Fawn Potash & Danielle Correia : Encaustics & Photography 2

The second of our two encaustics workshops was just as jam packed and productive as the first! We again had a full class and lots of students who were eager to get their hands into wax. Since my first encaustics blog post was so lengthy, I thought I would keep this one less full of words and more full of pictures...as well as focus on the cyanotype processes that we practiced. We began with a group demonstration on a large sensitized sheet. Fawn brought a ton of her little boy's toys along for us to scatter all over the surface. The sheet starts out light green and turns dark with sun exposure.




Once the sheet is exposed, you simply develop it in water. It turns from the dark green to a beautiful cyan.

Here is our final sheet...

Then we moved on to digital negatives and printing on sensitized paper.

The best part of cyanotypes is that you can do them wherever you want - it's so nice to be able to develop prints outside! The process is chemical-free, too, so it's easy to do with kids.

(We also found these great nametags!)

Fawn demonstrating hand coloring.

Our results! This class got really creative with toning and came up with some really well exposed final products!

Alex Webb & Rebecca Norris Webb : In the Street / Personal Photojournalism

The weekend with the Webb’s was an extremely full one! We had a full 15-student class, all 4 interns, 2 instructors, and Liz together for the entire weekend. For such an inspiring class, it was really nice to have everyone together instead of split up in a bunch of different directions.

Alex and Rebecca were a wonderfully balanced team to bring to CPW. Alex has been a member of Magnum Photos since 1976 and has published 8 photographic books. He has also worked for a number of major publications ranging from National Geographic to The New York Times Magazine. Alex has worked as a photojournalist in a wide variety of countries. One of my favorite things that he said in regard to street photography was that “it is a way of collaborating with the world,” as opposed to straightforward documentation. As a color photographer, he has a really remarkable sense of light, tonal range, and contrast.

Rebecca Norris Webb is originally a poet and journalist, with her interests recently turning to include photography. Her first book, The Glass Between Us, was published in 2006 with support from a Blue Earth Alliance Grant. Coming from a graphic design background, I really appreciate when photographers can use text in a meaningful, non-distracting way. Rebecca’s series uses text and image to look at the complicated relationship between animals and people, specifically in the contained environment of city. Many of the photographs in her book look at aquariums and zoos, where animals are kept in a contained, fabricated environment. Her newest series, My Dakota, looks at her idea of the American West. She was gracious enough to give the class a preview of these photographs, taken in the area she lived in her late teens.

From the moment the Webb’s walked in the door they were quite relaxed and ready to take on the weekend. They both seemed happy to be with us and excited about the potential the weekend held. They maintained this comfortable feeling throughout the entire workshop, being very open and honest with their stories and advice.

Alex and Rebecca were a really great compliment to each other in their teaching and opinions. They held a nice balance of conversational dialogue between two highly qualified artists and varied background in their approach and experience. During critiques, they gave great suggestions that ranged from artistic ideas to technical advice. I was also impressed at how they evenly balanced time and interest with individual student critiques with such a wide range of work.


At one point during the weekend the Webb's went through a list of their influences. It was really exciting to see who influences a pair of highly established artists. Their presentation ranged drastically from Henri Cartier-Bresson to Andrea Modica, Eugene Richards to Sylvia Plachy. Rebecca also mentioned how their influences also go beyond photography, including filmmakers, novelists and painters. They discussed how everything in your life, all of your experiences, is absorbed and can subconsciously come out in your artwork. While I think this is especially true for a conceptual artist, I found it interesting to think about how that comes out in photojournalism.

One of the group exercises we did was looked at editing. The students were put into small groups and given a bunch of slides. In these groups they were told to edit the images, rejecting images if necessary, into a cohesive sequence. (I may have gotten a bit excited about the light emitted from the light boxes…but I narrowed it down to just 4 images for you to see!).





After the groups finished, Alex and Rebecca went through the selections and gave their input. It was really nice to see how the two of them work together, their thought process, and the balance of styles. They emphasized how editing and sequencing can be just as important as initially capturing the images.

Overall, Rebecca and Alex were wonderful. I enjoyed their presence and thought they had great suggestions that went far beyond critiques. The variety of stories, bits of advice, book information, and influences made the entire workshop feel really well rounded. Rather than focusing in on one detail of photography, we covered a range of information that gave the students a glimpse into what the Webb’s lives as successful photojournalists are like.

