Rolando Gomez Workshop, Day 1

So today my long time friend, Rolando Gomez, taught a workshop for my group the Calgary Institute for Photography. Rolando is a master photographer, Author and Internet Guru and he came to town and did a lecture last evening and then worked with 14 photographers and 4 models today. For my part as facilitator I spent the day running from the basement to the 4th floor at least 25 times to make sure all the participants where having fun and things were running smoothly. In between I was able to squeeze off a few shots on the iPhone and then process them with Snapseed. The Square images were shared on Instagram and the rectangular ones to tadaa.

The location for the session was the rustic King Edward School which is going to be restored and enhanced by cSpace. This added a wonderful opportunity for the photographer's to create some unique images in a rare setting. I wish to thank them for allowing us this opportunity to work in the building and if you are interested in learning more visit http://www.transform kingedward.com to see the wonderful future for this facility.

Tomorrow I will return with Rolando and 12 different photographers. I hope that things will be a little easier after the initial day and that I will also get a chance to shoot with my Canon 7D although I will still be shooting with the iPhone.

So the first image was shot with the main doors in the background. It is very colorful and the robe the model is wearing is a bright blue. I knew that this would look good as a B&W so I did the conversion in Snapseed and shared it as my Instagram 366 photo.
This photo was shot in the old wood shop with one big window giving a beautiful light on my subject's face. Cropped in Snapseed with no additional enhancing.

One of the more interesting location's in the King Edward school is the attic and copula and to access it one has to enter through the boy's washroom on the fourth floor. Since the stairway is narrow I was standing with some of the photographers as they took turns shooting. I started joking about how it would be funny if we had are model standing by the urinal and when she came down suggested this idea to her. She was a good sport and obliged me for this shot. It was later processed in Snapseed with the Drama 2 filter and then posted as one of my "tadaa Today" photographs.

This image was created in the basement hallway and Rolando was showing the students how to use strobe (one head with a beauty dish) to light the subject and then a slow shutter speed to get motion in the dress. I knew that I could accomplish this as well with the iPhone as I have used it in the past. So using available light I had her lift her leg and dress and told her just swing the dress and made the capture. I then used Snapseed to do some corrections with the vintage filter and then into PhotoToaster for the vignetting and frame.

On the fourth floor there is an abandoned piano and we had one of the photographers sit down to play while we had the model lie across the top. We had opened the top and removed the front panel so we could see the keys and strings. Processed with Snapseed and using some grunge and centre focus to do the enhancement.

Back in the basement wood shop a more dramatic lighting but included the window to add the flare and soften the image. Again cropped and processed in Snapseed and then a vintage filter added.