Pictures of the Year Feature Photo Win

April 26, 2010 | Filed Under Contest | Leave a Comment 

I won second place, for the photo above,  in the Feature category in the News Photographers Association of Canada’s Pictures of the Year competition. Results were announced Saturday in Toronto. You can see all the winners at the NPAC site . The photo shows a young ballet student making a face at herself while doing stretching exercises before a class. The girl at left is her twin sister.  I’m not really a ‘cute kid’ photographer but they seem to win awards for me. Last year I placed in the Suburban Newspapers of America competition for the photo below of a young boy checking to make sure he was saluting correctly during a memorial service.

Grant Writing Workshop With Donald Weber

April 25, 2010 | Filed Under Gallery & Workshop | Leave a Comment 

Spent Saturday learning about the ins and outs of the world of grants in another Luz Gallery sponsored workshop with Donald Weber.  It was all interesting and it was a busy and intense day with a great deal of information being offered. The bottom line though, is that like most things in life, there’s a lot of work and time involved in the process. Anyone looking for or expecting information that will result in a quick handout of cash would have been very disappointed.

There is the thought as well that if we’re all starting to pursue the grant world as an alternative to the disappearing editorial market, won’t the grant world become more of a challenge to access? It’s not like there are a huge amount of new grants appearing every year but more photgraphers are applying for the existing grants.

It’s all food for thought though and each photographer has to try and figure out how to blend all the elements of the photo world to make it work for them.

Drinking With Photographers

April 25, 2010 | Filed Under Personal Project, Photography | Leave a Comment 

One of the downsides of living in a smaller place is that you have a tendency to feel isolated from the rest of the world. This week Don Weber was in town for a couple of workshops and it was a nice reminder of the wider world out there.

Thursday night I met up with him and a couple of other local photographers at a local pub and we had one of those great freewheeling talks over a few drinks that left me buzzing with ideas at the end of the night.

Don and I were joined by Deddeda Stemler, Sean White (the two just back from three months in the Philippines) and Duane Prentice, all local photographers although Sean is also a videographer, filmaker, producer etc.

We chatted about the basic (equipment and cameras) , we talked about travel, we talked about technical things and format but most of all we just talked about ideas.  Everybody had different viewpoints  but it was all agreeable and thought provoking. I don’t really know Duane, this was the first time I had had a chance to chat with him and while he was quiet (compared to the rest of us) he had some interesting insights and thoughts about challenging yourself as a photographer.

The next day I took a look at Duane’s site and was struck by the connection between his Remnants project, David Pollocks’s Sign, Symbol and Nature and my own Saltwater And Rain project. There are, of course,  differences, for instance both David and Duane are using large format and I’m not. All are about Vancouver Island though and are concerned with the impact of landscape. It would be interesting to see a show with all of our work together.

Donald Weber – Workshop – Chernobyl, Russia and the VII Photo Agency

April 21, 2010 | Filed Under Featured, Gallery & Workshop | Leave a Comment 

Last weekend I attended a two day workshop presented by Luz Gallery with Toronto photographer Don Weber, a member of the VII agency. We had a diverse group of twelve workshoppers (if that’s a word). There was the legally blind Anglican minister, the woman who’d had Ansel Adams drop by her house when she was a child and critique her photos,  a philosophy professor who had just returned from a workshop with Mary Ellen Mark and the motorcycle riding government lawyer. The others were equally interesting. There was even a few of us pro photographers.

The first day focused on looking at various projects shot by Don as well as work by his fellow VII photographers and others. Don showed his Ukraine images including those from Chernobyl that are featured in his book Bastard Eden as well as images from Russia and other eastern countries. I’ve attended a fair number of lectures as well as short seminars but never a weekend workshop. Looking at it from the perspective of someone who teaches now and then I was impressed by the way Don was able to keep the day on track while allowing people to ask questions even if they were slightly off topic.

The second day we spent time looking at each other’s projects with Don doing an edit of our images. It’s always interesting ( and a good practice) to have someone else look over your images and provide feedback. Don was quite good at distilling everyone’s pile of images down to a select few.

I found the workshop allowed me to look at my own work with fresh eyes and perhaps seek a slightly different direction with a couple of projects. I was also extremely impressed with Don’s organization and his focus on his career. He appears to have a very solid understanding of where and how he wants to have his career advance and how to make that happen. That’s awfully rare I think,  so it was very useful to see it explained.

This coming Saturday I’ll be attending Don’s grant writing workshop and I’ll be looking forward to that and having the mysterious world of grants simplified.

I have to say that Luz Gallery’s Diana and Quinton’s hard work at promoting shows and putting on workshops like these have made Victoria a far more interesting place for photographers. A year ago there was simply no chance to spend a weekend with a photographer of the calibre of Don Weber.  Now we have someone coming in every few months, and sometimes weeks,  for a new show or workshop.

Creating Art Is More Than Just Technique

April 7, 2010 | Filed Under Gallery & Workshop, Online Learning, Photography | Leave a Comment 

I mentioned a few posts back that I’d attended a show opening and artist’s talk with Thomas Bartlett at Luz Gallery. All the images posted here are from the show.  Bartlett talked a bit about how he creates his images, he uses a digital camera and long exposures and focuses on common objects often in his house or in motel rooms when he travels. He won’t tell what the original objects are as he prefers to let the viewer use their imagination. It all sounds simple. point the camera, set it for a long exposure and let fly or at least move the camera around a lot.

It sounded so simple I thought I’d fool around with the techniques mentioned over the weekend and create some ‘Bartletts”. The reality is that like most art, technique is more than camera settings. I tried a variety of settings and focused on a number of objects but just ended up with a series of rather ugly smears none of which I’ll bore you with. I’ll obviously have to keep practicing and experimenting if I want to start creating images as arresting and colourful as those Bartlett creates. It’s a good lesson that we should all remember.

Easter Sunday East Sooke Park Hike

April 4, 2010 | Filed Under Landscape | Leave a Comment 

I went out with Spencer and Nick for an Easter Sunday hike through East Sooke Park.  It was the first time I’d hiked the park and it was a great way to build up an appetite for a big family turkey dinner. There were some pretty dark clouds hovering on the horizon but it stayed dry the whole time we were out which was a bonus but we did have to detour home after a tree fell across the road we’d driven in on.

Good Friday Walk with the Cross

April 4, 2010 | Filed Under Personal Project, Photography | Leave a Comment 

For more than a decade now I’ve been trying to get out on Good Friday and photograph the annual walks with a wooden cross that some churches do. It’s a project I call Weight of Faith. It’s an event that’s great for a photo project, visually the cross is an amazing symbol. It’s also a rare example of mainstream Christians  showing off their faith in public. I started the project while living in Calgary and have continued in Victoria.  This year there was a good turnout for the Christ Church Cathedral’s Good Friday Passion Procession despite rain showers and really heavy winds.

Thomas Bartlett – Transformations

April 1, 2010 | Filed Under Exhibition, Gallery & Workshop | Leave a Comment 

The Luz Gallery had an artist’s talk and opening for the work of Saskatchewan photographer Thomas Bartlett tonight. Bartlett works with digital cameras creating his abstract images, images that he likens to colour field paintings.