Barbara Ellison : Getting the Best Results from the Canon Digital SLR

Last weekend’s workshop was a technical OVERLOAD - in the best way possible! Our teacher for the weekend was Barbara Ellison, a long time Canon rep from Virginia. She has photographed for huge events such as the Kentucky Derby, the US Tennis Open, the Olympics, and Clinton inauguration. This woman has a extraordinary wealth of technical knowledge.

Our class this weekend was wonderful. We had 6 students, a Canon Powershot rep, and a CPW Arts Administration intern taking the class (along with Kelsea and myself assisting Barbara). The two other CPW interns were in another workshop with Linda Connor, an honored educator and photographer from San Fransisco. From the minute the students stepped in the door they were excited to be there and ready to learn. Their experience levels ranged from zero SLR to zero digital so we began with the basics. Barbara asked us to change our mindset about the limitless quality of digital images. Instead, she suggested that we imagine we are shooting film and that each click of the shutter is costing us anywhere from 25 cents to a few dollars. The idea is that we will shoot more intentionally and compose more purposeful shots if we don’t have the choice to delete a “bad one.”

The majority of the morning was spent going over controls, dials, and buttons all over the cameras.


A little bit of oogling over and experimenting with lots and lots of nice equipment...


We then moved on to the local flea market to put our recently acquired skills into practice. Jess, one of the CPW Arts Administration interns (which basically means dealing with shows and the gallery), found a table full of old matchbox cars.


The next day was spent learning about lenses and flashes…and how to handle both in different situations. We then went out with borrowed lenses and flashes to the Village Green, the center of Woodstock, to photograph and learn more in an environment. Here are a few more images of people in practice and learning from Barbara.








I’m convinced that Ashly couldn’t help but lay down for the majority of her shots – every time I turned around she was rolling in the leaves and dirt again! All of the students left seemingly a bit mentally overwhelmed, but very excited and ready to go out and photograph using all of the techniques they learned over the weekend workshop.