Doug Menuez : Art Vs. Commerce

One of the responsibilities we have during our time at CPW is to introduce an artist before their Saturday night lecture. I was very happy to have chosen Doug Menuez; below is my introduction…

“After leaving art school for photojournalism, Doug Menuez spent 25 intense years traversing the globe and in turn, becoming one of the most successful advertising photographers in the US. The time he spend between the Washington Post, Time, Newsweek, Life, Fortune, and People magazines exposed him to a variety of assignments ranging from the famine in Ethiopia to sports & celebrities to the AIDS crisis. He has photographed a range of personalities including Mother Theresa, Robert Redford, and Bill Clinton.

As many of you know, Doug spent much of his time in the 80’s and 90’s covering the explosion of new technology in the Silicon Valley – from the digital revolution through the rise of the internet while exploring the human side of technology development; the manic passion, struggles, and joys of the brave new world. In exchange for prints, Steve Jobs granted Doug the sincere and unlimited access necessary for the project. For years he documented Steve and his team everywhere from their labs, boardrooms, and off-site retreats.

The 250,000 photographs from this project are now archived in the Douglas Menuez Photography Collection at Stanford University Library. Tonight we will be seeing a preview of his next project, “Fearless Genius,” which revisits and expands upon the history and people of the Silicon Valley.”

On another double workshop weekend, I was able to assist and participate in Doug Menuez’s “Art vs. Commerce” class. As you can see from my introduction, Doug is an incredibly experienced photojournalist. He is also one of board members for the Center for Photography at Woodstock. For me, Doug is one of those teachers that uses his experience and learned information to benefit his students. Looking back at the notes I took in my sketchbook, they range from emotional advice to financial advice. It was quite refreshing to have a perspective that stretches the gamut of life as an artist.

As usual, we began the workshop with introductions. Unlike other times when one just talks about where they have been and what they do now, Doug asked the students to also describe their goals and what they needed to get there.


During portfolio reviews, Doug brought up the point of never showing anything that you’re not 100% proud of to anyone. This has definitely been something that I’ve learned over the course of this summer with nearly weekly portfolio reviews. Any mistake that you have in a print or image will stand out far more in a group of other artists, potentially even more than a great project. For example, one small spot of dust can really ruin an amazing print. Lesson learned : if you have to make excuses for any print in your portfolio, that image probably shouldn’t be in there in the first place...


For me, Doug really reinforced that being a photographer is a full time job…whether you’re actually on a payroll for it or not. He encouraged setting up schedules for yourself in order to keep on track of your photographic goals. These ranged from:
- projects : creating self-assignments to consistently push yourself technically and creatively
- financial : delegating certain percentages of your funds to savings, long-term liabilities, and short-term payables
- long term : writing down 6-month plans including what it takes to reach those objectives

These are the three areas I summarized from the weekend – all of which I realize are important, but can sometimes be difficult to sit down and actually manage. For my projects schedule, I would like to set up a photo project each month to accomplish from start to finish. That would include the research, production, processing, and sharing of the piece. Financially, we threw around lots of words like “profit & loss,” "revenue," and “profit margin,”…things I’m not quite ready to tackle. I intend to set up a plan, as rudimentary as it may be at my level, that can at least act as a starting point. Finally, my long-term goals are defined and written down in my sketch book…maybe, just maybe I will share them someday…


Doug had everyone bring in a portfolio along with a number of images they thought were close to - but not quite - good enough to make it in the top 20 selection. He then went through all of the images and chose his selects. He gave detailed explanations of why the images worked or didn’t and included an incredibly thorough analysis of where he could see us going with our work. As an intern, we are critiqued if there is time, and Doug was very generous in insisting to see my and Nikki’s work. Since I’m not from a photo-journalistic mindset, I was a little hesitant to bring in my work. Doug was really great at critiquing it and giving beneficial suggestions without imposing his personal style onto it. Summarizing his critique, Doug reminded me that with my conceptual approach, the photographs still need to be able to stand alone (without explanation).


The weekend invoked a lot of self-reflection and new realizations for everyone. It was interesting how the students ranged in age, experiences, and professions. Doug’s workshop was a great experience for those looking to find a balance between doing what they love and making ends meet. He was also encouraging in maintaining a personal style artistically even when you must work commercially. I think everyone left with a clearer vision of who they are as a photographer and the motivation to take their career to the next level financially and creatively.


(As a side note, I'm sorry the photos might not be as interesting in other posts…I think I got a bit wrapped up in listening to Doug and forgot a little about documentation!)

(Also check out Doug’s blog HERE!)

