Well, the WIPS photography seminar this year was held in my little city this weekend, and my grandparents bought the ticket for me. On Friday night, Ralph Gibson did a moving presentation on his strictly film photography and also did a musical presentation involving an electric guitar and some of his photographs and some film footage that he and a friend had shot. It was very different and certainly not for everyone, but I quite enjoyed it. Best of all, I was able to talk to Ralph Gibson (he invited me over to his table) a little, before his presentation, and much more afterward, with the encouragement of a photographer who had come all the way from Nova Scotia (the seminar was in Ontario). If you don't know who Ralph Gibson is, don't feel too bad as I didn't either before last week, but he is something of the grandfather of black and white photography. He shoots colour as well sometimes, but, as my friend from Nova Scotia, Mark, put it, he shoots it the same way he shoots black and white. High contrast, much simplicity, and a talent for making use of space as well as the objects surrounding the space. What he talked about a lot was the "point of departure," which I can't exactly explain here, but I will say that it causes one to go back to the photograph and want to look at it again and again and take away something different each time.

On Saturday, there were three talks. The first two were by Rob and James, two "no BS" photographers in a business together who like to have a lot of fun and who also had some great things to share. Rob was the first speaker and he talked a lot about the business of family and wedding photography. He talked about including triangles in the shots, diagonal lines, and how, in family photos, one must "Make Mom look good because she's the boss," and "Make Dad feel like he's in charge." James did his presentation on off camera flash which consists of placing two flashes on either side of the subject, exposing the camera for the flashes, rather than for the subject, and this creates a very moody shot. It's a lot of high contrast with strong shadows that create an almost HDR effect.

The third speaker was Canadian nature photographer Darwin Wiggett. He talked about the pros and cons of JPEG versus RAW formats. His advice when it came to shooting RAW images was not to underexpose the image, but actually to slightly overexpose the image by making sure the histogram was to the right rather than the left or the middle. Then, darken it and boost the contrast on the computer, and your image will actually look better than it would have as a JPEG. He also talked a lot about using filters rather than photoshop. Polarized filters can be used to boost colour on overcast days, they can be used to enhance rainbows, and they can be used to get rid of harsh reflections so that one could see through water. Gold-n-blue polarized filters are just what they sound like; they will push gold or blue or both to enhance the photo to look like sunrise or sunset, or to give a colder or warmer feel. Then there are gradient filters, harsh or gradual, so that if exposing for the dark areas caused the sky to be blown out, one could simply put on one of these filters, harsh or gradual as needed, and have a photo that was perfectly exposed for both land or water and sky. Sometimes, a photo might call for a combination of these filters. The beauty of it was that one could use the filters to replicate exactly what they saw, or enhance what would otherwise be a dull image, all without the need of post-processing. Another very encouraging thing he said at the beginning was that one need not have a whole lot of equipment to be a good photographer and he showed several photos that he had taken with his little handheld point-and-shoot. And they were quite good! It was affirmation that it doesn't take good equipment to be a good photographer (though it helps), but just a good eye. Afterwards, I thanked Darwin for his presentation and bought one of his CDs with his presentation on it.

This morning was the final three presentations, one by James, then by a local photojournalist named Nick, and then by Rob. We, the audience, were split into three groups and rotated. James briefly went over off camera flash again before showing us his minor photoshop techniques for creating very dramatic images. The techniques? Simply make a copy of the background layer and set it to multiply, erase what you want to stand out as lighter than the rest, use the burn tool to darken any areas you want darker still, and finally the topaz adjustment filter photopop can create a very HDR like effect. Nick talked about photographing more than the main subject itself when it came to news, but rather the whole event. For example, if there is an air show, don't just photograph the planes, but photograph the vapor trail left behind, the people looking up at it, and the spectators. He also told us how he was able to get some of his shots simply by going in with a point-and-shoot, keeping a low profile, and waiting for the opportunity to shoot without getting into any trouble. Finally, Rob talked about posing and the ways to make Mom look good, and to make Dad look like he's in charge, which lighting and posing looks better for which gender. He went over soft boxes, reflectors, rembrandt lighting, profile lighting, head tilts, and even got two people from the audience, a young woman and a young man, to pose for him so that he could show us the five essential poses.

All in all, it was a wonderful experience, and I hope I can make it next year, though I don't know yet where it will be held. To top all of that off, the film festival also took place this weekend and I saw Good Hair, The Cove, and Enlighten Up!. All documentaries, all very different, and all worth seeing. By the way, I was momentarily mistaken for Penelope Cruz whilst waiting for my Grandparents to finish Broken Embraces after Ralph Gibson's presentation was finished. I can only take that as a very nice compliment! lol Anyway, I am absolutely elated right now. It's just been such an artsy weekend, and I'm sorry to see it end so soon. I enjoyed talking to Mark and Darwin and Ralph, and I do plan to visit their sites. I enjoyed the energy, the aura exuded by the excited people at the film festival, I loved being in an environment of people who were as passionate about a specific art form as I am, I even enjoyed being the youngest person at the photography seminar as it meant I could only learn from everyone else. This whole weekend was just so...me. And in a way I haven't really experienced before. But this is what I'm meant for; I've always been mistaken for an anti-social person, but I'm really not. I'm an intellectual and I enjoy speaking with intellectuals, surrounding myself with those people and stimulating my mind with ideas, and I hope to do do it much more often in the years to come.

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