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Pinhole photography seems to contravene the photographic trend of speed and instant gratification achieved through digital technology. Instead, pinhole photography inherently necessitates a slow and decided resolve. The elemental photographic technology, whereby light enters an aperture the size of a pin and etches an image onto a film or paper emulsion, requires much patience. Since images can take anywhere from seconds to hours to capture, depending on available light, the pinhole format is conducive to condensing the passage of time onto a single frame. Using a camera that is essentially a wooden box with brass fittings, Cher MacNeill uses her pinhole camera and creativity to produce images that are influenced by the medium and the artist herself. Without a viewfinder, she is able only to approximate the composition. Without a shutter speed, MacNeill says she can only estimate the exposure: “You have only your imagination to envision how the final image will turn out. There’s a little bit of guesswork in every step of the process, and you have to take your time with it. All combined, it becomes a bit meditative.” MacNeill finds the pinhole process to be intuitive. Her 20 years working in film editing familiarized her with similar aesthetic elements that she incorporates into her pinhole photography. MacNeill says she feels drawn to the methodical and considered process of pinhole photography: “As someone coming from film, I was initially intrigued with the idea that making pinholes was like condensing a movie onto a single frame of film. I like to describe it as a cinematic crunch: 24 seconds on a frame instead of 24 frames per second [the frame rate of 35 mm motion picture film].” Throughout her career in film, MacNeill says she always maintained her interest in photography but to varying degrees. Having studied fine art in a joint University of Toronto and Sheridan College program, she first learned about pinhole photography while at Sheridan. MacNeill says it wasn’t until much later (in 2004) that she received direct experience capturing images with a pinhole camera: “After I was given a Zero [Image] 2000 camera I shot a few rolls that winter and in the spring I enrolled in a weekend workshop taught by Dianne Bos at Toronto’s Gallery 44.” The workshop taught her how to transform cardboard boxes and coffee tins into pinhole cameras. MacNeill says she enjoyed constructing her own cameras: “I really liked being able to produce photographic images from such rudimentary, non-technical materials.” Shortly after receiving her 6 x 6 cm pinhole camera, MacNeill began traveling more extensively. She says photography was becoming her main focus: “Once I discovered pinhole photography, it became my best reason to travel.” Before long, MacNeill bought a second Zero Image camera. This time she opted for a 6 x 12 panoramic pinhole. MacNeill says the wider format was more conducive to the landscapes she photographs while traveling: “I like to photograph large, architectural objects of a sculptural nature in landscapes.” In addition to photographing static objects, MacNeill wants to challenge herself to integrate both people and movement in her photography. She states that stationary objects are easier to photograph than people because of the lengthy exposures necessary: “I think photographing people in motion is more challenging but also more rewarding.” MacNeill feels that adding the element of movement evokes feelings of moodiness or mystery: “People often tell me that some of my images feel spooky.” While the potential results of pinhole photography can be unique and evocative, MacNeill says that the possible rewards come with perseverance: “Your expectations are sometimes exceeded and sometimes they are underwhelmed. You have to keep shooting for the moon so to speak. It’s not for everyone.” But for MacNeill, her venture into pinhole photography has been a rewarding experience. She says “Good things come to those who wait.” We featured Cher MacNeill and this article in our Spring 2009 issue: Photography Revisited – Issue 25. If you’re looking for alternative method photography inspiration, you can find it HERE. Check out what Cher MacNeill has been up to lately at: http://www.chermacneill.com #pinholephotography #cherMacNeill #alternativeprocess #filmexploration #analogfilm #experimentation #womeninphotography

A lot of people approach me and ask how I come up with my images. Here is a little insight into my process. GETTING INSPIRED If you enter “my creative process” into a web browser, most descriptions start with “I come up with an idea and then …,” So let’s start before that. Where do I get the idea in the first place? So many different sources in my life help me to generate ideas. Sometimes they have nothing to do with photography or art, but sometimes they do. Books, podcasts, traveling, art galleries, talking, laughing, and sitting doing nothing are all potential sources. The complete artistic concept doesn’t come spontaneously. Nor does it come to me when I sit in front of a blank page titled “Ideas.” In reality, half-ideas from the past merge with incomplete ideas in the future to create something innovative. KEEPING A RECORD I keep an inspiration images folder containing art that I see online. Some of the images even make it into subfolders for different art projects I’m thinking about. I also maintain a list of visual ideas that I want to try (e.g., certain lighting) in Evernote. I make myself add 10 ideas a day to this list. For example, I might write, “I want to shoot something focused on women’s hair.” This hair thought will incubate until some other ideas come along that complete it. RESEARCH At that point, I don’t just take the idea, photograph it, and put it on the wall. Why? Because that would be boring and bad. There is always a story behind the artwork. The story is only half complete at this point, so the next step is to do some research. I take the story stem I already have and look at other artists who have explored the same area, read about the topic, talk to people who know about it, and see if I can introduce what I’ve learned into the visual concept. All the pieces of information stew in my project