Photo Studio Open Hours

Ottawa Studio Works will be opening doors to the public again next week:

Monday, January 23rd; 6-8pm.
Tuesday, January 31st; 6-8pm.

Come by to see the artwork, ask about workshops or enquire about hiring a photographer.

Ottawa photo studio

Photo Newsletter Video Feedback

Last week we posted our first video through our Exposed! photo newsletter. It was called Rise and Tilt, featuring a way to get a cleaner background in your photos.

The video happened because a colleague – cartoonist and videographer Paul Mason – had been urging me to do a video for over a year. I procrastinated and he persisted.

Late last year we pulled it together and launched the first video. The response was great. Web stats spiked. Comments came in:

“Great stuff Harry! I burst laughing when I saw your “fight” with the cardboard TV. Very funny!”

Readership was up and I had way more fun producing the video than solely writing the newsletter. We have a second related newsletter lined up – look for it in the next few months.

Big thanks go out to Jess and Joel for acting, Ian Tamblyn for supplying the music and  Paul Mason for persisting! And thanks to you for reading/watching!

Paul Mason

Sooo, we just got back from Toronto on a mini vacation – few days of leisure to charge the batteries.

What did we do?

There was some professional development and a few photo worthy items for the photo blog:

• iPad at the ROM

We visited the Royal Ontario Museum where we saw medieval armour, many animals and David Hockney’s iPad/iPhone exhibition that is pushing the art medium forward. The most interesting part of his exhibition for me was to see what people are doing with new technologies.

• Centre Island Visit

We met an old friend for lunch and he suggested going to Centre Island for a walk and coffee. I haven’t been there since maybe 1978 and wasn’t sure what to expect. It was perfect fall weather and as day turned to dusk the whole of Toronto started to light up like our annual fall Night Light Photo Workshop. It was stunning. I’d show you the photos except I didn’t take any (I was with family and friends and had no camera)! I LOVED the spectacle and would love to go back with the sole purpose to shoot.

• Toronto Skyline

I visited the roof top deck of our hotel and saw potential for a stunning series of  shots similar to the the variations photo in a recent Exposed! photo newsletter – but, sigh, I didn’t even bring a tripod.

Although I’d love to have shot the spectacle (and found a market for the work) sometimes recognizing the potential and the desire to shoot is a good reminder that I still love what I do.  That’s a good sign!

• Baby

I DID bring some basic equipment and took some photos of a very fine subject – our young son and his super mom. We both took some photos while in our hotel. Below is my favourite of the set – photographed by my wife at EXACTLY the right moment.

Harry gets punched on his nose!

We’re back in the office in Ottawa on Monday – with charged batteries.