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Exploration #19. “Off-camera Flash”
Session May 2nd 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Explorations are about expanding your skill set and using new techniques to record the world around you. As photographers, you can expect to be in demand at some point to record family, friends, acquaintances, products, still life settings, flowers etc. in different locations – including indoors.
Off-camera flash is an excellent technique for a whole range of these situations because its light can be sculpted in many flexible, controllable, and expressive ways. While there are a number of basic concepts and techniques that need to be mastered to use off-camera flash effectively, these are easily leaned and practiced in order to feel comfortable with the low-cost tools available today.
This exploration is to use off-camera flash to shoot unto three different images: for example, portraits, a still life, smoke, splashes, etc. with an off-camera flash plus a reflector as fill light
if required. Explore lighting technique and/or flash’s ability to stop motion.
My March 14th flash tutorial information session will be repeated on Monday April 4th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.
Deadline for submissions: midnight April 30th
Submission: up to three images in .jpg format: Send to robin@imaginacorporation.com and please include your name in each submission to make it easier to organize for presentation.
Picture credit: Robin King
Exploration #18
Small Product Shot with One Light
March 8th 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Submission Deadline: Images are due by midnight March 6th
The purpose of this exploration is to light a small commercial object for a promotional image with a single light source.
Choose an object(s) that is less than 10 in x 10in x 10 inches.
Research your selection on the internet to see what approaches have been successful and collect sample images for reference. Pay particular attention to the quality of the light (position and intensity) as well as the shadows cast and any reflections in the product that define its shape.
Analyze the lighting to see how you can use one light source (natural or artificial) and, if necessary with reflectors, to create strong modelling to shape the product. You can introduce additional elements but they must only support the theme.
Submission: up to three images in .jpg format including one reference image to show your research. Send to robin@imaginacorporation.com and please include your name in each submission to make it easier to organize for presentation.
Exploration #17: “Measurement”
February 8th 2022 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Submission Deadline: Images due by midnight February 6th 2022
There are many aspects of daily life that are easily missed and yet are seldom the subject of photographic exploration. Every day, many times of day, we use, depend upon, or refer to, methods and tools of measurement that are important or even critical to our actions, our health, and our interaction with others.
You can’t effectively, monitor your health, cook your dinner, repair things, drive anywhere, design, dress for the day’s weather or create anything without referring to measurements and/or calculations in some form. Measurement is an essential aspect of making good photographic images as well (intensity, distance, colour etc.), The core aspects of this exploration should be graphic simplicity and enjoyment of the process of creating solutions to express the simple essence of measurement.
Time, weight, length, volume, angle, speed, area, pressure, rotation, light intensity, colour, force, flow, temperature, and density, are just a few of the possibilities. Earthquakes, hurricanes, radiation, asteroid impacts, and astronomical distance are a little more difficult - but even they are measurable.
Select just one or two ideas to research and explore and keep your images simple using strong composition and design principles. Submit up to three images in either colour or black and white in .jpg format to robin@imaginacorporation.com.
Photo credit : Robin King
Exploration #16: “The Industrial Age”
January 11th 2022 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.
Submission Deadline: Images due by midnight January 9th
Exploration sessions are designed to challenge participants to confront new concepts, new subjects and new ways of see the world around us. Our environment is changing rapidly and so we often miss the opportunity to record aspects of work and occupations that have disappeared or may well disappear soon. Yesterday’s occupations and methods of production have given way to entirely new pressures on life and particularly on work as we have known it. But what about the past? What do we remember and what can we record before it is lost?
This Exploration focuses on industrial production - not a very common subject for photographers and yet an important one with all the challenges and pressure of climate change, demographics, transportation and economics. What to photograph for this topic? Older factories and industrial spaces, workers, assembly lines, tools in action, inner workings of old machines, industrial technology, images that reflect the age of industrial life and manufacture.
Submission should be of photographs taken for this project avoiding cliché subjects such as rusty cars, old trains, etc. that do not reflect the processes of industrial production. Existing portfolio images should be used for reference, exposition or inspiration.
