#697 Student Success – new ProProgram graduate

Posted on October 21, 2011 by admin

A couple of years ago Sandra Finner contacted me about taking her photography to the next level with the idea of shooting weddings and portraits in Ottawa.

She joined the ProProgram and started working. Developing photo, networking and business skills suitable for photo work is a long process.And Sandra dove in head first.

After completing five of the program’s courses, ‘One-onOne’s’ and some shadowing Sandra is taking bookings for portraits and weddings. She’s smiling, too. She has every reason to be! In the two years since I have met Sandra her work has blossomed. I am proud of her.

What does Sandra say?

“As a recent graduate from the Harry Nowell Pro Program I wanted to take time to congratulate you on offering such a well designed program that has helped advance my photography faster than it would have taken in a larger, more formal classroom.

student success! - Sandra Finner Wedding Photography

The people I’ve met and the contacts I’ve made while in the Pro Program have absolutely helped me be a better photographer. This program not only teaches technique but by mentoring each photographer on an individual basis with one-on-one sessions, you help us understand our strengths & weaknesses and focus on areas that need attention.

student success! - Sandra Finner Wedding Photography

The variety of courses offered, whether it be shooting with and developing film, night, studio & natural light photography, understanding flash photography or learning unconventional shooting techniques [in the David Trattle’s course] have all helped me learn how to progress from a casual picture taker to doing professional work that my customers have been excited about.

Thanks Harry for being so generous with your time and knowledge and introducing me to the Ottawa photography community. I’ve thoroughly enjoyed all my time learning from you and I feel confident that my business will continue to move forward which was my goal.

student success! - Sandra Finner Wedding Photography

I look forward to meeting the new students at the regular social events and following along with their successes as well.”

Join us in cheering for Sandra!

#696 Photo studio open house – Ottawa Studio Works

Posted on October 18, 2011 by admin

Yep, it’s coming up – we are flinging open our doors to welcome you into our Ottawa studio to celebrate the season, Christmas and other festive holidays, snow, dogs, family, photography or whatever else needs celebrating.

Details:

Ottawa Studio Works

160 Preston St, Ottawa

7pm onwards; Saturday, December 3rd, 2011.

Ottawa Studio Works - photo open house

Join us Saturday, December 3rd form 7pm onwards at Ottawa Studio Works, 160 Preson St, central Ottawa for some fun.

Fun? What kind of fun?

• DJ Ron LaVoie spins some festive tunes

• be seen hob-nobbing with Ottawa’s super cool photo community

• new photo work to ponder

• a chance to buy gifts – workshops, prints, greeting cards, critique sessions, DIY portrait sessions, regular portrait sessions – for friends and family. Remember to buy locally and support your community.

Refreshments will be served.

Fun will be had.

Donations gladly accepted -erm, urged- to support the dogs and, yes, ALL animals including the cats at the Aylmer SPCA. Please bring food or $.

A new project to be exhibited in 2012 will be unveiled at the open house.

Ottawa Studio Works

160 Preston St, Ottawa

7pm onwards; Saturday, December 3rd, 2011.

RSVP appreciated.

Ottawa Studio Works - open house - do it for the dogs

#695 Shoots… and SCORES!!! Ottawa hockey photography workshop

Posted on October 16, 2011 by admin

We’re very happy to announce we’re offering our Pro Hockey Photo Workshop with the Ottawa 67s in 2012 – our fifth year running this fantastic event.

Ottawa 67s hockey

Hockey/photo fans love getting close to the action to photograph the next NHL superstars as the Ottawa 67s take on the Kingston Frontenacs.

Get close to the action with 'Photographing Pro Hockey' - Ottawa photo class

We have arranged privileged access to allow participants of this workshop to shoot from ice level with mainstream media photographers.

We meet a week before the game to cover elements of shooting fast paced indoor hockey including equipment, techniques, and logistics.

Photographing Pro Hockey - Ottawa Photography Class

Photographing Pro Hockey - Ottawa Photo Class

On game day we walk you through shooting to achieve the best results and gain experience shooting fast paced indoor sports.

