WE’RE MOVING
Everyone and everything has to grow up and the Sunshine Coast School of Photography has reached that age. It has been three years since it’s inception. The shop in Conn Street, Yandina was a wonderful place but there were no more seams to let out. The school needed to spread out.
This week celebrates the official moving-in to new premises – just around the corner in Railway Street – just opposite the railway station. It is big, it is spacious – it is as cavernous as a mediaeval cathedral. Perhaps it is appropriate. A great cathedral of creative learning. And the ‘Sunshine Coast School of Photography’ now adds the suffix – and ‘Creative Arts’ to it’s title.
The new premises contains a warren of special spaces dedicated to specific learning studies and tasks. There are cosy teaching areas, a photographic studio space, discreet relaxation and discussion areas and a stage – an actual raised area for performance and theatrical set-ups.
All this frenzy of newness heralds in a new era in the activities of the school. Photography education is still it’s primary function but new disciplines are being introduced constantly. There are many new students too – students travelling from far afield looking for high quality and universally relevant education in the creative arts, and in particular, in photography. The following newsletter outlines some of the special workshops coming up and, not forgetting, the progressive ‘Creative Photographer’ courses up to the very extensive ‘Professional and Studio Photography’ course scheduled in May/June – an ideal course for coming to grips with the practical techniques and practices professional photography.
Next OPEN DAY: Friday 30th March 10AM - 7PM
THE WONDERS OF WORKSHOPS
For many keen students of photography, playing with special themes and techniques provides a wonderful creative experience. As well as the regular ‘Creative Photographer’ courses, the ‘Sunshine Coast School of Photography’ offers an exciting range of short courses and ‘one-off’ workshops in many specialized fields of photography. These workshops provide practical opportunities for a personal exploration of techniques and ideas practiced by some of the most accomplished photographers in the field. (Plus many unique and original ideas).
THE NUDE IN NATURE
The Picture #01 shows students prowling the forest, eagerly searching for individual and unique angles to photograph the vision that seems to float like a forest spirit above the ferns. They are taking part in a recent photography workshop, ‘The Nude in Nature’, a four hour session held deep in a private pocket of rainforest. The model was a beautiful woman with a comfortable, even instinctive connection with the natural environment and enthusiastically open to the ideas and direction the students wished to explore. ‘One off’ workshops like this are often magical experiences for students providing glimpses and insights into bewitching possibilities.
FILM NOIR
What is ‘Film Noir’? In the late 1940s and early 50s, Hollywood produced many low budget films based on gangster themes. They were filmed in black and white with terse and edgy ‘pulp fiction’ scripts by writers like Mickey Spillane and Raymond Chandler. Low budget Films had to be made quickly. There was little time for setting up complex lighting or intricate and expensive sets and props. Scenes were lit with single direct light using hard-edged shadows and textures suggesting drama and mystery. However, as is often the case, necessity fostered imagination. Cameramen made the most of suggestive shadows and dramatic camera angles. Picture #02, taken during a special workshop, illustrates the dramatic use of projected shadows and implied forms.
FASHION PHOTOGRAPHY
Fashion photographers are the masters of many skills. They have to be able to work creatively with light; to be able to work imaginatively with composition; to have a good sense of clothing and accessorising; to be able to sensitively and subtly direct a model and coax her express the desired message and finally, to be able to come up with inventive storylines.
The Fashion Photography workshop is designed to give students those skills. Three hours a week over four weeks may not be enough time to produce world-class fashion photographers but it could put people well on your way if that’s where they want to be. It will certainly provide many insights including some of the unique skills and techniques that are the toolbox and the inspirational basis of successful and exciting fashion photography.
The workshops engage students with hands-on photography involving model direction, studio and location lighting. Fashion photography is primarily about style and storyline requiring planning, stage-management, sophisticated lighting, inspired direction and each week explores some of these aspects. Picture
PHOTOJOURNALISM & CREATIVE WRITING
Photography has always been a wonderfully evocative story-telling medium. Even today, in an era of moving image, photography fills our newspapers and magazines with the visual drama and excitement of an event, whether it is tragedy, a joyful occasion or an unbelievable sporting moment. When we photograph our holidays we want to be able to convey the story of the holiday with all its joys and special memories. We don’t merely want to bring back what we have seen. We want friends to see in our photographs all the magic of what we have experienced during our holiday. And surely we don’t want to have to say – “well, you really had to be there”.
It is now common practice for professional journalists to be able to take the photographs they need to illustrate their story. Likewise, newspaper and magazine photographers are expected to supply a substantial written article to accompany their images. For the amateur freelance contributor to local magazines and newspapers, it is almost mandatory to cover an event in word and image. There is rarely the luxury of specialization due to various reasons, not the least being economic.
The two disciplines require different skills; different approaches and it is often difficult to switch one’s concentration from one to the other – from the need to capture the decisive narrative moments in the camera and to garner the information needed to fill out a written feature.
The course offered in Photojournalism and Creative Writing is designed to address the techniques for capturing, producing and presenting stories in both word and image. It addresses the issues from either preference. Some students will have a particular leaning towards photography whilst others will have competent writing skills. In either case, the course will help students to understand and acquire the skills needed to create highly evocative visual and verbal narratives.
PHOTOGRAPHY BY NIGHT
Who would imagine that the mysterious darkness of night would provide the most magical and evocative time of all to take photographs. Among students it is the most popular series of workshops offered at the Sunshine Coast School of Photography. The darkness of night conceals the ordinariness of detail; nighttime covers familiarity with a blanket of mystery. Within the darkness, light of many shades and hues can be used to paint stories onto the landscape – flashlights wielded like paint brushes, electronic flash units picking out sharp and edgy detail. Of course there is also the moonlight and the lights of commerce and of domesticity.
The workshops run for three hours over four weeks. They require the basic skills acquired in ‘Creative Photographer 01’, a DSLR camera and a sturdy tripod. The locations include Mooloolaba beaches, rainforest and village streets and models to help create the evocative narratives of night.
