Vancouver Photo Workshops: The Colour Moment

This past Saturday I was SERIOUSLY privileged to spend the day at an Arthur Meyerson photography workshop in Vancouver. The first half of the day was spent in class, looking through samples of his work and other respected photographers, discussing in essence, what really makes a photo. As in: what makes your photos different than every other Joe Bloe's? He talked about finding your own "composition key," which basically boiled down to figuring out what makes your photos tick. I had an "aha" moment...if I apply the elements of design which I know so well to my photos before I take them...kinda dumb, but I had never thought about planning out my photos that way. I usually just go by "feel" (which is also great), but it definitely became a challenge to myself.

I went home that night extremely exhausted,  inspired and refreshed. I loved spending the day with other creatives and hearing . Hearing about photography from someone who's been doing it in film, polaroids, and digital SLR --experiencing the evolution of photography--was extremely valuable. A lot of the photographers I admire are from my generation, and we just can't bring that experience to the table!

We spent the afternoon at Granville Island taking photos, with the assignment being to capture these four things: light, colour, moment, gesture. It was definitely a good day of learning, being reminded of what really makes a strong photo and being challenged to "see" rather than "look" at what is around us. It was also a bit freeing to be "on assignment" and feel justified in taking photos of people around me, something I'm usually too scared to do! So anyways, I took over 500 photos that have no practical purpose, so I'm going to share quite a few! I think I'll break it up over a few posts over the next few days.

This first batch (my first draft said "patch"...why do i find typo's so hilarious?!) is my "kids" collection. The kids were fun, colourful, and not shy. This is where I really pushed myself out of my comfort zone: these are not my usual type of photos!