#678 Portrait People

Posted on September 6, 2011 by admin

My favourite style of portrait session is a casual portrait of people in their environment being themselves, allowing their own personality to unfold.

In August I provided portraits to C&J. I have worked for them before. It’s nice to have them back on the blog!

Two years ago when we did our first portrait session she told me it was their first ‘proper’ portrait since they were marriedsome years ago.

He often plays the part of a grumpy man but his smiling side shines if you know how to coax it. They’re wonderful people!:

Candid Portraits

#677 Student Success – photo class graduate Scott Martin

Posted on September 4, 2011 by admin

A couple of years ago I got a call from Scott Martin – he was interested in photography in a big way. After much hard work Scott graduated from our ProProgram and many of our photo classes.

His interests were in sports & music. After networking, shooting and putting in some time, Scott is starting to see his work pay off.

The Balconies - Scott Martin photo

He’s been following the local music scene for a few years now – posting news and photos to SpotlightOttawa.com – including coverage of Live 88.5‘s “Big Money Shot“. Scott’s photography caught the music station’s attention and his work is gracing their annual album cover for the Big Money Shot.

Read about Scott’s successes.

Big Money Shot cd cover

It always makes me smile to see our students succeed – Not bad for someone who started shooting in the last few years!

Interested in cranking up your photo learning curve like Scott?

See our fall line-up of photo workshops.

#676 Custom Photo Class – success

Posted on September 1, 2011 by admin

Recently we ran a Custom Photo Class in Ottawa for Sarah and two friends who were looking to learn the basics of digital photography.

We arranged the photo session and started dishing out the lessons from Creative Fundamentals, very gently at first and more challenging as the lessons were learned.

We started with the very basics, moved to exposure and then some advanced exposure:

Ottawa photo workshop - backlighting

Ottawa photo workshop - silhouettes

We played with depth of field – controlling blur with aperture:

Ottawa Photo Course - Blurring Backgrounds

And controlling blur using the shutter speed:

Ottawa Photo Course - Blurring Motion

We also learned the ideas of composition to tie it all together:

Ottawa Photo Class - composition

All in all these new photographers ended the photo class with some magnificent photos.

Not bad, eh?!

Creative Fundamentals usually runs three times a year – fall, winter and spring.

Our next group session starts next week.

Custom courses are available almost anytime…

What they said:

“We all had a great time on Friday. Thank you for a great course!

It was wonderful & exciting. I’ve always thought of myself as an impossible photographer. The course has left me with the confidence, patience & motivation to try and capture those photos I keep seeing. I appreciated your patience and the time you gave the three of us to ensure we understood.

We all raved about how lucky and grateful we were to have learnt from you, your knowledge & experience.”

from Sarah and friends, Aylmer + Wakefield. Custom Course – Creative Fundamentals

And thank-YOU, Sarah and friends, for the fun and for sharing your photos on our photo blog! Your comments make me blush!

#674 Reader’s Photo of the Month

Posted on August 29, 2011 by admin

On our photo blog we have been posting one of our reader’s photos each month selected from submissions from the Reader’s Photo of the Month contest.

This month we had more submissions than ever and it’s getting harder to select a winner.

The Winner

One photo kept coming out on top because of the creative thought that went into the process… This month’s winner is Erica McKay with an underwater portrait of her daughter, below.

Erica’s ethereal portrait is visually reminiscent of Millais’ “Ophelia”:

This month's winner of the "Reader's Photo of the Month" on the blog at HarryNowell.com

Erica’s comments:

“My eldest daughter has been resistant to me taking photos of her for the past couple of years, as she goes through the more awkward pre-teen stage. However, I’m beginning to discover that if she can be involved in the planning of the photos, sometimes she will get very excited to try out some new stuff.

Here, we were camping in Algonquin Park and she was happily swimming back and forth under the water so I could catch her motion. Then one time she came at me face up and it looked so neat we opted to play with that for a while. It was a fun morning of playing with photography, and discovering a way to get my eldest in front of the lens again!”

Why she won

What clinched the prize was Erica’s creative interpretation and process of a portrait. We were impressed! I often tell our ProProgrammers “Do something different!”

Need to inject some creative juices or get a creative kickstart? Consider our photo course: Creative Exploration through Photography with Dominique Larocque and Harry Nowell

The Prize

For her work Erica wins a free print from DaveAndrews.ca – Dave is a veteran printer who is sought by artists to produce prints that hang in the finest galleries in North America. Thanks Dave, for providing this month’s prize!

Dave Andrews - Ottawa photo printing

Next month we are offering a subscription to Canadian Geographic Magazine. And we are looking for more photos and the stories behind them. Keep them coming!

Canadian Geographic Magazine

What do you think of Erica’s photo? Comments please!

#673 Where’s Harry been?!

Posted on August 25, 2011 by admin

I usually post on the blog three times a week and, this week, we’re behind!!

I’d like to say that I’ve been on paddling a gorgeous stretch of whitewater or photographing an assignment in northwest Iceland or quietly relaxing.

New Web Host

But life has been quite normal – except that we’ve switched web hosts that meant we had no access to blog or email for a short time.

WHY?

We switched hosts because we were frustrated with our previous host. Support was poor and performance was lack-lustre.

We called locally based Mountain Mamma and asked if they could provide a better web hosting solution for our sites. They did.

So far…

… it’s been a smooth transition with Tanya and her crew keeping us up to date on the transfer. They answer the phone with people who know what’s going on. That’s been a nice change.

Thanks Mountain Mamma!