soup until it’s clear what I’m trying to do. PRELIMINARY SKETCHES The next step in the creative cook-book is doing some sketches and tests of the idea to see if it will work. I often use paintings as inspiration for my art, and the conversion to photography can be harder than you’d think. I will do a quick photo-manipulation with images from the Internet to see what I need to add, change, subtract. FINDING A LOCATION Because my art projects are often so conceptual, I have to be picky about my shooting location. If I visualize a forest scene, I can’t take a model into a random one I found online and see if it works the day of the shoot. I often have to find the exact spot I want to shoot in. So I’ll do a day of location scouting, and go to different potential locations to see if any of them are good for my artwork. I take some photos, and then go home and review them. FINDING A MODEL Just like a location needs to be hand-picked, so does the model. I use models for most of my projects, and unfortunately they don’t just appear magically on the day of the shoot. I first outline specifically what I’m looking for. For the Goddess Almighty series, I needed a dancer. But not just any dancer; I needed someone who had a normal woman’s body to support my vision. A small ballerina could have made the image look like a fashion shoot. I look for my perfect model using model agencies, Model Mayhem, friends, and Facebook. A TEST SHOOT The test shoot is a crucial step in the creative process. If I’m going to do all this work of organizing models, makeup artists, and hair stylists at a particular day, time, and location, I have to make sure that what I’m doing with them will look good! I go to the location and test the lighting. Again, I go home and review my tests. THE SHOOT Finally, I do a photo shoot. Sometimes photo shoots take an hour; sometimes they take the whole day; sometimes I photograph different models over a long period of time. The method is unique to the project I’m working on. USING PHOTOSHOP I’m not sure if you’ve noticed, but my work is very digitally involved. After I shoot, I select the best images, followed by some quick composites, and then I start working on the real thing. My style involves a lot of image compositing and photo manipulation, which can take days, weeks, or months. REVIEWING THE WORK After I finish working on a piece, I put it away and take a break from it for a few days. Why, you ask? Don’t I want to release it for the world to see? Well … I’ve just spent days staring at the screen hard at work. There might be things about the piece that I won’t notice until looking at it with a fresh eye. I do those things, and then the Internet can have its way with the image. PRINTING Once the artwork is done ... I do some more work. The printing process separates my fine art photography from my commercial photography. I have to ensure that what I created in Photoshop looks good printed and framed. There are trillions of options for print-based artwork. I can print on canvas, glass, or a variety of different papers in different sizes, and using various frame types. All of these decisions are based on what would be best for the artwork. For example, I usually go with glossy papers for graphic work and rougher art giclee prints for artwork with a dark, natural, earthy quality. I always make sure that the paper I’m printing on is archival and acid free, to ensure the print lasts forever and ever. See more of Alice Zilberberg's work at: www.alicezilberberg.com #photoshoptechnique #HowTo #womeninphotography #digitalmanipulation #AliceZilberberg

Angela Gzowski is a photographer and photojournalist in the Canadian North. Her work explores the quotidian tensions of her environment. Gzowski grew up in Yellowknife, Northwest Territories, in a household of photographers. Her father, owner of Arctic Divers, an underwater exploration company in Yellowknife, did a lot of underwater photography, and her mother had an interest. As a result, there were always cameras lying around the house for her to use. From the time she took a high school photography course, Gzowksi has never stopped taking pictures. After high school, she studied painting and sculpture at Red Deer College and then moved on to Halifax where she majored in photography at NSCAD University. Gzowski stayed in Halifax after graduation to work for The Coast and The Dalhousie Gazette. She took every opportunity that came her way to learn from professional photographers and colleagues. The more she worked in her field, the further she developed her own style. Gzowski uses neutral density filters with flash to get more depth of field. She uses backlight frequently when shooting on location. She later returned to Yellowknife to work as the photo editor for Up Here magazine. Her assignments led her to travel much of Canada’s North, covering a wide variety of stories, before she opened her own business. Growing up in Yellowknife, Gzowski had accepted her surroundings as “normal,” the way a child who is used to her surroundings would. Unexpectedly, when she returned home, she saw the northern environment with different eyes, the eyes of an outsider. Her newfound detachment enabled her to see the North as a unique place with its own culture, climate, and landscape. She became aware of the tensions that are part of life in the North, and that made a huge difference for her creatively. One of the challenges of photographing outdoors is the need to adapt to different levels of light at different times of the year. According to Gzowski, the summer in the North is a photographer’s dream, with 24-hour daylight, but the winter offers very little natural light. Shooting on location requires a different set of skills from those she uses when working in her studio, as she cannot control many aspects of the shoot. The need to be spontaneous can be both thrilling and challenging. Often she has to make quick decisions about whom to photograph, where, and in what light. In the studio, Gzowski enjoys the control that she has over a project. In preparation for a shoot, she researches her subject, plans the lighting and set-up, and composes the questions that she will ask. Even if text will not accompany the images, Gzowski wants her