The Amazing Youth from Fort Resolution!

Today I finished my second day of a two-day workshop at Deninu School in Fort Resolution, NWT. The workshop was arranged between a Teacher, Alex, and Skills Canada NWT. There were five students attending the two days of classes, Tori and Tamara (two-thirds of the triplets, lol), Braiden, Isaac and Sam (Sam is thinking I saved the best for last again, I can hear her, lol). Alex was also sitting in and she will be leading the photography charge from here. The workshop itself was pretty informal, getting in the ideas and some of the technical things but letting Alex and her class determine the direction we went and when classroom stuff would stop and actual shooting would start. I decided to not be involved in the shooting. I had a couple of reasons, one was that I wasn’t really prepared for the temperature (for an hour in near -20) and the second was I wanted to see if any of the classroom discussion was actually being learned (without me giving direction again). Did anyone pay attention? Well I guess you can check below to see what these five young people did. I also learned a few things. First, Alex is really dedicated to her students and is going above and beyond to make sure they get everything they can from their education. Second is the fact that these young people are great. They came to a workshop at school for two of the three days of a long weekend and they asked several times to stay later and continue with workshop stuff. All six (Alex and the Students) made me feel very welcome and glad I decided to come to Fort Resolution to do this event. I even got a photo thank you, Isaac decided to write “Thank you Lee” is the fresh snow and photograph it for a little slide show today. Thank you Isaac, I appreciated that. Thanks to Alex and the rest of the gang as well, you guys are great. Did I say “I love the work I do for Skills” lately? If not I am now. Tomorrow is a free day for me to travel to Fort Smith so I can do this all over again. Oh and before I go, thanks Jan and the Skills team for giving me this opportunity again. Last night I looked through all the images taken and picked seven from each student. I than edited each one and did a slide show for the class. I am posting only one image from each student today, leaving the others for a possible future follow-up blog post. Here is what the future of photography in Fort Resolution saw this weekend. Enjoy, thanks for following along and as always Happy Shooting.

 

Tori’s Image
@ Tori

 

Tamara’s Image
@ Tamara

 

Braiden’s Image
@ Braiden

 

Isaac’s Image
@ Isaac

 

Sam’s Image
@ Sam

 

 

 

 

 

Aurora Storm April 13, 2013

April 13, and 14, 2013 were really good days. Daryl Benson and John Marriott were in Yellowknife leading what I believe was the tenth Workshop I have organized. While in Yellowknife, John was watching the sky and any Aurora news in hopes of getting some Aurora images. On Saturday April 13, 2013 we discussed with the Workshop group that we would all go out and photograph the Northern Lights if they were out. We were sure they would be as all reports stated we would have a solar storm that would increase the Aurora’s intensity. We all met at around 10:00 pm and went out with cameras in hand. Some people decided to go to different locations to get more original shots and to be a little more free (traffic gets busy when the Northern Lights are out). I stayed with Daryl and John. We were out until around 2:00 am and got a few good images. Fun times were had by all. Here are the images I decided to keep. Enjoy, thanks for hanging around and as always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

 

Workshop Shots!

Back in February Adam Hill and I put on a workshop called Expose Yourself to Photography. It was a great weekend with great people. The workshop poster Adam did was just to funny, maybe I should post it sometime. Anyway, back on track. For part of the weekend we all went to Grace Lake here in Yellowknife and did some shooting. I didn’t display any of my shots that weekend so, I decided I would post a few here. Here they are and if you are wondering about any up coming workshops there are a couple. On April 13 and 14, 2013 Daryl Benson and John E. Marriott will be teaming up to do a weekend workshop here in Yellowknife. It is going to be great. Send me an email if you are near by and are interested. In the works is an October 2014 weekend workshop with the great and amazing Freeman Patterson. Stay tuned for that. For now here are my Grace Lake images. Enjoy, thanks for stopping by and as always Happy Shooting.

 

 

 

 

 

Ulukhaktok, NWT – I’m back!

On September 18 to 22, 2012, I was back in Ulukhaktok. I love Ulukhaktok! This trip was all about teaching a group of students (Skills Canada/NWT – Skills Club students) about cameras and photography. It was amazing, teaching began on the 19th at around 9 am and ran until 3:30 pm (with an hour for lunch in there). Between 3:30 pm and 5 pm Jan Fullerton (ED of Skills Canada/NWT) and I would review images, pack up camera gear and do admin work. We would break for dinner and be back at the school for 6:30 pm for an evening of hands on work. The shooting would general last until 8:30 pm and after we would return to the school for hot chocolate and some friendly chatter. That would be the schedule for each school day. Jan would gather all the students images from the day and look through them each night and we would display and discuss them the next day. There were even some assignments for the students to perform. Friday we would stay at the school for dinner and would be joined there by the students with a longer amount of hands on work to be done after dinner. Saturday we were back at the school and some of the students would join us there. It was a great reward to have such great involvement from these amazing young people. It was an unbelievable trip and I can’t wait to do this again. The work this young people put in was very inspiring and the future of the photography skills club in Ulukhaktok looks good. Did I mention I love Ulukhaktok and the student there? Even with our schedule I still managed to get around 600 to 700 images of my own (I only kept around 80 for my library).

