JVS Speedlight Workshop

Last week, I had the pleasure of attending JVS 1-Day Speedlight Workshop and had such a great time!  Joseph Victor Stefanchik and Anne Farrer are a talented husband and wife photography team based here in Dallas who does amazing flashwork – in fact 90% of their shots involve some kind of off camera light source!  They wanted to to teach photographers how to create amazing light no matter the circumstance and have been touring around the US doing just that.  I have been wanting to attend one of their 1 day Speedlight Workshop for awhile and when they added another Dallas workshop for last week, I totally jumped at the chance to attend.

For any of you photographers who are thinking of attending JVS’s workshop and are on the fence, let me tell you that it is totally worth it!  Joseph and Anne are some of the most genuine people I have met.  They were incredible as teachers and complete generous with their knowledge and expertise.  The day is a 12 hour+,  jam-packed, flashapalooza!  They teach basic flash knowledge, how to use 6 different modifiers, gave out lighting diagrams, and showed us tons of other flash goodies such as reception lighting.     The workshop is incredibly hands on, and we all got to practice on each other with every type of lighting set up.  This workshop isn’t for the camera-shy!   We all had to took turns modeling for each other.  I think one of the best part of the workshop was getting to meet other great photographers and give each other feedback and tips on how to get better shots.

I came away from the workshop filled with flash knowledge, new friends, and a car full of new flash equipment.   While natural light will always be my first love, I’m so excited about how I can incorporate off camera flash into my personal shooting style.

Joseph showing us how to use different modifiers with the Cheetah Boom Light Stand on Darrin Hackney, Fer Juaristi, and Luke Edmonson.

Catie Ronquillo, was my awesome shooting partner for the day.  She looks great under all the different flash modiers, doesn’t she?  I love the Drop It Modern backdrops that JVS provided us to shoot against.

My absolutely favorite modier was the Beauty Dish, which gave us this beautiful perfect light for the following  headshots.  I totally grabbed one of these for my clients!  Isn’t the light just lovely??

We then got to play around with gels to create some pretty dramatic lighting.

The Edmonson‘s totally getting their creepy on for this shot with delightful Amy Karp!

We finished up the day outside with Radiopoppers.  I love these two of Darrin Hackney.

Last one of our awesome teacher with the cool hair, JVS himself!