A couple of weeks ago I mentioned the top secret Preston Project. It’s coming along well and should be unveiled in the next month.
It’s been exciting seeing the developments and potential for photo clients and photo students alike.
Stay tuned…
Preston
I went on a photo adventure over the last few days with a few goals in mind:
I explored with a long time student who was looking for a photo adventure. Adventure we had – we explored and worked early mornings and late evenings with downtime during the day.
The sessions were filled with water, night lights, dogs, gardens, teepees and small adventures.
Stay tuned for more tales of the adventures…
Photo adventure - night time shooting
A reader sent me this article. I thought it was interesting because it’s a question that comes up a lot with my students. What makes a photographer a ‘professional’? What do you think?
Ok, this has been on my list of blog posts for a while – here goes.
I do some work documenting artwork and also run a presentation called Photographing Artwork for Promotion – helping people figure out how to get better photos of their art when there’s no budget to hire me for the photos.
Both shooting and teaching the subject are fun and, quite some time ago I posted photo of a piece I documented of Fiore de Henriquez – she was an Italian sculptor living predominantly in London, England – most renowned for her bust work of prominent people such as the Queen Mother, JFK, Laurence Olivier.
Fiore de Henriquez
I was also lucky enough to get to know Fiore a little – she was very good friends with my Dad’s aunt. Fiore passed away in 2004
I posted one of Fiore’s pieces I documented on the blog a while back. And sometime later I got an email from Texas filmmaker – Richard Whymark – who was creating a documentary on Fiore’s incredible life.
He found me through the Fiore post and ended up flying north to interview my father and I about our experiences with Fiore.
It was quite fun to connect in Ottawa with a Texas based filmmaker about an Italian sculptor – all because of a little blog post and google.
Learn more about Fiore and see some clips from the film project.
Thanks Google!
Our photography newsletter went out to most recipients today and laments the poor, overlooked tripod:
The Lonely Tripod
It happens a lot.
I ask students to bring a tripod for my workshops and the students spend the day carrying their tripods over their shoulder instead of setting it up under their camera.
“Why?” I plead.
“Oh, it’s a pain to set up.”
“It takes too long.”
“I don’t like using it.
“I don’t need it.”
Sigh.
In this edition of Exposed! we shed some light on the lonely, overlooked tripod.
tripod use in landscape photography
This past weekend I ran a test film photography workshop with a longtime student – Prasad – who discovered film photography this last year. He asked about a film photo workshop so we put on a pilot project.
We met Saturday to study the ideas of shooting film, followed closely by going into the field to capture some fresh photos on film.
Saturday we started at Jean Marc Carrise’s studio/café (soon to be relocating). He was the official photographer to Trudeau, Turner and Chretien and has been given privileged access to many world leaders. He has also shot much of his professional career on Leica film cameras using available light. A lovely way to shoot!
Jean Marc invited us into his studio and showed Prasad some work.
Ottawa Photo Workshop
We later shot and brought our fresh catch to Alex Leblanc’s darkroom for a course on developing and printing Black & White film.
All in all it was a great weekend with many smiles.
– we will be offering a group film workshop in the next year!
Available Light in the Darkroom - Ottawa Film Photography Course
Yesterday we spent time helping Paul, a federal employee, learn more about practical photography in a custom photo course designed for him. In his day to day job he is often called upon to do portraits of staff for the web, intranet, staff newsletters, etc. He also covers some events. When the photos are needed NOW or cannot justify hiring someone (like me) to shoot the work Paul gets called.
It can be stressful being asked to photograph a Minister when they visit a department! Paul has called before to gain some experience behind the camera. Our second session, yesterday, concentrated on candid workplace portraits.
The nice thing about a photo course like this is the dedicated opportunity to experiment with the camera in a real work scenario. The pressure to perform is gone and the fear of mistakes is eliminated helping create a stronger base of experience from which to draw when it really counts!
Paul did very well and we saw some great improvements in his portraits!
Some very quick, available light portraits of Paul in his work environment yesterday:
Photo for Communications Department
Photo for Communications Departments
Here are some tidbits this week:
1. I met with someone about a teaching project this week and he told me about LOCR – ”locate your photos”. It seems like a great site to explore – load a photo and some geo placement and it provides you with all kinds of geo and wikipedia content about your landscape.
2. We have been working on a secret project this summer. It’s been a lot of work but will have big benefits for our clients and students. Code named “Preston!” Stay tuned…
3. This week we will be teaching a prototype film photo workshop and our Photography for Communications Professionals as a custom course to a government department. Good news!
Photography for Communications Professionals
Last year we visited the World Press Photo of the Year Exhibit at the Canadian War Museum in Ottawa.
And we’re encouraging you to visit with us again. It’s a photo social to meet others interested in the field. We will follow up with some ‘discussion’ somewhere on Preston St.
Last year Jackson Couse said:
“this is a fantastic event. Not to be missed if you love photography. Heck, not to be missed if you have functioning eyeballs!”
When: Thursday, August 26th, 2010; 6:30pm
Meet at the front doors of the Canadian War Museum, 1 Vimy Place, Ottawa.
Exhibition Cost: Free
RSVP to Harry@HarryNowell.com
See some of the finest photojournalism and press photography of the year as we soak in “World Press Photo 2010.”
Ok, ok, those who know me, know I preach “get it right in the camera, save time in post processing.”
It’s true. Spend a little time making sure everything is as good as possible before clicking can save hours in Photoshop.
Recently Photoshop CS5 was launched and I have heard some good reviews. Time for an upgrade at Harry, Inc., I think.
Read the CS5 review at Photo District News
How much tweaking do I do? Depends on the assignment!
Read the Exposed! photo Newsletter –“Cheating or Tweaking” for views on post processing.
Post Processing - Icelandic Horses