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Design4Kids Photography & Design Workshop

Tuesday, June 9th, 2009

Just a week and a day to the beginning of the 2009 Design4Kids workshop in Santiago de Atitlan, Guatemala. This year’s “dream team” of volunteer instructors has been assembled and is ready to go.

 

Started by FotoKids founder Nancy McGirr, this is the second Design4Kids workshop and the third workshop with the young people in Santiago. They continue to learn and develop their photography and graphic design talents with the purpose of operating their own design studio in the Atitlan area.

 

As in the past, the group will receive a real assignment from an actual client, and they will determine the client’s needs, design the concept and create the project. The team of volunteers is made up of commercial artists, graphic designers and photographers who will guide them along in the process.

 

The kids will be polishing their skills in design, photography and Photoshop, and along the way, they’ll develop and expand their creative talents, and learn possibility thinking that will teach them new ways of looking at themselves, the world and their own potential.

There’s more about the project and the team at http://design4kids.org and a complete overview of the Fotokids organization at www.fotokids.org

Posted in Cameras, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Learning Photography, photography workshops, Photoshop, Technology, Travel | No Responses »
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Experimenting The Possibilities of Digital Photography

Wednesday, June 3rd, 2009
(c) 2009 Whitney Klare

(c) 2009 Whitney Klare

    

I’ve mentioned my friend Whitney, Rudy’s granddaughter, and her passion for photography. She’s sent me a few samples of her work, and with her permission, I’d like to share them with you. She’s already an accomplished photographer, with a great eye for composition and design. From her work, I’m beginning to see that she has a strong interest in abstracts, in using the many tools of digital photography to create a vision of an alternate reality.

 

This got me thinking about how even when our intent is to create an image that doesn’t exist in our physical world, all of the skills and creative processes of photography still apply.

 

Being “old school”, and learning all of this well before digital came on the scene, I’ve been well trained in “getting it right in the camera”. Even with film and print-making, there are plenty of options for manipulating the image. But starting out and working with a pre-visualized result in mind is a true mark of your skills.

 

It’s valuable and important to develop your ability to do it “the right way”, both in shooting and in image processing and making adjustments, not to satisfy some “rule”, but because it gives you so much more control over getting the results you want.

 

Even with an abstract, and much more so as your images come closer to a vision of “reality”, being able to pre-visualize the shot you want, and understanding and working with the elements of light, composition and design to get those results at each step, makes your work that much more powerful.

 

(c) 2009 Whitney Klare

(c) 2009 Whitney Klare

 

 

A true testament to your skills is to be able to visualize an image that isn’t there in front of you, shoot it and adjust it so that the final result makes people believe that it is the reality that was there. That’s when they say “Wow, how did you get such an amazing shot – I’ve never seen it look like that!” (Whatever “it” is).

 

Those of us from the “old school”

realize that it was Ansel Adam’s not-so-secret print-making work, together with an exact system of exposing and processing his film that created the magnificent images that he pre-visualized.

 

So keep shooting, keep experimenting, and keep learning and developing your skills.  

 

Posted in Cameras, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Landscape, Photoshop, Technology | 1 Response »
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The Magic Of Photography At Twilight

Tuesday, May 26th, 2009

(c) 2009 Stu Estler

(c) 2009 Stu Estler

I’ve gotten way behind in updates! First two weeks of rain nearly every day (didn’t know that Washington, DC had a rainy season, did you?) then running like crazy trying to catch up and make the deadline for this project. Now more rain!

 

 

 

While soft, overcast light and even rain can provide an environment for wonderful photographs, the client on this project wants “pretty sunny days and blue skies”. Not unreasonable. The subjects – luxury homes – do tend to look their best in good weather. And clear to partly-clear skies give the most dramatic background for my favorite time of day for photography – twilight.

 

That magic time between darkness and light gives life to amazing images. The combination of the cool blue fading sunlight and the warm glow of incandescent lights in the buildings make this the prime time for architectural photography.

 

There are two times of day for this effect – dawn and dusk – though it can be a challenge to convince clients to open their doors to set the interior lights for the shot in the early morning hours. Especially now as we approach mid-summer and the solstice, which means at this latitude the light begins to come up by 5:30am.

 

The quality of the early morning light is different, too, cooler than the late day light of dusk. Shooting from the beginning light of dawn until sunrise creates dramatic photos, but the favorite twilight time is dusk.

 

I’m still constantly delighted by the swiftness of the changing light. Exposing minute-by-minute yields a different look in each shot. Just after sunset the daylight is still the dominant light source, yielding even, shadow-less light with just the faintest glow from the artificial lights in and around a building.

