Tag: Introduction to Photography

Five Interesting Summer Classes

Go Retro With Film!

Learn the building blocks of photography in this introductory class.  Discover how light interacts with a camera, and take great photos while you do it. For more info & to register >>

Intermediate B&W Photography 

If you’ve already learned the basics of film, come back for more. Hone your skills in the dark room and learn new processes to take your images to the next level. For more info & to register >>

Intro DSLR Photography 

Take control of your camera! Turn off auto and learn what your camera can really do for you. For more info & to register >>

Basic Lighting Studio

In need of a professional portrait or just want to spruce up your Instagram? Then learn the basics of lighting to amp up your pictures. For more info & to register >> 

Intro To Photoshop

Now that you have all of these images, learn how to edit them like a pro in Photoshop. Learn how to navigate and use the tools in Photoshop to perfect your photos. For more info & to register >>

Getting Back into the Darkroom

For several weeks now, I have been taking Mark Watts’ Go Retro with Film: Introduction to Photography class here at the Flower City Arts Center. I’m taking the class as I have a strong interest in working with film, however I have not worked in the darkroom in literally ages (literally). Getting back into the swing of working in the darkroom has been a real kick and has inspired some really interesting ideas for my AIR project. I don’t want to disclose too many specifics regarding the ideas, but I will be using tactics of processing and developing images in the darkroom to enhance the conceptual nature of my final show.

I want to share with you a little bit of the process we’ve been working with in the darkroom with a few images.

Firstly we develop the film and get images (negatives) that look like this:

From then I made a contact sheet to gauge which images I want to make full size prints of. They look like this:

After deciding on my final image: I took several tries and made a final print of it, enlarged:

In addition to this I want to share with you some of the things I have been up to recently. I just got back from NYC, where I met photographer Benjamin Fredrickson. Benjamin is a portrait photographer living and working in NYC who’s work concentrates on portraits of members of the LGBT community. Think a contemporary Robert Mapplethorpe (yes, NSFW.)

In addition to meeting this incredible photographer, who was a huge inspiration for this project, I went to the Whitney Museum of American Art. There was an exhibit I found particularly useful called “An Incomplete History of Protest: Selections from the Whitney’s Collection, 1940–2017.” Some of the art contained therein were works created about and during the AIDS crisis. I was moved by the exhibition and found a new energy in creating work for this project.

I look forward to updating you further on the progress of the project and be sure to look out for the classes I am teaching this upcoming semester. In addition if you are interested in private lessons, please don’t hesitate to contact the arts center and request me!

Over and out

Maxwell