I often get asked for help with flash. It’s a scary piece of equipment. It is!

Recently, I spent some time with a regular photo workshop student who wanted some help taming her flash. We spent a couple of hours learning and shooting. We started with some traditional portraits:

• overpowering available light with the flash to isolate the subject from the background
• balancing available light with flash

See Sandra’s success on her blog!

… And then we started whooping it up. I (yep, that’s me in the photo below) started dancing my own special dance – to mimic dancing at a wedding – for Sandra to capture with the help of her flash and the available light.  The photos below were shot in the same location as the photo on her blog.

Flash Photography

We learn some of these flash and available light techniques on Night Light. If you ask nicely I’ll even try to dance for your cameras… or not.

By the end of the night Sandra was smiling brightly. Yay Sandra!

More Flash Photo Fun

We finished Natural Light Portraits recently and are finishing Creative Fundamentals soon.

Photo Course Student

I am always happy to see the progression students make when I hear the light bulbs pop. We had students get over their fear of flash – a common ailment – and other photo obstacles common to new photographers.

Photo Course Success!

On Thursday David Trattles starts his ever popular Social Documnetary / Photojournalism workshop – he has consistently had students bending rules and smiling. The workshop is full and students are anticipating side splitting fun.

Our ‘Exposed!’ Photography Newsletter comes out next week and we are writing on exposure modes. Looking for other opinions I asked Christine Denis – maternity, newborn photographer and leader of our Photographing Your Children Workshop – what exposure mode she uses.

This workshop has new dates: October 5 (eve), 9 (day) and 12 (eve).

She was pretty direct (see below):

Photographing Your Children Workshop

“I shoot manual because I want complete control over what I capture with my camera.  I make the decisions – not the camera – on what part of the image will be exposed correctly and what type of motion will be captured.  The results are properly exposed images, with nice skin tones, and sharpness where I want it to be.

Shooting in manual also gives you the freedom to be as creative as your imagination will take you.  The photo above is an example of what I mean, my daughter is back lit, and off centered. I wanted a nice blurry background, so I set my aperture to 2.8, then took an exposure reading off her face and set the speed accordingly.  I didn’t mind that the rim of her hair was backlit, and the backgroud a little brighter – it was the effect I wanted. It would have been impossible to take this shot in Auto or Program mode.”

Yep, those are my sentiments! But this can be a hot topic. Look for the article next week.

Last week we visited the World Press Photo Exhibit at the War Museum in Ottawa. The show is now closed but if you are interested in photojournalism check these 3 links for upcoming photojournalism events or sites:

1. David Trattles Photojournalism and Social Documentary Workshop

September 23-26, 2010

This semi annual Ottawa based photojournalism and social documentary photo workshop has sold out every time it comes to Ottawa.

David produces award winning work for clients around the world and always has his students smiling, laughing and expanding their photo and story telling skills.

At time of posting only two spots remain. This will change without notice!

One past student said:

“Harry – thank you for introducing me to David.  This course has changed the way I take photographs.  More importantly it has changed the way I see myself and the world around me.  It’s not about WHAT we see in the world through the rectangular viewfinder but HOW we see the world.  My journey through photojournalism will begin with a smile and a hand shake, not the sound of a shutter. This is me.  This is what I want to do.””

Contact us to register for David Trattles Photojournalism and Social Documentary Workshop.

David Trattles with Jean Chretien

2. Hillside Summit

September, 2010

A fundraiser that supports photography in Canada. Blair Gable and Sue Bird sent me notice of this one. Thanks!

Hillside Summit is coming this fall, only 100 tickets available and all proceeds are going back in to the seminar, speakers and Tom’s Hanson’s photojournalism foundation.

The summit is being held at the National Press Theatre and the speakers are Jim Young of Reuters, Barb Davidson of LA times and Steve Simon Freelance in New york, they are all ex pats in the US working. Register through HillsideSummit.com

3. Editorial Photographers of the UK (EPUK)

I subscribe EPUK’s weekly photojournalism based email update – it keeps me linked to what is going on elsewhere in the world of working (photojournalism) photography.

Who are they?:

“EPUK is an email group for professional editorial photographers who want to talk business. We don’t do techie stuff or in-crowd gossip. We don’t talk cameras or computers. What we talk about are the nuts and bolts of being in business – like copyright, licensing, fees and insurance.”

This week’s post included:

1. “Facts v The Power to Move

Are photojournalists immunising the viewer to images of human
suffering by showing the facts of disaster too clearly?”

2. ” “The photographer has to become the brand”
Photo agencies Magnum and VII are devising new business strategies.”

3. “Current Showcase
Penal Colony Number One, Uzbekistan – Jeremy Nicholl, 2004”

Sign up at Epuk.org

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!