We’ll be back to regular blog programming next week…

#672 New Photo Classes in Ottawa

Posted on August 21, 2011 by admin

On Sunday we held a social for our Pro Program photo students. These students take photo classes, meet with me to track progress regularly and receive ongoing support by email and phone as they pursue their photography goals.

Stories, photos and support were shared over burgers at the BBQ. Smiles all around…

We have also lined up two new photo classes with J David Andrews, below.

• Post Processing with Adobe Lightroom – Adobe Lightroom is the leading software for processing large sets of digital files quickly, easily and effectively.

Saturday, November 19, 2011; 1-5pm

$100 + taxes

Learn how to:

streamline your photography workflow
organize your photo collection into a searchable database
process your digital files

• Scanning Film and Prints to Digitize your Archive. Many people have thousands of slides, negatives and prints that are becoming forgotten memories because they are not accessible digitally.

Sunday, November 20, 2011; 1-4pm

$75 + taxes

In this photo class learn how to:

Store, handle and view your original photographs properly
Quickly setup and calibrate your scanner and computer monitor
Set optimum scan resolution, dust & scratch filters and other parameters
Use image histograms to accurately evaluate final scan quality
Create and use presets to import, adjust, and label the images
Apply image tags, keywords and even GPS data to create an enhanced searchable library
Quickly modify colour balance, repair faded images and reduce noise
Organize your digital images quickly and logically
Safely backup your photo library and image catalogs.

Who is J David Andrews? What does he know about Lightroom and Scanning?!

J David Andrews is a commercial stock photographer. His photo have been published around the world by clients such as Volkswagen, Canada Post and Canadian Geographic. His work has been featured on Canada Post stamps.

He is the author and photographer of the popular coffee table book, Gatineau Park: An Intimate Portrait as well as the principal photographer of the national bestselling book The Forests of Canada.

J David Andrews book - Gatineau Park - An Intimate Portrait

David and Lightroom

David has been using Lightroom since it’s introduction in 1997 to complement his workflow with Photoshop. David provides his processed stock imagery to one of the leading stock agencies in the world. Masterfile has notoriously high standards for image quality. It is through meeting Masterfile’s tough standards (and many early file rejections!) that David learned to process with Lightroom for the toughest clients in the world.

David and Scanning

His scanning experience comes from many years of providing photo work to one of the world’s leading stock agencies and providing an elite scanning and archiving service to his clients.

We’re lucky to offer the expertise David offers! Contact us to register for either or both courses.

#671 Photo Exhibition Success

Posted on August 19, 2011 by admin

Tonight at the photo studio we hosted a photo exhibition by Ottawa photographer Blair Gable after a visit to the World Press Photo of the Year Exhibit at the War Museum.

Blair Gable photojournalism presentation and photo exhibition

We had a packed house with people in the back hall and lobby craning necks to see Blair present recent photojournalism work including photos of Stephen Harper, the Queen, Obama, Ferraris and other excitement.

Blair Gable photojournalism presentation and photo exhibition

Approximately 60 people passed through the studio over the evening. Many questions and smiles ensued.

Guests included other photographers, past workshop students, hobby photographers and one very cute dog. Some of the guests included:

Ashley Fraser – news photographer
David Kawai – news photographer
Dave Andrews – printer. Not to be confused with…
J David Andrews – stock & landscape photographer
Steven Darby – staff photographer at the Museum of Civilization
Younes Bounhar – travel and landscape photographer

… and many others.

Ashley Fraser - News Photographer

The show & presentation was one night only however the show remains hanging in the studio for at least a couple of weeks – if you missed it a viewing can be arranged – just let us know.

Blair Gable - photojournalism presentation

photojournalism presentation and exhibition

A big thanks to Blair and everyone that made the event a success!

photojournalism presentation and exhibition

photojournalism presentation and photo exhibition

#670 Assignment Spotlight – Stock

Posted on August 16, 2011 by admin

About a month ago we spent an afternoon with campers and counsellors at Westboro Academy’s Summer Camp. Some of our previous work for them has appeared on our photo blog before.

Stock photo assignment - Ottawa

A couple of year’s ago Ottawa’s Westboro Academy recognized the need for better visuals on their website – we were asked to start producing a library of stock photos to replace their older imagery – some older photos still appear on the site – we’re working on replacing them as time progresses!

Stock photography assignment - Ottawa

We had good weather and accommodating campers to provide the fun for our latest crop of work.

Stock photo assignment - Ottawa

A stock assignment is an affordable way for our clients to get personalized imagery for promotion – ie with their people and locations featured.

#659 Photojournalism Presentation in Ottawa

Posted on August 14, 2011 by admin

We’ve been mentioning this on our photo blog recently but it’s coming up fast…

Ottawa photojournalist, Blair Gable, is presenting work from the last ten years – from chasing Ferraris to following royalty.

Details

This Thursday, August 18th, he’ll be at our photo studio at 160 Preston St. – OttawaStudioWorks.com from 8pm till we’re done. Before his show we’ll be visiting the World Press Photo of the Year Exhibit at the Canadian War Museum at 6:30pm.

The exhibit at the War Museum is free. For Blair’s presentation we’re suggesting a $10 donation.

What he’s talking about

Blair will be showing some of his work and discussing different facets of photojournalism – from what you see at the World Press Exhibition to the kinds of work that are done locally. He’ll be showing and discussing stories from his career including a recent shoot where he photographed $100 million worth of Ferraris in a day.

Join us this Thursday at 160 Preston St – 8pm for Blair’s presentation and if you can make the group visit to the World Press Exhibition we meet at the main entrance of the War Museum at 6:30pm.

More info…

RSVP appreciated

Blair Gable - Ottawa photojournalist - with Chief of Defense Staff