subject to relax, and she has learned the types of questions that will help to achieve that. She really cares about the people she photographs and works hard to let them know that. She describes herself as unintimidating, which has worked in her favour, as she has been admitted to places for photo shoots where others might not be able to go. Gzowski has learned never to let an opportunity to shoot an image pass by. There is always a risk that someone will say no when she asks permission to photograph them, but not to ask would only leave a feeling of regret that something special has been missed. Her advice to others is to follow their feelings. Gzowski says that she has seen many books of northern landscapes, but she feels a need to create a book with a different focus. She is working on a book of images that celebrates the people of the North, rather than the locale. She wants to show the rest of the world the fascinating and unique faces of Canada’s North. The seemingly infinite possibilities of portraiture keeps Gzowski motivated. To see more of Angela Gzowski's work, check out her website: www.angelagzowski.com #AngelaGzowski #womeninphotography #portraiture #portrait #peoplephotography #canadianphotography

Our pets have the unique ability to make us laugh and make us cry; they show us compassion and teach us what it means to love. It’s no wonder, then, that we consider them a part of the family. Whether we are feline fanatics, dog devotees, avian aficionados, or equine enthusiasts, our pets are an integral part of our lives. Marcia Leeder has a profound understanding of how animals and humans relate to one another and has combined her passion for animals and her talent for photography to capture the special bond that is forged between pet and owner. With a diverse portfolio that includes animal, child, family, and performance photography, Leeder has focused much of her recent work on animal portraiture. “I love the connection that families have with one another, as well as the connections we have with our animals,” says Leeder. “They will always be considered part of the family.” It’s these unique bonds that Leeder says she appreciates being able to capture. While she began photographing animals at a young age, it wasn’t until Leeder was grown that a chance meeting on the streets of Morocco would inspire a return to her childhood hobby and an eventual career change. “Behind every artist is a muse and, for me, that muse came in the form of a dirty street puppy that found me while I was working on a film in Morocco, in 2002,” says Leeder. “I brought her (Tichka) home to Canada with me and she sparked my love of photography again.” Leeder says that her creativity had been stifled for years and it was liberating to return to what she loved doing as a child. “I have always felt a strong connection to animals, so photographing them was a natural choice,” says Leeder. She began photographing Tichka with a digital point and shoot, and later transitioned to a digital single lens reflex (DSLR), which she would use to build up her portfolio. After considering her photography subjects, Leeder realized that she gained the most satisfaction from working with animals. “To be able to meet their approval makes me feel like a good person,” says Leeder. “Animals teach me so much about myself and how I live my life. They approach everything with innocence, love, and humility.” Leeder cherishes the time she spends with her clients’ pets, describing this time as “pure joy,” but says she derives much of her inspiration from her own animal family. Her clan, called the Ginger Gang, is composed of two dogs (Tichka and Little Dude) and two cats (Cameron and Archie), all of whom are rescues. “I love to watch how they interact with each other. I photograph them almost every day,” says Leeder. “Just when I think I’ve seen it all, they do something that surprises me … usually sending me into hysterical laughter. They fill my heart with so much love, pride, and joy.” Given the unpredictable nature of her subjects, Leeder stays flexible and takes a lighthearted approach to her photo shoots. “I am not afraid to make a fool of myself to get the shot, whether it’s making a ridiculous noise or rolling around on the ground. I do what it takes and I love that my clients laugh along with me.” Leeder embraces the humour that working with animals brings and takes away many memorable moments from each portrait session. “I am often laughing until my sides ache. That’s the fun of working with animals, you just never know what to expect.” Leeder posts her outtakes, funny moments, and session adventures daily to her Facebook page. Leeder photographs public portrait events and custom on-location portrait sessions. Unlike individual portrait sessions where she learns about the animal in advance, the high-volume portrait events challenge Leeder’s improvisational skills. “I don’t have the same preparation time,” she says. “I meet the animal on the spot and have to gauge their personality and figure out how to work with them in a way that is not going to add to their stress of being in a new environment.” Both shooting scenarios have taught her to embrace each animal’s individual personality and have yielded interesting results; however, Leeder enjoys spending more time with each animal and feels the custom on-location sessions help to feed her artistic expression as well as capture more of their unique characteristics. She says that often some of her favourite shots, whatever the setting, are what some might consider to be outtakes. “Those are the ones that my clients choose to display on their walls and I love that.” Much of the satisfaction that Leeder derives from her work comes from watching her clients’ reactions. “When I show my clients the images from their [pet’s] session and they cry happy tears, I know I’ve done my job.” Leeder’s motivation stems from an understanding of the importance of pets in our lives. “Unfortunately, they are not with us forever,” she says. “If I can capture a piece of their soul in a photograph, it helps their memory live on.” Leeder’s compassion for her animals extends to her philanthropic activities. All proceeds from the print sales of her portrait events are donated to a rescue group of her clients’ choosing. She is also a member of HeARTs Speak, a not-for-profit organization whose mission is to enact social change by uniting the individual efforts of animal artists and animal rescues (www.heartsspeak.org). As a member, she volunteers her time and talents to give animals living in rescues or shelters professional photo sessions to help increase their chances of being adopted. www.marcialeeder.com This article originally appeared in the Creatures Great and Small, Spring/Summer Issue - 2013. Get it in PRINT HERE. #animals #pets #MarciaLeeder #canadianphotography #womeninphotography #naturephotography #OntarioPhotographer

