Najee Tobin, whose art will also be showing, is part of the East Bay Photo Collective’s gallery team. A Vallejo-raised artist who focuses on portrait photography with elements of fine art, Tobin says the group’s work is an important part of the landscape for local photographers.

“It’s an easygoing, supportive space where you’re allowed to experiment,” Tobin says of the collective, pointing out the frequent barriers to entry — financial or otherwise — when it comes to doing photography in academia or the world of fine art. ” They just want to see the work, that’s what’s important to me.”

The East Bay Photo Collective hosts workshops on specific photography topics throughout the year. The group also holds an annual gear sale, where cameras and accessories are donated, cleaned up and sold for a low price to aspiring photographers.

Earlier this month the collective held a closing reception for an exhibition that featured photos from the archives of Raymond Cooper, the late Oakland photographer whose images of the Town during the ’70s and ’80s were rescued from a trash can in 2021.

“I see a lot of my friends and fellow photographers in his archives,” says Tobin, reflecting on the event and Cooper’s work. “It was nice to see somebody celebrated for doing what we do.”

‘NOTICE,’ a show highlighting the work of the Oakland Street Photography Collective, takes place on Friday, May 3, from 6 p.m. to 9 p.m. at the Oakland Photo Workshop (312 8th Street, Oakland).

Whether you’re shooting video, stills, or some combination, there’s a camera that offers incredible levels of excellence in both, and at a price point that’s hard to ignore. Watch it get put through its paces in a 4-week trip to South America, and see how it stacks up against the competition.

The demand for cameras that can satisfy the exacting needs of hybrid shooters has never been higher. Videographers, photographers, and content creators of all stripes routinely work with a blend of still and moving images. The ability to create all of these media types using a single device offers incredible convenience, as well as potentially significant savings in time, money, and effort. Just think about the overhead of going on a trip like the one shown in this video, and having to cart along separate cameras for video and still photography, along with all of their separate sets of batteries, lenses, accessories etc.

One of the issues commonly encountered by hybrid shooters is that plenty of cameras do a bit of both, but are typically much better at one than the other. For example, when using an excellent still photography camera that also shoots video, it can often feel like the video features were something of an afterthought for the manufacturer.

However, this problem seems to be increasingly receding in the rearview mirror as the technology improves and becomes more cost effective. More and more manufacturers are starting to produce cameras that can absolutely hold their own in both video and still photography. The Panasonic Lumix S5IIX is a prime example of this.

In the video presented here, filmmaker Matthias Dangl takes his Lumix S5IIX on a 4-week trip to South America to put it through its paces and to see how it stacks up against the competition – specifically another popular hybrid shooter camera, the Sony a7S III. This video definitely focuses more on the videography aspects of the S5IIX than its use as a still camera, but I can personally vouch for its abilities in still photography, having used one myself. There are some great clips in the video that showcase just what the S5IIX is capable of, and the results are truly impressive. In the course of his discussion, Matthias covers several of the features that will be at the top of the list of must-haves for videographers, including autofocus, stabilization, and color management.

I would also add that this video came out before the major firmware upgrade that Panasonic recently released, which featured significant enhancements to features like autofocus and image stabilization. Based upon the glowing reviews that these upgrades have received from the Lumix community, it seems likely that Matthias would have found even more to like in the performance of the S5IIX on his trip to South America, had these new firmware upgrades already been available at that time.

Bailey Schurke dove headfirst into photography after her wedding.

While having her engagement and wedding photos taken, Schurke became intrigued by the process of documenting the special memories.

Working as a nurse, the idea of doing her own photography stayed on the back burner. Driving back from a vacation and having a lot of free time, Schurke decided to go for it.

A year later, Schurke is opening her own photography studio called Special Moments by Bailey, which is located at 500 Main Street in Coon Rapids. On Saturday, an open house and ribbon cutting ceremony will take place at the studio, going from 11 a.m. to 2 p.m.

For her photos, Schurke said she usually leans towards warmer and neutral colors. Saying she captures a little bit of everything, Schurke photographs pregnancies, families, senior portraits and weddings.

However, her favorite sessions are Fresh 48, where she takes photos of newborn babies within their first 48 hours after birth.

“You only have one chance to capture those right after the baby’s born in those 48 hours of life,” Schurke said. “These are very much capturing all those little details, the umbilical cord that’s still on, the baby’s fingers, all that fun stuff.”

In order to develop her skills further, Schurke said she reached out to another professional photographer Aryn Book, who is the owner of Peridot and Lace in Adel.

“She was all on board, this was her first time ever helping someone, so she was also super excited,” Schurke said. “So I got my camera, she helped decide which one to purchase, as well as what lens and all that good stuff.”

The studio used to be the space for Brown Bag & Co., a former home goods store. Around this time, Schurke was looking for a building, but hadn’t found anything she liked.