Susan Wides : Picturing Landscape

Things have gotten quite busy at CPW! With lots of workshops, a change over of Arts Administration interns, and a new AIR, there is lots going on…and lots distracting me from keeping up with the blog. For any regular readers, I apologize for being distant…its not you, it’s me.

Megan and I got the chance to be part of Susan Wides’ workshop, Picturing Landscape, on a weekend when we had double workshops – the other being Joan Barker teaching Intro to Digital Photography. During my time in undergraduate, I never had an assignment that addressed the historical or contemporary approaches and ideas behind landscape photography, so this workshop was a welcome learning experience for me. Going into it, I knew that I would have a lot to learn and take in…kind of a blank slate as far as the subject matter went.

Susan has been in 18 one-person shows, over 60 group exhibitions, and is in a number of collections. She has had her work written about in a variety of publications such as the New York Times, Artforum, and the Village Voice. She shoots with a 4x5 view camera with intentional areas of sharp and soft focus. The images she creates can often be mistaken as miniatures. I found it interesting that in her work, the majority of the piece that is out-of-focus is just as significant, if not more, than the selected part that is in-focus.


We spent the first part of Saturday looking at student’s work, discussing landscape photography historically, and going over places we could go shoot in the Catskills. Being in upstate New York, the workshop was specifically focused on the paintings done by those in the Hudson River School. For those of you uncertain about that history, you can read a quick and easy overview HERE and look at examples of the paintings HERE.

Many of the Hudson River School painters came up to the Hudson Valley as a retreat away from New York City. At that time, NYC was the center of commerce in the US, and the Catskills were close enough for them to travel and far enough that they were able to escape from the filth of the city. The Catskill Mountain House drew in lots of wealthy people searching for the culture of the United States outside of the city.

A lot of these artists took a significant amount of artistic liberties in order to communicate their feeling about the place rather than a documentary view. During the time they were working, there was also an incredible boom of industrialization. The painters just chose to leave out these signs because they were more interested in talking about the raw nature that they had discovered in America. Often, the paintings referenced the ‘fear of God’ in their dark skies and embellished clouds.

Thomas Cole, the founder, was known for separating the optimal reality from visual reality. Sometimes he felt a subject was more interesting – even more real – if a veil of interpretation was put over it. The memory one has of a place tends to hold dominant features that are then illustrated as embellishments in the artwork.

Both Saturday and Sunday we chanced beating the rain in order to go out on location to shoot…






Susan encouraged us to think about landscape photography as moving beyond documentary and into addressing the relationship we have to a specific place. We talked about topophilia (a word I’d never even heard before), meaning ‘a love of landscape’ according to Merriam-Webster. She gave us a number of categories to consider when photographing:
- toponymic = the names we have given to places
- narrative = the stories or legends behind a place
- experimental = the dependence we have on the place for survival
- numinous = the spiritual or mysterious feeling we have in a place

There are also formal considerations to landscape photography. These may come off as obvious to some of you, but as someone new to landscape work, they were interesting to consider, even if it was just as acknowledgement. In most photographic work, you’re taking a 3-dimensional object and turning it 2-dimensional. In addition, you have constraints to work in as far as your film choice (the dimensions will change depending if it is 35mm, 120, 4x4, etc.). And, perhaps the most obvious, compositionally the things you are trying to capture are stagnant, not movable. We physically need to change our viewpoint in order to animate them in a way appealing to viewers. This challenge is what can separate art from documentation.

All this being said, I learned a lot from this workshop as far as conceptual approaches to a subject I previously didn’t really understand. Below are some of the shots I took of the day…I know, I know, I didn’t really shoot an overall landscape – I have a hard time straying away from details!

Mary Ellen Mark : The World Observed

Kelsea and I recently had the opportunity to work with Mary Ellen Mark when she came to CPW. Mary Ellen is one of the most internationally well-known women in documentary photography. She has covered a variety of areas everywhere from the circus to behind the cinematic scenes, the relationships between twins to prostitutes in India. All of these projects bring to light the humanistic aspect of subcultures. She has an exceptional range of publications, honors and experience in the field.

The first day of the workshop consisted of portfolio reviews for everyone in the class. Having 15 students, the class was full, and we had lots to look at. With this time, Mary Ellen was able to get a feel of what each person does and give advice on what they should try to push their work farther.

(my fellow intern, Kelsea, getting her work critiqued)

After reviews were over, we took some time to ask Mary Ellen questions about her work and her life. She then showed us a film about the circus she photographed in India.