Don Newlands’s work defined Canadian photojournalism and documentary photography for close to two decades. Newlands worked as a photographer and photo editor during the 1960s and early 1970s for many nationally and internationally significant publications, including The Canadian, Weekend, Maclean’s, Black Star, Time, Life, and Paris Match. Dolores Gubasta is a photo editor and owner of the KlixPix photography agency in Toronto, Ontario. She produces editorial projects nationally and internationally and is the agent for the Don Newlands image collection. I first laid eyes on Don Newlands’s photography when researching images for a Maclean’s feature book about Pierre Trudeau in 2000. Newlands had incredible images of a young Trudeau attempting to row to Cuba in 1960. Trudeau is pictured with two friends in a canoe on the high seas on the Gulf of Mexico wearing a white turban around his head. I started my career at the Canadian Press picture department, where I washed and dried thousands of pictures, many of Trudeau. These Cuba pictures were taken long before he became prime minister. I was curious to meet Newlands and to ask my burning question: “How did you end up on that trip?” When I finally got my chance, I asked the question and Newlands replied, “Pierre kept threatening to row to Cuba. I told him to call me when you do it.” Don Newlands was born in 1927 and grew up in the wealthy Westmount neighbourhood of Montreal, Quebec. The only child of a beautiful mother and a handsome father who was the president of a typewriter company. He was pampered and well schooled, especially in the arts. During this time, Newlands befriended a racy pack of intellectuals, including Pierre Trudeau, musicians and poets such as Leonard Cohen, artists, writers, and wealthy business people. Montreal was an exciting city fuelled by creativity. As a budding photographer at the time, Newlands was called on by his friend Trudeau to photograph his author’s portrait for his first published book. His talent was obvious. By early 1961, he had moved to Toronto and was shooting freelance for all the big magazines of the day. He was also the only photographer for Black Star in Canada. Black Star, based in New York, specialized in photojournalism and was closely identified with Time, Life, and Paris Match magazines. Around 2001, I pressed Newlands to show me what else he had in his collection of images. A long-time photo editor and researcher for magazines and Canadian history books, I was surprised I had not come across his work earlier. Newlands had kept his body of work stored in the basement of his home near Colborne, Ontario. While his contemporaries had sold their image collections to the National Archives, he wanted none of that. He had concerns that once his collection was tucked away in an archive, the images would not see the light of day. At this time, I was running my own photo assignment agency and working extensively with Time magazine. They were interested in reflecting our Canadian heritage back to us. At one point, a history of Canadian photography book was proposed and, for some reason, the publisher had hired Time magazine editors in New York to put it together. I was asked to contribute, and that is why, Newlands’s images found their way to my office. He arrived at my office screeching into the driveway in his duct-taped Firebird with a flaming bird decal on the hood. He brought me a selection of his favourite images, about a hundred 11 x 14 inch black and white fibre-based prints. They were dog-eared, crop-marked with grease pencil, and stamped with dates and notes from publishers. As a photo researcher who had leafed through thousands of old photo files at every newspaper in town, I was in awe of the scope of his talent. His imagery had a raw honesty equal to that of some of the best international photographers of the day. Yet, he was largely unknown. In all my years as a photo editor, I had not seen such real work about Canada. His photo essays documented Canadians: from a large New Brunswick family lined up in front of their run-down farmhouse, to Inuit people on the shores of James Bay, to portraits of the elite Quebec intelligentsia, to powerful Ottawa politicians, to photos of hippie musicians singing in Yorkville, Toronto. The breadth and quality of the work was impressive. Newlands documented Canada’s coming of age during the 1960s and early ’70s. He photographed creative cultural icons, including Sylvia and Ian Tyson, Gordon Lightfoot, Ronnie Hawkins, Anne Murray, and Christopher Plummer. He had connections with politicians, including Joey Smallwood, Paul Martin Senior, and Preston Manning. As well, his ties in the business community gave him access to K.C. Irving and important families such as the McCains. He also had a vast collection of social documentary work about everyday people: a large man on a bulldozer building roads through the Rockies; rodeo goers at the Calgary Stampede; children balancing on floating logs in B.C. logging camps; kids playing on the colourful streets of St. John’s; young rural Quebec teens riding their banana bikes with separatist gang logos on the backs of their vests. Unfortunately, the history of Canadian photography book never materialized. Newlands was a passionate character who had the patience to wait for the decisive moment to trip the shutter. He was stunningly good-looking with an incredible ability to charm and disarm male and female portrait subjects. Newlands had the luxury of spending time getting to know his subjects, capturing them in natural environmental portraits. His images rendered