Photo Open House!

Our next Photography Program Open House will be next Friday, December 17 from 5-7pm.  We'll be featuring the work of Darby Laine, Nancy Weber, Ali Gitzes, Adam Pray and Cora Lozinschi, showcasing recent renovations to the space and having food and music. We'll also have information on our upcoming Winter/Spring class session and opportunities to meet some of our instructors. Come see what we have to offer and enjoy local art - hope to see you here!

Fall Foliage Class

We had a great Fall Foliage class with professional photographer and instructor Gary Hall in October. Students looked at photographers for inspiration, discussed shooting techniques, went on an early morning shooting field trip to Mt Mansfield to capture the best light, and learned how to edit and print their work in our Digital Media Lab.

Here are some examples... enjoy!

© Kim Mihan

© Fred Meltzer

© George Ermitano

Fall 2010 Photography Classes and Workshops

We have a busy Fall session planned here at the BCA Photography Program, with a full selection of introductory, intermediate and advanced black and white darkroom and digital photography classes and special workshops taught by our experienced and enthusiastic instructors and a new After School program for kids.  Our full fall class lineup is below and you can link to our website (link below each class) to register. Scholarships are available for all classes.

Introductory Camera Classes:

Learn those camera parts and the basics of composition to gain confidence in your skills!

Intro Film or Digital SLR Camera

Instructor: Dan Lovell

Wednesdays, September 22-Oct 27; 6:30-8:30pm 

Explore the basic workings of the manual 35mm film or digital SLR camera to learn how to take the photographs you envision. Demystify f-stops, shutter speeds and exposure, and learn the basics of composition, lens choices and film types/sensitivity.  Bring an empty manual 35mm film or digital SLR camera and it’s owner’s manual to class. 

Click here to register!

Black and White Darkroom Classes:

Discover this beautiful, hands-on process in the soft orange glow of the darkroom or build upon your existing darkroom knowledge.

Intro to Black and White Film and the Darkroom

Instructor: Rebecca Babbitt

Thursdays, October 7 – December 9; 6:30-8:30pm (No Class Nov 11 & 25)

Discover the mysteries of the darkroom and make your own photographic prints! Learn how to properly expose black & white film, process film into negatives, and make prints from those negatives. At the end of this class, participants will be ready to use the darkroom independently as community darkroom members. Class includes a FREE one-month membership for use when the class ends. Bring an empty manual 35mm film camera to the first class. 

Click here to register! 

Mixed Level Darkroom

Instructor: Mary E. Johnson

Wednesdays, October 6 – November 17; 6-9pm  

Take your work to the next level in this eight-week class! Guided sessions to help you improve your printing and film processing techniques and discussion of the technical and aesthetic aspects of your work will be included. Cost includes a darkroom membership for the duration of the class for outside of class printing and processing.  

Click here to register! 

Adobe Photoshop and Lightroom:

Learn how to manage how digital images and make beautiful prints in our new Digital Media Lab!

Adobe Photoshop Basics for Photographers

Instructor: Dan Lovell

Tuesdays, September 21 – October 26; 6-9pm

Gain confidence working in Adobe Photoshop in this 6-week class. Uploading images into Adobe Bridge, use of Camera Raw, image correction tools such as color and white balance correction, layers, masks, selections, retouching and much more will be covered, as well as printing on our Epson 3880 printer. Bring a Mac-compatible portable flash drive or hard drive with your images to the first class.

Click here to register!

Beyond the Basics: Adobe Photoshop Techniques

Instructor: Dan Lovell

Tuesdays, November 2 – December 14; 6-9pm (no class November 23)

Gain confidence with advanced Photoshop skills in this 6-week class. Advanced retouching, manipulating multiple images, creating actions, panoramas, selective contrast and much more will be covered, as well as printing on various archival papers on our Epson 3880 printer. Bring a Mac-compatible portable flash or hard drive with your images to the first class.  

 Click here to register!

From Camera to Print: Digital Workflow with Adobe Lightroom

Instructor: Robin Perlah

Wednesdays, November 3 – December 15; 6-9pm

Upload, organize, edit and print your digital photographs in this comprehensive class using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Importing images, using RAW files, organization, fine-tuning tone and contrast, color and white balance adjustments and archival printing on our Epson 3880 printer will all be covered. Bring a Mac-compatible portable flash or hard drive with your images to the first class.  

Click here to register! 

Special Workshops:

Take stunning fall landscape images and master photographic lighting techniques!

Photographic Lighting Techniques

 Instructor: Dan Lovell

Thursdays, November 18 – December 16; 6-9pm (no class November 25)

Learn the basics of photographic lighting and gain more creative control over your images in this four session workshop.  Portrait lighting, fill flash and use of studio lights/softboxes will be covered, as well as white balance control and other camera techniques. Bring your SLR camera and a tripod to the first class.

