Fundraiser for the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children

March's Giveback from Dance Media Dance Media

"Glam It Up Barrie" on Facebook

"Acts of Kindness"

This past weekend Dance Media had the opportunity to get involved with a fundraising event in Barrie Ontario held at the Army Air force, Navy & Marines Club called "Glam It Up Barrie" created and lead by Shakir Barmare to support the Season's Centre for Grieving Children. Shakir, the main organizer of the event which is driven by volunteers, brings together hair and makeup artists along with professional photographers to create a one day "Glam" session for all the attendees whom purchased a ticket to raise funds and awareness of the Centre. In return, the volunteers have an opportunity to not only show off their skill to their clients but to network with other artists and build their brand identity as well. Typically a photographer requires a hair and makeup artists for their customer... 

What is "Glam It Up Barrie" you may ask?

Glam It Up Barrie now in its second year is a community driven fundraising event all to support the Seasons Centre for Grieving Children, a non profit organization located in Barrie which relies on events just like this one. Tickets are purchased on-line as well as at the door with proceeds going to the Centre. 

It was a long but very humbled day for us as we were out the door at 8am and would spend the next 8 hours capturing perfectly prepared individuals not returning until 8:30pm.

Below is some info about the Centre and the amazing work they continue to do for the kids and there families since 1995. 

The Season's Centre for Grieving Children

Since 1995, Seasons Centre for Grieving Children has been providing peer to peer support for children between the ages of 4 and 24 years who are grieving the death or life threatening illness of an immediate family member. The Centre is founded on the belief that every child deserves the opportunity to grieve in a supportive and understanding environment,

There are no fees for our services. Children are able to attend programs regardless of their family’s financial situation. Seasons Centre for Grieving Children receives no government funding and relies on the generous support of our community 

Thank you to all the individuals involved for making this day so special to be a part of and to the Seasons Centre, thank you for being there for our community. Be sure to get involved next year and attend this event and show your support and we'll capture you in the spotlight and "Glam On".

Thank you

Stephen Plumley

Dance Media Ltd Image Library from our day Click to view our Photo library from the event

Taking Long Exposures

It seems to me that we live in a world orientated to a digital generation demanding instant gratification. This extends to photography, encouraged by the prevalence of camera phones and Instagram type apps. How many photographers, when they come across a beautiful scene, just stop and snap a photo with a camera phone and then move on?

Long exposure photography is different. It demands patience, an appreciation of beautiful light and a deep understanding of composition. It is as much about the mind-set of the photographer as it is about the subject. It’s not brash or flashy – you rarely see long exposure photographers use techniques such as high dynamic range (HDR) photography or adding texture layers.

What is long exposure photography? There is no precise definition. I think of it as involving shutter speeds of ten seconds or longer, but I’m sure some photographers will be thinking in terms of shutter speeds of a minute or more. But the aim is the same – to create beautiful and surreal images by leaving the shutter open long enough to record anything that moves within the landscape, such as water, as a blur.

That’s why most long exposure photography tends to take place along the coast or near moving water. It creates an interesting subject, helped by natural features such as rocks and islands, and man-made ones like piers and jetties.

Painting with light is also a form of long exposure photography.

It's all about the focus, learn it and apply it !

All pictures of people soar when you focus in on your subject’s eyes, and that’s no different with Christmas photos. It’s critical to compose the image with as little headroom and dead space on the sides as possible, so the image is more about the faces and the eyes than anything else. The rest of the décor will filter into the image on its own. In our photographs, always try and nail the eyes to be on the same plane, and this is effective for this kind of photo as it shows a subtle unity among family or group shots. 

You should always use a flash with most indoor Christmas photos, but use a detachable flash (or an angled flash) and bounce the light off the ceiling or walls and don't be afraid to review your picture and then re set it. Remember, the ambient light levels will be raised by the Christmas lights (and possibly candles too), and you don’t want the vibrant colors washed out by the flash. And as always, don't miss those special moments and get in the picture yourself if it's your family picture, have a tripod handy and a remote trigger and don't take just one as kids can be the hardest to capture the right expression and the eyes.

Steve
Dance Media Ltd

We've all seen these shooters !