a true sense of his subjects, showing who they were and what they did. In a rare and beautiful photo essay documenting the quintessential power of New Brunswick businessman K.C. Irving, Newlands spent several days documenting Irving and his sons travelling from their offices and home to Irving oil refineries, wilderness logging camps, sawmills, paper mills, and newspaper offices. Newlands lost interest in photographing people in the early 1970s, when art directors started to go along on portrait shoots to personally set up lights and pose people. After an incredible career that ranged from the great era of photojournalism and documentary style photo spreads to the posed set up portraiture still common today, Newlands became disenchanted. Following his next great obsession, he became an avid ham radio operator from his home in Colborne, Ontario. He loved to speak with people all over the world, despite living a secluded and solitary life. Newlands was intensely private and he rebuked many of my attempts to go see him and his collection. We did, in time, share stories and experiences about Canadian photography and journalism. Eventually, we became friends. Sadly, our friendship had a time limit. Newlands had been diagnosed with terminal cancer. He once said to me, “You can’t believe how amazing every blade of grass and each new bud on a tree is when you’ve only been given a month to live.” His joie de vivre kept him alive for another five years. Because of his illness, I was worried about him living alone. I was relieved when he called me to tell me he had been reunited with his ex-wife Pauline. Undeniably, they were the great loves of each other’s lives. She took him into her home, fed him with her amazing cooking, and kept him healthy. After the 2006 book launch of John English’s Citizen of the World - The Life and Times of Pierre Elliott Trudeau, featuring Newlands’s first portrait of Trudeau as the cover image, I was invited for a meal at Pauline’s house. I saw how much love, admiration, and fun they had at this late stage of life. I realized that Newlands’s story went way beyond his photographic work. When the Colborne house was sold, the couple brought the rest of Newlands’s pictures to me. I became the keeper of the Don Newlands Collection. Newlands work won many art and photography awards in Canada, the United States, and Europe. Sadly, now there are but a few remaining art directors, photographers, and friends who knew him and his photographs. To me and to those who knew him, he was a legend and a vibrant character, well worthy of note as a contributor to Canadian photojournalism history. The Don Newlands Collection: Now & in the Future: Over the last 15 years, I have exhibited key images from the Don Newlands Collection. In 2005, I curated an exhibition of his work for the CONTACT Festival of Photography in Toronto. With the dedicated help of Kamelia Pezeshki and Rita Godlevskis, I have been working to digitize, preserve, and share the archive. The collection consists of over 1000 black and white fibre-based prints and thousands of colour 35mm & 120 format transparencies. Sadly, some of Newlands work has become damaged in poor storage conditions. Some of these images have transformed themselves. The patina of time has created new unintentional compositions. As Newlands documented Canada’s coming of age, Canada’s 150th celebration is the ideal time to share his work with all Canadians. To see more work by Don Newlands, visit: www.klixpix.com #DonNewlands #photohistoryincanada #canadianphotographer #blackandwhite #documentaryphotography #peoplephotography

Here's how: 1 . Starting with the original image. With the Red channel only selected, from the menu click Select > All (⌘A) and then click on Edit > Copy (⌘C). 2 . Deselect (Select > Deselect (⌘D). In the Layers panel create a new layer (Layer > New > Layer …). Paste into this new layer (⌘V). Change Blending mode to Luminosity and Opacity to about 25%. 3 . Apply Filter > Blur > Gaussian Blur ..., pixel radius = 16. 4. Create a blank Layer mask. With soft brush of suitable size paint eyes, eyebrows, and lips to bring back original. (Using black as the brush colour will reveal the bottom layer.) From the Layers pull down menu select Flatten Image. Open Filter > Lens Correction … Select the Custom tab and apply a Vignette to darken the corners. #photoshoptechnique #HowTo #portraiture #peoplephotography

Michael Greenberg’s dedication to personal growth, capturing beauty, and bringing meaning to his photographs has led to the development of a distinctive style of wedding photography and a growing business, Phototerra Studio. His experience with a variety of artistic mediums, his diverse education, his varied professional background, and his experiences in a number of countries, all contribute to his innovative style. Although he always had an interest in photography, Greenberg had been involved in multiple disciplines before undertaking photography as a full-time profession. Prior to his transition into wedding photography, Greenberg attended medical school, trained as a pianist, and worked as a computer programmer. In addition to his training and occupations, Greenberg has lived in various countries, including Russia, Israel, and Georgia. Greenberg’s introduction to wedding photography came when his sister asked him to photograph her wedding. Although this gave him some experience, as well as the desire to pursue wedding photography, he still had a number of obstacles ahead before he could transition into a permanent career. While working as a computer programmer, he began to feel dissatisfied with his occupation and considered photography as a creative outlet from which he could earn his living. He was further motivated by necessity; when he was laid off from his job, finding clients was the only way to continue photography and earn a living. Starting a new business was difficult. He eventually gained contacts: his friend knew a wedding planner, and he began attending trade shows. As he developed skill in his new field, his work volume increased as well, progressing from sporadic jobs to eventually shooting 12 weddings a year, and sometimes working 24-hour days to keep up with the demands of his business. Starting