Steve Bedell

The Aurora Orion light kit arrived on my doorstep at the busiest time of the year for me. At the end of the summer I take hundreds of high school seniors and thousands of “one shot” photos of the underclass students at high schools. So while it has taken me a while to get around to writing the report, I have used these lights to take thousands of pictures, and I was really glad to have a light kit that I could just pick up and walk out the door with and have all I needed in one really nice travel bag.

You enter a room bustling with activity. You see models posing in front of photographers on two different sets, other models patiently sitting getting their makeup and hair done, lights and modifiers everywhere, while one petite woman seems to be in charge of this organized chaos. Welcome to a workshop with one of the premier glamour and fashion shooters of our day, Lou Freeman.

I've always been envious of those great looks that fashion photographers get with the use of expensive ringlights. Now along comes Bowens with the promise of a ringlight at a much lower price (approx. $450). Until now, you basically had two choices when it came to ringlights. You could buy tiny, low-powered units that sit around your lens, great for macro work such as...

I shoot over 90 percent of my work using medium format cameras. Like many portrait/ wedding photographers, I envy the 35mm shooters. They've got it all--long lenses, motor drives, zooms, fisheyes, etc. But watch out 35mm, because all these features I...