#566 Ottawa Photo Studio – open house!

Posted on January 3, 2011 by admin

Grand Opening:

OttawaStudioWorks.com

160 Preston St, Ottawa

January 28th & 29th 2011

7-10pm

Ottawa photography studio

Last summer our new photography studio was born on Preston St. OttawaStudioWorks is our new home to:

The central Ottawa, Preston St location also offers photo studio rentals.

We celebrate the new space with your smiles, experiences and fun this month.

Please join us either January 28th or 29th from 7-10pm. See the new photo studio, gallery space and help the dogs (as well as cats and other animals) of the Ottawa Humane Society and SPCA of West Quebec. To support the good work at the two shelters please bring a:

photo of your favourite furry friend
can or bag of food
cash donation

10% of all workshop & portrait bookings and art sales made during the two evenings will be donated to the shelters. A dog portrait will be unleashed at the open house.

RSVP

#565 We’re back – Happy New Year!

Posted on January 3, 2011 by admin

Last week we were in low gear.

We celebrated, skied xc and played outdoor pond hockey as much as the weather allowed, charged the batteries and did some gentle work.

Coming up very soon on the blog we have:

• new photography course listings – to be posted in the next few days

• student success report from the Commonwealth Games in India

• student report

• announcement of our photography studio‘s first open house in central Ottawa

• a new Exposed! photo newsletter

• best wishes for all of you, photographically and otherwise!

hockey photography - Ottawa

#564 HoHoHo!

Posted on December 23, 2010 by admin

HoHoHo!

‘Tis that time of year when we celebrate Christmas. We wish you well – whatever you may be celebrating – with big smiles and lots of love.

Between Christmas and New Year we will be relaxing, skiing in Gatineau Park with limited time in the office or studio. We will be checking emails for workshop or photography bookings but will be on a holiday schedule.

The blog will be taking a break for a week, too.

May your skis slide well and your smile be wide over the next week of fun and festivities.

#563 Assignment Spotlight

Posted on December 22, 2010 by admin

A couple of weeks ago we photographed some executive portraits for an organization based in Ottawa.

It involved group and individual portraits at their location. Photos went well with many smiling faces!

Executive Portraits - Ottawa

#562 More on Portrait Pricing

Posted on December 20, 2010 by admin

It seems Couvrette’s portraits and prices created a stir in the city. On Saturday, the Ottawa Citizen’s Randall Denley picked up the story in his column:

“Photo fury puts chaos at City Hall in focus”

Denley’s column reflects the challenges faced by small businesses – sometimes the photography is the easier part of the job!

Ottawa executive portrait

#561 Ottawa Portrait Prices

Posted on December 17, 2010 by admin

Running a business is challenging. One of the biggest challenges is developing fair prices for different items. In photography we price by usage and value and complexity of shoot. How will the photo be used?:

National advertising campaign in all media?
Thumbnail portrait on a web site of a small business?

These uses would be priced very differently.

Anyway there was a recent article in the Ottawa Sun about the price of portraits the city paid Paul Couvrette ( a well respected, veteran Ottawa photographer) to do portraits of public city officials.

Good article. The prices are fair.

Access the article.

Ottawa executive portrait

#559 – Introduction to Studio Photography Workshop

Posted on December 13, 2010 by admin

A couple of weeks ago we ran another Intro to Studio Photography Course at Ottawa Studio Works.

We limit the session to two students to maximize hands on learning – and our students soaked up the experience. The morning was spent learning about equipment, theory and some exploratory light sets.

Intro to Studio Photo Class

In the afternoon two groups came in to test the student’s studio portrait photo skills. It’s a challenging day for the students but they did very well!

Introduction to Studio Photography is now offered to anyone throughout the year. Interested? Just contact us to book your session!

Students success!:

Studio Student Success!

#558 This week

Posted on December 9, 2010 by admin

This week we had many adventures.

We started with a nighttime photo safari that brought our photographers out on a near perfect winter photo adventure! We had -4C temperatures with light blowing snow – perfect for some Night Light shooting. Frank captured his version of the fun, below:

Ottawa Photo Safari

We followed with another adventure – capturing corporate portraits in Ottawa. We photographed groups and individual executive portraits for a new client. There were smiles all around including my assistant:

building a set

I picked up some large prints (thanks Dave Andrews) and have started putting up some fine art in our gallery at Ottawa Studio Works. The walls are coming alive.

The week also includes some teaching – a Creative Fundamentals Custom Course, developing a proposal for a client and and writing the Exposed! photo newsletter – coming soon.

#557 New Photography Workshop – Photographing Your Children

Posted on December 8, 2010 by admin

Christine Denis joins us for another photo course – “Photographing Your Children”

This is a regularly run course that runs in the spring that produces better parent’s photo skills to immortalize smiling kid faces!

The workshop involves:

A classroom session to understand the magic built into your camera. In the classroom Christine teaches about photo skills but also introduces storytelling concepts and scrap booking resources.
Practical shooting session where young models play for your cameras. Christine is there to assist, guide and support your questions.
A critique and review session helps you improve your future skills and see different ways others interpreted the same fun. This evening is very
beneficial and comes with automatic smiles.

See course details.

Reserve your spot!

Photographing Your Children - Photo Course