Shoot The Centerfold Las Vegas… No so great this time…

Well, here I am back with my review of the second edition of the STC seminar and this time with less good news. There are good points, that I will mention at the end, but there was a lot to complain about, in summary I think it can be summarized as communication and organization.

I understand that when dealing with large groups of people, it is impossible to keep everyone happy, but there are some basics that should have been followed to avoid this discontent for the most part.

As any new organization or company, in my humble honest opinion, this event has a lot of room for growth; and for almost $1,000 per ticket, when I say a lot, I mean a whole lot!

Now, I think that 1st, you have to put your mind into the people that you are expecting to find at these events; on one hand, you have those photographers that are in love with the images we had have for years found on the pages of Playboy magazine and any playboy media related. And then you have the other part of the population, photographers or not, that for years had been in love with the models, girls or women you find in the magazines. And there goes my 1st issue, as I think the split was 5% from the 1st group and 95% of the second.

The 1st disaster
For me, and I am sure for those of us who attended the 1st event, the
expectation was that what worked the 1st time was going to be successful
again. No quite the case.
On the 1st event, they divided us into 3 groups, each one with one of
the main photographers. There were chairs around the set and we all sat
comfortably while the instructor was showing his magic.
This time, we were all together in a BIG salon, when one of the
instructors said something like: We are going to start with the
instructions; you can see everything from your seat (yeah, right,
especially those toward the back of the room) or (here we come) you can
gather around the set to watch closer. Well, guess what?
Have you ever seen a Zebra stampede? I saw one, but with Elephants and a
couple of camels as well. 10 seconds later, you have maybe 50% of the
audience somehow well positioned and the rest, jumping around trying to
catch what was happening.
All this, while you have a ton of people shooting their cameras like the
world was about to end; not the casual shot, to get the setting and a
couple of things here and there, this was shooting 1,000 frames per
second of nothing, like they were recording the event on video, but only
using stills to accomplish this. It was very hard to pay attention with
the constant sound of 97+ shutters going off.

This happened on all the settings, it was so bad, that at one point,
Jarmo started bringing chairs so people in the back can stand on the
chairs and actually see something. By the way, these are the kind of
things I mentioned that Jarmo was really busting his a… to make this
event work for everybody; the intention was there, but the results were
not.

All in all, you stayed there and got ‘something out of it’ on almost
every set; I say almost because there was a set on the pool that was a
complete disaster, or beyond that. Everything you can think of that
could go wrong, went wrong. Take this from another participant:
“I like xxx (/let’s keep names out of the equation/) and his work, but
his shoot was a failure for me, both in regards to the model and the
location. The location, in the middle of a public pool area with a DJ
(/very, very loud/) was not conducive to group learning. As for the
model, if she had presented to Playboy as she did to us she would have
not have been made a Playmate. Sweet girl, pretty girl, but she was not
in the shape I would expect for an event of this scope”

And I add that maybe there were some instructions given at this set, but
I missed them. Maybe there was some order to the chaos, but again, I
never saw it.

What you were working with…
The separation of the groups is a big deal to me. On an event of this
kind, you have all sorts of experience levels as participants and in
order for everybody to get the most of the learning experience, one
would be better off in a group where everybody is close to the same
level. When the new guy is on the same room with the super-pro and (for
example) the instructor mentions ‘feathering the light’ you can be sure
you have just lost one of these guys. Or, if the instructor has to
explain some basics to the level of where the manual mode on a
particular camera is, or what is a strobe, then one of these guys is
wasting his/her time. I am opposed to closing the event for the novice
or only for people with just one particular set of skill, to the
contrary, I think it is an amazing opportunity to have an event that
will be catered to everybody, but that needs to be made clear to
everyone arrangements must be made to avoid simple issues.

Do an event, learn, do the next one…
This is simple, if it works, don’t change it. Small groups with each
photographer, chairs to sit in front of the shooting area, paid lunch,
amazing models… all this was part of the success of the Florida event.
It was an ugly surprise for me seeing that things that worked on the 1st
event were taken away on from this one. Nonsense.

Nude or Not Nude, that is the question
In this regard, some sort of deception is inevitable, especially for the
second group mentioned above, when the bunnies are not going to be
dressed in their birthday suits, but rather in bikini or lingerie.
I understand this; actually I really prefer that this happens this way
as for some weird reason in my mind. I think it adds a touch of class
to the event and helps keep crazy people in line.
But, when you get invited to an event to shoot with Playboy, published
models and learn from Playboy published photographers, the last thing on
your mind is a piece or two of fabric, regardless of how pretty and tiny
these are. In any case, I think that this should have been clearly
communicated to all the potential participants. I think that
communication in general is a big issue with STC.

You’ll be doing “so” at “so” time at “so” location…
This was one of the main issues with the event. This was in the
Tropicana (amazing, amazing, amazing hotel by the way) where you almost
need a car to go from one area of the hotel to another; easy to get
lost, especially if you have no idea of where you have to go; and this
happened a lot.
Most of the time, while I was walking to my next spot, just to find out
that it had been changed or cancelled, I found a lot of people from
other groups going to the same spot, or just wondering where do they
have to go. Back and forth to the main room (very far away) just to find
if nobody knew where you were supposed to be. And if somebody knew, that
somebody was not there to give the dozens of people asking a
satisfactory answer. Because of this, a lot of people lost the chance of
shooting a particular model or a particular set or other perks that was
offered, like portfolio review.