a business in a new field, in a country he was still becoming acquainted with, he had to develop his craft independently: “I didn’t ever assist [another photographer],” he says. “I started from scratch.” Greenberg learned the technical aspects of his profession through research, and trial and error. According to Greenberg, one of the most important developmental aspects of photography, and art in general, is learning from other sources and disciplines. Greenberg states that he primarily draws from photographic mediums and artistic genres other than wedding photography and incorporates elements from these into his work: “I often look at fashion photography, nature photography, or paintings.” Greenberg’s perpetual pursuit for new ideas and techniques allows him to continually reinvent his work. Accordingly, he avoids repetition as his photography changes from one year to the next. In addition to observing alternative sources, Greenberg emphasizes that one of the most important aspects of development and improvement is critical analysis. “It’s not enough to just say ‘this is good,’” he states. “It is important to find out why it is good and how the effect was achieved.” According to Greenberg, finding out what makes other art work, and then applying those discoveries, is one of the most important things a photographer can do. Additionally, he recommends reading widely, in order to enrich both photographs and the photographer. While creativity and abstraction factor into Greenberg’s style, he notes that traditional shots and documentation are crucial aspects of wedding photography: “Weddings are traditional events ... Many of my photos will be traditional family shots or photojournalistic documentation.” He says that no matter what the subject, he looks for significance and beauty in any situation: “I try to bring meaning to every shot.” Greenberg cautions that while the creative aspects of wedding photography are the most interesting and rewarding, they can be impossible without taking care of essential business practices such as contracts and releases: “The legal aspect [of wedding photography] is one of the most important. The process can be absorbing, but photographers should always cover themselves.” Greenberg says that while facets of a photography business such as obtaining insurance are not usually fun or creative, a business could easily be destroyed by preventable legal issues. Greenberg’s determination, his ability to learn from his past, and his eclectic influence have led to rewards such as being named one of the top 10 Canadian wedding photographers by the Canadian Wedding Photography Industry Awards. By following his passion, Greenberg continues to draw clients, locally and internationally, while continuing to learn and create. We featured MICHAEL GREENBERG and this article in our SPRING / SUMMER 2010 ISSUE. If you’re looking for wedding and celebration photography inspiration, you can find it HERE. Check out what Phototerra has been up to at: www.phototerra.com #weddingphotography #phototerra #peoplephotography #portraiture #portrait #MichaelGreenberg

Dale Roth and Michele Ramberg (R&R) are photography partners. Roth, based in Vancouver, and Ramberg, situated in Calgary, founded their company in 1993, with a mission to evolve their craft and grow a portfolio that embraces diverse genres of photography, challenging their creativity and ability. “We founded our company with the loose business plan of ‘work hard and have fun doing it,’ and the rest would take care of itself,” Ramberg says. “After 25 years in business, these are still our goals, with the addition of creating trust in our ability and our brand.” One of this photo team’s key proficiencies centres on portraits, shooting everyday people with an intimate, natural, and expressive approach. They seek interesting subjects who do not fit into the mainstream mould. “It’s hard to explain “interesting,” but it is something about appearance (young and vibrant, old with great character, attractive, tattooed), or a demeanour and confidence that attracts us,” Roth says. “As far as capturing spirit, I guess what makes us good at it comes from years of photographing people. Eventually most subjects relax while we shoot and feel confident and comfortable, or even vulnerable at times. That movement of honesty usually leans to the best photo. In the end, we want our subjects to forget they are being photographed,” Ramberg adds. “WHAT CANADA OFFERS BESIDES BEAUTY IS A GENUINENESS OF THE PEOPLE.” —MICHELE RAMBERG A project that has been gaining strong interest and visibility for R&R is their recent bookwork, Woodworkers Along the Salish Sea, featuring artists who carve and their stories, inspirations, visions, and creative processes. The area along the Salish Sea, near Sooke, British Columbia, is inspirational to a wide diversity of people: weird, helpful, and friendly characters who understand and appreciate the beauty of the smells, sights, and sounds of the forests and the beaches. This region provides a mystical backdrop to the stories behind the woodworkers and their craft. It is also still relatively untouched by aggressive development. Artists are drawn here to lose themselves in the inherent wild spirituality. “The woodworkers were chosen for this photography project primarily because of their location,” Ramberg says. “We wanted to photograph a diversity of end products — bowls, masks, furniture, ships, guitars, etc. — as well as source different cultural backgrounds and genders. After the first one or two portraits, we realized each woodworker’s shop was a reflection of the woodcutter’s personality and also represented their work. Mike, for example, has a shop that is uncannily meticulous. Every tool has a specific spot, and every machine is clean and shiny. The bowls he made were an extension of himself, just like his shop.” The artists’ carving sheds and workshops are each unique because of the tools they use, how woods are sourced and seasoned, and how the artists design, create, and produce uniquely beautiful products. The scope of the Woodworkers project is one of evolution: the original shoot encompassed 15 woodcarvers and woodworkers in the area, with another eight still to be photographed. The R&R