Self Expression and Other Lofty Endeavors

Now that the tsunami of HATCH Asheville has hit and receded, I am reflecting on the warp speed pace I've been living the past few months. Since my last post in April, I have spent a dreamy week in Paris,  taught my first beginning photography weekend workshop in Cashiers, refinanced my house,  thrown a party for 150 people, shot two books, and gotten married. No rest for the weary! I realize that I seem to thrive on having many balls in the air at once, but maybe I've pushed it a bit this time. I have two weeks to get ready for my annual week at Rancho La Puerta where I will be teaching some beginning photography classes, but I will also be allowed time to enjoy quiet, the smells of sage and thyme along the paths, dessert mountain hikes, delicious healthy food, swimming in the black bottom pool, and my favorite activity there - going between the ice cold plunge pool and the hot tub. That is truly an exhilarating experience.

The classes I teach on photographing people in nature, "digital 101" and the demo sesssions come easily to me - I'm talking about what I know. It's the nighttime presentation that stretches me each year - "Self Expression Through Photography", and every year I feel compelled to re-create it, sometimes from scratch. Maybe, I'm thinking, it's because with every passing year my life changes, evolves in one or many ways, so my ideas change and make me feel that what was true last year isn't true this year. So here I am again, trying to decide how I think other photographers express themselves through their photography, but then I'm forced to ask myself the same question.

I can't say I have the answers yet. I have, however, had the privilege to spend time with two amazing photographers that were gracious enough to share themselves with some "groundbreakers" (up and coming photographers) and a few other lucky people, including myself, and they have added to the self expression stories I plan to tell. Sylvia Plachy and Gerald Slota came all the way to Asheville from New York for HATCH, and I was able to spend time with them both - they couldn't be much more different (I encourage you to look at their websites) - Sylvia is a photo journalist with an impeccable talent for catching not just "the" moment, but oh so many of them. Gerald, a fine art photographer, makes sketches of the scenarios he wants to act out, using his little wrapped in a baggie point and shoot camera simply as a vehicle to capture the intricate and sometimes wicked scenes in his head.

To tell the truth, while I was inspired by these immensely talented photographers, I was also discouraged, as I just don't measure up. I wandered Paris the following week after HATCH looking for those shots that I was sure Sylvia would have seen that were eluding me. I was thinking of the advice Gerald had given me to leave my big fancy camera at home and just use a small camera, to really focus on the image and leave the technology behind. I couldn't do it! Neither one - leaving the big camera, nor finding the clever moments. UGGGGH.

Where's the happy ending to this photo story? That life keeps happening and I keep shooting. I'm no Sylvia Plachy nor Gerald Slota but I have my good moments, and some good ideas, and hopefully I won't stop looking for those moments.  Gerald said that I really lit up when I was talking to him about how much fun I had working with stop motion, and he was encouraging me to begin a new project with stop motion. So, that is the plan....

Now back to the self expression presentation preparation - where's my muse?

Here is a photo of Sylvia, Gerald, the groundbreakers (Matt Brown, Ashley Florence, Alex Palmour and Liz Wells) with Brie Castell, my co-chair for Hatch Photography. It was a great experience - if you missed it, make plans to be at HATCH next year. And here is a shot of my wedding taken by my friend, Dot Griffith.

The Asheville Ad Club Addy's

Saturday night I received a gold Addy award for the book that I shot for  Lark Books called Keeping Chickens - part of the Homemade Living series. As I mentioned in an earlier post, I thoroughly enjoyed working on this book with my "teammates" author Ashley English, art director and stylist Chris Bryant and editor Nicole McConville. The gold means I go on to the regional Addy's, if I understand it correctly! I have made some good friends and business contacts through the Asheville Ad Club, so I'm certainly glad I joined. Below are some of the photos from the book that I submitted:

