We are ‘warming up the press’ as our latest e-Newsletter – ‘Exposed!’ will be coming out this week. Want to receive it? You can sign up, above right.
This month we will be offering gift buying tips for the photographer in your life.
Stay tuned…
Harry
A couple of years ago I was asked to provide a full page portrait for Ottawa Magazine of Gisele Mansfield, an Ottawa based woman who was part of the team of Kilimanjaro Grannies who were climbing Tanzania’s Mt Kilimanjaro in support of African Grandmothers.
It was an amazing adventure.
Ottawa Magazine photo assignment - Kilimanjaro Grannies
I often hear from people I photograph over the years and I recently heard the exciting news that the Kilimanjaro Grannies have produced a book to support African Grandmothers.
See Gisele’s note below.
Yay Grannies!!
“It’s been two years since our return from Africa and the slopes of Mount Kilimanjaro. Since then we have been on another journey, putting to paper a collection of our favourite photos accompanied with innermost fears, joys and thoughts about the climb, our inspiration – the cause that we are working so hard for.
We are so excited that in less than a month our book will finally be available for your viewing pleasure. At only $24.95 it is the perfect gift to yourself, a family member or a friend.
Most of the funds raised from the sale of the book will be going to support the African Grandmothers through the Stephen Lewis Foundation. However, $2 of each book sale will go directly to the Snowy Owl AIDS Foundation of Ottawa to help them build Camp Wendake of Eastern Ontario.
We are also in need of your support to cover the publishing and marketing costs. We would welcome any pledges of financial support.
We hope that you will be able to join us at our official launch to pick up your signed copies. Please share this invitation with your friends… we would love to see a “standing room” only crowd.
Sincerely and with our heartfelt appreciation,
The Kilimanjaro Grannies
Gisèle, Liza, Barb, Janet, Tina and Trudy “
Often, when we get asked to do portraits they are done casually.
Instead of posing we walk.
We leave lights and reflectors in the office and use sun, shade and diffused light. I ask them to tell stories from their past. Eyes sparkle as memories unfold.
We wander. I capture.
It’s not the quickest way to a portrait but it’s fun and I draw smiles from their souls.
Some smiles:
Candid Portraits
Candid Portraits
Candid Portraits
Harry
Last week was a busy one. It included:
Photography for Communications Professionals was an all day session on Wednesday hosted at the National Gallery in Ottawa.
Photographing Events for Communications Departments - Ottawa
It’s a day of practical and classroom learning from photo fundamentals, use of flash, covering speeches and events as well as technical photo elements (file types, colour consistency, white balance, etc) and other considerations (consent forms, usage, copyright and archiving issues, etc.)
Photographing Events for Communications Departments
Students said:
“Excellent. Adapts really well to everyone’s level of experience and equipment.”
“Worth recommending to other amateur communications photogs.”
The class was full (eight students) and we have inquiries for the next session on May 24th, 2010.
The Creative Business Seminar was a two day session covering direction for people starting a new business in creative fields. We had 10 participants that created lively discussions and shared experiences from many different people.
Saturday covered elements of business from understanding and evaluating our own strengths to psychology of selling to exercises to develop skills. Sunday took an in depth look at the world of web opportunities.
We’d like to thank the Council for the Arts – Ottawa for their support! The weekend went well. Students said:
“Motivating, stimulating, informative.”
“A great opportunity to learn the basics of starting a creative based business.”
One of the participants wrote a review of the weekend and posted a photo.
Last week we ran a portrait workshop for a mother and daughter and brought in two models – a mother and daughter! The session was a Custom Course based on our Natural Light Portraits coming up in January.
Custom Photo Course - Portraits
Custom Photo Course - Portraits
One of the mothers sent a message today: “We had a wonderful experience on Friday. I’m looking forward to having my photos critiqued.”
Custom Photo Course - Portraits
There were many smiles and fine photos. Shown here is a selection we shot of everyone hard at work! – Posted with permission.
Custom Photo Course - Ottawa
Custom Photo Course - Ottawa
The adult model is in our ProProgram. We often ask students to model as they learn about portraits from the perspective of the subject. It’s a valuable experience being at the other end of the camera.
One of our Pro Program students, Nathalie Madore, launched her new photo website and blog on Sunday. She presented the site at the Creative Business Seminar over the weekend. Her site:
has been under development all fall and benefits from influences of different people.
Nathalie Madore self portrait
Have a look, send her some encouragement and follow her path as she develops in the world of working photography.
Félicitations, Nat!
Remember we told you about the blog troubles that plagued us for ten days? And there was some web infiltration too? We seem to have patched the holes and be cruising at full speed.
So what happened?
Here is a good article about what happened to our site.
It was a widespread hack of websites first discovered in May of this year and named Gumblar. There has been a recent resurgence.
Gumblar steals ftp info and uses that to inject malicious code into sites. (We’re not entirely sure why — either just to be generally disruptive or to scam google adwords.)
The code isn’t the same every time, so it’s hard to detect. In May, people were saying it had infected 60,000-200,000 sites. The latest strain is harder to detect, but that could mean it’s more widespread.
Tricky, disruptive and not very fun for us at Harry, Inc!
Thank-you for your patience!!!
I recently heard from the editors at Lightstalking.com. They have some light hearted photo reading. Have a look at Lightstalking.com
I also got an email from Lois about a Guardian Newspaper web page with a video clip of photographer Terry O’Neill’s tales of capturing his famous photo of Bridgette Bardot. Worth a look… Thanks Lois!
H
One of our ProProgram students has a new blog that will document her journey learning the many facets of photography.
Follow Lou’s path to proficient photography. Send some encouragement and see what she’s up to.
Below is her self portrait:
Lou Truss' Ottawa photo blog
It will be a busy week:
• Wednesday we are running the Photography for Communications Professionals. It sold out a while ago and have already posted dates for March.
Photography for Communications Professionals
• I will be editing a portrait session for a couple shot last weekend. It’s their first official portrait session in 40 years.
• Friday morning is a Custom Course for two women based on Natural Light Portraits. There will be portraits of youngsters!
Portrait Photo Workshop Ottawa
• This weekend we will be hosting the Creative Business Seminar on Saturday and Sunday. So far we have a good turnout.
• Next week “On Assignment with Andrew Balfour” starts on Thursday. Andrew will be leading photographers through a studio based lighting assignment. Spots are still available.
On Assignment with Andrew Balfour Photo Workshop Ottawa