A limit of three different images per submission (either colour or black and white) in .jpg format.
Exploration #15 “The Aesthetics of Bokeh”
November 8th – 7:00 p.m. to 9:00 p.m.
Submission deadline – Images due by midnight November 6th
Bokeh is an English word that is a translation of the Japanese word for blur - but it is not just blur – it generally refers to specular out-of-focus highlights and specular reflections. Bokeh can be a complement to your image, but it can also be a distraction.
The Bokeh effect is created using a fast aperture (low f-number: e.g. f1.8) and most often using a 50 mm or 85 mm lens, although other focal lengths can create the effect. It depends on the particular design of the lens, the specific aperture, the distance of the lens to the subject and the distance of the background elements behind the subject.
In this exploration the task is to research and experiment bokeh and create images that illustrate the effect in different situations. It can be in your personal space, studio or outside (nighttime is especially good).
A limit of three different images per submission (colour or black and white) in .jpg format
A useful reference is: Understanding Bokeh by Todd Vorenkamp
https://www.bhphotovideo.com/explora/photography/tips-and-solutions/understanding-bokeh
Photo credit: Robin King
Exploration #14: “Suburban Life: Past and Present”
October 13th – 7pm to 9pm
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight October 11th
Most often, we emphasize taking photographs that are dynamic, unique and have high impact and creative expression. Less often, we use our cameras to record the day-to-day events and the people in our neighborhoods. An important alternative to more traditional street photography, the genre of suburban imagery is seldom a specific subject for exploration except, perhaps, in online social media. It is seldom the subject of dedicated and focussed photographic investigation.
Suburbia, planned communities and the subject of urban sprawl around the world are often portrayed in popular media as boring, bland, depressing and sometimes even soul crushing. And yet, underneath there is a hidden treasure of age, gender, and cultural diversity in both rich and poor suburban environments where stories of interesting people, their lives, their values, and their daily events are overlooked and unrecorded.
This Exploration is about finding opportunities for elaboration, sharing and discussion. It will not involve the technical aspects of the images, rather it will be about sharing experiences and our observations of suburban life through each participant’s portfolio of images over the years.
A limit of three different images per submission (either colour or black and white) in .jpg format.
Please review Important background research for samples of style and content that can be found at: https://billowens.com/photographs/suburbia-c
Exploration #13: “Paint, pigment, and powder”
Wednesday September 8th - 7pm to 9pm
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight September 6th
The subject of this exploration is paint, pigment and powder: three highly flexible media that yield an extremely wide range of ways to express dynamic colour relationships. Each medium is available in a wide variety of forms that can be used in combination with numerous techniques and applied in diverse ways.
The challenge is to create a dynamic photograph that uses one or more of these three (either alone or in combination) using different application techniques and on a variety of surfaces. Only physical materials and not digital paint filters should be used to make it look “painterly” and please, no found object clichés such as graffiti, cracked paint, rusty cars etc.
Sometimes we all face the challenge of coming up with creative ideas. Developing a multitude of ideas increases the possibility of identifying a few that spark our imagination and can lead to new and exciting directions in our work.
During the introduction to this Exploration on August 10th, we used a matrix technique to develop one thousand possible ideas as potential solutions to this Exploration and as a springboard for creative investigation. I hope you tuned in to the session, but if not, contact Robin for a sample matrix of one thousand possible solutions.
Of course, you may also take an intuitive approach - as long as it’s within the general guidelines of the Exploration. Have fun, experiment!
A limit of three colour/monochrome images per submission in .jpg format.
Picture Credit: Robin King
Exploration #12: “Small is Beautiful””
Tuesday August 10th – 7pm to 9pm
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight August 8th
It’s often very tempting to create images in the style of the great masters of the medium. Inspired by excellent photographers and their exceptional images, we can learn a great deal from studying their approach, their techniques, their work and their resulting impact. While we may be able to improve our own work by copying them, trail blazers don’t create commonplace content -subjects, tropes and approaches we have seen repeated all too often.
We should try to avoid the most traditional, conventional and cliché pictures if we want to develop an independent and personal photographic voice. This is difficult and demands our creative spirit and thoughtful execution.