And finally we meet a third time to review, critique your successes and suggest improvements for future games.

See last year’s workshop.

And 2010’s workshop.

Valerie, one of our first graduates of this course now runs the Ottawa 67s fan blog and has produced two books on the Ottawa 67s.

Photographing Pro Hockey - Ottawa Photo Course

Join us for this chance of a lifetime:

January 28th: hockey prep, 10am-1pm

February 4th: Game Day, noon-6pm (approximately)

February 8th: Review & Critique, 6-9pm

Locations: Ottawa Studio Works and the J Benson Cartage Centre at Lansdowne Park.

Cost – $325 + taxes.

Join us for Photographing Pro Hockey!

#694 A big thanks and other things

Posted on October 13, 2011 by admin

It’s that time of the month when I thank our sponsors who help keep this blog and newsletter running.

Artopix, Patrick Gordon Framing and Dave Andrews have been with us from the beginning – THANKS! – we use their services, too.

Artopix - print services Gatineau & Ottawa

Patrick Gordon Framing - Ottawa

Dave Andrews - premium printing - Ottawa

In other news…

• We handed in that assignment about the Ottawa Rowing Club today. It was well received, I am pleased to say.

• I’ve finished much of the shooting for an art project based on the wanderings of a creek/stream/river that runs through park, residential properties, village and under a major highway. Watershed will be coming out in 2012. The project started many years ago when my dear dog Tigger needed some exercise and I wanted an adventure – so we decided to see where the little creek went.

• Friday’s Photography Round-up looks at a portrait of a member of the Dragon’s Den for iRun.ca and other local photographer’s work. The round-up hits the airwaves Friday afternoon.

#693 Upcoming Photo Classes in Ottawa and Gatineau

Posted on October 11, 2011 by admin

We’ve been updating our workshops and classes. Here’s a selection of what’s brewing:

See all of our upcoming workshops and events.

Night Light – is coming up fast – this weekend. Looks like one (maybe two) spots left.

Night Light Photo Class - Ottawa

Creative Business Seminar – for anyone curious about turning photo into a business. We delve into the kinds of things you won’t find in textbooks. First weekend in November.

Photography for Communications Professionals – Better workplace imagery, this workshop is geared for government and corporate communications departments.

Lightroom Seminar – get your heads wrapped around this industry standard editing software from Adobe. Run by veteran photographer and Lightroom expert, J David Andrews. November 19th.

Creative Fundamentals – our most popular workshop. Everyone can benefit from the fundamentals. January, 2012.

Natural Light Portraits – also very popular. Better people pictures. January, 2012.

To be announced very soon – Photographing Pro Hockey – Jan 28, Feb 4, Feb 8th. We get access to an Ottawa 67s game to shoot alongside media at ice level. Very fun!

Get close to the action - "Photographing pro hockey" photo course - Ottawa

See more workshops, safaris and events.

#692 Assignment Spotlight – Principal portraits

Posted on October 10, 2011 by admin

In September I photographed Vivian Bright, principal of Alta Vista Public School, for a Danish magazine.

I met with writer Dorthe Lundh to discuss the portrait – for the magazine skolelederne. It was nice to see the artwork produced primarily in Denmark – quite a different look. I needed to create some work that matched the style – including a light-hearted sense of fun not usually associated with school principals.

Ottawa editorial portrait

I shot two short sessions:

• the first was in the principals office to show the more academic side

Ottawa editorial portrait

• I chose the playground to show an alternate view.

Ottawa editorial portrait

Fun shoot.

Fun people.

Just plain fun.

#691 Ottawa

Posted on October 6, 2011 by admin

This summer I’ve been working on an assignment to cover the Ottawa Rowing Club for a fine magazine. It’s been a fun assignment – my only grumble was that rowers usually start their days at ‘far-too-early‘ o’clock… while I don’t enjoy early mornings I’ll do anything for a good photo.

Many visits, many good people and many motor boat rides chasing sleek, rowing shells have produced a body of work that will come out next spring or early summer. Stay tuned. I’ll keep you posted.