team say that there are at least another 25 to 30 exceptional wood artists in the Sooke area, including carvers, luthiers, shipwrights, log house builders, wood turners, and surf board makers, most of whom are over 50 years old. The photography duo is also working with writer Pirjo Raits and project organizer Phoebe Dunbar to produce this work. “They (the woodworkers) have many skills and life experiences to bring to their craft and art. They also are very aware of where and how to source woods. Our carvers have been fortunate in that some of the timber companies have been willing to let the carvers go up onto their tree farm licences and salvage wood. We have good carving woods around — especially cedar — and it is compelling and ‘inspiriting’ to use woods native to our coast. It is relatively easy in our area to seek knowledge and ‘wood wisdom’ from mentors and other woodworkers. There is a willingness to share,” Dunbar says. The R&R team photographed the woodworkers in black and white to highlight each carvers unique character; however, the artists’ work involves a rich spectrum of colours, so currently there is a dilemma around the look of the final book. “It may be a mixture of both if we can make it work,” Roth says. Roth and Ramberg agree that making a living as photographers is getting harder and harder because virtually everyone has a camera built into their phone. They advise aspiring photographers to hone their lighting skills as a tool for differentiating their work. “Photography is ever-changing and the new photographer has to adapt and be nimble, looking for opportunities where their skills can be combined with others to create a successful business,” the team state. “We are constantly trying new ideas and photo techniques, whether it be lighting or Photoshop. We stay on top of social media to make sure our brand is presented in a positive way, and we make sure we are connected with our photography community to promote creativity and professionalism.” WWW.ROTHANDRAMBERG.COM #RothandRamberg #blackandwhite #womeninphotography #BritishColumbia #documentaryphotography #peoplephotography #portraitphotography #PhotoCollaborators #commercialphotographers #canadianphotography

The practice of visual storytelling through photography involves many of the same components that a written story requires. Just as a writer needs to create an atmosphere in which to set out a story, so too does a photographic storyteller need to create the symbols, emotions, and mood that tell the story through images. The challenge of telling a story with a single image and having viewers relate and connect to it is one that Patty Maher loves to explore in the boundaries between real life and the otherworldly, surreal, and fantastic. In her photo “She Carried Her Dreams,” Maher evokes the everyman’s experience of failed dreams. “The title of that photo goes a long way to evoke the concept, but also the posture of how [the subject] is holding on to the suitcase — keeping it close and holding it with a very firm grip, kind of how people hold on to their dreams. It is an example of me nudging the viewer to understand a message, where the suitcase is symbolic of something where dreams are held, and that when they ‘escape’ or don’t work out, it is a matter of waiting and calling on new dreams to come. I think anyone who has lived has had the experience of dreams not working out, and I think it’s important to have the ability, as humans, to create new dreams and goals in light of that,” Maher says. Maher, who is fascinated by the deeper, more intangible elements of life, works purposefully to include a sense of mysticism in her storytelling. Her images — ethereal, solitary, isolated, and wistful — have a dark and supernatural aura to them, as though they are “always present, wafting their way in, in some form or other.” While Maher believes that these darker emotions are a part of the human condition, she also likes to portray a sense of hope and beauty in her stories to uplift them. Maher took up photography a mere five years ago. She got her start in conceptual photography (the illustration of ideas through photography) and this evolved into the telling of stories through image-making. Maher used self-portraiture almost exclusively as she began her storytelling, taking posed pictures of herself doing ordinary things such as reading a book, standing by a tree, and walking down the street. But she found focusing on herself got old really fast, so she dropped the “I” as her subject focus and instead used herself as an embryonic prop to create images that embraced drama, intrigue, and nuance. “Even if the emotion the stories came from was personal in the first instance, they became much more interesting when translated through a fictional character,” Maher says. “Moving out of the personal allowed viewers to come into the story and find their own meaning within it.” An intrinsic component of Maher’s storytelling is that the emotions evoked are stoked exclusively through a female photo centric lens. “I would love to use men in my photography, but most of them resist the idea of dressing up in swooshy wigs and dresses; the ones who do just can’t pull it off,” she says jokingly. Maher finds that the props she now uses, often everyday objects she has on hand, add a symbolic tenor to her images, giving a full narrative to a photograph that has comparatively little narrative without it. Location and weather are also integral components to telling her stories, although with the elements so difficult to predict Maher often adds weather features later in Photoshop. “As in real estate, I think location is huge in storytelling. I spend a lot of time scouting out locations. In fact, everywhere I go and no matter what I’m doing I always have an eye out for a good location. I define ‘good’ as any location that sparks my imagination, either by its beauty or its desolation. I usually add in the weather later via Photoshop, although every once in a while I hit a day where I am ready to shoot and the weather does something really interesting,” Maher says. Maher is quite excited that her images have been likened to cinematography stills, a comparison that she considers high praise. “To have my images look like stills