The next day we were scheduled to go to the Ulster County Fair. Without fail, that was the day predicted for bad weather. With a few sprinkles in the morning, we decided to chance it and go anyways. Of course, it rained the entire time we were there and didn’t stop until we were walking back to the parking lot. This definitely made for challenges, but the students took it all in stride. There were plenty of places to shoot under a covered tent or indoors.


Kelsea and I had some time to wander around and take some photos of our own…

hey, thats me!
(photo by Kelsea Ellingson)

One of the interesting things of how Mary Ellen structures her workshops is that she asks the students to mail her in a contact sheet of what they shot at the fair. She then writes on the sheets and sends back her comments. I really admire this method of following through with the students.

Teen Camp Final Projects

After telling you how wonderful our Teen Campers were, I thought I should post a few photos to prove all my gushing. They all chose ~10 photographs that fit a central theme - here are just a few of my favorites from each of the girls...

(photo by : Saraphina Mallon-Breiman)

(photo by : Saraphina Mallon-Breiman)

(photo by : Saraphina Mallon-Breiman)

(photo by : Lady Schultz)

(photo by : Donna Dunn)

(photo by : Katie Martucci)

(photo by : Katie Martucci)

(photo by : Rose Moore)

(photo by : Rose Moore)

(photo by : Rose Moore)

(photo by : Olivia Gardom)

(photo by : Lauren Cook)

(photo by : Lauren Cook)

Teen Photo Camp : Phil Mansfield

A couple of weeks ago I was given the opportunity to intern for CPW’s Teen Camp. This was a program that my boss, Liz, instituted that focuses on teaching the medium to middle and high school students. This year, by complete coincidence, we had 7 students that happened to all be girls. Having worked with teens before, I was a little apprehensive that with all girls there could be some cliques…but they immediately and continually proved me wrong. I was really pleasantly surprised with all of their levels of maturity and friendliness towards one another.

We began our 4-day program by learning basics…shutter speed, ISO, aperture, and other functions of their SLR cameras. Their teacher was Phil Mansfield, a CPW Staff member who manages our digital lab. I haven’t had much time to work with Phil, but seeing him around, I knew I was going to have a very fun, entertaining week. After only a 2 hour morning of instruction, I was floored by how great of a teacher Phil is! I was really impressed at how well he explained all techniques and how he managed to keep every student entertained…his extraordinary instruction was illustrated in our students photos. I can’t count the number of times I told fellow CPW staff/interns how impressed I was at their ability to grasp all of the technical information along with maintaining impressively creative compositions and ideas. I’ll try to post some of their images soon…

For the first day we hung around the center to shoot. I had the unexpected honor of being their model for the majority of the week…the girls made me feel very comfortable, but it was definitely the side of the lens I’m not used to being on.




Our first field trip was to Opus 40 in Saugerties, NY. I would try to explain it myself, but I think I would ramble on for far too long…luckily their website does a great job of concisely describing what it was:

“The work is an immense composition of finely fitted stone,
rising in ramps and swirling terraces around pools and trees
and fountains out of the rockbed of an abandoned bluestone
quarry. It spreads out over more than six acres.

It is the product of more than thirty-seven years of a man's life.
His name was Harvey Fite. He worked alone, using his hands and
traditional quarryman's tools, to build his masterpiece: Opus 40.”

Luckily the rain held out long enough for us. Here are a few images I shot there for myself…








and some of the girls (and Phil) in action…





The next day we went to the Byrdcliffe Colony. It was raining, so it worked out great to have access to an indoor space. The girls learned about window lighting, silhouetting, and got a chance to wander a bit and shoot the interior how they wanted. I unfortunately didn’t get any good images from that field trip – I was too busy practicing my modeling…you know, preparing for my new career path…

After gathering all of their images, Phil gave more great instruction about how to work in Photoshop. While I’m not a huge fan of altered images, I definitely use Photoshop to clean up scanned negatives, color balance, etc. One of the things that Phil said that really stuck with me was in regard to Photoshop versus the traditional darkroom. To summarize, he said that it shouldn’t matter the way you get to a final product as long as you’re proud of it. Instead of debating whether film or digital is better, we should think about if it is expressing your creativity to the fullest.

At the end of the camp we had a few hours where family and friends stopped by the center to see the work the girls had made throughout the week. We were able to print out some large format images for them along with put together a slideshow of their work. The girls got a chance to speak about what they learned and the images they produced throughout the week.