I would love to display them all here but, I have a magazine article to do on this trip and don’t want to give too much away just yet. I have kept a number of the students images for the article as well and their work was stunning. For now here is a sample of what I was able to capture. I will let you know when the article is out so, stay tuned for that. I hope you enjoy these images, thank for visiting and as always Happy Shooting.

The community of Ulukhaktok from the top of First Hill.

First and Third Hill from across Jack’s Bay where First River enters.

The view towards the Arctic Ocean from the entrance of King’s Bay.

My view of First Hill from Jack’s bay on Saturday. Waiting for the plane to arrive is not always a bad thing, lol.

An Arctic Hare at sunset on top of First Hill.

Photography Bootcamp!!

Hello readers,

I am excited to announce a new workshop to take place on April 14 and 15, 2012 here in Yellowknife, NWT. Darwin Wiggett and Samantha Chrysanthou of Oopoomoo are returning to the beautiful city of Yellowknife to speak at the event. Here is the write-up on what will happen on those days (click the link below).

Photography Bootcamp info

If you are in Yellowknife or if you will be around at that time and you are interested in attending please contact me ASAP there are only 20 spaces available.

 

Light Painting

Any readers who follow my little blog will know that on April 16 and 17 I had arranged another Photography Workshop. This time the great Daryl Benson came and shared his knowledge with all those who attended. It was a great two days. On the second day, Sunday April 17, Daryl had the class go into a dark area of the facility we were using and do some light painting. There were a lot of creative ideas and it was fun. I had taken several different subjects and played with several different light sources. My favorite image came with help from others. Trudy Hause Wisnoski had a small light that produced (in addition to just regular light) both Red and Orange light, I was using a small headlamp and John Clark had a large Mag Light. I was looking at patterns in the ceiling and decided to capture the patterns. While taking the image, Trudy’s little red light was pointed on different areas, my headlamp was used in the same way and John’s Mag Light was used to actually light the ceilings light fixture. Here is what we ended up with, I am just glad it was my camera being used, lol. Thanks for coming by and as always Happy Shooting.

Other must see blog posts.

In Addition to my 10 favorites of 2010, I thought I should post some link to other interesting Blog post. Here is a short list below check them. Enjoy and as always Happy Shooting.

Mike Pereira’s best of 2010 – http://mikeypereira.wordpress.com/2011/01/10/ten-out-of-10/ (I especially like #6).

John Fujimagari’s best of 2010 – http://johnfuji.wordpress.com/2010/12/31/best-photos-of-twenty-ten/ (I really like the last image. it would make a great National Geographic shot).

John Fujimagari also post a list of the best of 2010 links, here it is – http://johnfuji.wordpress.com/2011/01/15/jim-goldsteins-best-photos-of-2010-blog-project-results/

Darwin Wiggett’s Hidden Gems of 2010 – http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2010/12/30/hidden-gems-of-2010/ (of course, I love all of Darwin’s work but 4 and 7 I like the best).

Samantha Chrysanthou’s Faves of 2010 – http://samsrant.wordpress.com/2010/12/29/faves-of-2010/ (I love the last of these images. I should say that I have followed Sam’s Rant quite a bit this year and have been inspired many times, Sam sees things so well).

Here are some links to photos from the SNAP! Photography Seminar held in Baker Creek last fall. It was called the Harvest Moon and if you haven’t signed up for the 2011 seminar you should do so. It will be a great weekend of shooting. There is always an AH HA moment for me in workshops and at this one it was Samantha Chrysanthou’s talk on composition (pokeys and merging lines was worth the price of admission). As I said above Sam’s was to me in 2010. Here are the links;

John E. Marriott’s Snap October 2010 Weekend Workshop Blog Post – http://blog.wildernessprints.com/2010/12/snap-october-2011-weekend-workshop.html

Darwin Wiggett’s SNAP! Photography Seminars Weekend Workshop Blog Post – http://darwinwiggett.wordpress.com/2010/12/04/snap-photography-seminars-weekend-workshop-2011/

Samantha Chrysanthou’s Workshop Walk Blog Post – http://samsrant.wordpress.com/2010/10/25/workshop-walk/

To close here is a previously unposted image of mine. Thanks for stopping by.

 

Roy’s Audiotronic – Digital Photography Class.

