#1102 New Directions – Education

Posted on December 23, 2014 by admin

Merry Christmas and Happy Holidays to all those celebrating.
We’ll be laying low over the winter break. Catching up, settling in and skiing!

It’s been a big year at HarryNowell.com that started on New Year’s Eve, 2013.

Last New Year’s Eve I was inspired by a friend to apply to Teacher’s College. I had applied twice before in the 1990s. This time they let me in.

I’m halfway through Ottawa U’s Primary/Junior Bachelor of Education. Their On-SIte Program condenses six months of lectures into two and a half months and allows for a six month practical placement working directly in a classroom.

I’ve just spent three months working in a Kindergarten / Grade One classroom in a central Ottawa school. Our class has students from Burma, China, Russia, Hungary, Bosnia, Iran, Pakistan, Australia, South Sudan, Ethiopia, Somalia, Mexico, far-northern Canada. It’s a diverse, challenging and amazing class.

Teaching in the primary grades attracts me because I get to teach more than math and language – I get to help little ones develop as people using drama, arts and engaged play based learning. I love it – where else can you get so much impact dressing up as Captain Barnacle, the pirate, to teach about number sense & counting coins with treasure? The students gobbled up the lesson.

I’ve always loved teaching – it’s been a big part of my business for the past 20 years. Teacher’s College is a good next step for me. My marks from the lecture hall have been… excellent. My classroom evaluations have been… excellent. I feel very fortunate to have met such good people this fall!

I start in a new Grade Six classroom with a similar demographic in January. I’m excited.

And I’m excited about my new direction. Seeing the possibilities available in traditional teaching has me smiling.

Harry teaching

“But what about photography?”
The business will continue as Harry Nowell Photography and I will continue aspects of the business that I enjoy. I’ll continue to offer a few workshops, some stock assignments, some editorial and interesting artwork related to Watershed, SunStreaks and the big camera.

Thanks for your support over the years.
I can’t wait for 2015!

#1097 Take Control of your Digital Assets – Workshop with Colin Rowe

Posted on September 23, 2014 by admin

In our photo course for Communications Professionals we offer a crash course to help people take better workplace photos. We briefly introduce the idea of archiving their organization’s photos and other digital media.

In the course I suggest an ideal scenario where all of an organization’s photos are centralized, appropriately key-worded and accessible to staff.

I usually get blank stares.
The task of finding, organizing and setting up such a system can feel overwhelming.

There is help!
Colin Rowe, event and commercial photographer, also runs Archi-Media.ca to help large organizations make sense of their photos and digital assets.

Managing Digital Assets Workshop
Colin has just launched a timely Digital Assets Course to help you how to take control of your organization’s inventory of digital assets (images, videos, logos, design files and documents) quickly and effectively, while saving time and money.

Archi-Media reception

Course Agenda
Over the course of the day you will:
• organize your current inventory of digital assets
• properly name files and folder structures
• organize your model and talent releases effectively
• non-destructively edit your current inventory of assets, with your team’s help
• create metadata for tagging these assets, in a new or existing digital asset management system
• decide which metadata are important, manage current incomplete metadata and create a controlled vocabulary for your organization
• determine which internal policies your clients are using, and the issues and legal considerations that affect those policies
• assess and use digital asset management systems

Course Details
October 28th, 2014.
$685 + HST
Location: Central Ottawa
To register contact Colin at colin@archi-media.ca or 613-277-7693.

More information (links to Colin Rowe’s site)

#1091 Student Success – Online Photo Program

Posted on July 28, 2014 by admin

In July we offered our Online Photo Members a different challenge.

We said they could shoot:
• anything
• anyhow
• anywhere
… as long as this month’s photos were all within a 12 foot radius (ideally) centred around their back door.

I thought they might say:
“But there’ll be nothing to shoot!”
“Boring!”
“What about something adventurous?”

But they didn’t!
They got shooting and one member said:
“I had a blast with this month’s challenge!”

It’s harder than you’d imagine. A whole month of shooting within 452.29 square feet will stump even the most creative photographer. And that was the point.

We offered creative catalysts and ideas to bust through blocks interfering with their creative potential.