I can’t say enough great things about how the week went…I couldn’t have asked for a better group for girls or a better instructor to work with. It makes me think that working with teens might be in my future…

Doug Beasley : Zen and the Art of Photography

“A camera is an extension of ourselves, an appendage to bring us closer to the universe. This is Zen in the Art of Photography. In discovering the universe, we discover ourselves.” -Robert Leverant

This weekend’s workshop was with Doug Beasley, founder of Vision Quest Photo Workshops. He has been leading these workshops since 1992 – ranging in length and location. Doug’s work focuses on the sacred nature of every person, place, and thing. His book, Japan: A Nisei’s First Encounter, documents his first journey to Japan, his mother’s homeland. He is planning a second trip in the fall where he will be able to spend 3 weeks traveling the country.

Doug is based in St. Paul, Minnesota, but also has a cabin in north Wisconsin. Clearly because he’s from the Midwest he is a really great person to be around =) From the moment he came into CPW he seemed very comfortable, calm, and friendly.

We began the workshop with introductions and a short morning meditation. Being completely new to any sort of meditation, those 7 minutes felt like much longer. The rest of the morning was spent doing a variety of written and photographic exercises. He encouraged us to try to photograph and think out of our element. One exercise asked us to work on developing a personal connection to the subject. Here are my results of two of them:

(I walked past these little berries the other day and noticed that they are now all sort of reds, purples, blues, and greens! I’ll have to photograph them again soon…)

I came across Larry, a CPW Staff Member, connecting with a crack in the driveway next to CPW. I think he is crouched down in 90% of my photos from this weekend! Behind him is my fellow intern, Nikki…connecting with…the street sign?


After this we were instructed to go out and break our photographic habits. Doug gave us many suggestions, but the one that stuck with me was to “not take it so seriously, just have fun.” I tend to really think about most of the images I take. Coincidentally at this point, Nikki and I ran into Larry, who suggested a new way of ‘shooting from the hip.’ Instead of keeping our cameras at the same spot, we set them on auto and shot (somewhat) aimlessly at different angles and perspectives while walking from CPW down to the flea market. Here are a few of my favorite shots in succession:

(ok, this one wasn’t so aimless)

“To live a creative life, we must lose out fear of being wrong.”
-Joseph Chilton Pierce

We then were able to revert to our more comfortable ways. We were supposed to spend a lot of time with the subject until we felt like we could photograph it to its fullest extent. Here is my shot:


After lunch we headed to Overlook Mountain and the KTD Monastery. We walked down to the Dharma Path trailhead where we began a very slow, deliberate, walking meditation down to the pond at the bottom.


The path was lined with strings of prayer flags anchored to trees. I’m not entirely sure the meaning of them or their placement, but they were really interesting.



We then gathered near the pond and learned about light and shadow. Clearly, this part of the day was really stressful…

(nikki photographing in the foreground, my boss, liz, managing the participants)

The next morning, we did an exercise where we went from a broad picture and slowly eliminated elements. I photographed a number of different scenes, but was most interested in the outcome of this one. I was surprised at how different they all are just because I moved closer.

(I think my subconscious is trying to remind me how much I miss biking in the city…)

In the afternoon we went to the Zen Mountain Monastery in Mount Tremper. After lots of instruction and history about meditation, we had a longer zazen – which means “facing the wall” - meditation session (though I think it was really only 15 minutes, apparently that’s a lot when you’re a beginner!). Instead of truly meditating I found myself thinking…a lot. You are actually supposed to clear your mind of thought, but it was much more beneficial for me to spend that time slowing down and clearly thinking through one thought at a time. It was really nice to have time to stop and be still. I was surprised that my generally million-track mind was able to focus steadily on just one thing for 10 minutes.

After meditation, we took a tour around the monastery grounds. I wish I could better remember what each image is of, but I really only remember vague descriptions. Here are some images from the cemetery:

(our guide telling us stories about the history of the monastery…)

One story I remember was about these little statue collections. They are placed all over the property. Our guide told us that a woman who came to visit was a healer and dealt with women who had abortions. These collections represent a sort of closure for those women.


The history of the land is really interesting. He told us how it was previously a Christian monastery, a children’s camp, and a communist camp. One of the remnants of the children’s camp is a swimming pool, now overflowing with trees and greenery.


And to maintain my cycle theme of this post…
Monks ride, too!


