Jared Fein

EXPLORATION #20 “Framing Your Ideas with a “flat lay”

Session:  June 1^st   7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

A flat lay is a composition of carefully selected and arranged items, arranged on a flat surface and shot directly from above.

In this Exploration you should assemble a thematic group of items and design a compositional arrangement that illustrates the links among them – one that that clearly communicates these relationships to the viewer. Select diverse shapes and sizes, create a simple, strong composition and balance, complementary textures and decide on a colour palette suited to the overall theme. This is an opportunity to select a fascinating subject that you enjoy, would like to share, and reflects your interests.

Background elements should generally be simple or plain. Lighting should be appropriate to the content – most often this will be a diffuse natural or artificial source of illumination.

Typical subjects for this genre include food, fashion, technology, hobbies, artistic skills, etc. but its open to any personal interpretation.

Deadline for submissions: midnight May 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.

Mastering the Basics of Off-Camera Flash

Several OCC members missed the tutorial on off-camera flash which I presented on March 14^th. I have offered to give a tutorial/question/answer session on Monday April 4th from 7:00 to 9:00 p.m.

Explorations#19 is an off-camera flash assignment so it would be important to attend if you wish to participate.

This tutorial is designed as an introductory guide to using off-camera flash in a home or small studio space using low cost and DIY tools and techniques to producing successful results. Especially useful for beginners, intermediate photographers, and those with a fear of using flash, this presentation will take the participant through the basic principles, foundational tools, and simple set-ups for solutions to several typical applications.

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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 8^th  7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Submission Deadline: Images are due by midnight March 6^th

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 8^th 2022 - 7.00 p.m. to 9.00 p.m.

Submission Deadline: Images due by midnight February 6^th 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 11^th 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.