And their month’s efforts made me smile. Sounds like it made them smile, too:
“I must say that when I first heard your challenge for this month I just went brain dead. I live 22 stories up in a building with a 6ft wide balcony and I wasn’t sure what I was going to do. But I surprised myself once I got started…”

Congratulations, everyone!

#1088 Online Photo Program – Photographing Water – Member Results!

Posted on July 13, 2014 by admin

Last month I presented our Online Photo Members the challenge of photographing water. We presented some technical tips and a broad suggestion of what was possible within the realm of water photography.

“It is an amazing program and I have learned so much from it and from you.”
CP

I thought most people would photograph rivers and waterfalls.

I was happy to see that, while we had some (excellent) rivers and waterfalls, people pushed themselves to photograph water in many different ways including bursting water balloons!!

“… thank you for all the instruction and encouragement from the online program for the past year plus that I’ve been a member.” LR

“I’ve learned so much in the short time that I have taken part.” JS

Members make me smile – I’m proud of them all!
I’ve seen excellent shots and excellent growth in skills!

#1086 Summer Urban Photo Safaris

Posted on July 6, 2014 by admin

Summer is here and it’s time for shooting.

Join one of our two summer photo safaris:
• For all skill levels – we’ll challenge everyone at their level.
• Meet photo enthusiasts.
• Discover fun photo locations and new techniques.

Each night we pull photo exercises from years of photo workshops in Ottawa and Gatineau. We shoot at different locations each evening.

Two dates in July, 2014 – cost is $75 plus tax…
Join us…

Jon us – urban photo safari in Ottawa

#1084 Student Success…

Posted on June 26, 2014 by admin

I’ve been teaching photography for 14 years.
It’s always rewarding to see people develop and grow photographically and otherwise over the years.

Recently Jeffrey Furry offered a selection of work he shot over a year in one of our programs – we offered a new challenge every month with support and critique.

For the whole year Jeffrey worked hard to include an Inukshuk for every challenge. See his photos and comments below!

Jeffrey says:
“I’ve been a member of the Harry Nowell on-line program since its inception. Without intending to, I used an Inukshuk for 12 consecutive challenges. With the exception of two, all were a 20cm tall high Inuksuk I received as a free gift from a landscaping company that made a handy prop for the various challenges. The 12 photos below give a good overview of the variety of challenges we are given in the on-line program.

Exposed for the Inushuk which was in full shade. This was the first shot using the Inukshuk. Saw the perfect light for the monthly challenge in my backyard so grabbed the first subject that was handy…

© Jeffrey Furry Challenge - Backlighting - "overexpose the background to help bring attention to the foreground."

Similar conditions as the backlit photo but exposed for the Inushuk which was in full shade.

A bit of a stretch to include the Inushuk for a festive theme! Shot at F22 to maximize the star burst effect.

Our challenge was to photograph something white (and get a correct exposure!) I decided to photograph the shadow of the Inukshuk against the snow!

© Jeffrey Furry Challenge - Simple Studio Lighting - "creating lighting scenarios using lights you already have at home."

Used two Ikea LED reading lights, one behind and below, the other immediately behind the Inukshuk “head” Blue light on front is from my smartphone.

Shot from the hip, no viewfinder.

Brought the Inukshuk to a small stream behind my house. Awkward location for my tripod, so forced to shoot at 1/sec braced as best as possible.

Dragged the Inukshuk to a rushing section of the Gatineau River. Would have preferred a slightly faster shutter speed to freeze the water even more.

Used a different Inukshuk this month, my neighbour’s cat on a large Inukshuk on their front lawn.

For this month, I spent the morning shooting the staff at a local bike shop. Just to keep with the Inukshuk theme, I grabbed this quick shot of the Inukshuk in front of the store.

Spent an evening shooting the Inukshuk from various angles with different focal lengths. Took about 70 different shots, this was my favourite, the second shot of the evening.

Shot a few dozens identical shots during different times of day. This shot was early evening with the sun setting behind the Inukshuk. All shot from my deck with the Inushuk placed on a small step ladder to try and get a cleaner background.”

Nice work Jeffrey!
Thanks for sharing a year of your photo learning with HarryNowell.com!

