Same Dress Spokane may share same dress, but photography ranges widely
About
Posts by :
Local business owner is holding Elizabethton photography contest
A Spa That Merges Contemporary Amenities With Age-Old Traditions
THE WELL at Chileno Bay is a spa transformation located within the Chileno Bay Resort & Residences, Auberge Resorts Collection, designed by Nina Gotlieb. This marks the brand’s first foray on the West Coast and its second on an international stage. THE WELL at Chileno Bay covers a vast 22-acre desert expanse in Los Cabos, Mexico, artfully merging contemporary amenities with age-old traditions.
Among the attractions are a distinctive Bath House, a peaceful Nap Garden, a Reflexology Pool, and open-air treatment rooms. The Bath House offers therapeutic sessions, incorporating regional healing practices. Adjacent to it, the Reflexology Pool and Nap Garden provide a tranquil setting for relaxation, with the pool designed to stimulate reflex points.
New York-based designer Nina Gotlieb transformed the interiors by drawing from Baja’s vast landscapes. The meditation lounge, equipped with suspended beds and a central fire feature, exudes a sense of calm, while the retail space showcases wellness products set against earthy textures and tones.
Photography courtesy of Auberge Resorts Collection.
Quick tips for overhead food photography
I was in Colorado Springs sharing some overhead food photography techniques for commercial photography with the Professional Photographers Guild of Colorado Springs (PPGCS). I highly recommend their group if you live anywhere near the area to network and learn photography skills. They bring in speakers from around the country with lots of different specialties. A very active and welcoming group!
Overhead food photography
This can be a great setup for capturing a lot of food dishes in a short period of time. Once the set is in place and the lighting is correct you are good to keep moving different dishes through. You’ll still need to work on the images in postproduction but your time in the restaurant will be relatively minimal. And, clients love it when you don’t impede on business hours.
To make this overhead food photography setup work well, not having a tripod on the set is critical. It is way too easy to bump a leg while you are making images. The cleaner the set, the faster the job goes.
I use a Platypod eXtreme as the base. You could also use a Platypod Ultra as well. Two Platypod Handles are attached to the base for the rise. This can give you a camera height between 14 inches and approximately 22 inches. Depending upon plate sizes these heights are perfect. A Platyball or other strong ball head is on top of the Handles and another Handle is used to move the camera over the product. An additional ball head supports the camera.
Key to this set is to have a woodworkers clamp to secure everything to the table. Without the clamp the weight of the camera will be too heavy to stay in place. This is an inexpensive set of clamps. The squeezy handles are the type I recommend as you can tighten them quickly and release them with a tap as well. By the way, you can never have enough clamps on a commercial set!
Charcuterie board
Part of the beauty of a good food shot is the styling. If you can work with a professional stylist all the better. But often, you will find yourself styling the food while working with the owner or chef. If you have hot food coming through in the beginning you might want to work with a stand in plate of food then when the lighting has been perfected it’s time for the hero to arrive under the camera.
One of my students, Tara Patty did a great job of sourcing the materials to photograph! Meanwhile Elane Graves, did a great job of styling the board with the fruit, tomatoes, bread, cheese and sliced meat. While waiting for the food to complete, I also finished the lighting. You want to have light crossing the food to give it shape and form with soft shadow edge transitions and lovely highlights. A single light behind a diffusion scrim accomplished this. You find those inside a five way reflector. A piece of white foam core can serve as the fill light, angled opposite the main light. If you need deeper shadows, a black board can help with that.
Post production
You will want to keep your set as clean as possible. Because we were working fast to show as many different setups as possible, some crumbs were allowed during the shot. No worries. Using the Dust and Scratches filter in Photoshop cleaned that up with a click. I selected the charcuterie board using Photoshop’s “Select Subject” and placed it on a layer above the Dust and Scratches filter layer.
Final post production tweaks
To complete the photo, finishing touches included using the Clone Tool to remove stray breadcrumbs on the cutting board, a sharpening layer for selective sharpening and a Soft Light layer to refine the highlight and shadows. NIK Filters Color Efex Pro 5 added some Tonal Contrast for structure with some Glamour Glow to add some nummyness. By the way, nummy is a technical term I use to describe warm and yummy in a scene that gets really tasty!
Let me know if you have any questions or other ideas for making this type of image stronger in the comments section below.
Your in Creative Photography, Bob
The Sculpture Center and Artists Archives of the Western Reserve to expand galleries
After sharing space for more than 20 years, the center and the archives will both have larger spaces to exhibit art in separate buildings.
A Guide To September 2023 Photography Festivals
Verzasca Photo Festival, PhEST, Kranj Foto Fest, StgoFoto, and Visa Pour L’image are among the festivals you shouldn’t miss this month.
