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!

We met Saturday to study the ideas of shooting film, followed closely by going into the field to capture some fresh photos on film.

Saturday we started at Jean Marc Carrise’s studio/café (soon to be relocating). He was the official photographer to Trudeau, Turner and Chretien and has been given privileged access to many world leaders. He has also shot much of his professional career on Leica film cameras using available light. A lovely way to shoot!

Jean Marc invited us into his studio and showed Prasad some work.

Ottawa Photo Workshop

We later shot and brought our fresh catch to Alex Leblanc’s darkroom for a course on developing and printing Black & White film.

All in all it was a great weekend with many smiles.

– we will be offering a group film workshop in the next year!

Available Light in the Darkroom - Ottawa Film Photography Course

It can be stressful being asked to photograph a Minister when they visit a department! Paul has called before to gain some experience behind the camera. Our second session, yesterday, concentrated on candid workplace portraits.

The nice thing about a photo course like this is the dedicated opportunity to experiment with the camera in a real work scenario. The pressure to perform is gone and the fear of mistakes is eliminated helping create a stronger base of experience from which to draw when it really counts!

Paul did very well and we saw some great improvements in his portraits!

Some very quick, available light portraits of Paul in his work environment yesterday:

Photo for Communications Department

Photo for Communications Departments

1. I met with someone about a teaching project this week and he told me about LOCR – ”locate your photos”. It seems like a great site to explore – load a photo and some geo placement and it provides you with all kinds of geo and wikipedia content about your landscape.

2. We have been working on a secret project this summer. It’s been a lot of work but will have big benefits for our clients and students. Code named “Preston!” Stay tuned…

3. This week we will be teaching a prototype film photo workshop and our Photography for Communications Professionals as a custom course to a government department. Good news!

Photography for Communications Professionals

It was the first time we have offered this course but it went very well! Christine commented on her blog:

“I’m so happy to report that the workshop participants went from knowing nothing about how their camera worked… to shooting in full Manual Mode for the practical session.”

It went so well that we are hosting the workshop again in September – people are already on the list . The dates are September 14, 18, 21. Contact us to register!

Some photos from the session on Saturday:

Photographing Children Workshop - Ottawa - Christine Denis

Photographing Children Workshop - Ottawa - Christine Denis

Photographing Children Workshop - Ottawa - Christine Denis

Hagen Hohn joined the program last fall and has made great progress – photo classes, networking, work experience and now, after significant work he has launched his new website:

2Hphotography.ca

Please visit and cheer him on!

Hagen in action on our studio photo workshop in January, 2010. (He's on the right - photographing a father and son.)

We are offering the session again in the fall – September 14, 18, 21, 2010. It’ll be posted soon on the workshops page.

I also got asked by a former workshop student about the possibility of running a film photography workshop. Prasad discovered the wondefulness of film – especially B&W on recent photo workshops in the fall and winter.

Those of you who know me are sure to remember my love of film – it has many very desireable attributes!

Anyone else interested in a film photo workshop? Please let us know. We may run an experimental workshop this summer!

Christine Denis - photographing children workshop

To summarize:

• It was different – there’s nothing quite like it in Ottawa
• It challenged different people in different ways
• It made people look at creativity and themselves in new ways

People said:

“Different than many courses out there! Using the camera to explore the ‘innerscape’ is very useful. A good way to grow inside… if you allow that growth to happen!”

“The opportunity to use my photography to try to tell a story about an issue I’m grappling with – it helped open up some new insights for me… Lee creates a very supportive environment for this exploration.”

“Very helpful – a way to find various ways to look at the work around me can only improve creativity. I am very glad I took it.”

Yay!

Thanks Lee and for all participants for sharing!

Lee Kraemer - Ottawa Photo Course

We heard directly from many of the students:

• “Thank you for a great course.  I really enjoyed the time with David and learned a lot!  He is a very colorful and inspiring personality.”

• “He is an awesome story teller and his pictures were inspiring.  His perspective is so different and it served to remind me that the reason behind wanting to pursue this is to enjoy and build on something that I love.”

• “The course was great. Dave just further proved that there are no rules to photography. I was very intrigued by his shooting technique.

Everything I have ever read said avoid the ‘hail mary’ shot. Use the view finder and be very careful framing your image. Dave seems to have shot blind so  much that he a great sense of the picture he will capture knowing the angles of his camera.

He had me laughing all weekend. Too many great stories. It was well worth the time and I am glad I took it.”

And there are some blog posts that tell more:

• ShootStories.ca
• SandraFinnerPhotography

We hope to have Dave back for a session in the early fall.

Below are a couple of photos from the workshop (Thanks Diane and France!):

David Trattles photo workshop - Ottawa

She worked well and learned lots:

“I am happy to report that I remember what you taught me and that I am using it on a daily basis. I find that my photos are getting better and I rarely have to fix them in Photoshop. I put more thought into it and it seems to be paying off.”

Thanks Valerie! See her photos below.

She also sent a couple of her favourite photo websites – related to DOGS!:

• Carol Beuchat
• InFocusByMiguel.com

Elevage Cataraqui

Elevage Catarqui