The Seminar that changed my style of lighting.

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I had been attending the West Coast School of Professional Photography for several years now.  It was a one week intensive instructional period with a featured instructor and their specialty.  Every year, the school sponsors evening classes from other instructors and opens it to the entire school to attend.  That's where I got to see Dean Collins.  He was the most influential instructor of all the others I had learned from because he knew his lighting techniques backwards, forwards, upside down, right side up.  When he offered a one week class the following year, I signed up for it right away..  Best $$$ I spent.

The one mantra that I got from him was two fold.  1 - the larger your light source, the softer your light will be.  and 2 - the closer your light source, the softer your light will be.  His main light at that time was a Larson 52" Starfish.  It was generally positioned just out of camera view (very close to the subject).  They were not cheap but I purchased one knowing that I had to have one.

That was my main light for many a year after that.  I have used different variations of it since then but this was the original.  How did it change my photography?  I was entering PPA Print Competition since the mid 70's.  I would get one merit (out of 4 prints) or I would whitewash.  It was an every other year thing.  When I returned from the school and implemented the lighting system where I was employed and the lighting style on location, I stared doing sessions with it with the solid intention to use it for print competition  What happened?  The first prints I entered after attending that seminar,  I got four out of four prints accepted with 3 of them accepted into the Traveling Loan Collection (best of the best).  These are two of the prints utilizing the Starfish in the studio.

Because I was striving for my Master of Photography Degree during that period, the 7 merits boosted my points towards the degree.

I was able to learn from Dean Collins several times after that until cancer ended his career.

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