Click here to register!

Fall Foliage Photography

Instructor: Gary Hall

Mondays, October 4 – 25; 6-9pm (no class October 11); Field Trip Saturday October 9

Capture stunning images of the Vermont autumn landscape in this hands-on workshop. Lecture, field shooting, critique and Photoshop image processing techniques will be included. Participants will also have the opportunity to print archival prints on our Epson 3880 printer. Bring your digital SLR camera, tripod and Mac-compatible flash or hard drive to class.

Click here to register!


Classes for Kids:
New afterschool offerings for kids ages 9-12!

 
After School Photography
Instructor: Michelle Colling
Tuesdays, October 19-November 9; 3:30-5:30
Learn the magic of the black and white darkroom in this fun, hands-on after-school class for kids ages 9-12! Kids will go on guided photo shoots and will print their own work in the darkroom. All equipment and supplies are provided. Great for kids who have participated in our summer camp program or for kids who have never been in the darkroom!
 Click here to register!

Summer Darkroom Special!

Join the darkroom for use starting by August 1 and pay just $45 for a month of membership - HALF of the regular price of $90! Summer is a great time to take advantage of the community darkroom - it's cool, quiet and relaxing on a hot and humid day. Stop by!

Vermont Photo Group Exhibition

Our friends at the Vermont Photo Group are having their annual photography show at the Fletcher Free Library in Burlington, VT for the month of July, with an opening reception on Sunday, July 11 from 2-4pm. Be sure to check it out!

Summer Photography Workshops

We have 3 exciting summer classes coming up at the BCA Photography Program, all utilizing our new Digital Media Lab (see post from March for more info about the new facility). The darkroom will be taking a hiatus for adult classes over the summer months, as we will be offering 8 fun summer camps for kids between the ages of 9-14, which you can check out here. We are also in the planning stages for a fantastic Fall session, with a wide variety of classes in the darkroom and the digital media lab.

...but back to the summer!
See info below - feel free to contact me with questions.

If you are a beginner to photography and are interested in learning the basics of your digital or film SLR camera, this is the best class with which to start: 

INTRO FILM OR DIGITAL SLR CAMERA

with Dan Lovell

Register online here!

Wednesdays, June 30 – August 4; 6:30-8:30pm

$145, $130.50 BCA Members

Scholarships Available!

Prerequisite: No experience necessary

Explore the basic workings of the manual 35mm film or digital SLR camera to learn how to take the photographs you envision. Demystify f-stops, shutter speeds and exposure, and learn the basics of composition, lens choices and film types/sensitivity.  Bring an empty manual 35mm film or digital SLR camera and it’s owner’s manual to class.

 Dan Lovell holds a BFA in Studio Art from Johnson State College and is a professional wedding and event photographer.  You can see Dan’s work at www.dglphoto.com. 

For our more advanced students, we will be offering 2 workshops that incorporate lecture, shooting techniques, Photoshop editing and printing on our archival Epson 3880 printer - Photographing Water and High Dynamic Range Photography!

PHOTOGRAPHING WATER

with Gary R. Hall

Register online here!

Tuesdays, July 13 – 27; 6-9pm; Field Session Saturday July 17

$195; $175.50 BCA members

Scholarships Available!

Prerequisite: Intro Film/Digital SLR/equivalent experience, basic Photoshop experience

 Learn to capture the beauty and movement of water in this 4 session, hands-on workshop. Time exposures and stop motion techniques will be covered, as well as Photoshop image processing techniques. Participants will also have the opportunity to print archival prints on our Epson 3880 printer. Bring your digital SLR camera, tripod and Mac-compatible flash drive to class.

Gary R. Hall is an internationally published Burlington-based fine art and architectural photographer who uses both analog film cameras and digital techniques in his work. He has studied with Katrin Eismann, inductee of the Photoshop Hall of Fame. You can see Gary’s work at www.garyhallphoto.com.

HDR PHOTOGRAPHY TECHNIQUES

with Dan Lovell

Register online here!

Thursdays, July 22 – August 12; 6-9pm

$195; $175.50 BCA members

Scholarships Available!

Prerequisite: Intro Film/Digital SLR/equivalent experience, basic Photoshop or Lightroom experience

Learn how to capture brilliant color images with incredible detail in both shadow and highlight areas using High Dynamic Range photography. Landscape, architectural and night photography applications will be covered, as well as image processing techniques. Participants will also have the opportunity to print archival prints on our Epson 3880 printer. Bring your digital SLR camera, tripod and Mac-compatible flash drive to class. Check out some great HDR images here!

