I was working with a portrait client this evening when he took my camera and turned it on me!
He pointed and shot to produce a pretty fun photo:
Portrait by Client!
#512 Shot by Portrait Client!
Tag Archives: photo
#510 More Executive Portraits
Yesterday we shot some executive portraits for a firm that could be classified as ‘environmental portraits.’
Truth be told, I used to think an environmental portrait was a portrait done to promote or show off a green attribute. Silly me… An environmental portrait is “executed in the subject’s usual environment“:
Executive Portrait - Ottawa
… as opposed to a portrait in a studio:
Executive Portrait - Ottawa
Yesterday’s portraits (coming soon) were environmental as they captured the exec’s in an environment they like to be as well as promoted the environmental side of their business.
Stay tuned for a sample of yesterday’s work.
Next week we will be teaching more about ‘environmental portraits’ on our Natural Light Portraits Photo Course.
#507 Exposed! Photo Newsletter
August’s photography newsletter went out to most recipients today.
This week we explored the idea of Opportunistic Light:
“Recently I was away on a photo hunt – expanding my base of stock and photo based art while experimenting and trying new techniques. My tools were mostly simple – cameras, lenses and the sun as my main light source.
I started shooting at what I call “Far Too Early!” to capture golden light and stillness. As I was crawling around investigating a garden I stumbled upon a momentarily backlit situation behind a beautiful thistle, below. Working quickly I captured a decent shot that was only available ten minutes a day for perhaps two weeks a year.
Opportunistic photo lighting
While we sometimes use manufactured lighting – strobes, reflectors – there is always an opportunity to discover simple and magical “opportunistic lighting.”
In this edition of Exposed! we explore where to find the special light and how to discover the magic.“
#506 More student successes
Recently, two separate students happily announced their successes in recent contests. I was very proud!
Join me in cheering for them below:
• Hagen Hohn, part of our ProProgram, won third place in Outdoor Photography Canada’s recent Spring 2010 Photo competition. And the photo (below) will be published in the next edition. Yay, Hagen!
© Hagen Hohn
• Michelle Tardiff, who is a proud graduate of our photo courses was bursting with news. She says:
“It is with great surprise that I would like to inform you that one of my photographs was published in the Emerging Photographers issue of Photolife (Aug/Sept 2010 – page 40).
Thank you for coaching and mentoring me in photography.”
Yay team!
#505 Executive Portraits
I have been a little negligent showing some current work!
Recently, we shot a whole office of executives and support staff to promote their business. The session went well.
A peculiar thing happened: while setting up I found that two of the 12 staff had shot a hole-in-one. I was amazed! That’s 16% of the whole office – far higher than average. I was dealing with an exceptional group!
Executive Portrait Ottawa
Executive Portrait Ottawa
#503 Student Success
I saw some work of Nathalie Madore – ProProgram graduate who took many of our photo courses over her year. I was so impressed with her progress I asked her to share some photos and her experience for the blog.
Nathalie contacted me in late winter 2009 about the ProProgram and started with some basic skills and basic photos. She worked hard and her photos developed very nicely as did her business sense.
Read her take on her recent work at the Quebec Games or jeux du Québec.
“It has been a great experience so far to shoot pictures for the e-magazine SDV*mag. Les jeux du Québec is a provincial competition every year and Gatineau is the host city this year.
I received a media pass through SDV and I am enjoying every minute of the games… even if the days starts very early and finish late at night. During the day I shoot at different locations and download, post process and write a small article for the magazine.
I am developing a new way to present sport based on my vision. Being a sport person helps me – I know what to look for. I have also met lots of contacts that help me get better shots. So far I love my experience and would do it again. I cover the event until Friday then REST!
Nat ”
Nice work Nat!
© Nat Madore - jeux du Quebec
© Nat Madore - jeux du Quebec
#501 Preston Project
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
#499 Power of the web
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!
#497 Exposed! Newsletter: The Lonely Tripod
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
#496 Prototype Film Workshop
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