Field Trip

Yesterday I took my Photographic Design (PHTG 202) Spring semester class on a field trip. We didn't have to go far, just to downtown Calgary. I thought it would break up the semester a bit and also give them a break from me doing all the talking. It was a great day to be trekking around the core. The energy of the office crowds at lunch was a nice change from the quiet halls of ACAD, as the school is nearly devoid of students after April 30th.

We visited ABL Imaging and the Four By Five gallery of photography. The purpose of the visits was to introduce the students (who are starting their last year of ACAD in the fall) to the world of design and photography outside of the classroom and to learn what happens after the photo is taken and the design is complete.

ABL President, Susan Otterson gave us the rundown of their services and a tour of the facilities. The students were impressed with all the professional design work that they saw in progress and in "finished" form. Their creative juices were really flowing with the possibility of designing a plexi mounted cover image on their grad portfolio book.

ABL Imaging produces a wide array of display solutions for all types of clients like photographers, ad agencies, real estate developers, architects, restaurants and more. Photographic prints from 8x10 inches to wall size, back lit displays, inkjet printing on canvas, custom wall paper from your design, signage, and all sorts of customized mounting options are just a few things on their product list. ABL still even processes E-6 film on the premises.

After lunch we went to Art Central where the Four by Five Gallery of Photographic Arts is located. Steve Speer was an enthusiastic presenter. As it turns out, Steve is a graphic designer as well as a photographer and it was a great fit for the students. It is clear that Steve "loves what he does" and he's not afraid to say so. He has a great blend of experience with both the art and the technology of photography, which really fits well with my own philosophy and way of teaching. Steve kept the group engaged with both his design and photography stories from the field, and finally settled the age-old question of inkjet vs. giclee. Inkjet = Giclee, and that only the pompous call their inkjet prints giclees, or as I like to put it, giclee is the French word for inkjet. (I recently exhibited an inkjet print on vinyl and cheekily labelled it "Giclee on Vinyl" to see if any eyebrows raised.)

Four By Five exhibits and sells only archival quality photographic prints. Silver based as well as digital prints are accepted. All shows are juried by the Four By Five collective.

As always, I appreciate the time busy professionals like Susan and Steve take out of their schedules to meet with students. It's a great way to introduce products and services to students as they enter their final year of college and move on to their professional practice. It teaches them to network, and it opens doors on both sides for future customer/supplier relationships.

Art Attack

Inspired by my Photographic Design (PHTG 202) students, I am participating in this year's Art Attack, which is a fund raiser for ACAD's Visual Communications student scholarships. See below for complete details.

About the work
This is my first time participating in Art Attack and also my first time shooting food, so I wanted to make something interesting and appealing for this year’s event.

Veggie Toss was created by throwing actual vegetables up in the air and capturing them at the moment of peak design. Some motion is still present, due to the slow shutter speed, which adds to the dynamic qualities of the shots.

The vegetables are lit from behind using the translucent panel of a Photoflex Litedisc, and in front using a shoot-through umbrella. This shows nicely in the backlit tomatoes and soft highlights.

Vegetables travel at different rates of speed depending on their weight. It took about 120 shots to get the three images shown here. No retouching was done to the photographs.

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ART ATTACK
A feast for the eyes: 50 fabulous creations that pay homage to food and drink

The Alberta College of Art + Design is pleased to present the ninth annual Art Attack on Thursday, June 5, 2008.

Art Attack is a fundraising extravaganza that features the thrill of a live auction for one-of-a-kind pieces of art. Started in 1999 this event has grown and now provides two scholarships to deserving students in the Alberta College of Art + Design's Visual Communications Design program. Art Attack is successful because of the outstanding support of the community combined with the contributing designers, illustrators and fine artists who donate their time and work. Many are ACAD alumni; busy professionals who want to give back to the college to benefit the promising students with strength in both design and illustration.

This year’s event promises to provide a feast for both mind and body with stimulating pieces of art and design combined with great food and conversation. The silent auction will feature works created by local well-known artists who will utilize a common household element as their blank canvas – the chef's apron. Twenty identical aprons will be transformed into twenty unique and creative interpretations. This "variety within unity" approach is based on a design principle of the same name and will create a tremendous visual impact, certain to be appealing to food aficionados and artists alike. In contrast, a live auction will feature thirty "anything goes" pieces which were created by artists and designers whose only direction was to create a piece that reflects their expression of the theme. Ceramics, photographs, illustrations, paintings, jewelry and mixed medium creations have been donated for the heart-stopping live auction event.

Artists who have donated work include: Rick Sealock, Chris Cran, Katrina Chaytor, Karen Klassen, Laurel Johannesson, Guy Parsons, Dena Seiferling, Dee Fontans, Charles Lewton-Brain, Hugo Dubon, Margo Visser, Scott McLean, Marlene Hielema and many more!

