Hello everyone,

a student from my recent Long Exposure Workshop told me about this wicked iPhone app. It helps you calculate your long exposure times once an ND filter is in place over your lens. In the past, I used to do such exposure calculations with the aid of a table. This table also gets given to students of my workshops. But now, thanks to LongTime Exposure App, such calculatioins get done quicker and easier than ever.

The way this app works is very straight forward. Simply select the exposure time you metered for correct exposure BEFORE adding any ND filter(s) to your lens. I recommend using Shutter Priority mode in your camera so that it is easy to select an appropriate shutter speed yet doing so with the convenience of using the camera’s built-in exposure meter. Next, use the app to find out how to adjust your exposure time based on the amount of ND filter factor you add to your lens.  Change over into Bulb mode on your camera and Viola! your done.

Oh, the best part about all of this: The LongTime Exposure App is FREE!

For more information about the app, simply visit the Itunes website here.

Happy Long Exposure Shooting everyone!

Hello everyone,

this weekend we are excited to host our first ever Polaroid Portrait Project Workshop here at the VPW studios. Instructors David Ellingsen and Marc Koegel will take participants on a journey to produce high quality fine-art photograph using the just re-released Polaroid films by the Impossible Project.

To get us in the mood for this weekend, here are some samples of recent Polaroid work by David Ellingsen.

There are still a few seats left available in this rare workshop offering. Hope to see you out here this weekend!

Hello everyone,

found this interesting article here talking about a digital version of the HOLGA. If you ever shot with one of these, you may be wondering if a digital version would make sense, especially one with full frame sensor that would command a relatively hefty price tag….

The HOLGA is all about being cheap and easy to use. It’s about imperfections, hence the plastic lens and tons of light leaks. It’s about character, not high quality results.

One of my favorite this about this camera is the fact that it does NOT have a screen to review images on the rear. What a concept! Just love it. I think it has the potential to get people think more before they press the shutter!

Whether or not you agree that a digital HOLGA would be a desirable camera, the article describing it in more detail is still pretty interesting.

Direct link is here!

http://www.saikatbiswas.com/web/Projects/Holga_D.htm

Hello everyone,

we just confirmed all the details for our upcoming Tofino Photographic Workshop. This Fall join us for an incredible opportunity to photograph the coastal landscape of the true west coast.

We ran this workshop 3 times in 2007 and 2008. After taking a break in 2009, we are excited to be travelling back to Tofino in 2010.

VPW Director Marc Koegel will be leading this photo tour. In addition to the coastal landscapes, expansive beaches, the rain forest of the famous Pacific Rim National Park, participants will have a chance to do some long exposure work as well.

This workshop is an all inclusive offering, taking you from Vancouver to Tofino and back. 3 nights accommodation in a private cabin with ocean view is included as well.

To wet your appetite for this incredible tour, I am posting some images shot by previous students of this tour. That way, you can see samples of just how large a variety of shooting opportunities you will be faced with. From reflections to macro, from expansive landscapes to fine-art black and white, you’ll surely find something to ignite your photographic appetite! Enjoy!

Hello everyone,

been working to get all my Chocolate Polaroids finished that I shot during VPW’s incredible Tattoo Project weekend. Just got them up on my website, so please go and have a look. You can always leave a comment here which will be much appreciated!

OH how I love shooting film! The first image above shows a typical ‘happy accident’. You’d be slaving away in Photoshop for some time to re-create this look. Here it comes naturally.

For anyone enjoying these, make sure to check out VPW upcoming workshop on Polaroid Portraits!

For those wanting to see more:

Here is the Link to my website!

Thanks for looking. Have a great day!

On Saturday 40+ photographers met up at VPW to start their 3rd annual photo walk organized by Scott Kelby. It was a great night to go out shooting, sunny and hot! I’ve created a Flickr Group for all the participants and their photos if you’d like to check them out.
This was a great FREE event that pulled photographers from every level and background out for a few hours of group shooting. It’s a pretty amazing sight to see 50 photographers making their way down a street, it looked more like the beginnings of a gang riot.  I thought for sure that we were gonna have a good ole fashion street fight when we came upon 2 different wedding parties getting their photos taken. It would have been great to see cameras against wedding attire, the photo would have been even better!
Needless to say, the evening went off without a hitch.

We started at VPW then made our way by the Mount Pleasant clock then down to the Olympic Village, shot there for a few then headed toward the Grace Gallery where we all met up for some food and drinks as well as sharing the images from the night.

Here is the map of our walk, just in case you are interested in doing it someday yourself.

Please visit the Flickr Group to see the outstanding images created by all the walkers that night.

Also check out the World Wide Photo Walk website for information about next years walk and see all of the contest winners there.

Thanks to all that attended. I’m excited to see all the images from the night, and nervous to have to pick the winner.
Best of luck!