So, instead of a specific subject or situation, this exploration is about interpreting and illustrating a concept - “small is beautiful”. The choice of content is yours, reflecting your idea of demonstrating photographs that communicate visual and aesthetic pleasure. Beautiful has many possible meanings - alluring, appealing, attractive, delicate, elegant, exquisite, graceful, stunning, gorgeous, enticing, etc. Small is also a contextual term because size is relative to the subject matter. It doesn’t necessarily mean a close-up or macro shot but instead can also be interpreted in many divergent and interesting ways.
Aesthetics is subjective and contextual. We won’t all agree and each of us may well have our own interpretation. However, we all need to find out if others value what we see as “small and beautiful.”
Read the brief carefully. Please don't select photographs from any of your previous work.
A limit of three different images per submission (either colour or black and white) in .jpg format.
Exploration #11: “Further Adventures in black and White”
Monday July 12th 7pm to 9pm
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight July 10th.
In the last exploration we started a journey into the powerful visual and emotional possibilities of black and white images. Putting this into practices requires making sound judgements about the translation of the technical and evocative characteristics of the image into an impactful image that elicits the strongest response from the viewer.
We often find it difficult to assess the potential of a photograph to evoke a strong reaction because of our own response to the image - our personal experience of the place, the circumstance, and our relationship to the subject matter. So, we should carefully think about the translation of the captured image through post-processing in order to accomplish our personal vision and its impact on the viewer.
This exploration requires that you carefully reflect and consider the whole process of “image taking” to “image making” and be prepared for a more intense critique and discussion of your work in so that you may improve, grow, and benefit from constructive analysis and feedback.
1. Submit one black and white photograph of a formal or casual human-interest portrait that illustrates a clear aspect of the subject’s personality.
2. Submit a black and white photograph of a person or people in a street or outdoor scene where you believe the image illustrates an impactful context with that environment or relationship among individuals.
Be prepared to talk about your post processing as well as your thoughts and feelings about your images and why you feel it is compelling to you and especially to your audience. Shoot in RAW if possible.
A limit of two images per submission in .jpg format.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 2 images for this session
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight July 10th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email challenges@oakvillecameraclub.com or robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday July 12th
Regards,
Robin King, Education Director & Jared Fein, Challenges Director
Photo credit: Robin King
Exploration #10: “Adventures in Black and White”
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight June 5th.
Black and white photographs are a very powerful way of translating the visual or emotional core of a scene or situation. This exploration is the start of that journey for those who are new to black and white photography. For others it will be an ongoing investigation and discovery.
Black and white images use the evocative strength of the basic elements of composition, contrast, line, form, tone, texture, and shadow and also, in some cases, the impact of the human condition and social interactions.
Black and white photography is a journey into seeing and visualizing the world in a different way. It strengthens a photographer’s decision-making by focusing the mind on evaluating the core elements of a scene and a subject’s characteristics in a single image. This increases the opportunity for translating a scene’s core attributes into a high-impact experience for the viewer.
Shoot in RAW if your camera allows to retain the full dynamic range - otherwise shoot in the .jpg format. Post processing is encouraged but the first step of this exercise is to investigate this special form of photographic interpretation and expression. The subject matter is your choice but choose carefully for content that has the greatest potential for powerful black and white imagery.
A limit of three images per submission in .jpg format.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 3 images for this session
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight June 5th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email challenges@oakvillecameraclub.com or robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday June 7th
Regards,
Jared Fein, Challenges Director & Robin King, Education Director
Photo credit: Robin King
This Exploration is visual investigation of the concept of three. Open to any subject matter, three (3) is the key component - three key elements explored through their form, tonal values, texture and compositional placements.
Our brains like to see things in threes, and in simple and powerful arrangements. Things are generally more appealing and memorable if arranged in threes. Keep it simple of course. This is an opportunity to explore new ideas in your area of interest or in a new direction.