Art Attack
Alberta College of Art + Design
Thursday, June 5, 2008
7 pm - doors open and silent auction
8:30 pm - live auction begins
Tickets $75.00 each
Please call (403) 338-5585 for tickets

Art Attack is presented by the Graphic Designers of Canada, Alberta South Chapter and net proceeds go to Visual Communications Design student scholarships at ACAD. Art Attack is also generously supported by Macleod Dixon, Coast Paper, Sasges Inc. and McAra Printing.

PhotoShelter

After much research, consultation and deliberation I have finally adopted PhotoShelter Personal Archive to house my stock image collection. Currently I have over 100 photos in my PS archive mainly in the area of women's fitness and travel. In the coming weeks I will be adding more photos, as well as setting up the e-commerce functionality that is available. This will allow me to sell licensing and prints through the site with little or no hands-on involvement.

It took me a long time to choose a partner in this endeavor. Digital Railroad was also an option, as was building my own, but PhotoShelter made me an offer I couldn't refuse: $124 a year for 10GB of storage, including the e-commerce set up option. For the price of ~ $10 a month I can't even host my own site with that many high resolution images. I'm no web programmer, so a pre-built system was really my only option, as I don't have the funds to hire the talent needed to build me a custom site.

So why did it take me so long to make up my mind? My main concerns were that I wouldn't be able to utilize the SEO techniques that I have recently incorporated into my portfolio website. I am consistently placing in the top 10 in Google searches for my images, especially in the area of women's sports and fitness. I didn't want to lose those hits and contacts with buyers. As a result I am trying a hybrid model; one that uses the hits that lead to my web site as a launching point to my PhotoShelter archive.

Another reason I chose to go with a conglomerate image site, is that all current marketing research points to social networking sites as the place where people make connections in their field. I am hoping to get new clients by moving to PhotoShelter and keep existing ones by maintaining my portfolio web site. Hopefully a healthy cross-pollination of clients will occur.

Family Photography Experience

I am excited to now be offering family portrait photography to my clients. It has taken me a long time to admit that I like or want to be doing this kind of photography, but I have decided to officially make it a part of my professional practice. Here is my pitch:

A creative family portrait experience awaits you. Choose your favourite location, whether it is a park or your own backyard. Your family can be photographed in your own special place. Or, go traditional, and set up a temporary studio in your home. The choice is yours. We will create your memories together.

Contact me for further information and pricing.

Keegan

What a cutie! Keegan graciously worked with me for over two hours without crying or falling asleep. He did pee a few times though, mostly on his daddy, but what do you expect from a 6-week old.

This shot was lit with a softbox hanging from a boom over top and using the silver panel of a MultiDisk for fill. Keeg's dad did the post on this image and gave it the nice soft desaturated look.

Noah

I am working hard on the "Boys Project" this week with a couple of shoots booked.

This first is Noah here. He's about 14 months old and he's a real bookworm. This shot captures a genuine moment from our time together, no forced smiles, just Noah being his curious self.

It took us awhile to connect, but once we did, things really clicked, and clicked. Two hundred shots later and we were both ready for bed!

Lighting was an umbrella front left, a 2'x3' soft box up high and slightly behind the right side as a hair light, and a 3'x4' white scrim as fill on the right side. I was shooting from a small space between the umbrella and the fill. This is the lighting set up I usually use for corporate portraits. I like using a soft box as a hair light. It's a bit smoother than a grid spot. This lighting set up also gives one large catch light in the eyes, which I like.

Calgary Cares

A unique print of this photograph has been donated to Calgary Cares, a fund raiser for AIDS Calgary, for their silent auction happening during their big event on March 29, 2008.

About this piece
Photographer: Marlene Hielema
Title: Taylor
Date: 2008
Medium: Giclee on Vinyl
Dimension: 35” x 27” Framed

The first photograph I ever envisioned and captured was of my two year-old brother, when I was six. He was sitting on the front step of our farmhouse wearing dad's cap and holding a box of Ritz crackers. I remember looking at him in that moment and thinking, "That would make a great picture." I ran inside and asked my mom if I could use the camera - a Kodak box camera. That was the start of a lifelong project of portraits of boys.

Why boys? Access mostly. I am the only girl in my family. When my brothers eventually married they also had male offspring. All of my closest friends seem to have boys, and my partner recently became a grandparent to, you guessed it, a boy. As a result I have a comfort level with boys of all ages which allows me to photograph them easily.

This particular photo comes from a portrait session I had with two brothers. They chose the location and borrowed a buddy's truck for the afternoon. It was one of those amazing shoots where everything was in sync: weather, location, and personalities, to provide a memorable creative experience for all involved.

I have been experimenting with printing on metal for the last five years and this presentation is part of that research. This image was printed on outdoor use vinyl using an ink jet (Giclee) printer. I hope to some day compile a show or a book of the photographs of boys that I have taken over the years.

This photograph is also on display at the Alberta College of Art + Design Faculty Show in the ACAD Illingworth Kerr Gallery, which runs from March 20 to April 19, 2008.