NGPC April Meeting – Stanley Leary – “Learning to Write With Light”

Our speaker will be professional photographer, storyteller, and brand builder Stanley Leary, who will be discussing “Stanley’s Process of Learning to Write With Light.” Stanley started his career shooting primarily available light, and if absolutely necessary, put a flash on the hot-shoe and bounced his flash if he could. He prided himself on the ability to “See the Light.” He did learn to use strobes, but mainly for portrait work in a studio. Ten years into his career he started to using strobes not just inside for portraits, but outside and mixing them with available light. This is when his career took off. His photos were “Different” than most other photographers.

The one tool most photographers have and don’t always use well is light. Stanley is going to talk about how available light is not what is there when you arrive, but also what is in your bag. All those years before were just cake, but once he started to master lighting is when he added the icing to the cake. Lighting was the something extra that makes a good thing even better: The concert itself was great, and getting to meet the band afterward was (the) icing on the cake. After all what is Photography? For those of you that might be curious, it means “Writing with Light.” Yes, that is accurate. The word “Photo” stands for “light” and its suffix “graphy” stands for “writing.