VSP Workshops Blog

This was my first band shoot actually – hoping to do more of this kind of thing – not just because it’s far cooler than photographing flowers (apologies to all still life and macro shooters out there), but because Rock bands are just natural performers and bring a lot to the table.
I did quite a lot of location scouting for this shoot – The area opposite the island of Venice, just on the mainland, has a truly enormous area of mega industry – chemical factories – some working, others deserted and rotting. A very cool place actually. Anyway – had a drive around one day to look at some of the deserted factories – amazing locations, and ok if you’re carrying one camera and want to do a little sneaky gorilla-style shooting – but for a commercial shoot, with quite a bit of kit…I didn’t feel like asking the band to lug 80 kilos of kit over a six foot fence. Not to mention insurance, health and safety – plus the yellow hard harts would have made it look like a Village People shoot….I digress… (more…)

Been a little while since I posted folks…crazy year trying to juggle work with the birth of twins last Christmas. Anyway, I’m back and looking forward to getting the blog back into gear.

So to get things back into full swing I thought I’d share this little story about an image that I took back in mid 2009 in Provence. Up until very recently, the RAW file just sat there in Lightroom, un-processed, amongst all the other sparkly finished files. For the life of me I just didn’t know how to post process the file. We were shooting the wild horses of the Camargue during a workshop, and that particular year we had a cloudy morning for this shoot. The year before we had sun, and so shooting with the horses back-lit gave a lot of contrast, seperation between the horses and their background, and lit up all of the water being splashed around. No such luck in 2009 – overcast was what we had. We tried to get right in front of the horses and low down so as to shoot them with the sky behind, rather than bushes. I think it was the best approach, although the guy next to me managed to almost write-off his D3…(if you’re reading John, sorry about that!) (more…)

Street photography is a pretty broad term to be honest. Nonetheless when photographers mention it, I think for the most part we all share a fairly united vision of what it refers to. Interestingly, over the years of running various ‘street photography’ themed workshops with various teachers, there have been some very consistent messages by way of advice and teachings.

One thing that seems to be an approach shared by many pros in this field is the importance of picking your spot. Sometimes we tend to imagine the street photographer akin to the butterfly collector running around with a big net. There’s definitely something to be said for trying to control the elements around you that you can influence – such as when you shoot (the light) and where you shoot. If you meander through the streets constantly, hoping to pounce upon a moment – well it may eventually happen – but who knows what kind of background you’ll get, what the light will be like.

The video below is a selection of sounds and images – moving and still – taken from our Easter Sicily workshop. Being at Easter, the workshop deals mainly with the island’s Easter celebrations, during which what seems like the entire island comes out to take part and witness the very dramatic processions passing through the streets. Whether or not there are a million and one things unfolding before you in the street or not, taking charge of the elements you can to some degree control will put you in a very good position. (more…)

The following is the first part of a free tutorial that covers the concepts of ‘Creative Seeing and Visualisation’. For the last four years, this has been our most popular workshop at VSP, and the below notes form part of the content that we cover in the workshop.

What is Creative Seeing?

In its broadest possible sense, seeing creatively can be understood as identifying a potential photograph from what lays in front of you. We sometimes refer to this as ‘visualizing’, and others might refer to it as using a ‘creative eye’. Despite the many names it has, one thing remains constant – it is most likely the challenge of spotting a potentially successful photograph. There is a wonderful cohesion between almost every type of photographic endeavor – every type of photographic course or workshop. Whether you are a fashion photographer trying to work out how to construct the shoot, or you’re just reading a photography book on the train going to work, one thing unites us all: we are all seeking to find and create successful images. (more…)