Digital Photography Coaching

I had my first day of one on one photography training yesterday with the delightful Corrie Woods. Corrie and her husband, Jay Lichty, are in business together selling the beautiful hand made guitars that Jay crafts - their business is Lichty Guitars. Corrie photographs the making of each guitar in Jay's studio, the final products as well as the various musicians that come to try out his soon to be famous guitars, so Corrie needed a few tips on getting the specific type of shots she needed. We talked about lighting, composition, depth of field and working with people. We also discussed naming and archiving files, choosing what type of file to shoot (jpg, raw, tif)  and different types of imaging software. Corrie already has some experience so she grasped what we talked about instantly - I can't wait to see what she does next. I loved the experience! I'm available for this kind of work, so if you or anyone you know is interested, feel free to contact me.

Lightroom Makes It Easy

I have been working on a fun personal project this week - a book documenting my third wonderful year with my boyfriend, Steve. It started out with a simple idea - I would just make a card featuring photos from some our experiences from the past year, but then before I knew it I was designing a cover for a custom made box I recently discovered that you can order from WHCC. Once I had that "shipped" online, I started tinkering with the idea of creating a book. Nothing big, just a simple book. However, in the process of reviewing the hundreds, maybe thousands of photos I've taken, I realized that if I was going to put this much time just editing the photos, I needed a bigger story, and thus, a bigger book. So, two days later, after working at a frantic pace, I finished printing a sweet little collection of images from our past year together - with the goal of doing one every year in the future. Of course, the book was designed to fit inside the box I had ordered.

What made the entire project less overwhelming was the wonderful product made by Adobe called Lightroom. I had just upgraded to version 3, and what a worthy upgrade purchase that was. I was able to create collections that I could quickly drag selected photos to, and I could easily move them around to put them in the right order. The new print module made it very easy to lay out the pages, and I was able to print two pages on each sheet of paper which were centered so that it just required a few chops on the paper cutter to make the pages the same size and correctly lined up. Finally, I took my book to Will at Henco in downtown Asheville, and he quickly punched the holes to make a spiral binding. Voila! Done.

I've already created a new folder called "Year Four" so that I can just drag images there to eliminate the hours of editing next year. Maybe next time I'll spring for one of the WHCC beautiful bound books.

Now Offering Private Tutoring!

Over the past week, I've had several friends and former clients ask if I would give private photography lessons to them, and I thought "Why not?". Many people have specific needs that they just needs someone to help them with - be it photographing employees, products, documentation for a blog, etc, archiving their images, etc. Therefore I will be offering private lessons beginning this week. For more information, you can contact me at lynne@lynneharty.com or call me at 828-777-7073.

Introduction to Digital Photography Workshop in Cashiers, NC

I am planning a weekend photography workshop in a beautiful private setting in Lonesome Valley - Cashiers, NC May 13-15th, 2011. We will be learning about the basics of digital photography while enjoying springtime in the mountains, and shooting in places that cannot usually be accessed unless you live in the community of Lonesome Valley. You will have a real opportunity to explore and photograph a place that is not usually accessible to the public. Lynne will give you lots of tips to take better photographs of people, still lifes, nature and landscapes by learning about composition, lighting, point of view and depth of field through presentations and hands on experiences.

 Enjoy homemade goodies for breakfast Saturday and Sunday, as well as a delicious picnic lunch in a private natural setting at the base of Laurel Knob - surrounded by rhododendron and ferns. The weekend will be a one of a kind experience sure to be informative and enjoyable for anyone who loves to take pictures and be in the outdoors. The cost is $395 per person for the weekend - affordable housing is available on site. For a flyer with details, click here.This workshop is limited to 10 people, so please sign up soon!

Print Signing at the Biltmore Estate Wednesday November 3rd

Thankfully the Carraige House gift shop on the Biltmore Estate is going has started carrying my Biltmore series of prints (in addition to Traditions). I will be there tomorrow, November 3rd, to sign prints and meet people as they put up the "big tree". Christmas already? I am sure it will be exciting to see all the holiday decorating begin on such a massive scale. I've never seen the Biltmore Estate during the holidays, but plan to this year!