Owen Biddle
Photo School
photo by Kitty Kono
April Photo Newsletter
Nature Up Close and Personal
Dear Photographers,
Spring!!! Who can resist the boundless beauty budding, blooming, burgeoning all about? Don't even try! This month we offer inspiration to delve into some of the intricacies to be discovered in the miniature spaces that we might often overlook. Our Photographer of the Month, Kitty Kono is the master. And we have a couple of trips as well as a photo workshop to practice the skills for close up nature photography... Abbondanza ! Enjoy!
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Two-Session Workshop
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Fridays 7:00 - 8:30 4/14, 4/20
In this workshop we will explore many ways to get in close and express your personal responses as you capture all the amazing shapes, textures, colors, and patterns of nature stirring from her winter slumber. The first session will be a survey of equipment and technique. The second session will be an opportunity for you to show off your work from the intervening week.
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Photo Field Trips
two opportunities to take advantage of the season...
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Chanticleer Estate
This stately turn-of-the-century mansion, surrounded by formal gardens, complete with a beautiful old fashioned swimming pool, offers great opportunities for photographing both intimate scenes and grand vistas. The grounds feature unusual plantings as well as some quirky post-modern garden statuary. Our exploration will range from the macro abstractions of flower-portraits to the wide angle accentuated perspective of deep space landscapes. And we won't miss the reflections on the beautiful lotus pond. To learn more about Chanticleer check out this link: Chanticleer Gardens
Location: Radnor, PA
Friday, 4/28 3:00 - 5:00
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Here's a lovely site for early Spring photography. We will find bubbling fountains, budding trees, pretty flowers, a charming old mill and unusual architecture. And the Eastern College Pond is famous for attracting a host of creatures, small and great. You can check out some of our famous
Friday, 4/8 2:00 - 4:00
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photo by Owen Biddle
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DSLR and Mirrorless Fundamentals Tutorials
Below are descriptions of the basic units of our curriculum available to students ranging from beginner to advanced. Most units are five lessons and include a set of assignments designed to give practice in targeted skills with opportunities to get feedback from the instructor so that you learn from your experiences.
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Just give a call and we can set up individual sessions to keep you moving forward with your photography.
Call (610)-626-7854 for details.
​(click on links for more information)
Fundamentals 1: Camera Operations is for students who are just starting out, or want a good review of the basic camera functions.
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Fundamentals 2: Applications is for students who have some comfort with the camera and want to start applying their skills to expand their photographic range.
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Fundamentals 3: Composition takes photography beyond the subject, and encourages you to see the artistic and compositional opportunities in everyday life. Here is a chance for your right brain to come out and play!
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Fundamentals 4: Lighting Across the Genres is for students who are ready for the next critical step: lighting. Explore sophisticated means of controlling both natural and artificial light for portraits, landscape and still life to get just the mood and effects you want.
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Advanced Photography - Using self-generated assignments and in-depth critiques we will help you move forward in your work.
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Online Photo Salon
Check out this facebook link and join the group. https://www.facebook.com/groups/owenbiddlephotosalon
Our purpose is to provide an online place for our community to stay in touch, stay inspired and get out there and keep snapping. You can post pictures and get feedback, ask photo questions, make suggestions etc. What do you say???
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Not a photo but.....
this detail from a 1530s illumination shows us that fascination with the tiny wonders of nature is nothing new....
"Unknown artist from the 1520s Hours Workshop, Loire Valley, France. Detail of a manuscript page with an illuminated border of ladybugs, a damselfly, a bee, a butterfly, peapods, berries, and blossoms, From a book of hours. Tempera, liquid gold and ink on vellum."
To learn more: Sacred Beauty: Medieval and Renaissance Illuminated Manuscripts
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Photographer of the Month
Kitty Kono
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Kitty Kono Cobb is an award winning nature photographer. Her photographs have been published by the World Wildlife Fund, National Wildlife Federation and the National Geographic Society. She grew up on a dairy farm in Bucks County, Pennsylvania, graduated from Hollins College with a degree in psychology, and worked for 32 years for the standards organization, ASTM International. In 2007, she picked up a digital camera and has gone outside almost every day since then and taken thousands of photographs of "anything that moves." She has self published 17 books of wildlife photographs from all over the world. She credits her first teacher, the great Owen Biddle for her total love of photography.
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We love Kitty Kono! For showing us the magic, majesty, and drama of the natural world all around, we know of no equal. Every picture is a miracle and a revelation.
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Click on thumbnails to see full images.
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Photo Tips of the Month: Nature Close Ups
Get out your tripod
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Carry a small flashlight. If you shine your light onto a flower, leaf or vine it will give the golden coloration of dusk.
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If you don't have a macro lens, use your zoom with a close-up lens (diaptor). You'll have good working distance (i.e. won't puncture the spider web) but your zoom will start working very close up.
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While it's almost impossible to take an unattractive picture of beautiful flowers, remember to apply what you know about composition. Think scale. Focusing your attention on the "small" world in front you, rather than the larger view, is a great start. Once you make this perspective shift you will have much more control of those vital elements of composition: light, negative space, shape, color, line, texture etc. Experiment with cutting off parts of your subject to add some tension. Think about interesting juxtapositions. Delight in worm's eye/birds eye perspective.
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Try converting your images to black and white. This can really change the whole feeling and give some very stunning and sophisticated affects by bringing out the abstract.
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Take your time. Close up nature photography can be a form of meditation as you become immersed in the wonderful patterns of vegetation, rocks, bugs etc.
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black & white flowers by Carol Helduser