After noticing they were closing, Schurke reached out to move her photography business over.

On top of her photography business, Schurke continues to work as an OB nurse at the St. Anthony Birth Place.

“I love it, I wouldn’t change it,” Schurke said. “Some days do get long when I work night shifts, so that can definitely take a toll, but I love it. I love being a nurse, there’s just something about that process that I love.”

Being from Elk Horn and her husband being from Arcadia, the couple decided to live in Coon Rapids as a middle ground between their hometowns.

Her husband is Derek Schurke, who works at Outlaw Signs Graphics and Apparel in Carroll. Thanks to his profession, Schurke said he helped her design the front sign for Special Moments by Bailey.

Her parents are Molly Robertson and Terry Robertson of Elk Horn. Throughout the process, Schurke said her parents have been great in helping with the building, whether it’s for construction or painting.

“Whenever I need help, they’re not worried about driving the 40 or 45 minutes it takes to get up here, they’re just more than willing to be up here and help,” Schurke said.

For anyone looking to book a session with Schurke, she said they can message her Facebook account at Special Moments by Bailey, email specialmomentsbybailey@gmail.com or call 712-249-6733.

Sparwood Secondary student Vova Voronin is using photographs to capture the heart and essence of his community.

Voronin has launched a website called Beautiful Sparwood, where he compiles photographs of landscapes, wildlife, people and places that define the community. Browsing through the images, one can find pictures of majestic elk, brightly-coloured birds, misty mountains, and urban sights.

The grade 12 student moved to Sparwood a few years ago and he said the project has helped him integrate into the community and get to know his home a little better.

“I learned more about the community. It was very nice to work with different people, to know more people around town,” he said.

Voronin sourced the website pictures from a variety of local photographers in order to get diverse community representation. The picture submissions have inspired him to get out and explore Sparwood and discover places that were previously unknown to him.

“I want to extend my vision of the community, go around town and see more places that people are sending me. There’s so many beautiful places I haven’t seen yet,” he said.

Voronin said that when he moved to Sparwood, he searched the community up online and found the pictures didn’t do justice to the municipality, and weren’t as dynamic as they could be. This inspired him to start his project and compile photographs of Sparwood that would change the way it’s perceived in Google searches.

His vision dovetailed nicely with a school assignment that required students to take on a project that would help better the community, so it grew to be more than just a hobby.

Voronin’s teacher Stephen Larsen said his passion for the project is evident.

“He didn’t have any experience with any of the programs he was using. He didn’t have any connections around the community. He started from scratch and pulled off a major project,” Larsen said

Larsen has agreed to take ownership of the project after Voronin graduates, and work with the photography and media design students to continue contributing to the website.

The Chamber of Commerce has been sharing the link to Voronin’s website to help garner interest and source more photographs, and it will provide Sparwood Secondary School with funding to help grow the site.

Voronin and Larsen said they’ve got a lot of submissions, but what they’re currently missing is pictures of people and local sports.

“There’s a lot of happy people doing fun things around the community and it’s not currently represented in photographs online and even in the photographs that we’ve been getting so far,” said Larsen.

To submit a photo, e-mail beautifulsparwood@gmail.com

Follow the project online at www.beautifulsparwood.com or on Instagram @beautiful_sparwood.

Another week, another fun photography challenge! Are you ready to put your photography skills to the test and refill your creative juices? Now on the 17th week of their 52-week Photo Challenge, the folks of SlickPic want us to look up, within and around stunning Architecture.

In this challenge, the task is to capture all the interesting lines, shapes, and details of eye-catching buildings and similar structures. Whether new or old architecture, this is your chance to showcase their exteriors and reveal their stunning interiors. Let your eye for detail and composition skills shine in this challenge! Whether it’s something you’ve already learned or a technique you want to perfect, this is surely a great activity for you!

To help inspire you, why not check out our architectural photography archive for tips, tricks, ideas and inspiration? For starters, we suggest reading Getting creative with rural architecture photography, Revealing colorful geometric details in architecture, and Seven tips to photograph architectural exteriors. In case you’re just joining, we also encourage you to check out the full info on the 52-week Challenge.

Photography challenge details

• Submissions will be accepted until the end of the day on April 28, 2024. So, if you’re in the mood to flex your creative muscles, there’s still plenty of time to make something nice!
• Submit 3 images by clicking this link
• Please submit images in JPEG format and uploading photos that are at least 2500 on the long side is recommended for the highest quality.

Once you submit your photos, you can review them here: https://52weekchallenge.slickpic.com

As always, you can ask your friends to join the challenge as well by clicking on the Share button for the album and inviting them to join in. Of course, you can also encourage them to Like and Comment on your submissions!

Submit your Architecture photos now!