Limit of three photographs per submission.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 3 images for this session
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight May16th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email challenges@oakvillecameraclub.com or robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday May18th
Regards,
Robin King, Education Director & Jared Fein, Challenges Director
Photo credit: Robin King
The theme for this Exploration is “Retrospection”
This Exploration is an important opportunity to reflect on your photographic work through the most important images you have taken. It’s an opportunity to display your personal accomplishments and reveal the stories behind their creation. The prime focus of the session(s) will be to explain why you selected each image and why you consider these are your most successful photographs.
The prime focus will be to learn about yourself, about your colleagues and to share your thoughts about your progress over the years. Self-reflection is an important way to clear the mind and to focus on future personal direction and explorations.
Choose two of your photographs from any year in your portfolio of images that have the strongest visual and/or emotional impact and that you feel best illustrate your strengths and/or style as a photographer. Any subject, any level, just those most important to you.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 2 images for this session.
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight April 18th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
Image credit: Robin King
The theme for this Exploration session is “Illuminating Glass”.
Practical, decorative and often an object of artistic creativity, glass is a medium that challenges our exploration of using light to illuminate it - inspiring us to reveal its particular transmission, reflection and refraction properties.
Chose one or two forms of glass that interest you. These might include architectural glass, stained glass, paper weights, wine glasses, figurines, artistic glass pieces, acid-etched, engraved, broken, sand blasted objects, blown glass vessels, lens balls, bowls, vases, paperweights, prisms, fiber optics, etc.
As with the paper exploration, glass should be the primary content and any other object, person or medium should be there as a minor contrast or embellishment.
Limit of three different approaches/images per submission.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 3 images for this session
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight March 28thth
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email challenges@oakvillecameraclub.com or robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday, March 30th
Regards,
Robin King, Education Director & Jared Fein, Challenges Director
Photo credit: Robin King
Illuminating (or shedding light on) glass
OCC Exploration #6 The Amazing Possibilities of Paper
Background Information:
Paper is the simplest, most versatile and best creative medium of all materials. It’s enormous potential for flexible artistic and visual expression combines creative vision and ideas with tactile experience. This exploration encourages a wide variety of approaches such as cutting, folding, embossing, tearing, sculpting, weaving, collage, origami and other techniques to create compelling images. Incorporate your knowledge of colour, line, form, composition and texture etc. as importance components of your investigation.
Each image should consist of paper as the primary content and any other object or medium should be there as a minor contrast or embellishment.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 3 images for this session. Limit of three different techniques/images per submission.
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight March 7th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday March 9th
Regards,
Robin King, Education Director & Jared Fein, Challenges Director
Photo credit: Robin King
DEADLINE - Images due by midnight Feb 7th.
The theme for this session is “Exploring Water in Motion”.
Solid, liquid or vapor, water provides almost endless opportunities for unique and dramatic photography. This exploration encourages you to experiment with personally novel approaches using short or long exposures to capture unique images of water. For example: waves, rivers, waterfalls, whirlpools, water drops, splash and aqueous photography, balloon bursts, snowstorms, ice flows, fog, avalanches, melting ice, steam, sprays, condensation, tears, etc.
As always with explorations, choose an approach that is new for you and explore this topic using original content - but this time you may also submit a single image from past works.
Limit of three images per submission.
Program Objectives:
- Built on our successful summer challenge program
- Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
- Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
- Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
- Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
- Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
- You may submit up to 3 images for this session
- Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
DEADLINE - Images must be submitted by midnight Sunday Feb 7th
Note that we will once again be utilizing our WebEx online meeting system that will allow you to use your computer or smartphone to view the presentation as well as allow you to call in for the audio and participate with questions or comments.
If you have any questions or need any further information, please email challenges@oakvillecameraclub.com or robin@imaginacorporation.com
We hope to see you on Tuesday February 9th!
Regards,
Jared Fein, Challenges Director & Robin King, Education Director
Photo credit: Robin King
The theme for this session is Minimalism with Contrasting Colours.
You may submit up to 2 images to this session.
