I have taken many workshops and courses in an effort to continuously improve and advance my photography skills. One aspect of photography I am always working on is building a more solid understanding of lighting and flash photography. A few years ago while Googling the phrase “flash photography”, one of the first pages I accidentally stumbled upon was that of Neil van Niekerk’s Tangents photography blog. I read as much as possible and eventually purchased both of his books. One is a book about on camera flash and the other is a book about off camera flash. Both were very helpful, but I wanted to learn more with a real live teacher.

In October I had the opportunity to take Neil’s photography lighting workshop in NYC. Listening to Neil speak and explain things in real time, really made his books come alive for me. Bells were going off left and right. I finally felt like I was “getting it.”

Neil taught us the bare basics up to more advanced techniques and along the way he made sure each and every participant reached a firm understanding before we moved on to the next lighting concept. He makes sure the foundation is solid before building and adding more, so nothing was ever confusing or overwhelming – just enlightening.

We learned how he uses his famous black foamie thing to create studio quality lighting with only on camera flash, off camera flash, gels, video lights and how to balance flash photography with natural lighting.

My only regret is that I didn’t take this workshop years ago when I first started photographing weddings and taking photographs of my daughter inside my house, where the black foamie thing has been a particularly useful concept.

Below are a few of my favorite photos from the workshop. Thank you so much to Neil and the beautiful models — I had a great time and learned a lot!

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