Happenings – End of October Update

We hope that any of our readers who will be in the Edmonton area on Sunday, October 28th will take a moment to drop by our booth at the Edmonton Photographic Trade Show. This photography trade show runs from 9:30AM – 5:30PM at the Mayfield Trade Centre located at 16615-109th Ave. You’ll have the opportunity to pick up information on our newest classes, drop by our booth to enter a contest to win a fabulous prize or attend one of the seminars.

BSOP (Burwell School of Photography) instructor, Daryl Benson, will be at the show.  He will be doing a couple of presentations on Travel Photography; the first at 11:45AM and the second at 3:30PM.  He’ll also be signing copies of his fantastic books featuring beautiful images of the scenery of Alberta and Canada.

This is our third visit to this annual show.  This is a great place for a photography enthusiast to come and see the latest gear, attend a seminar or even get a great deal on some equipment.  If you do go, please drop by our booth and say hello.

We are pleased to announce that Olivia Kachman is joining our team of instructors. Olivia will be teaching our brand new Digital Photography for Beginners class.  Olivia is a graduate from N.A.I.T.’s Photographic Technology program and her passion is photojournalism and documentary photography.  She works for a variety of Canadian publications as a freelance documentary, news, commercial and portrait photography.  Olivia previously taught the popular beginner photography courses at the Centre for Creative Arts in Grande Prairie, Alberta.

Olivia was awarded the Canadian student Portfolio of the Year distinction from the Western Canadian News Photographer’s Association in 2006, which was followed by an internship at the Edmonton Journal.  Recently, she has explored art photography and produced a 30 minute art installation entitled Out of the Blue & Into the Red, which captures the conflict of “what we do to the Earth, we do to ourselves” based on a closer look at the effect of a resource-based economy on our social and spiritual well being as a society.

Digital Photography for Beginners is for photographers with one of those nice compact digital cameras; the ones that fit in a pocket.  In other words, digital cameras without interchangeable lenses.  If you or someone you know wants to learn how to get the most out of their cameras and make the best possible images this is the class you’ve been looking for.  This class is presented over six hours during two weekday evening class.

The first edition of this class runs on Wednesday evenings on December 5th and December 12th.  For more information on this class or to get registered, please visit our web site.

Due to popular demand, we’ve added a December edition of our Digital Camera Fundamentals class.  This class teaches the owner of a camera with interchangeable lenses (we used to call these DSLRs but there are now new cameras with interchangeable lenses that aren’t technically DSLRs) how to get their camera off of automatic mode and start making the pictures they want to make instead of the images the camera decides to make for you.  For more informaition on this class, please visit our web site.

Weekend of November 3-4, 2012

Join former Professional Photographers of Canada’s Photographic artist of the Year for Alberta, Darlene Hildebrandt for a photography class on Night Photography.  This course will teach you to make compelling images during the time of day most people don’t try to photograph: night time.

Darlene will teach you about the equipment required along with the different technical considerations that are necessary when photographing at night. The class also includes a field trip that will provide you with hands-on experience under Darlene’s watchful eye to capture interesting images at night.

What You Will Learn During our Night Photography Class

• how to photograph at night using long exposures
• what equipment you need for night photography
• the technique of painting with light
• using alternative sources of light to your advantage
• using a small flash(es)
• do’s and don’ts
• look at sample images using all these techniques
• what problems you might encounter and how to solve them
• a field trip to give you hands-on experience with Night Photography

For more information or to sign up for the class, please visitour web site.

November 10, 2012 – Introduction to Studio Lighting

If you’re interested in making photographs in studio conditions as either a profession or a serious hobby, Bruce Clarke’s two classes, Introduction to Studio Lighting and Advanced Studio Lighting, will teach you all about the equipment and techniques that you’ll require for studio photography.  Both of these classes include a shoot with a model.

During the introduction class the following topics will be covered:

• Studio set-ups
• Lighting Equipment
• Backdrops and props
• Hot lights versus strobes
• Mono Lights versus Speed Lights
• Metering in studio
• White balance
• Basic portrait set up
• Essential modifiers
• Key light, fill light, hair light

The Introduction to Studio Lighting class runs on Saturday, November 10.  For more information or to register for the Introduction to Studio Lighting visit our web site.

November 17, 2012 – Advanced Studio Lighting

And during the advanced class, the following topics will be covered:

• Overview of light sources
• High key lighting
• Low Key Lighting
• Creating mood with light
• Controlling the background
• Gels and accessories for modifying backgrounds
• Grids, Spots, cutters, gobos, mirrors and more

The Advanced Studio Lighting class runs on Saturday, November 17.  For more information on the Advanced Studio Lighting class or to register please visit our web site.

November 10-11, 2012

Join Outdoor Photography Canada Magazine contributing editor and professional photographer Paul Burwell for our Photoshop Elements class that will immerse you into Adobe’s Photoshop Elements software. Photoshop Elements is an affordable alternative to the professional version of Photoshop CS6.  It is able to perform virtually every task the average photographer requires when editing their digital photographs.

During our Photoshop Elements class, we’ll spend the entire course together helping you learn about developing a workflow in Photoshop Elements.  This workflow will take you from importing your photographs from your camera, to processing them to look their best and then finally to outputting them for email, the web or print.

This class is targeted towards photographers with a beginner to intermediary level of experience with Photoshop Elements.

What You Will Learn During our Photoshop Elements Class

• Importing, tagging, finding, comparing your photos
• Processing RAW files
• Cropping and resizing images
• Colour correcting images
• Fixing common problems
• Making selections
• Retouching portraits
• Removing unwanted objects

For more information or to register for this class, please visit our web site.

Its kind of a sad fact, but even the most expensive digital cameras available still don’t have the ability to resolve the same dynamic range (or ability to record a complete range of tones from very dark to very bright) as do our eyes.  That fact can make it difficult to visualize how a camera is going to record a scene prior to making the image.

Is there a solution?  All you need to do is squint your eyelids so that you leave just a slit for the light to pass through.  When you do this you’ll see that the scene you are looking at now has a reduced dynamic range that much more closely matches the ability of your camera to record it.

Will people think your eyeglass prescription needs adjusting?  Absolutely.  But, you’ll have a much better chance of getting the image right, in the camera, without relying on some sort of software miracle to help you produce a great image.

Just like this young Grizzly Bear, it can seem as if time is just rushing by.  If you don’t take a second to slow down and take a look around, there’s a lot you can miss.

At the BSOP we’re having a fantastic fall session and we’re seeing more people joining our fantastic group of photographic educators as they present classes that can help you develop your photographic vision.  And that’s fantastic because isn’t vision and the ability to see photographically ultimately what being a photographer is about?

We’re super proud of our group of instructors who are recognized for their skills on national and international levels.  Our students tell us that they enjoy receiving education from people with a passion for photography who are excellent educators.

Thanks for reading and I hope to see some of you at the Edmonton Photographic Trade Show on Sunday, October 28, 2012 at the Mayfield Trade Centre.

Sincerely,

Paul Burwell, Owner