Bologna, Italy / 22 September – 1st October
Themed I Don’t Know How To Respond To That, the third edition of the PhMuseum International Photo Festival has its core in the post-industrial space of DumBO’s Spazio Bianco, with solo exhibitions by Penelope Umbrico, Brea Souders, Andy Sewell, Luca Massaro, Daniel Everett, Leonardo Magrelli, The Cool Couple and Chloé Milos Azzopardi, plus a rich program of talks, portfolio reviews and projections. All around the city of Bologna, 4 on-site workshops, 4 additional solo exhibitions and one collective show will be scattered in galleries and open-air locations.
Aiming at exploring the dialogue between humans and machines, this edition of the Festival focuses on the development of language in the broadest sense. The physicality of technology and its environmental impact, attempts at conversating with algorithms, our ever-present need to imagine possible futures: this and much more will be at the core of the two weekends in Bologna.
To find out more about the festival and book your tickets, visit our website.
Verzasca, Switzerland / 30 August – 3 September
Verzasca Foto Festival takes place outdoors, in a mountain valley in Switzerland. For ten years, Verzasca has been creating exhibitions inspiring people to pause, observe, and engage with the territory around them. With freedom and spontaneity as firm values, they learned from the valley’s history, and shaped a meeting point between mountaintops, rivers, and fresh artistic currents.
This year, artists-in-residence Rita Khin, Gabriela Olivera Hidalgo, Santiago Escobar-Jaramillo, Mahmoud Khattab, and duo Sabine Hess & Nicolas Polli will present their projects created in the Swiss territory, while the works of ten international artists will shine a spotlight on narratives of youth in the old villa of Casa Azul. Additionally, the Nera di Verzasca winning project by Khashayar Javanmardi, and two collaborative exhibitions will be on display. Highlights of the program are a workshop with James Wellford from National Geographic, Portfolio Reviews, and live music and dinner event Night of Photography.
For more information about this festival, visit the website.
Monopoli, Italy / 1 September – 1 November
From September 1st to the 1st of November, Monopoli will showcase photographic and contemporary art for the 8th edition of PhEST, a festival where photography meets music, cinema, art, and contaminations from the Mediterranean to reflect on how the sea creates and blends identities.
What makes us human? This year, Cristina De Middel, Jan Fabre, Caimi & Piccinni, Robin Schwartz, Zed Nelson, Ingmar Björn Nolting and many more will offer a varied analysis in response to this question. While their installations will merge with the outstanding context of Monopoli, portfolio reviews and other events with artists and experts from all over the world will take place, nurturing a vibrant and diverse community of enthusiasts.
Find out more on their website.
Kranj, Slovenia / 23 August – 23 September
Exploring critical issues of our era, Kranj Foto Fest wants to exhibit, promote, support and develop the works of Slovenian and international artists. The scenic old town allows for an intimate, generous exploration of what contemporary photography can be, and of the ways an international scene can organically communicate with local communities.
On the theme of HUMAN – NATURE, the exhibition program is entirely based on an open call process, with Amina Kadous’ work White Gold being awarded the main exhibition for this year, and all shortlisted projects being showcased around Kranj and its natural surroundings. With outdoor exhibitions being a focus of the Slovenian festival, Kranj is transformed into an exciting stage for photographers to exchange experiences and build a strong network.
This edition features more than 20 exhibitions, a workshop by Viktoria Sorochinski on post-documentary photography across fact and fiction, as well as portfolio reviews.
More information is to be found on their website.
Perpignan, France / 2 August – 17 September
The 35th International Festival of Photojournalism Visa Pour l’Image is held in Perpignan from Saturday 2 August to Sunday 17 September 2023. Attendants will be able to discover the work of many journalists bearing visual witness to the reality of our times.
A window on outstanding photojournalistic work, the Festival is a great way to discover the city of Perpignan, with photographic exhibitions taking place in iconic locations such as the Couvent des Minimes, the Dominican church, and many more. Visa Pour l’Image will hold 20 free exhibitions throughout the city, with names such as Nanna Heitmann, Darcy Padilla, Emily Garthwaite, Sandra Mehl, Paolo Pellegrin, and Dimitar Dilkoff among others.
More information on the program can be found on their website.
Rome, Italy / 16 September – 24 September
Charta is a contemporary photography festival that aims to highlight photo books and independent publishing. This year’s theme is Human x Nature, which concerns a reflection on the complex relationship between human beings and the nature that surrounds them. During the festival, 100 books will be exhibited that focus on and explore this very topic. Each expo will also feature video and sound installations that will bring the theme to life. The circuit will also feature a screening of the Charta Award shortlist, an exhibition of the Hong Kong Dummy Award, and a Talk Gallery dedicated to the most interesting editorial productions of recent years.