is definitely my intention,” she says. Sketching ideas prior to shooting, a practice often used by conceptual photographers, is not part of Maher’s toolkit. “I tried it once, but for me it was kind of pointless,” she says. “Somehow I can’t translate a photo into two dimensions, and trying to do so kills the idea for me. I generally visualize what I want to do, and if I can’t do it right, then I write down the idea in words so I’ll remember it later.” The internet is a huge asset to showcasing Maher’s work, both as a source of networking with other photographers and as a source for initiating new opportunities. “When I first started taking photos I posted them on a blog, which I found very useful as it gave me a way to collect and present them. Then, I started sharing my photos on places like Flickr and Facebook, where I’d receive both praise and constructive criticism from other photographers. Developing that kind of community interaction really helped propel me forward. Since then, almost every opportunity I’ve had with photography has come through the Internet, either from people seeing my photos in a feature or interview in an online magazine, or from photo sharing sites,” Maher says. “If I can touch something real for myself in a photo, then I usually find it has something in it for others as well. I often discard photos that might technically be considered a ‘good photo’ because they lack feeling.” www.pattymaher.com This story originally appeared in our 'Telling Stories' Spring/Summer issue - get it in print HERE. #PattyMaher #visualstorytelling #portrait #womeninphotography #landscape #canadianphotography #OntarioPhotographer

In photography, as in most visual art disciplines, making a statement is important, but often equally important is the ability to provoke questions. Alex Webster is a Toronto-based photographer whose panoramic photographs are immediately striking, but they also challenge viewers’ perceptions and provoke curiosity. Webster says, “I think provoking questions should be a pervasive theme in all art. If someone can walk by a piece of art without questioning what it’s getting at, or what it’s about, then it’s not finished work." Webster’s entrance into photography began with a camera his father gave him in high school. Although his interest briefly waned during his high-school years, he applied to the photography program at Ryerson University. Webster wasn’t initially accepted (due to the small size of his portfolio at the time), but he, nevertheless, persevered and continued to show interest in photography. Completing his BA in English Creative Writing at Concordia University in Montreal, he continued improving his skills and building up his portfolio by taking continuing education courses at Ryerson. Webster notes that a major turning point came for him after partaking in an intensive three-week course offered by Ryerson: “After spending three weeks taking photos, talking photo, and learning the history of photography, I knew that I would eventually get involved in photography more intensively than the average person.” Webster’s continued interest and involvement in photography eventually culminated in his acceptance to Ryerson and the subsequent completion of his degree there. He believes that his varied education and experience have contributed to his artistic skill, discipline, and philosophy. He explains, “I often took away much more from my peers’ critiques than my own. The importance of being able to vocalize your own work’s purpose with the appropriate language was also emphasized.” Webster’s acceptance of constructive criticism and his knowledge of narrative have led him to create art that often centres on experience. He focuses on creating multi-dimensional art, rather than just achieving one aspect of visual communication. “I think my [English degree in Montreal] helped me begin to understand that art needs to be about something more than the face value components that make it up. Funny dialogue doesn’t sell a movie if there isn’t a decent story to support it. I think the same of photography that is executed with an extremely high technical standard but doesn’t offer any further depth or engage the viewer on different levels.” Webster feels similarly about using a panoramic format only for the sake of the format itself. He states that, initially, he was apprehensive about creating panoramas, but later he felt that his work began to demand them. In his Challenging Perceptions series, Webster used the panoramic format as a way to introduce the qualities of time and movement into a visual experience. “My initial idea of incorporating two times of day into one photograph started with a single frame, but then expanded into panoramas when I realized the potential qualities of marrying them together.” says Webster. Webster says he doesn’t see himself exclusively as a panoramic photographer: “I think the initial shock of seeing 180 degrees at once is an amazing thing, but it can’t be relied upon to give photos credibility in art. I think it’s a dangerous format that can often end up being more about the aesthetic qualities and less about what’s actually in the photograph.” For Webster, the medium he uses must be complementary to the experience he is trying to establish in his art. “I think the viewer is challenged to believe my panoramas were shot all in one moment because that is how we are accustomed to viewing photographs. We think of them as solitary moments captured in a split second. My work plays with that norm and presents a very different picture of reality: a moment that spans time and space, but remains a fixed image." While he cites the monetary expenses associated with photography and the difficulties associated with starting a business as potential obstacles, he is ready to learn from his future experiences as he has learned from the past. Webster’s determination to view “the world through different forms of presentation and perspectives,” allows him to see opportunities for growth and expression in a field with an abundance of challenges in store. www.alexwebster.ca This article previously appeared our WINTER Issue - 2008. #TorontoPhotography #panoramicphotography #canadianphotography #landscape #AlexWebster #fineartphotography