Bob Sacha: Visual Storytelling with Audio

Award-winning multimedia producer for the Emmy and Webby award-winning mulitmedia production studio MediaStorm Bob Sacha returned for his second annual Visual Storytelling with Audio workshop last week. The highly popular class brought 12 participants from varied backgrounds and skill levels in both photography and audio together for an exciting, fast paced week in the Digital Lab. The participants created three stand alone pieces during the short week! Bob has agreed to join us again next summer to continue educating participants in the expanding world of audio- we cant wait!

Photographic Book Publishing with Darius Himes

Darius Himes guided his Photographic Book Publishing participants on a whirlwind tour of the state of the art of the photo book last week. From the personally published project with Blurb, to working with publishers, to approaching independent photography bookstores like Photoeye Bookstore with books, Darius offered insight, ideas and opportunity in his new SFPW workshop.

Founding member of Radius Books and former photoeye Booklist editor, Darius created unique opportunities for workshop participants to brainstorm their personal projects with an eye toward publishing them. It was an engaging, enriching, and invaluable week!

Darius's blog offers useful insight into where photography books have been and where they are headed. Learn more about Darius and his writings and musings on photography at his website: www.dariushimes.com.

Inside the SFPW with Lauren Devon

Inside the SFPW with seasonal staff member Lauren Devon (www.laurendevon.com)

Hailing from Santa Cruz, CA seasonal course assistant Lauren's photographic influences began with her grandfather who was a photographer. A fine art photographer, Lauren has exhibited her work at the Modern Book Gallery in Palo Alto, CA and Trition Museum in Santa Clara, California. This is her first season with the workshops.

S: What do you like about Santa Fe?
L: I love the light and the art community. I love being here where everyone is fully immersed and passionate about photography. Everyone! I love the different ways that people see and that we have evening presentations so that we can see all different perspectives.

S: Have you found a favorite place to eat?
L: Our class (Publishing the Photographic Book) just went to the India House and it was really good. Oh, and Sherry Conrad's Casita Bar!

S: What do you like best about your job?
L: The coolest thing is all the people who come through here. The location, the buildings, everything is beautiful here but it wouldn’t be anything without all the people. That's what makes it so awesome to work here. Yeah, I'm hooked.

S: What is your favorite color?
L: It's a tie: somewhere between pink and orange.

S: If you were an animal what would you be and why?
L: The first thing that comes to mind is a fawn because that was a nickname of mine when I was as a little girl. But I don’t know what I would be. Maybe some kind of a cat…like a big cat….maybe a big cat.

S: Outside of photography what do you find most inspiring?
L: I really love traveling and seeing different places. I love all forms of art. I am finding different ways of incorporating different forms of art into my photography. I love people. I haven’t figured out how to photograph people though...I get shy around people with a camera! I am totally comfortable with people until I try to photograph them!

Thanks Lauren. You bring a bright spirit to SFPW!

Joe McNally Chats up the Workshops..and Jerry Courvoisier

We always love having our instructors write about us in their blogs. Joe McNally took some time to share with us his love of the workshops....and Jerry Courvoisier too! Check it out!

http://www.joemcnally.com/blog/

Black and White: Capture to Print with Susan Hayre Thelwell

Susan leads the Black and White: Capture to Print workshop this September 22-26 in Santa Fe. Explore northern New Mexico’s distinctive light, expansive landscape, and unique culture in this dynamic workshop for beginning digital photographers. The American Southwest holds a prominent place in the genre of black-and-white photography. This workshop is an opportunity to study the region’s master black-and-white photographers and to learn how light influences every step in the process, from the initial digital exposure to the final ink-jet print. Balancing time in the field and the digital darkroom, we immerse ourselves in making photographs, whether they are landscapes, portraits, or documentary images.

Digital Lab Assistant Susan Hayre Thelwell had work selected by Kathy Ryan of The New York Times Magazine for inclusion into the American Photography 24 Annual. The winning black and white image also appears on (dis)TRIBUTE, the web gallery at ai-ap.com.