Deadline – Images must be received by midnight Jan 10th
Images must be submitted to:
This exercise is an exploration in creating an impactful image using two contrasting colours in a simple and dynamic minimalist arrangement. Choose contrasting colours from the colour wheel (using color.adobe.com is a great place to start) then develop ideas for subjects/objects that you can arrange so that one of the colours is dominant and the other acts as the context or background.
Keep it very simple. If possible, try a fresh, new approach to explore this topic using original content rather than an image from the past.
Photo credit: Robin King
OCC EXPLORATION SESSION #3
Photo credit: Robin King
The theme for this challenge is “Analogous Colours”
This exercise is an exploration in creating an impactful image using analogous colours – colour hues that are close together in the colour wheel. For example, fall colours are often a limited range of yellow or red hues in different levels of saturation and intensity. Try to apply the hue, saturation and intensity of the chosen colour to enhance the visual impact of the image. Use any subject matter that you feel works for this assignment.
You may submit more than one image to this theme, but the total number of images submitted to the challenge must not exceed 3.
Images must be submitted by midnight December 6th to robin@imaginacorporation.com.
(FOR THIS CHALLENGE, DO NOT SEND THEM TO CHALLENGES@OAKVILLECAMERACLUB.COM)
Here are some helpful links on colour theory, colour wheels and analogous colours:
https://uxplanet.org/analogous-colors-and-color-wheel-609a05b5b90e
https://color.adobe.com/create/color-wheel
DUE TO THE COVID-19 OUTBREAK THIS SESSION WILL BE HELD ONLINE VIA WEBEX. PLEASE WATCH YOUR EMAIL FOR WEBEX LINK DETAILS. THE OCC LOOK FORWARD TO CONTINUING OUR PROGRAM IN A DIGITAL FORMAT.
If you are not currently an OCC member but would like to join us in this Webex meeting, please email info@oakvillecameraclub.com OR register at our site to enjoy all the privileges that Membership provide https://www.oakvillecameraclub.com/membership/join
Please join us for our 2nd OCC Exploration Session
The theme for this session is Making the Ordinary into the Extraordinary. The meeting will be held on WebEx.
This exercise is an exploration in creativity using kitchen tools or other metal objects emphasizing novel viewpoints, composition and imaginative arrangement to create impactful images.
Each Exploration Session features a specific theme, however, all members of OCC are also encouraged to submit other personal images for sharing and discussion.
If time permits there will also be a brief tutorial at the end of the session on the theme of colour theory.
Participant information:
• Submit any one or two images to the second session or just join us on Webex.
• The deadline for image submission is Nov. 15, 2020 (48 hours before the session).
• Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com
as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
For more info. on the objectives of the Exploration Sessions, see:
https://www.oakvillecameraclub.com/program/325-occ-exploration-sessions
Picture Credit: Robin King "Cheese Grater"
Announcing a new educational initiative for Oakville Camera Club - OCC EXPLORATION SESSIONS
Creative Exploration Technique for Session 1: Intentional Camera Movement
Program Objectives:
• Built on our successful summer challenge program
• Designed to encourage personal photographic creativity and exploration.
• Practical explorations achievable in our Covid-19 environment.
• Create better images by sharing your work and getting feedback.
• Open to all OCC members at any level of experience.
• Share personal work or participate in exercises.
Participant information:
• Online Webex sessions approximate every two or three weeks starting
October 27th.
• Submit any one or two images to the first session or just join us on Webex.
• The deadline is 48 hours before each subsequent meeting.
• Images must be submitted to robin@imaginacorporation.com
as .jpgs - any size greater than 1 mb accepted.
Picture Credit: Robin King
Dave loves photograph abandoned buildings, high-rise rooftops and storm drains all in the name of adventure and photography,. He explains how he got involved in this type of work and takes the viewers on an interesting trip through some of his favourite locations such as abandoned insane asylums, hospitals, psychiatric hospitals, and many houses that are full of old items and relics from the past.
Dave has been featured on Petapixel, CTV News Toronto, Yahoo News, Buzzfeed, The DailyMail and Telegraph in the UK as well as dozens of news sites and magazines around the world from Australia to Italy to Germany.
Guests are always welcome - guest fee is $10
Artist website: http://seangalbraith.com