#1079 Online Photo Class – May’s challenge

Posted on June 8, 2014 by admin

Last month we brought our online program the challenge of getting very, very close to their subjects.

With new spring flowers bursting from winter’s depths online members got their camera’s clicking. But members captured more than just blossoms!

What members said:
“I loved this challenge (my fave) and I found what I love to shoot the most (I think!)
Your on-line program is absolutely great and I have to say I have learned the most from it because of the different challenges and just the way you teach it.
Thanks for your inspiration and sharing your expert knowledge. You get us out of our comfort zone for sure.” CP

“What a fun challenge! I have always wanted to try and get a shot of a field of dandelions and could never figure out how, but I finally got one thanks to this challenge.” JS

I’ve been teaching photography for almost 15 years and I never get tired of seeing people grow!
Thanks for the fun!

#1078 Student Success!

Posted on June 5, 2014 by admin

This week we were very pleased to hear from long-time photo student, Al Garner.

Al won a contest hosted by Darwin Wiggett‘s Oopoomoo!

Darwin is a well known stock photographer and photo educator from Alberta.

I was very excited. Al took his first photo workshop with us many, many years ago. He had some good photos for a beginner but, erm, had lots to learn.

Over the next ten years Al took many of our courses – some twice! Steadily Al gained valuable skills and confidence that helped him create beautiful work.

Al says:
“Hi Folks: Something pretty exciting for me has happened. The website oopoomoo.com, which is run by Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou ran a contest. I submitted a photo and to my surprise and delight it was chosen as one of three winners. The other two shots are amazing so be included with them is really nice.

PS special thanks to Harry for all the help and encouragement over many years!

Al”

See Al’s winning photo and the other two winners at Oopoomoo…

Congratulations Al!
I’m proud of you!

#1076 Big Film Photo Workshop

Posted on May 29, 2014 by admin

People keep asking… so we’re offering a workshop for people who want a challenge beyond the DSLR.

Join us this summer as we introduce different large formats to the group while exploring a couple of locations from my Watershed Collection which involves 20 kilometres of exploring a waterway.

Large Format Photo Workshop

For the last 22 years I’ve worked as a photographer. It’s only since 2007 that I have owned a digital cameras…. the early ones were terrible (technically) and I held out as long as I could. I’m now happy with current available digital equipment but still have a passion for film.

I’ve owned and shot many formats including:
• 18x24mm (half framer)
• 35mm (standard SLR format)
• 6×7 cm
• 24×50 mm (panoramic)
• 4×5 inch (large format)
• 8×10 inch (large format)

8×10 Large format – photographing Watershed

There are many reasons to shooting film and big formats:
• a new (or old) challenge – Think you’re a good photographer? Can you capture a technical shot with one click and no preview?!
• large file sizes
• tangible archival back-up material
• slow process
• There’s been a renaissance in film!

Dates – July 17 (eve), 19, 20, 24 (eve), 2014

Locations – Ottawa Studio Works (central Ottawa) & Chelsea Watershed (just north of Ottawa.)

Cost: $375 + taxes

Click here for more information and online registration.

From the home made 8×10 camera

#1071 Advanced Fundamentals – Photo Class Review

Posted on May 8, 2014 by admin

Last weekend we ran Advanced Fundamentals – a photo course designed to take people beyond the basics of “manual exposure mode” that we cover in Creative Fundamentals.

The idea of the workshop is push people’s skills beyond their comfort levels… just a bit.

We offered:
• traditional exercises to help with composition, perspective
• unusual tasks to make participants think (and shoot) differently
• advanced challenges dealing with light, shape and form

Advanced Challenges… How is the background (metal bars above) blurred and the portrait subject sharp? (It’s not done in post processing!) © AGarner

All in all, it was a productive weekend. We dodged the rain retreating into some underground and covered secret spots I’ve discovered over the years.

Enough from me…
Students said:

“I would happily recommend – urge – anyone interested in improving their photography to take one of your workshops.”

“Harry is very attentive to the student needs and is always available to help and answer questions – The course took me out of my comfort zone… that is good.”

“Thanks again for a fun Creative Fundamentals 2 workshop. It was very helpful and it enriched my photographic knowledge beyond what I expected.”