Find out more on their website.
Jakarta, Indonesia / 8 September – 24 September
Organized by PannaFoto Institute, the Jakarta International Photo Festival is a platform for impactful photography, aiming at the international dissemination of Indonesian artists. At its fourth edition, the festival’s line up features a vast array of artists and experts among whom Gaia Squarci, Jordan Marzuki, and Florian Braakman who will engage in the many activities proposed by the festival: exhibitions, a fair, public lectures, projections, portfolio reviews, tours, and workshops spanning from writing grants for photography with Sana Ullah, to finding inspiration with Hajime Kimura, and publishing photography by Aperture editor Brendan Embser.
View more on their website.
Amsterdam, The Netherlands / 21 September – 24 September
The Amsterdam-based art fair Unseen each year represents innovative and relevant contemporary photography. With a selection of 65 exhibitors, the fair’s circular design makes no distinction between established art galleries and up and coming initiatives, offering a varied and comprehensive view over the photographic international scene.
The fair and the publishers Bookmarket are complemented by the experimental, ambitious exhibition Unbound, created by the omonimous independent foundation of Unseen. This year titled “Suspended Matter”, Unbound will presenting large scale projects breaking the boundaries between photography, digital arts, performance, video art, and sculpture, by artists Djeneba Aduayom, Morvarid K, Philipp Groubnov, Stijn Elshuis, Tara Fallaux, and Thom van Rijckevorsel.
More information to be found on their website.
————————
Also Open This Month
Gibellina Photoroad Open Air & Site-specific Festival 2023 / Gibellina Vecchia, Italy / 28 July – 30 September
The Gibellina Photoroad Open Air & Site-specific Festival aims at questioning how photography can shape itself in urban, public space, finding new meanings, visions and interactions with the public. The event will feature large format prints, open-air exhibitions, projections and installations in Gibellina, a city devoid of any visual and light pollution, where the viewing of exhibitions is not disturbed by urban chaos.
Arles Les Rencontres de la Photographie 2023 / Arles, France / 3 July – 24 September
The Festival Arles Les Rencontres de la Photographie 2023 reaches its 54th edition this year.
The aim of the festival is to explore the Arles territory and its ecosystem, coming in contact with the urgency of climate change and its impact on our daily lives. With the theme A State of Consciousness, the festival serves as a thinktank, with scientists, researchers, thinkers, and artists embarking on voyages of discovery to assess the territory.
Rolling Paper #5 / Paris, France / 23 September – 25 September
The Rolling Paper festival returns to Le Bal for its fifth edition from 29 September to 1 October 2023. Launched in 2017 by LE BAL Books, Rolling Paper is the meeting place for independent publishers of contemporary photography in Paris. Free admission, this year it will again present a wide-ranging programme combining concerts, launches, screenings, installations and performances.
Rochester gallery opens exhibit of Vermont photography past & present
Arts & Leisure
CURATOR SERIES INAUGURATED by Peter Moriarty at BigTown Gallery in Rochester. On view Aug. 26-Oct. 29.
August 24, 2023
“No Place Like Here: Photographs of Vermont past and present” will open with a reception and artist talk with Peter Moriarty on Saturday, Aug. 26, from 3-5 p.m. Pizza in the garden to follow — BYOB.
We’re glad you’re interested in this valuable content! Please understand that in order for us to be able to fund reporters covering local news, we need your help! For full access to this story and all online content, please log in or subscribe to the Addison Independent.
More News
Arts & Leisure
Beth Duquette has teamed up with her husband, Mark Mulqueen, to launch a new music series … (read more)
Arts & Leisure
Pianist and music educator Chuck Miller has been bringing good music to life in this area … (read more)
Arts & Leisure
On Friday, Sept. 1, Town Hall Theater presents the first show of Bread + Puppet’s annual t … (read more)
Share this story:
In Fantastical Laser-Cut Plywood Reliefs, Gabriel Schama Revels in Elaborate Details
All images © Gabriel Schama, shared with permission
Through a process of meticulous design, laser-cutting, and layering, Gabriel Schama creates incredibly detailed reliefs from thin plywood (previously). His work has focused on symmetrical, mandala-like forms with countless undulating patterns, and in recent years, he’s begun to explore more narrative themes, placing figures and objects into fantastical compositions. In new works, otherworldly birds careen in a flurry of feathers, a bottle of potion roils, and a hanging unit on a wall doubles as a holster for a sword.
One major project that took Schama several months to complete was a pair of panels installed on monumental doors. “The real feat was figuring out how to break the design down into smaller pieces, hiding the seams between the panels in the lines of the design and making the whole thing foolproof for some team of people on the other side of the world to install,” he tells Colossal.
