Maybe I Should Just Take Up Plumbing

Last night, on a tip from a Strobist reader (thanks, Mark) I drove down to Washington, D.C. to hear one of my long-time photo idols speak. In the process I met a lot of great new people from the D.C. chapter of ASMP.

I have heard Gregory Heisler before, and knew he would be great. But I still wasn't prepared for the three hours of stunning portraiture he threw up there, peppered with non-stop anecdotes and stories that had us all laughing out loud more times than I could count.

On the one hand, it was so inspirational. On the other, it makes me wonder what a hack like myself is doing in the same business.

Please take a look at the stuff on his site, which comprises only a tiny slice of the lifetime of great work he has produced.

You'd think he might be standoffish, arrogant and guarded about his (many) trademark techniques. Nothing could be further from the truth. Fantastic photographer, and an all-round good guy. If you ever get a chance to hear him, do whatever it takes.

Check out some of his stuff here.

Oh, and lest you think he's getting that look with a huge view camera and $200k worth of light, know that he's doing much of his work with the same digital camera you guys are toting around - EOS's. And some small strobes, of course.

You try to tell the large format stuff from the Canon stuff. I gave up after guessing wrong more often than not.