Ottawa Rowing Club

In other news, Canadian Geographic posted a piece featuring three Ottawa photographers – Tony Fouhse, David Trattles and Remi Theriault – written by Ottawa Magazine‘s Sarah Brown.

In it she says “In May, [David Trattles] held a show of portraits taken in communities across Canada as well as in India. Unfortunately, it was a one-night affair in a studio that packed in around 50 lucky souls.” Our Ottawa Studio Works hosted the lucky souls who got to see Dave’s show.

David Trattles at Ottawa Studio Works photo studio

David Trattles's photo exhibition at Ottawa Studio Works

All three photographers deserve a shout-out for their works.

#690 Do-It-Yourself Portraits – Review

Posted on October 4, 2011 by admin

Last week we had a visit from Andrea Tomkins and family – Andrea writes the popular blog – A Peek Inside the Fishbowl.

She brought her whole family, including Piper the dog, to try her hand at the Do-It-Yourself Portraits at our photo studio in central Ottawa.

DIY Portraits?

Yep, pretty easy actually. Bring your people and friendly dogs to our well equipped studio in central Ottawa, plug in your camera (or one of our rentals) to the preset studio lights and start clicking. By the end of the hour session you walk away with a memory card of memories and family portraits.

Book your session in time for Christmas card season – Just contact us. November and December dates will be posted soon.

After their session Andrea sent a note and some photos:

“Thank you! This was a great experience. I’m pleased with how the photos turned out and was really happy with the whole process from start to finish.”

And her DIY portraits? Well judge for yourself. (Ahem, we think she did very well!!):

Andrea Tomkins' DIY Portraits - Photo Studio - Ottawa

#689 Ottawa Farm Photo Safari

Posted on October 2, 2011 by admin

About a week ago we hosted the semi annual photo farm safari.

Ottawa Farm Photo Safari

We had near perfect weather and many smiles as we started with a warm up challenge and proposed tougher tests for those that wanted them. A big thanks to the Canada Agriculture Museum for making this safari possible!

Canada Agriculture Museum

Some photos from the safari are featured on this blog post. A big thanks to all the participants.

On the safari I learned of a very fun website from Debra – ShutterSisters.com is well worth a visit!

“ShutterSisters?”

Yep. They say ‘… the collaborative photo blog that welcomes all women with a passion for photography from experts to amateurs alike. We are so glad to have you here.‘

#688 Reader’s Photo of the Month Contest

Posted on September 29, 2011 by admin

Another month and another challenge to pick the top photo submitted to our monthly photo contest on our blog!

I sometimes feel bad because there are often a few that could run away with top spot. This month there were three that came very close. But there can only be one winner based on photo and supporting text.

And this month’s winner is…

Al Garner with his chrysalis of a Monarch butterfly.

Al Garner - Winner! - Ottawa photo contest

Al says:

“Each year in the late summer my wife, Cathy, likes to collect monarch caterpillars and the milkweed plants they feed on. We then watch as they eat and grow, eventually turn into achrysalis and later finally emerge as butterflies.

This summer we were at my aunt & uncle’s cottage when Cathy did her collecting. She collected 3 caterpillars and we watched them feeding while sitting on the deck. Then one “escaped” and we later discovered that it had moved to the outside wall of the cottage to make its chrysalis. I loved how it had attached itself right on a seam.

The long line of the seam leads your eye right to the amazing sight of the chrysalis hanging in space. I used a telephoto lens and extension tubes to get a close up view. The telephoto lens combined with a large aperture gave a thin slice of focus which helped to isolate the line of the seam and the chrysalis.”

Why did Al’s photo win? It’s a great photo with a good story and there was some significant thought and work that went into developing and capturing this photo. Congratulations Al!

Al wins a year’s subscription to Canadian Geographic Magazine. A big THANK-YOU!! to Canadian Geographic for their donation to the contest.

Canadian Geographic Magazine

Please keep your photos coming! It keeps me on my toes choosing the winner.

This month’s prize is a LowePro Nova 1 photo bag (suitable for an SLR camera and lens), courtesy of a couple of our readers – Andrew and Gwyn.

See all the winners. Keep clicking and submitting. Good luck!