The change of the seasons has a powerful pull on the memory. There is something about fall that will always be associated with “back to school.” Somehow that gets ingrained in childhood. Whether I am actually “in school’ or not, it is important for me to always be learning and pushing myself. As a photographer, that means challenging myself to try new techniques or to shoot in a different style. As a climber and backpacker, I learned the importance of choosing your gear carefully and paying particular attention to the weight of each piece. The philosophy of “light is right” carries over into photography and there is a large movement of what are called Strobist photographers who espouse the use of lightweight flashes and gear for creatively lighting their subjects. In the last few years, I can have become increasingly interested in lighting techniques and the Strobist philosophy. I recently attended a great workshop taught by Syl Arena and sponsored by the Seattle Photography Associates studio. Workshops like these are great for seeing into the creative process of other photographers and for learning new techniques. Most of our handouts were excerpts from a forthcoming book that Syl is writing called The Speedliter’s Handbook. The book will cover lighting techniques with compact flashes in general as well as detailed use of Canon Speedlites. It should be a good one. Since the class was more demonstration that active shooting, I don’t really have any good photos to share from it, but Syl did a nice blog entry about his shoot with one of the models at the workshop.