Introduction to This Is Strobist Info: Your Setup Guide to Flash Photography
I swore on my mother’s grave that I would never write a book again. With that said, Mom, I am terribly sorry for even insinuating that you weren’t alive. I’ll send you a copy once this is over, and I’ll await that embarrassing phone call where you’re all like, “Mijo, what was that all about?” And I’ll be like, “Oh, yeah. Sorry about that. I didn’t have a clever opener so I just went with it.”
Nevertheless, this wasn’t yet another painful experience to complete. Luckily, I had an amazing wife (Erin), a patient editor (Ted Waitt), and a plethora of friends (an excuse to mention JR and Ashley) who helped push me along (or took me away) to complete this book. Pro tip for first-time authors: Don’t write a book immediately after having a first child and switching jobs. Just don’t.
To the point—you see, this was all a big misunderstanding with one thing leading to another. And it all happened like this.
Backstory
In 2006, I bought my first SLR camera, a Nikon D40. I took a lot of terrible photos. Like...just badly terrible. In 2007, I added more to that terrible collection. In 2008, I decided I liked taking terrible photos so I bought more lenses, figuring that would improve my ability to be a terrible photographer. Unfortunately, near the end of the year I caught a bug that made me care about taking good pictures. Then finally came Christmas 2008, when I decided to do one of those cheesy 365 “photo a day” projects for 2009. Long story short, it became stupidly successful. I wrote some things about lighting and drew some diagrams. I learned a lot of things, many hardships were had, and I am now a better person. Years later, I wrote a book about it. The End.