by successfulbob | fine art photography, Lumix GH3, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education, photography seminar
What a great group in Michigan. Friendly, fun and really important – attentive when class was in session. Shared my ‘Photo-Synthesis’ Fine Art Photography program with PPM. Spoke about 4 1/2 hours. In addition to the Photoshop techniques I shared how much I like the small size and nice files to work with from my LumixGX7 and GH3.
Below are a few testimonials from the students about the program and presentation style. It was fulfilling on many levels from garnering new friendships, learning from the older members who shared their stories and adventures in photography, and being able to give back to the industry that has given me so much. Kudos to Panasonic for sponsoring my sharing to other photographers…
Photo courtesy of Carol Fabrizio, M.Photog. Fabrizio Fine Art Photography Flushing, MI cfabriziophoto.com
“I’m Darcy current president of the professional photographers of Michigan and Bob Coates was at our annual convention and Bob was awesome. Let me tell you we learned everything and my brain is just fried right now. We learn a ton from Bob. From beginners to experts, all took something home to help with their art. I recommend Bob highly to any organization that wants to hire him.” Darcy Olson, CPP – Darcy Olson Photography
“Hi Bob;
Your presentation at PPM Fall Focus Monday afternoon was awesome. It is probably the type of program that should be enjoyed first thing in the day and not after lunch as you present so much material, that I reached brain overload well before you stopped….. Your passion and high energy is definitely infused in your presentation.”
Steve
by successfulbob | Lumix GX7
I just came back from doing a program in Michigan for the Professional Photographers of Michigan. The program was on my ‘Photo – Synthesis’ system of creating art from photographic images. When I do these programs I always try to use images from the area that were captured within the 24 hour period before the program begins. This time I thought I’d give myself a really strong challenge. II wandered around the parking lot with my LumixGX7 and found a paper clip in the parking lot that had been weathered and run over by cars and was bent and just a (beautiful) mess. And I made the attempt to create art from said paperclip. There was also a stone fountain out front with a lot of different slate plates that I was able to photograph to gather textures. When I announced to the class what I was going to do I saw looks of horror, bewilderment and just plain disbelief.
I continued anyway.
About one third of the way through the program I started to feel that maybe I had made a mistake. I wasn’t sure this was going to be successful… I persevered. Everyone had an opportunity to see the thought process as I work toward creating artistic images from simple objects. I’ll let you decide – but here’s the before and after photographs from the great paperclip experiment along with some thoughts from the attendees…
“Bob, Your presentation for the Michigan photographers was excellent and refreshing. You gave so much and were clear and understandable, making learning comfortable as well as thorough. Great educational experience!”
Most sincerely,
Helen Yancy, M.Photog, M.Artist, MEI, Cr. Hon.M.Photog.
F–ASP, Hon.F-ASP, EA-ASP, Hon.EA-ASP, CPP, API
Past President, Professional photographers of America
facebook.com/helenyancy.fineart
facebook.com/helen.yancy
www.helenyancystudio.com
“Hi Bob;
Your presentation at PPM Fall Focus Monday afternoon was awesome. It is probably the type of program that should be enjoyed first thing in the day and not after lunch as you present so much material, that I reached brain overload well before you stopped. I thought I knew a little something about Photoshop and after experiencing your presentation I realized that I indeed knew A LITTLE SOMETHING, very little. You take layer masking to a new level. My mind is still trying to process everything you presented, and it feels like a plug-in device that cannot be unplugged because it is still active. I wouldn’t know where to begin to talk about what you presented, the paper clip, the “step and repeat”, the slide show, the video, your delivery, all of it was attention getting, even after I had reached a saturation point and my brain felt like “there was no more rooms left at the inn”.
Your passion and high energy is definitely infused in your presentation.”
Steve
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography, photography education
Robin Miller is getting ready to release a new CD with guitar music and he needed a new photo. This afternoon we went out and worked on getting some good captures. He’s a fantastic guitar player (among other instruments). He is extremely animated and not uncomfortable in front of the camera which made it easy to create a bunch of images that he really liked to choose from. Here’s an email from Robin after I sent his graphic designer a couple to work with in the design.
“Bob ; You totally Rock ! I love both of them but the bottom one I really love. Thank you so much for your awesome talent my friend. Talk to you soon.” Robin.
Here’s a couple from the shoot…
Robin MIller guitarist based in Sedona Arizona by Bob Coates Photography
Image for CD cover of Robin Miller. (Robin likes it!)
I used the Lumix GX7 for this capture. I’ve never been one for camera effects settings but with this camera I’m able to tweak the settings after selecting one of the presets. Here I used the Impressive Art setting and changed the White Balance to Black and White. It ends up being a really gritty high contrast black & white. I like the look and have tried to replicate it starting from a ‘straight’ image and not been able to replicate it.
Lovin this camera!
by successfulbob | fine art photography, photography, photography - art quote, photography education
We move back in time this Sunday morning to what I believe was one of the most brilliant minds in history. An artist who pioneered many things and when I need some inspiration to be creative I read some of his work. Leonardo DaVinci wrote extensively and one of his subject was art. He really took things apart visually and today’s art quote gives us something to think about when shooting and doing post production.
“The color of the object illuminated partakes of the color of that which illuminates it.” Leonardo DaVinci
In spite of the stilted language the information is important to consider while we shoot. What color are the surroundings of our subject? If photographing in an area of lawn or surrounded by trees the prevailing color is green. The sun lights the green and according to Leo’s observation the reflection of the green is what lights our subject. I don’t now about you but every time I see a green subject, unless it was Kermit the Frog, it’s a problem because our subject looks to be ill. “But, I love the background and the park!” I know, I know the location is wonderful. So what should be done for pleasing skin tones? We can overpower the light that is reflected from the green by adding flash on our subject. Clean light equals clean skin tones and because we direct the light with modifiers we still get the nice green color of the grass and trees – And save a lot of time and effort in post production from trying to clean up those skin tones.
Speaking of post production, I am doing a lot of art based images and Mr DaVinci’s writing has alerted me to being careful to render scenes being aware of the reflected colors to add realism to the art pieces. Check some of the work I did with images from France…
by successfulbob | commercial photography, Lumix GX7, Lumix Lounge, photography education
Learning to see light the way the camera sees it is important to getting better images. Since I have been living with my new Lumix GX7 camera lately because of it’s small size and features I have discovered something that I have been told many times in the past by superb photographers I highly respect. You gotta make images! Lots of them!
Have you ever looked at a scene and thought, Wow, that’s gorgeous! only to be disappointed by the resulting image capture? Well that’s happened to me too… Not as much anymore because I am practicing on a regular basis and not on my paid clients. Every time I see a scene now that interests me at all i make an image then see how it stacks up to how I thought it was going to render.
Lounge area at Sound Bites Grill Sedona, Arizona
I was at dinner last night and saw these lights playing with the shadows. We have a very high contrast scene and just for jollies I wanted to see how it played out. The light along the top of the wall. Lighting of the art on the wall behind. The lamps. The reflections on the couches… You get the idea. I shot this as a jpeg so I didn’t have all the information available to me to do post adjustments but I still opened the photo in Adobe Camera Raw and was able to open up the shadows just a bit. I am surprised by the detail held in the highlight while still getting information in the shadows.
Tiger Woods doesn’t only come out to the golf course when he’s playing a tournament. As a matter of fact he will often head to the driving range or putting green after a round while still in the tournament to work on his game. So I guess my question to you is, “How much are you working on your game??”
Yours in photography, Bob