Just read on Facebook the other day how the social networking site has suddenly turned into a magazine – poets, writers and photographers after every few posts. While it is a great thing to share your creativity with everyone, some people just do not know where to stop. For instance, budding photographers who, no matter their age or location, always do these 11 annoying things on Facebook.

1.Tag 50 people in one photo to get likes and comments.

So you get a notification about being tagged in your friend’s photo – and you click on it to find dozens of other people being tagged in it too, which is essentially some random shot of a bird or flowers or something equally lame. You give one sympathy like, untag yourself and move on. This is a warning sign that your friend is going to go into the amateur photographer mode soon.

2.Create a “XYZ Photography” page on Facebook.

The most common annoying thing photographers on Facebook do is to create a photography page in their own name on Facebook. Even if they had probably just started out fresh and taken up the art as a hobby. With 50 average pictures in their computer to boast of. Sigh! Or they stand in a room full of people and can't stop shutter bugging, literally by taking a rapid fire barrage approach of 10 pics and just maybe their hoping for 1 decent one of each person.

3.Hound every person they know to like the page.

This is the most annoying part of having an amateur photographer for a friend. It does not matter if you guys have not spoken in years, they are going to pop up on your chat and be like, “Hey! What’s up? Please like my page “Douchebag Photography”… thanks! : - )” And they are not going to rest till you do it. So just get it done and over with!

4.Hound every person they know to tell their friends to like the page.

The next level of douchebaggery comes with them getting in touch with you once again. You’ve already ‘liked’ their page, but no – that’s not enough. Could you also please-pretty-please spread the word to the people in your friend list too? Of course, why not? Why don’t you effing pay me a salary for being your public relations officer?

5.Create a fancy watermark and post it on every picture.

Because they are so effing brilliant, magazines and other photographers are dying to get their hands on these works of art. At least that’s what these shutterbugs think. How to avoid such theft? Put more effort into creating a watermark than they do in mastering their photography skills – and paste them on every effing photo. The least it does is give these poor souls a sense of achievement.

6.Upload at least one ‘artistic’ selfie for a profile picture.

Every wannabe photographer has at least one profile picture they have taken of themselves – a DSLR selfie, if you must. This is to do two things – one, show the world that they have a fancy camera, and secondly, show the world that they can use it to take their own pictures too!

7.Think that pictures of poor/old people in black and white are the epitome of great photography.

Amateur Photography Lesson 101: If you have not taken high contrast photos of tired, wrinkled and depressed old/poor people in black and white, you have not done anything worthwhile with your expensive camera. Every wannabe shutterbug will have at least one photo of such a subject in their extensive albums.

8.Think that macro is just the bee’s knees. Literally.

Amateur Photography Lesson 102: Macro the shit out of all the bugs in and around your location. Butterflies, caterpillars, bees – any and every insect become subjects of this budding lensman’s camera. If bugs could talk, they’d probably be saying…

9.Edit the shit out of the simplest pictures.

Amateur Photography Lesson 103: Take a picture, Photoshop it till it barely looks like the original and take all the credit for some amazing photography skills. What is up with THAT? They really need to calm down and go easy with the editing tools.

10.Overthink their captions.

So you take a picture of a line of ants scurrying away – and give a 300 word exposition on hard work and discipline as the caption? Really? They are ants – taking their food back to their anthill. That’s it. Don’t overthink it – it comes off as incredibly pretentious, dude.

11.   Flood your newsfeed with pictures.

Remember #2 and #3? This will lead to a chain reaction – and before you know it, your newsfeed is flooded with photos of the aforementioned “Douchebag Photography” that you were not even interested in to begin with. Open your Facebook and you are like –

The remedy? Unlike their page, unfriend them, block them – or do something more permanent than that… to their precious camera.

Clearly One Choice for Newmarkets Ward 6

Click here to find out more What is the definition of character? Sure, there is the one that is in the dictionary but what is the REAL meaning of character?

The Head Shot, using your shoulders to control the image

When taking head shot and upper body portraits of people one simple posing tip that I’ve picked up is to angle the shoulders of your subject rather than to have them even or squared in your shot.

While the shoulders might not seem like an important aspect of a portrait they can actually set the tone for an image as they’re the widest part of your subject and they are visually what the main point of focus for your image (the head) is sitting upon.