“Potion of Dreams”
Over the past few years, Schama has experimented with different colored stains to enhance the compositions but struggled to find results he was happy with. Then, he unexpectedly stumbled upon new techniques and now incorporates varying hues. He says, “I have an old bias towards not obscuring the inherent qualities of the wood, hence sticking to ‘natural’ wood tones for so long, but I have become pretty obsessed with this really vibrant purple pigment I just found.”
Schama has been working on a large chapel- or temple-like structure, with Burning Man in mind. “Every time I’ve posted images of the scale maquettes I’ve made, people go out of their way to offer their help building it,” he says. The artist is also producing smaller pieces to be released as numbered editions this fall. You can follow Instagram for updates, and explore more work on his website.
“Bridge of Birds”
“DJ Booth”
Left: “Chapel of the Lilies.” Right: “Thorn and Fang”
“Tension and Release”
“Prince of Thunder”
Detail of “Prince of Thunder”
Installation view of “Thorn and Fang”
Door panels prior to installation
Do stories and artists like this matter to you? Become a Colossal Member today and support independent arts publishing for as little as $5 per month. The article In Fantastical Laser-Cut Plywood Reliefs, Gabriel Schama Revels in Elaborate Details appeared first on Colossal.
2023 Niagara Street Fall Fest Market includes Churros and a Pumpkin Patch
On Saturday, September 23 (11am-3pm), a handful of Niagara Street businesses will host the Niagara Street Fall Fest Market, featuring over 60 vendors that will be popping up directly next to Wildroot Floral.
Visitors to the market will find sweet treats, kettle corn, coffee and hot cider, churros, creative and unique art and gifts, autumn candles, clothing, jewelry, pottery, stationary. Vendors include community favorites such as Blue Eyed Baker, Linwood Candle, The Grange Outpost, Tiny Buffalo Designs, Naked Up North Candles, Copper & Steel, Lacott Fine Art, and Francis Foliage.
“We’re bringing a second market to Niagara Street after the success of our first Mother’s Day Market in May! It was a fantastic event that surpassed expectations in the best way,” said Kayla Gaczewski, owner of Wildroot Floral. “It was such a blast to have the community come and spend time on Niagara Street! We are thrilled to once again welcome customers to check out all that is happening on Niagara Street and browse the businesses in our corridor (even more have joined since our last market – such as Provisions 139). We’re encouraging everyone to bring family, friends, children, and pets, to shop 60+ vendors in the parking lots attached to the 1250 Niagara Street building. Of course, the businesses of Niagara Street – Mint, Local Honey Beauty Hive, Daddy’s Plants, Twin Petrels, Raft of Sanity, and Stitch Buffalo – will be open and ready to shop. Wildroot Floral will have a vintage pickup truck filled with locally-grown blooms parked just outside our boutique – ready to pick and choose by-the-stem. And, we’re bringing heirloom pumpkins from the farm into the city with a parking lot pumpkin patch filled with specialty pumpkins ready to take home and decorate your porch.”
The Facebook event page can be found by clicking here.
Dishing the Dirt on Porte + Hall’s New Outdoor Mat
Porte + Hall’s newest doormat – The Outlier – proudly made in the USA, is an innovative design featuring tiny bristles that remove every last bit of dirt from your shoes, keeping it outside where it belongs. (But don’t worry, they’re flexible and easy on paws and bare feet!) The luxury mat’s design has been in the works for over two years, with every new detail and technological advancement geared towards making it different and better than the rest.
Created by Porte + Hall’s founder and interior designer Stafford Meyer, The Outlier delivers a sophisticated sense of arrival to the entryway or a welcome respite from water and grass in the mudroom. Three neutral shades are available to accentuate your home, highlighting the clean geometric pattern that adds visual interest without overpowering any space.
No matter who walks through the door, The Outlier doormat is up to the task of helping your floors stay spotless – say goodbye to puddles, mud, and soggy rugs. This doormat is incredibly versatile and ready for just about anything. Rugged and all-weather resistant, it’s been designed with strategically placed vents that maximize drainage, ensuring your doormat stays dry no matter the forecast. It’s easy to clean (sweep or hose down) and can be exposed to all of the elements.
Pebble
The Outlier doormat is built to last, engineered with high-quality materials that withstand the toughest of conditions while maintaining its shape and effectiveness along the way. It’s an ideal choice for anyone looking for a reliable, stylish doormat that’s sure to deliver.
Chestnut
Whether you have a back patio begging for a little love, a front porch that needs some added appeal, or an entryway that’s a hub for mud, The Outlier will keep all your places and spaces clean. To learn more about The Outlier or explore more of the collection, visit porteandhall.com.
Slate