 

As the daylight fades the balance shifts until that magic moment when natural and artificial light balance, creating a warm inviting glow from within against a perfect blue background.

 

Then – blink! – and it’s over. The natural light disappears and the night takes over. Time for dinner and a glass of wine!

Posted in Architecture, Cameras, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Technology, Uncategorized | 1 Response »
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Fotokids Photography & Design Workshop In Guatemala

Thursday, March 26th, 2009

Isn’t it interesting how one little thing can make a dramatic change in your life and the lives of others?

 

For some time now I have had a goal to work with young people to help them realize and develop their potential, using photography as the tool to stimulate and awaken their creative abilities. I have no experience in working in or with this type of organization, and have struggled with the logistics of creating one on my own.

 

A close friend and colleague of mine, who knows that I am developing an online course to teach basic and advanced photography (www.thephotomentor.com), saw a post on a forum he follows that he thought might interest me, and forwarded it.

 

The post was a request from a fellow creative – a photographer by avocation and a graphic designer by profession – looking for a few more volunteers to help teach a workshop with an organization called Fotokids (www.fotokids.org). The group works in Guatemala teaching young people to develop their personal abilities and professional skills in photography and graphic design. They are doing the very thing I want to do!

 

As you can imagine, when you see an opportunity for something you so strongly desire handed to you, you waste no time, and immediately take advantage of it.

 

The week-long workshop in June will have the kids begin with a real project from a real client, and take it from concept through to delivery. I’ll be teaching photography and Adobe Lightroom and Photoshop techniques, which is the software the kids currently use. Here’s a link to their blog, which tells about the workshop: http://design4kids-santiago.blogspot.com/

 

There is absolutely no doubt that his is a fantastic opportunity to share my knowledge and give to these kids, and I’m certain that I will learn and receive even more from them and sharing this experience with them.

 

I believe that there are two lessons in this: that when you truly believe and focus on the things you want, you attract them to you – often in ways you never expected – and that the way to make a dramatic change in your life – and to positively affect the lives of others – is to take action when you are presented with an opportunity.

 

Right now the only things for certain are the dates – June 17-25, 2009 – and the location – Santiago Atitlan, Guatemala. Stay tuned.

Posted in Cameras, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Photoshop, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized | No Responses »
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Share Your Creative Vision

Wednesday, February 11th, 2009

Alhambra Palace, Grenada, Spain Copyright 2006 Stu Estler

Alhambra Palace, Grenada, Spain Copyright 2006 Stu Estler

More than simply a tool to record an event, photography allows us to interpret our environment in a way that reflects our vision of it; even to cross that line between fantasy and reality and create a world that may not appear to exist to the eye. Moreover, the viewer has the ability to apply his or her interpretation of the photograph, further expanding our views and challenging our beliefs as to what may or may not be reality.

 

 

 

 

Ansel Adams said that “There are always two people in every picture – the photographer, and the viewer.” Richard Avedon wryly observed that “All photographs are accurate. None of them is the truth.” These two thoughts compliment each other and together help define why we find photographs both uneasily challenging to our beliefs, yet seductively alluring to our imagination and desires.

Ultimately the ability to create a reality of our own design may be the most appealing element of all in photography. The truth is, we all view “reality” through our own filters, our own beliefs and desires. Photography allows us to easily express our creativity to surprise, persuade and maybe just to share our reality with the rest of the world.

 

Posted in Architecture, Cameras, Candids, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Landscape, Portrait, Technology, Travel, Uncategorized | No Responses »
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Inaugural Day!

Tuesday, January 20th, 2009

How appropriate that this blog is being inaugurated on this momentous day, a day of great new beginnings!

Since it’s beginnings, the technology of photography has steadily evolved to make it more easily and simply accessible. From hand-coated papers exposed in the sun, to wet-coated glass plates, through easy-to-handle film, and now to the digital medium, it has progressed to be a creative tool available to anyone. It is truly the “Every-person’s” medium of artistic expression. It is my desire with this blog to develop (pun intended) a community to share ideas, thoughts and experiences, and to help each of us grow creatively and technically.

As a brief introduction, I have been a working as a professional photographer for about 25 years, have taught classes at community colleges and at the Smithsonian here in Washington, DC, and am continuing on a journey to help everyone I can touch to develop the creative passion within them. Please join me!

- Stu Estler

Posted in Cameras, Composition, Creativity, Digital Photography, Technology, Uncategorized | No Responses »
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