Recreate the iconic still life style of Edward Weston in this hands-on studio photography class. Explore lighting, composition, and technique to capture the beauty of everyday objects, focusing on peppers and other simple forms. Bring your camera and creativity.

Prereq video:
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HCJ2SeBcBK8

Summary:
This is a two for one class. We'll photograph Edward Weston inspired still lifes in color and then learn how to convert them to convincing film like B&W using DxO Film Pack 8.
This is a great opportunity to get some print worthy B&W images into your portfolio.
This is a hands-on class so bring your camera with a medium zoom lens. Before the advent of color film, photographic still lifes were done in Black and White. Irving Penn 2019s cigarettes, Robert Mapplethorpe 2019s florals and of course, Edward Weston 2019s peppers. In this class, we will create B&W still lifes inspired by Edward Weston.

Background:
Edward Weston (March 24, 1886 2013 January 1, 1958) was one of America 2019s most iconic photographers. In the late 1920s Weston began taking a series of close-up images of different objects that he called "still lifes". For several years he experimented with a variety of images of shells, vegetables and fruits, and in 1927 he made his first photograph of a pepper. He received mixed feedback about that image, but two years later he started a new series that focused on peppers alone. He recorded twenty-six negatives of peppers taken during 1929, mostly taken against plain burlap or muslin backdrops.
A year later, during a four-day period from August 2 20136, 1930, Weston took at least thirty more negatives of peppers. He first tried again with plain muslin or a piece of white cardboard as the backdrop, but for these images he thought the contrast between the backdrop and the pepper was too stark. On August 2 he found a large tin funnel, and, placing it on its side, he set a pepper just inside the large open end. He wrote:
It was a bright idea, a perfect relief for the pepper and adding reflecting light to important contours. I still had the pepper which caused me a week's work, I had decided I could go no further with it, yet something kept me from taking it to the kitchen, the end of all good peppers. I placed it in the funnel, focused with the Zeiss lens, and knowing just the viewpoint, recognizing a perfect light, made an exposure of six minutes, with but a few moments' preliminary work, the real preliminary was on in hours passed. I have a great negative, by far the best!
It is a classic, completely satisfying, ? a pepper ? but more than a pepper; abstract, in that it is completely outside subject matter. It has no psychological attributes, no human emotions are aroused: this new pepper takes one beyond the world we know in the conscious mind.

Our Mentor:
Bennett studied photography at the School of Visual Arts, NYC, Jacob 2019s Pillow and The Maine Photographic Workshops. He is adept at deconstruction and recreation of classic lighting and a venerable View Camera master. Bennett holds certificates in Architectural Photography from The Maine Photographic Workshops and Dance Photography from Jacob 2019s Pillow.
Our Model:
Bring your own peppers and toothpicks to hold them in place.

What We 2019ll learn:
We 2019ll discuss Edward Weston and the Group f/64 photographers.
Why the Group f/64 photographers used tiny apertures and very long exposures.
How to shoot still lifes in the style of Edward Weston.
Using and metering constant light.

Prerequisites:
Know how to use your camera in Manual mode.
Be familiar with Edward Weston 2019s still lifes.

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Summary:
Feelin' groovy? How about a Flower Power Macro Shoot? Bring your imagination! This class should be a lot of fun. This class we'll be going to the New York Botanical Gardens, Flower Power, exhibit to hone our Macro Photography skills. We'll discuss the nature of Floral Macro Photography and explore the magic of capturing images close up.
What We'll Learn
How to create ironic images with Macro Photography.
Discussion and of the principles associated with Macro Photography.
Understand expose compensation (Bellows Extension).

Additional Costs:
Participants are responsible for Botanical Garden entry and parking fees. Additional parking is usually available at Fordham University across the street from the Botanical Garden's main gate.

Our Host:
Bennett certified Dance Photographer and Architectural Photography. He is a proud dropout of The School of Visual Arts, NYC.

Prerequisites:
Imagination and creativity.

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