She studied photography at Rockport College and worked as a course assistant at the Maine Photography Workshops before joining the digital lab staff at the Santa Fe Photographic Workshops in the spring of 2007. She has studied with Debbie Fleming Caffery, George DeWolfe, and Craig Stevens, among others.

Susan’s personal work includes an ongoing black-and-white documentary project, “Mitchell’s Lot.” Her Web site address is www.susanhayrethelwell.com.

Image © Susan Hayre Thelwell

For more information on this workshop click here.

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops Teams Up With Calumet

Santa Fe Photographic Workshops is excited to announce we are taking our oasis out of the desert for a summer tour of the United States. We have joined forces with Calumet. Calumet stores in New York, Chicago and Los Angeles locations will each host a pair of the Workshops' intensive digital seminars, take this unique opportunity to study with Jerry Courvoisier, in one of these world-class cities.

Each workshop is taught by Jerry Courvoisier, our Digital Programs Director, his prolific talents and decades of shooting, consulting and teaching experience provide rewarding perspective on any subject he covers. His passion for photography combined with his enthusiasm for sharing knowledge has made him
a popular leader of photography, imaging applications and printmaking workshops.

Jerry will introduce you to Adobe Lightroom, this interactive workshop provides a wealth of information on how to organize, develop and process images with maximum efficiency, so you can spend less time processing images and more time making images. Along with Adobe Lightroom, Jerry will show you how to take your images to new heights with the HP Digital Printmaking Intensives.

Click here to for more detailed information. http://www.calumetphoto.com/santafe

An Update from Karen Lenz

Well…here at the workshops we are in the midst of yet another AMAZING summer season. We’re keeping very busy and having a great time!

It all started four weeks ago… The new seasonal staff arrived on June 9th for OUR first day of work…we came in from every corner of the country and were very eager and excited to get started turning this campus into a bustling photo paradise. A little spring cleaning, setting up all the classrooms, and the studio and darkroom, add in orientation meetings, digital training, and learning our way around a VERY confusing city. We stayed busy, I promise…

The first two weeks of classes went great! The energy level on campus is electric and everyone has been so pumped! We’re currently in the middle of week three and the time is just flyin’ by…

Our Work/Study staff this season includes Leah and Alyssa. There’s a good chance that these girls work harder than anyone one else on campus. They’re up before everyone else unlocking doors and making coffee. And while everyone else is turning in for the night, they’re out doing film runs. Look for them lugging around those heavy 5-gallon jugs of water.

The Course Assistants (or CAs) this season are Spelman, Donnor, Dave, Lance, and Lauren. Both Spelman and Donnor are returning to the CA position, Dave and Lance are also vets (but first-time CAs,) and Lauren is joining us for the first time. These guys are busy every second of the day making sure everything goes smoothly. At any given point they are not only making sure that the day is running perfectly, but planning ahead for the rest of the week…and even the NEXT week.

Here in the studio you have the studio assistant (me…Karen!) and the Studio Manager. Kevin Vu joins us for his first season here, and has valiantly stepped up into the Studio Manager position. We work with all the studio classes coming through, keeping track of all of the great equipment we have donated to us from our educational partners; Calumet, Bogen, & Mac Group.

In our darkroom we’re lucky to have Kacie (aka “Rambo”) back with us as the Darkroom Manager. She’s the resident expert on NON-digital photography. Chemicals, papers, equipments, processes… she’s quite the genius! She’s hanging out all season to support the students and instructors who courageously still choose to print the ‘old fashioned’ way!

Cotton, our Digital Tech, is joining us for his first season. He will be helping our Multimedia Coordinator (Brook) out as well as our participants. He keeps everything humming. These guys are the ones who make sure that YOUR work looks it’s best up on the screen!

And who could forget about our Store Assistants, Santiago and Gonzolo. These guys get to know EVERYONE on campus!

Everyone on seasonal staff is just as passionate about photography as the participants, and we love being in a community of like-minded people. We’re having a great time so far this season, and we’re looking forward to the weeks to come!

Karen Lenz, Studio Assistant