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Workshop at the Ranch – August 2008 – Best Buy Summit in San Francisco

2008-August-WATR-iconHi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. For the past few years I have been invited to teach photography at a very unique event, the Best Buy Summit. Kevin Gilbert and Reed Hoffman of Blue Pixel, a leader in digital photography education, bring me on board to join their staff in teaching the top sales force from Best Buy stores from all over the country about digital SLR photography. This is a fantastic program to be involved with, I always walk away “amped up” and inspired.
Hi and welcome to this edition of Workshop at the Ranch. For the past few years I have been invited to teach photography at a very unique event, the Best Buy Summit. Kevin Gilbert and Reed Hoffman of Blue Pixel, a leader in digital photography education, bring me on board to join their staff in teaching the top sales force from Best Buy stores from all over the country about digital SLR photography. This is a fantastic program to be involved with, I always walk away “amped up” and inspired.

In a nut shell, the corporate office of Best Buy reward their top people throughout the nation with a photography, video, communications, and technology summit. Top professionals and educators in their respective fields of photography and video are brought in by Blue Pixel to round out the staff that works with well over 125 Best Buy employees. The goal, at least the way I see it, is to educate and inspire their employees to take on the challenge of using and becoming proficient with the photographic, video and technology products Best Buy offers. The knowledge each attendee acquires at the summit will in turn be passed along to fellow employees and the customer. What a concept!

It is a real joy to work with these young, energetic employees from Best Buy. I find it encouraging to see these people so involved and motivated to succeed not only with the photo tasks placed before them during the summit, but succeed in community and life as well.

As with any project I become involved with, I try and make a few pictures of my own along the way. Here are some of the sites and locations that were the backdrop of this years Best Buy Summit in San Francisco, California.

Image #1      San Andreas Dawn … Winging into San Francisco at 7:00 am is breath taking. The fog and clouds looked like a blanket as the sun broke the eastern horizon. As is my custom when flying I chose a window seat so I could take pictures as I crossed the western United States. Why sleep when you can make images. Nikon D3, ISO200, 1/1250 at f8 (it was very bumpy air), Nikon 24-70mm Lens, WB 8330K, Lexar 8G Flash Card. Shooting pictures through the window of a commercial jet plane can sometimes create some interesting effects. In this case even though I chose a warmer than daylight WB of 8330K to add some warm color tones to the fog and clouds, the sky remained super blue and resembled images of leaving the earth’s atmosphere.

Image #2      Main Sails … Day 1 of the summit was a city wide scavenger hunt using Magellan and Tom Tom GPS units, a cell phone camera and SONY T-300 pocket camera. Blue Pixel instructors were positioned all over San Francisco while the Best Buy attendees walked, cable car-ed, and BART-ed their way around the city obtaining clues, pictures and valuable points towards the team building competition. One of my two locations was Pier 39. To my delight, this was the day of the Tall Ships arrival into San Francisco. As I waited for the summit’s participants to find me and receive their clues to the next location of photographic interest I photographed the ships as they passed by me. Nikon D60, ISO200, 1/500 at f9, Nikon 55-200mm Lens, WB Daylight, Lexar 2G SD Card. NOTE: I used the Nikon D60 with Nikon 55-200mm Lens rather than my usual Nikon D3. The D60 and 50-200mm Lens were standard issue to all those working at the summit. This helped those of us teaching the DSLR portion of the summit to relate one on one to the participants. I found the D60 a terrific camera that was very easy to handle and make great pictures with. There is plenty of detail in this file and the color looked perfect.

Image #3      Jimmy … The next day we all took Ferries over to “THE ROCK”, Alcatraz. Our summiteers now had their new Nikon D60 with choices of lenses and a Nikon SB600 Speedlight. We took Alcatraz by storm and made pictures both inside the prison walls and out around the grounds. I was fascinated with the main cell block and gave a short lecture/demonstration of how I use a DSLR camera and Speedlight. My demonstration eventually lead me to ask Jimmy, one of the Best Buy attendees, to pose for a picture. Although Jimmy appears to be serving a life sentence on the Rock he is really a top employee of Best Buy and a great guy for playing the role of an inmate for our Nikon Speedlight session. Nikon D3, ISO800, 1/30 at f6.3, Nikon 14-24, WB 3850K, One SB800 Speedlight power output of -3.0 with a “pinched” LumiQuest Snoot, Nikon SU800 Commander to fire the Speedlight, Lexar 2G SD Flash Card. For this image I used my own gear in an effort to demonstrate to the participants what I would do if I were on a job for a client. Thanks for posing Jimmy, I’ll put in a good word to the warden for you.
Image #4      Golden Gate … A walk across the Golden Gate Bridge began with overcast, but by the time we reached the other side sunshine prevailed and pictures looked perfect. Nikon D60, ISO200, Shutter Priority with EV-0.7, Nikon 18-55mm Lens, WB AUTO, Lexar 2G SD Card. I went with all AUTO program controls for this image. The D60 performed very well in all respects. The Golden Gate Bridge is an architectural marvel to see and to photograph.
Image #5      Golden Gate Shadow … After looking up during the walk across the bridge, it was only natural to look down as well. The height was a bit staggering, but I wasn’t ready to reach for the suicide hot line phone just yet ……. after all, I wanted to make this picture of the Golden Gate Bridge shadow over this channel marker building. Nikon D60, ISO400, Shutter Priority with EV -1.0, Nikon 55-200mm Lens, WB AUTO, Lexar 2G SD Card.
Image #6      Fighter Jet Sunset … The 3 days of the Summit finished up in grand style abroad the USS Hornet aircraft carrier. We had the run of the ship and were allowed to explore above and below decks and photograph a variety of subjects. Like at Alcatraz I gathered some participants and showed them that one Speedlight could do a lot to make a picture more interesting. As the sun set off the tail of the flight deck the sky lit up with some soft pastel colors. A silhouette of this fighter jet was impressive, but when I showed students how to use one remote Speedlight they were sold on using off camera flash. Nikon D3, ISO250, 1/60 at f11, Nikon 24-70mm Lens, WB 6670K, One SB800 Speedlight with warming Gel and a power output of +3.0, Nikon SU800 Commander, Lexar 8G Flash Card.

I had a great time …. We had a great time! From old sailing vessels to an aircraft carrier, from Alcatraz to the Golden Gate Bridge, we saw it all in San Francisco. I really enjoyed the entire summit and sites, but especially the Best Buy employees. These people were loaded with enthusiasm and a quest for knowledge, but not just for themselves. Many, many times after I would teach a photographic technique or an intricate function of the camera to a participant they would immediately say how they would take that knowledge back to the home store and share it with their co-workers. Now that’s giving back………. that’s Best Buy.

See you next time here at Workshop at the Ranch ……………………… Adios, Dave