Training : Amy
The good news is that she will be receiving a Rebel T2i on my recommendation, but would need some training. Winston, my assistant, happens to own a Rebel T1i. I'm pretty sure the difference between T1i and the T2i will not be much in terms of operations. I asked him if I could borrow his camera. He said it was fine.
We decide on going to Vizcaya (A place I dread and always tried to avoid lol). It has been 2 years since I have been to Vizcaya, but seeing it with a different set of eyes, I saw much potential for my work. It's just that so many photographers come here and I don't want to take shots that everyone else is taking.
When we arrive we go to the refreshment stand to get some Gatorade bottles. When I give my credit card to the teller, he seems to be having difficulty with the machine. I notice his quick glances to Amy, and goes back to the machine. He smacked it once or twice, and tried taking out the battery (didn't know how to it seems). He looks at me, apologizes, and asks if I happen to have any cash on me. I look at my wallet, "nope". Amy jokingly says, "Well, I guess were getting it for free?" lol. With embarrassment, the kid looks at us and says, "Here, just take it, don't worry". "Really? OK!" says Amy lol. Free Gatorade? Awesome!
First, we begin by setting our cameras to "M" for Manual. We review how f-stop, Shutter Speed, and ISO work with one another to reach a correct exposure. I talk about depth of field, grain, image burr, hot spots, burn outs etc. She reminded me of myself when I first started photography, wanting to shoot everything, and anything. Winston's camera had a 100mm 2.0 lens. She loved the depth of field she could do when taking shots of flowers. Macro photography is where her passion lies apparently. I'll share some shots I took during our training.

Amy correctly exposed, but background blown. If I have the background exposed properly Amy would be a silhouette. (Isn't this awesome? Dual Canon Shooter, lol). Eat this Nikoners!

Background exposed correctly, and flash is used to prevent the silhouette effect. Flash used was the EX580 pointing directly at her. Image has more depth.

I would have loved to take my lighting equipment in Vizcaya, but then they would accuse me of being a professional and would most likely want to charge me the $125 shooting fee.

Reducing hot spots on face. Move light further away or use a diffuser. Gary Fong diffuser works well.

Often she would ask me, "Why is this too dark?" or "This is too bright". I would either recommend her an f-stop or shutter speed to use. After a while of correct guesses, I was called a Smart Ass :( lol.
Sometimes she asks if I can take a photo of her to share with her boyfriend and loved ones. I wonder if this training was a clever ploy to get a photo shoot from me...kidding. Click on Image for a high resolution version.
Amy liked my shoot with Leebo and so I went ahead and decided to show her how I did it. I took her to the same location around the same time and I explained everything to her. I took shots of her to show how it was done, and then I served as model so she may practice (the photos will not be published lol),
Here is a sample.

I don't document the settings or the editing I use for every shoot, but I believe it's a close match considering that it was cloudy and darker when I shot Leebo. I think this photograph is awesome. Love the pose, facial expression and the hair.
I had a great time training Amy. She is a quick learner, good model and she is passionate about creating art. Amy also has exceptional composition skills. She will become a great photographer, I just know it.

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Comments
Jason,
Unfortunately I do not offer training courses at this time. Amy and Winston are my only exceptions. I will give it some consideration though and I am working on video tutorials to put on my website for my registered users.
Yes, Amy is a model; she just doesn’t know it yet.
-RS
The girl you trained was very pretty shes a model too?
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