RMSP Weekend

The RMSP Weekend in Denver is over and I have very high marks for it. Information was very valuable and the speakers were all very engaging keeping the atmosphere relaxed and light-hearted. I took many new ideas and techniques from it, there were many points that confirmed that I was taking right approaches to photographing certain scenarios (just now I know why it's the right way!), and some things just re-affirmed what (I thought) I already knew.

I arrived Saturday earlier than I expected and was able to get into the 2nd session of the day about 10 minutes late. Attended the "Beyond Basics" session from Doug Johnson. It was essentially a detailed review of ISO, Aperture, Shutter, etc. Got into color tones, metering, and, perhaps the most valuable, an insight into the histogram readings which is something I've been lacking.

The 3rd Saturday session attended was "Understanding Light" by Tim Cooper. This went into the details of base/neutral colors with photography, light temperature, reflection of light waves to generate light, forms vs. shapes, texture, and lighting angles. And also details about white-balancing including the custom setting (I never knew that existed) and the other WB settings and when to use them.

The 1st session Sunday I chose the "Photographing People" session presented by David Marx. This essentially got into Portrait vs. Environmental techniques, the differences, and subtle points of each that are important for success. Emotions, composition, direction of light, flash, and expressions were all touched on.

2nd Sunday session I attended was "Sports and Motion" again by David. Techniques and related results, preparation, difficulties, etc. were all touched on. Though I've never had great success with this type of photography, most of what was discussed was re-affirming that I knew what I was doing, and that my lack of success was due to not taking enough pictures, since the percentage of good shots is pretty low!

The critique was very interesting and entertaining. The three speakers critiqued and a lot more of their personality came out. They were very...shall I say...gentle...with their critiques in my opinion. But they kept it very relaxed and succeeding in never putting anyone on the defensive. My Teton photo was not included, but the ptarmigan photo was. It got very good review with the only mentioned flaw of sorts was the small leaf coming in from near the bottom left side.

So it was a very entertaining and educational weekend of photography. My only complaint of any sort is that they should try to extend the hours and offer many of the sessions a second time to acccommodate where one session was sacrificed in order to attend another. And I didn't win any of the great raffle prizes at the end. Their speakers were great and the level of content had basic concepts to advanced to hit most of the audience.

Now I just have to get out and use all this new knowledge! I did get out the camera and play with a few settings that I wasn't familiar with previously. But need a lot of practice to put all this information to use.