Come and shoot Playboy models, learn from Playboy Photographers…
This is the main reason (or only reason in some cases) that people come
to STC. I know some of your other work may be “magnificent”, but I would
go to that event with the other work if I want to when the time comes.
For now, I only want to learn about shooting Playboy style. Show me your
work on the introduction, I really want to know and see what else do you
do, but at instruction time, it’s all about your Playboy career.

Time is Money
But it can also be used as an excuse to cover your other issues. Two
full days for what was offered, was plenty of time, and I am going back
to the concept of organization. You can cut the offerings or you can
extend the event to 3 days or even a whole month. If you don’t take a
step back and analyze what the main issues were, but instead sit back
and blame it only to the lack of time, you’ll ended up with a bunch of
new people mad at your next event. We need to create happy attendees
with great results, not excuses. Not having enough time is simply an
excuse for lack of experience and organization.

The Model Search
To this point, I still don’t understand what this model search has to do
with us (participants). We did not shoot these models (at least not on
an organized fashion), we didn’t network with these models, we didn’t
vote on the selection of these models. So I don’t get it.
But, this was another task that the organizers have to keep an eye on,
and that translates into less attention to our event. STC may have
gotten some good stuff from this search, but nothing on our end.
Note: Use the term model, very loooooosely here. I’m just saying…

Pay Attention
All this is happening and nobody is doing anything. I really believed
that truly paying attention is the highest form of respect that you can
pay to your customers. Acknowledge the situation and show that you care
and that you are looking to improve things. Not for the next event, but
for this one, right here and there.

2 out of 3…
When it comes back to the actual sets and instructions (after you pass
all I have mentioned above) for the most part, it was great. Jarmo as I
mentioned on my description of the 1st event is super worried about
everything that is going on, you can see his passion and dedication to a
high quality event. But with everything that was happening and the
number of people that attended, it was hard even for him to control
everything. Now, if we could only concentrate on his set and the time
you spent with him, that was quality time (very, very short, but super
useful). He will make sure you got it right, check your shots and
suggest some corrections (“suggest” Jarmo style)
Arny’s set was pretty much with the same goods as Jarmo, but for some
reason I felt it was more organized and relaxed. As per the instruction
goes, I will try to do a separate write up just on him (no promises) but
I can summarize it this way: With all the issues that the event had, I
almost felt I lost my money… until I got to Arny. Great set, in my
opinion the best model of the whole event and his professionalism and
hard work ethics really blew me away.
Not everything was perfect all the time on his portion either. At one
point, they decided to change the set, to show us another technique
(shooting from above) and that was very painful. And I think this one
was painful to everybody, the assistants running like crazy to try to
accomplish this task as quick as possible, the model just standing and
waiting there doing nothing and far more important, us the participants
standing for another 25mins (give or take) doing nothing. But, as I said
before, when you finally were able to catch something, it was great.
The 3rd set, I have no comments; it was bad, worse than anything I have
mentioned here. Period

Now, this was a two day event in Vegas, learning from Playboy
photographers and shooting Playboy models, so not everything was bad.

The goods
You know when you take a picture and check the back of your camera to
see what you got and apply some corrections? And you use the histogram
and any single piece of data there to give you some ideas. Right?
Now, imagine that top Playboy photographers Arny Freytag or Jarmo P…
is the one actually checking the back of your camera and giving you
feedback. Pretty cool heh? Feedback not only on the tech part (you can
figure that one on your own) but on composition, posing the model,
cropping, what was it that you did that did not allow the image you just
shot to be phenomenal? 1 on 1 feedback from these guys from the back of
your camera after each shot.

The Models
When was the last time you asked your model to stand up on one hand,
head down and with one toe touching her ear? Well, this is a little bit
exaggerated but I bet you, that any of these models would not only do
it, but they will make that weird pose of you look sexy as h…
I was really impressed with these models man, they were shooting for two
days straight, with more than 100 people (and some photographers) and up
to the last minute, I saw smiles on their faces, giving 100% when the
camera was up.
I wish I could have recorded the work ethics these models were
displaying and then use it to show other models what it takes to make it
in this industry. Hard work and dedication, far beyond what you would
normally do, that’s what I saw these models do.

Best: Playmate: Shanna Marie McLaughlin, Miss July 2010

The Mary Effect
Mary Alejo , Playboy Model and owner of the title “My Husband is the
Luckiest man on earth” (second place, Patricia has the 1st) was there as
part of the event. When I said there, I mean she was participating,
taking care of the models, selling prints, helping people to network,
posing for some fans and answering a lot of questions. An amazing
resource for all the participants, kudos to her!!!

The Sponsors
Many sponsors were there to sell their products just like any other
sponsor. But, I want to mention that the way Leica and McKennaPro
presented their products and interacted with the public, was top notch.
Very glad they were there.

Portfolio Review and casual conversation with “The Boss”
What can I say; you are sitting on the same table with the people that
make the decisions (for the most part) on what works and what does not.
Meaning, if you think that Arny, Jarmo or any Playboy photographer is
great, imagine talking to the guy who tells these photographers: “I
don’t think this is good enough”. It doesn’t get better than that;
Having Gary Cole reviewing your work, giving you some pointers and
talking about his experience in Playboy in general was priceless.

The “Concept” of the event
At the end of the day, having Arny Freytag and Jarmo teaching you about
what they know best, on a face to face level and doing it with all the
little tricks they use every day is a wonderful experience. I’ve
participated in two STC events and I can say Jarmo was at 150% both
times and with Arny, I felt that it was even better this time. If this
was your 1st time participating on this event, I’m sure you learned
enough to feel your money was well invested. If you are smart, there are
a lot of ways to make this statement true!

Now, if all you want to read is good stuff about this seminar, y can see other’s people impressions at STC Here

Rocke
www.rockephotography.com