Dan Lovell holds a BFA in Studio Art from Johnson State College and is a professional wedding and event photographer.  You can see Dan’s work at www.dglphoto.com.

The Black Series Opening Reception!

Come Friday, April 9 for the opening reception of The Black Series, featuring the work of darkroom member Amanda Zackem. The reception will be from 5-8pm and we hope to see you here!

The Mac Lab is Open!

It's been a while since my last post - we've been busy at work this winter launching the new Mac Lab for digital photography and graphic design classes here at the Firehouse. We received generous computer donations from Champlain College and the Burlington Technical Center, which kick-started the project.

We've had a very successful session so far, filling Adobe Photoshop Basics, From Camera to Print: Digital Workflow (a class using Adobe Lightroom) and Adobe InDesign. Exciting! We have one more section of Photoshop this spring... I'll add info below, as there are still 2 more spots available.

We reworked the lower level classroom in the Firehouse Center, starting by cleaning out years of junk. It's amazing what you can find in an art center's basement! The city's fantastic Parks and Recreation staff built us walls to separate the space and a new counter for the computers (the classroom will not only be used as a Mac Lab - we created storage and a youth studio to be used as a mentor arts after school drop in center) . We painted the with warm oranges and yellows to brighten the classroom area (which, as you can see from the images, is separated from the Mac Lab by a half wall).

Jonathan Taylor, who I met at the Burlington Technical Center and who now works down at Green Mountain College, helped me set up the lab in a few marathon weekend sessions. We created identical workstations, so that every computer is the same for ease of teaching, a file server for teachers to share instructional files with their students, and we color calibrated the lab to match our beautiful new Epson 3880 archival printer. We also created a mobile teaching station with projection so that students can follow along with the lectures.

We'll be offering a wide range of new digital classes in this space to get your digital skills up and running - for the summer, we have some great field and lab classes in the works. Leave a comment and let me know what classes you might be interested in seeing in the new lab!

And in the meantime, as mentioned earlier, there are still 2 spots left in the second section of Adobe Photoshop Basics:

Adobe Photoshop Basics with Dan Lovell
Tuesdays, April 6 - May 11; 6-9pm
Prerequisite: Intro to the 35MM Film or Digital SLR or equivalent experience 
$250, $225 BCA members (scholarships available)
Limit: 6
Gain confidence working in Adobe Photoshop in this 6 week class. Uploading images into Adobe Bridge, use of Camera Raw, image correction tools such as color and white balance correction, brightness/contrast, layers and much more will be covered. Bring a portable flash drive or hard drive with your images to the first class. (CLASS CODE: 811232-2)

Click here to register.

We hope to see you and your digital images here soon!

New Digital Facilities and Classes

Screenshot from Adobe Bridge CS4


It's an exciting time here at the Photography Program - we recently received a generous computer donation from Champlain College, and we are working on building our own digital photography lab with 6-8 Macs and an archival Epson printer!

We have two great classes planned for the Winter session - Adobe Photoshop Basics and From Camera to Print: Digital Workflow. Both classes will offer image management skills and printer access. The Photoshop class will focus on Adobe Bridge and Photoshop CS4, covering importing, camera raw, layers, adjustments and printing. The Workflow class will focus primarily on Adobe's Lightroom software and the image organization, image editing and printing capabilities specific to that program. (See post from June 2009 for more info). Both classes are taught by professional photographers with years of experience and working knowledge of the programs.

Class descriptions and registration links are below:

Adobe Photoshop Basics with Dan Lovell
Tuesdays, February 2– March 16 (no class March 2), 6-9pm
$250, $225 BCA members (scholarships are available)
Prerequisite: Intro to the 35MM Film or Digital SLR or equivalent experience
Gain confidence working in Adobe Photoshop in this 6 week class. Uploading images into Adobe Bridge, use of Camera Raw, image correction tools such as color and white balance correction, brightness/contrast, layers and much more will be covered. Bring a portable flash drive or hard drive with your images to the first class.
(CLASS CODE: 811232-1)
Register here!


From Camera to Print: Digital Workflow with Robin Perlah
Wednesdays, February 17– March 24, 6-9pm
Prerequisite: Intro to the 35MM Film or Digital SLR or equivalent experience
$250, $225 BCA members (scholarships are available)
Upload, organize, edit and print your digital photographs in this comprehensive class using Adobe Photoshop Lightroom. Importing images, using RAW files, organization, fine-tuning tone and contrast, color adjustments and printing will all be covered. Bring a portable hard drive or flash drive with your images to the first class.
(CLASS CODE: 811201-1)
Register here!

As always, scholarships are available.