This past weekend we had absolutely picture perfect weather for my Ottawa Landscape Photography Workshop. When I think of Ottawa, the first thing that comes to mind isn’t majestic mountains or stunning seascapes, we just don’t have that type of scenery. However, what we do have is what I call intimate scenic landscapes. Here are a few:
New York City
I have just finished posting the Participant Web Sites for the following workshops:
I enjoy all types of photography even the challenge of wedding photography. Here are a couple of photos from some of the weddings that I have photographed.
Ruba and Paul’s Wedding
Melanie and Marco’s Wedding
Valerie and Dave’s Wedding
Luisa and Dean’s Wedding
Last week I posted two comparison photo sets (below) on my Facebook page and asked, Photograph or Painterly – What’s your Preference?
Asking a group of photographers what their preference is probably isn’t the most scientific way to go about getting an honest opinion, but surprising enough, there were quite a few that did admit to liking the painting image more. But it depended on the image. For the first set, the blue domed church in Santorini, almost everyone preferred the photograph. The general opinion was that find the detail in the roof was too blown out in the painting.
For the second set, the harbour scene in Mykonos, the decision was much tougher for everyone. The decision was split between liking both the photo and the painting. With the final result being slightly in favour of the painting.
What this test did was to confirm that photographers, like everyone else (normal people), are open to different interpretations of visual art.
What’s your Preference?
Last week, one of the participants who is going on my France workshop in September asked my advice regarding buying a lighter weight tripod, something similar to what she is already using (Manfrotto #055XB Classic). The obvious choice would be the Manfrotto 055CXPRO4 Carbon Fiber. But where she should buy is another question.
Since she lives in Canada, I thought I would give her the link to Henry’s (which is the largest Canadian photo retailer) web site for the tripod. At Henry’s the tripod costs $629.99 As a comparison I also checked the price at B&H Photo in NY, it is several hundred dollars less, costing only $359.95 for exactly the same tripod. Now while I am a patriotic Canadian and believe in supporting local businesses, this is just crazy! That’s a savings of $270.
Sometimes, well most of the time, having anything shipped from the US to Canada can cost a lot of money. But B&H will ship this tripod for free anywhere in the US, so the solution is to use a company like MyUSAddress and for $5.00 she can have the tripod shipped there. Since 95% of the Canadian population live just about an hour’s drive North of the US border, I know where I would buy this tripod.
UPDATE: This post received 17 comments on my Facebook page. Everyone, including myself , feels strongly about supporting and buying from Canadian suppliers, and don’t mind spending a little more but once it gets to 30 or 40 percent it gets a bit ridiculous.
One of my friends who works for Henry’s, looked into the pricing with the Canadian supplier for Manfrotto tripods. Apparently the supplier pays more for that particular tripod than B&H sells it for. An interesting side note is that the day after this article was posted, B&H raised the price of this tripod by nearly $100.00 and Henry’s have lowered the price by $30.00
Here are a couple of photos that I took (created) on this past weekend’s field trips during the Ottawa spring photography workshop. This coming weekend should be the peak of the tulip blossoms in Commissioner’s Park, along with the accompanying hordes of tourists.
These abstract impressionist photographs are from a series that I created in the studio for a private one-on-one workshop photography class. To make these images, there is no camera or subject movement or multiple exposures or any trickery involved, it is just photographing exactly what was there. But what exactly am I photographing?
Buckingham Palace, London, England
The Royal Wedding this Friday will be one of the most watched events in recent history. An estimated 500,000 people are expected to head to London to watch the royal event of the year as Prince William marries Kate Middleton. While an estimated 2 billion people will watch the wedding on TV or online.
Tania
Today’s Studio Portrait Photography Workshop was a great success. Special thanks to Tania our model, who kept smiling throughout all the different lighting set ups and background changes.
The KISS Principle
This weekend I will be conducting a studio portrait and lighting photo workshop. (Details Here) Topics that we will cover are: demonstrating various lighting techniques, directing and posing the model, shooting and effective post-processing.
This summer we are planning several location model shoots. Email to be added to the mailing list for these upcoming workshops.