Hello everyone,

it has been some time since my last post – I was over in Germany with my family for the past few weeks. Needed to take a much deserved break. But, as most of you will likely understand, a ‘break’ or ‘vacation’ (as it is sometimes called) will ALWAYS include time for photography for me. In fact, I have been known to take ‘vacations’ so that I finally have time for my photography. You could almost call it work, but the difference is that I enjoy every second of it. My wife already knows that those 5 minutes frequently turn into hours, especially when I am shooting my long exposures.

Here is a small preview of what I have been working on these past photo trips:

I spent some time on an Island called Sylt. Lost of expansive beaches and sand, and, as it turns out, lots of lighthouses, too. This is how I selected this subject, and thought I work on a small series.

I am working digitally here, with my trusty D3 and 18mm prime lens. Shooting wide-angle like this really worked, especially when I was able to capture stormy clouds and all the drama that came with it. Here is another one:

Finally, as I was getting ready to escape from the rain that was sure to start any minute, I couldn’t resist taking this last images which is a self portrait. I started the exposure and walked into my own frame to sit there for a few minutes.

Let me know what you think – any and all comments are much appreciated!

BTW, I’ll be teaching a Long Exposure Workshop, focusing on Urban Environments, this August 24th and 25th, 2010.

Here’s the direct link for more information!

If you are a photographer at any level you will need to read this.
Be aware of the risks.

(and for the rest of the photographers & instructors that I’ve worked with here at VPW)

Thank you for fighting the good fight!
Read the CAPIC story below

More information about can be found at:
Balanced Copyright
NEBS marketing

I’ve just registered as a photo walk leader on www.worldwidephotowalk.com.
We’ve been trying to organize ‘walk-abouts’ for over a year now. I think that they are an amazing opportunity to meet and talk with other photographers in the community.
I am always able to make some great images or learn something by getting my butt out and shooting and what better way go out and shoot than with the WHOLE FREAKIN WORLD!?
Mr. Kelby, I like this idea very much!

As most of you know I usually shoot nudes and portraits in the studio, work with mixed lighting conditions and even bring the studio outside with me at times, but the work that is produced during a photowalk is different. It’s a different state of mind, that helps us to see things differently. You could be a group of 2 or 20, or in the case of some photowalks 50, and the images are all going to vary from photographer to photographer, from eye to eye or even equipment to equipment. However, the interaction with  your environment, actually just having your camera out and ready allows you to capture the timely surprises life brings. That is photography.

When I go out and shoot for my projects NoGraffito or Once I Was A Camera not only do I have music playing in my ear I also have the words of masters that have visited VPW: Freeman Patterson, Ralph Gibson, Arthur Meyerson (to name a few) and the images of legends like Weston, Bresson, Stieglitz, and sometimes even some Eggelston that help me to see the world and feel the world around extremely different than most of the world people in the world. If you are a photographer that shoots ’street’ or ‘always has their camera with them’, then you know what I’m talking about. You also understand that just plain shooting more will help. Shooting different subject matters will help even more. It will push you to new ways of seeing, to new visions and this will help you in your ‘regular’ photographic life.

So then, if we get accepted for a Photowalk I would urge you all to join and spread the word.
ITS FREE, ITS FUN, ITS MADE FOR PHOTO GEEKS LIKE YOU!

oh yeh, and there are prizes!

Hello everyone,

WOW! What an incredible weekend! Thanks to all that showed up, it was an experience that I will remember for the rest of my life. I cannot remember another consecutive 3 days in which I have taken more photographs. It was a true pleasure meeting and photographing all of you!

11 Photographers worked at the VPW studios for this photographic project. Well over 100 people came in to have their tattoos photographed. Every inch of space, including the parcade below, was used as shooting space. Every piece of gear, every stand, light and flash, was used.

Below are a few first samples from what I, Marc, was working on this weekend. I was using a very simple setup down in the parcade. 2 KenoFlows constant lights on a rough concrete background.

These images were shot using a Polaroid 600SE camera and the just re-released Polaroid Chocolate type 100 film. This film has just been made available by the ‘Impossible Project’, the guys who bought out Polaroid when it went under. Amazing stuff. Gives a dark rich brown town. Like all the models I photographed with it, every image is a true original. No negative, no opportunities for ‘raw’ processing. What you have in your hand is what it is.

Using this film gave me a rushI have never experienced shooting digital. It felt like I was a true photographer. Strange but real good. Definitely worth pondering and exploring some more.

It was the perfect medium for a project like this weekend. I was able to show and share my work with each model instantly. In a much better way than the rear screen of a digital camera ever could. Each image felt a lot more valuable. I took only 2 to 3 shots of each model – a great exercise in sharpening your photographic vision. And a great exercise in patience. And the huge benefit of not having to edit 1000’s of frames like every other photographer is facing now. Everyone else shot digital this weekend…

I scanned these first sample shots yesterday. They will be printed digitally so that the images can be enlarged beyond their small original size of about 3.5 by 5 inches.

I’ll keep you all posted as I continue working on these.

For now, lease enjoy these images and let me know what you think!

Marc