watershed Park with them, their dog Spenser and our cameras, I try not to bug the poor guy every second with, "how would you shoot this?" and "what kind of lens is that?"

But Ibarionex can't help but be generous. He let me use his macro lens. I didn't even have to ask, he just offered. And he found this leaf with this bug on it with this light coming from behind and this beautiful background and he pointed it out to me. All I did was focus and shoot.

Spenser fell madly in love with Hahamongna, so Cynthia had her hands full. But she managed to get off some good shots with her iPhone while Ibarionex and I drifted about the Hahmongna basin, just shooting away.

There is important news about the Hahamongna basin, which I'll tell you tomorrow.

I love that macro lens, by the way.

A Blissful Affair

J and I were actually out after dark last night, and I believe we were at the social event of the season. It was the 9th Annual Perello Private Outdoor Affair, where we got to meet new people, chow down on great food, have a drink and--believe it or not--enjoy a brief massage. Now that's what I call a party favor.

If you visit here often you've heard me mention Ibarionex Perello, a photographer and human I admire. Well, there's a Cynthia to our Ibarionex, and she, too, has the soul of an artist. When she shared her original poem, "Bliss," it seemed to have everything to do with having her family and friends all around. We were honored to be included.

I took a lot of pictures of Cynthia. Most of them weren't clear, but in this one I caught the light of someone else's flash. That flash was so bright it worked on her like a spotlight, and she worked it right back.