Generally speaking, angling the shoulders slightly gives you shot balance and helps lead your viewer’s eye into the shot towards your main focal point. It also stops your subject seeming out of proportion as it lessons the width of the shoulders slightly.

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Getting this effect might mean actually getting your subject to lean in one direction or another or it could simply mean getting them to turn their body a little so you’re not photographing them directly front on. Another technique can be to frame your subject slightly off center so that one shoulder is actually out of the frame.

Some believe that in positioning your subjects shoulders make the one closest to camera the lower of the two – but I’ve found that you can get an interesting effect by doing it the other way around too.

Of course – this isn’t a hard and fast rule and sometimes the completely front on symmetrical shot can leave a shot can have a very powerful (and often confronting) impact upon your readers also. So as always – experiment with posing your subject in a variety of ways and see what works best for you and your subject.

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Practice and prepare the same shot multiple times and see what happens

Jim Harmer of ImprovePhotography.com

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Athletes would never consider showing up to a game without having practiced, so why is it that most photographers shoot for the “wall-hanger” photo every time they go out without ever practicing new techniques? Consider applying these new workouts in your photography routine and you will improve your skills and creativity.

1. The EXIF Drilldown

In my photography workshops, I often show my portfolio to introduce myself before the class begins. After showing a few pictures, someone will inevitably raise their hand and ask, “How did you shoot that one?” I tell them the answer, but then I show them how to practice guessing camera settings so they will know what to use in any situation.

The very best way to shoot like a pro is to analyse the work of the pros, and Flickr is just the place to look. Most photographers probably know that cameras save information about what camera settings were used to take a photo, and the information is saved in the jpeg image file. Some websites, such as Flickr, make this information easily viewable so photographers can see how other photographers created a photo.

To view this information on Flickr, find a photo and click the small text link on the top right of the screen that reads the name of the camera that shot the picture. Clicking this link will bring up a new page showing all of the camera settings the photographer used.

This photography workout simply requires going to Flickr or any other photo sharing website, finding good photos, and then carefully reviewing the EXIF data from the pictures. Ask intrinsically why the photographer chose those settings and what camera settings could change in order to improve the photograph.

When this photography exercise is implemented, the question, “How did he take that picture?” is asked much less often. With practice, knowing the correct camera settings is easy.

2. One Shot

Most photographers take tens of thousands of pictures over the course of a year, but only a handful of those photos really stand out enough to make their way to your portfolio of best images. Many good images may be captured during each time shooting, but rarely is an image captured that is truly stunning.

While all photographers understand this fact, their photography techniques rarely reflect it. Most photographers shoot hundreds of images and hope that some of them reach the level of quality necessary to make it into the portfolio.

Though this method of never missing the moment has some merit, it also teaches photographers that if the first or second photo of a scene does not turn out, it is acceptable to simply forgive and forget the mistakes and move on to something else. Therefore, this straight-forward exercise is designed to work that bad habit out of photographers: Go out and shoot, but do not return home with more than one photo. Click the shutter more times, yes, but delete each photo if it is not perfect.

Implementing this photography workout will teach photographers not to give up on a shot until it is perfect.

3. Ten Shots, One Subject

This workout works almost the opposite of the second exercise, but it has a similar purpose—keep shooting to capture the perfect shot.

To practice this technique, find one subject and work to capture ten photos of that same subject before leaving. I recognized the need for this exercise while teaching my photography students landscape photography in Naples, Florida. We went to shoot the famous Naples Fishing Pier, but, not to my surprise, all of the students set up their tripods at the exact same spot immediately upon arriving at the beach. Their photo included all of the pier and the sunset behind it. This was a perfectly reasonable composition, but the students had a difficult time thinking of new ways to photograph the pier in an interesting way.

I asked the students to all take 10 different shots of the pier. They struggled at first, but eventually ended up with beautiful photos. They photographed tiny details on the pier, captured photos of the water splashing up against the pier pilings, and shot the pier as a silhouette against the sunset. Soon the students discovered their initial photo of the subject was not quite as strong as the photos they took as they forced themselves to try new things.

When something captures your eye, don’t leave until you have shot that same subject in ten different ways.

As you practice your photography skills rather than simply shooting and hoping to improve, you will feel more confident in your ability to come out of any shoot with creative and technically-correct photos.