Doug gave us a lot of great handouts full of quotes and suggested readings. One of my favorite pieces was his “rules of photography.” Two of my favorites:
#18 - Don’t worry about the equipment you don’t have.
#22 - Editing is a virtue. With 3 choices, remove the weakest one. With two pick the strongest.”

#18 leads me to another quote that he gave us. I suppose I appreciate it because I only have a few years of experience in photography, therefore, my equipment isn’t very advanced. It was nice to have the idea reinforced by an artist I respect – its not about the equipment, its about the thoughts and images...

“When I started photography, I had very little equipment and made horrible photographs. Over the next ten years I bought all kinds of new equipment with very little improvement in my photographs. When I finally learned how to see, I got rid of most of my equipment and my images improved dramatically.”
-Brooks Jensen

It was an amazing weekend and a nice workshop to have in the middle of the season. Everyone (interns included) was able to really relax with a great instructor and remember why we enjoy photography.

Lothar Osterburg : Photogravure

Our first multi-day workshop of the summer was with Lothar Osterburg, a master printer and fascinating artist. I highly recommend looking at his website, his pieces are really lovely. Lothar works with memories and cloudy ideas. In order to depict these things the way they are seen in his mind, he utilizes miniature models and recreates scenes. He often uses found materials from the street or everyday objects, like toothpicks. Lothar also teaches at Bard College and has been exhibited around the world.


I had tried photogravure once in college using a polymer. Lothar's method is much more involved, using multiple baths and needing a lot more precision in timing. The CPW catalog describes the method perfectly:

"Photogravure is a continuous tone photographic etching process which produces a quality and tonality range that exceeds those of a regular silver print by far. The blacks in particular have a richer, non-reflective, velvety surface, what a silver print never could achieve. These tonalities
are achieved by etching a copper plate gradually from the deepest shadows to the brightest highlights. This way the photogravure is capable of producing a much wider range of tones than any other photographic or printmaking process. The finished plate is printed like an etching on a heavy rag paper."

The first two days were spent at CPW doing the technical work and learning about photogravure. After getting some background on Lothar, hearing about his working method and looking at a lot of test prints, we began prepping the plates. The student's cleaned plexi, sensitized a lot of paper, and printed out digital negatives.


Then it was back outside to learn more about timing and levels of the 6 etching baths.




Lothar has an incredible energy about him, which kept the students interested even though it was a lot of information to process.

The next three days were spent at Women's Studio Workshop in Rosendale, NY.


Using their facilities, the students were able to prepare their plates, learn about inks and printing technique, and aquatint.



Finally, each participant was able to print their plate to paper. The students each walked away with at least one test print of each plate. They all seemed to have had a lot of fun over the 5 days and were excited about the possibilities that the medium held for their work. Having had a little bit of experience with photogravure before the workshop, I knew how complicated the process can be. Lothar was a really amazing teacher, he was able to explain an incredibly complicated process in a matter of days.

Tanya Marcuse : The Body (part 2)

Here are a bunch of the images I took when Nikki and I finally got time to shoot the models...we only had about 45 minutes...30 with the guys and 15 with the girls. It was really exciting to have images to work on that really felt like my own art, not just documentation of the workshops! I tried to really narrow down to those that best showed what we did and those that I like the most...I don't want to overwhelm you all!

Here are some images that I tried to shoot in accordance with the workshop, examining the body. It was definitely outside of my norm and different from the way I'm used to looking at things (I think?):








A lot of the images that we looked at as historical examples and inspiration seemed to focus on muscles, bone structure, and the details of the body that could easily be overlooked. The rest of these are more like what I was used to shooting...

One of our models was Paul; a regular CPW model and yogi (someone who practices yoga). He was incredibly willing to do whatever the students asked...whether that meant climbing up in to branches or suspending himself between two trunks. He was also really interested in seeing the photos each student took, so he (along with Erica) came to our critique on Sunday.

I'm not sure which one I prefer...black & white or color? paul in focus or the envelope in focus?

Miss Nikki in action...

Paul wanted to show us his crazy yoga skills...he was able to hold this pose as long as we needed.

The model here with Paul is Nick. We didn't get any individual time with him, but at the end of our time with Paul, the student shooting Nick asked if we would mind doing a few of them together.



After the day of shooting was 'technically' over, Nikki and I got a quick 15 minutes to shoot the very gracious Amanda and Erica. We began one-on-one and then with both...

(again, b&w or color?)

When it comes to editing, I'm generally pretty liberal - for some reason I can't decide which I like more between this one above & the one below...