Roy’s Audiotronic, Yellowknife’s local electronics store, is organizing its first Digital Photography course. Robin and the Staff at Roy’s are working hard to support local and northern Photographers (from Beginners to Pros) and are constantly improving their products and services. I, for one, appreciate their efforts. So much so that I have joined with them to lead a class on Digital Photography. The class will run through the basics, Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO, White Balance, etc. There will be some discussion on Camera Equipment and Accessories and some time for topics from the attendees. There may be some new equipment to view as well (the equipment will be available to purchase from Roy’s Staff after the class). The class will be held on January 22, 2011. Contact Roy’s Audiotronic at (867) 873-5441 or stop in to their store to sign up, do it quickly as class size is limited. Here is a poster and a pdf file for the event. Thanks for stopping by, I hope to see you at the class and as always Happy Shooting.

Photo Class Poster

Baker Creek Chalets – SNAP! Photo Seminars – Part III

Sunday, October 24, 2010, the last day of the workshop. As usual, I am up at 5:30 am getting ready. I don’t go for breakfast today, instead I work on my back-up drive and some image files. I go out at 7:00 am to meet the group. We are all going to Lake Louise this morning. We leave at 7:30 am and arrive at Lake Louise about 7:45 am. It is overcast but, it is still a beautiful morning. Everyone is looking for a place to photography from. I have an image in mind and I am going to wait for just the right light. I didn’t get exactly what I want but, I try for the shot anyway. I want to capture the left side of Lake Louise, still showing the end of the Lake in front of me but, I want to have one of the peaks of Fairview Mountain in the left side of my image. The fog and clouds are not cooperating. I still wait and finally I get a shot, not the picture I could see in my little brain but, the elements are mostly there. I think I took thirty photos just to get that one (that means I delete 96.7% of my images, way better the 99% John suggested, lol). Pat, another Photographer in the group was shooting details in the mountains in front of us. She was using a 200 – 400 mm lens and I was looking at her photos. It wasn’t stuff I normally shoot but, it was interesting. I thought of some images that Samantha had done of trees through a fog and combined the use of a long lens like Pat and the eerie trees in a fog type mood that Samantha had captured. I got a shot of the trees on the mountain side that felt like the right shot. I then tried to capture the mountain tops through the clouds and fog, things that I normally wouldn’t consider. I will admit it was fun to shoot. It was soon time to put or camera gear away and head back to Baker Creek. We all needed to be checked out by 11:00 am, we would then do a quick slide show of some of our images from the past few days. After that was a great farewell lunch, some quick goodbyes and we were all on our way. It was a great event and a great weekend. If your here reading this I suggest you watch for future SNAP! Photography Workshops and attend, it will surely improve your photography, whatever your skill level is.  As for me, well I learned quite a bit and it should make me better as I move forward. For now, here are four more images. There that I mentioned above but, to start there is an image of the upper falls in Johnson Canyon. For the waterfalls shot I had to get down to the bottom of the canyon and shoot from there. I even had to put and extra filter on just to stop the spray from ruining my shot. I got set-up and just when I was ready to take the picture I pulled the front filter out. I still did get some mist on the filters and lens but, I got the shot I wanted. So, that is what happened this weekend. I kept eighty-three images, you have seen twelve here (including these four below). As for what I did after the workshop was over, well you will have to wait a day or so to see what else happen. For now I have to say, stayed tuned, thanks for reading and as always Happy Shooting.

 

Baker Creek Chalets – SNAP! Photo Seminars – Part II

Today it was up at 5:30 am, breakfast at 6:00 and then off to photography at 7:30 am. Today my group headed off to Herbert Lake. We shot sunrise there and then went to a small waterfall between Herbert Lake and Mosquito Creek. Once we finished at those locations we were off to Emerald Lake in Yoho National Park in British Columbia. However, we seemed to get a little distracted. We came upon some Elk near the highway and spent a little more time photographing them then we sent think about to fact that we were suppose to meet the other group at Emerald. We finally moved on only to see another herd of Elk and once again we stopped. We moved on again, this time making it to The Natural Bridge (just before Emerald Lake). The other group had now been there about thirty minutes and wanted to move on. My group, of course, had just arrived and wanted to shoot at that location. So, we watched as the other half of the workshop attendees drove off the Emerald. We never did get there. Running low on time, we headed back to Baker Creek for another classroom session. We had our class, which was fantastic, and then did a quick critique of pictures brought by the group. Once, complete we packed up our camera gear and went to Johnson Canyon to hike and photograph there. Then, back to the Chalets for Dinner and some friendly chat. So, it was another great day (beside the fact that I lost a three stop soft ND Grad filter in the Kicking Horse River, broke the windshield in the rental car and my back-up system stopped working but, that is a story for a different day). Tomorrow it is off the shoot at Lake Louise before packing up and heading for home. Here are another four images from this weekend, enjoy. Thanks again for visiting and as always Happy Shooting.