Ottawa Photography Workshop ~ Mom's Mastering Their DSLRs

This weekend was day two of the Photographing Your Children workshop held here in central Ottawa. First off, I must say that the moms attending my class are so fun! They are eager to master their DSLR's and get more creative when it comes to photographing their children or grand children!

Day one and the morning of day two covered the concepts of capturing their children and the "technical" aspects of their cameras - Aperture, Shutter Speed, ISO and more. The afternoon of Day two was the practical session, where I recruited a few "models", to come out to a local park and just play! We had 5 beautiful little girls, all under the age of 6, and they were all excellent subjects. They gave our attendees a wide variety of personalities, all being interested in different things at the park, some willing to pose, others not, representing the reality that is when it comes to photographing your children.

I'm so happy to report that they went from knowing nothing about how their camera worked, just sticking it on Auto or P mode, to shooting in full Manual Mode for the practical session. I even had one attendee say that she had a glimmer of light start and understanding the concepts start to form! I was very happy and excited to hear that!

The final Tuesday will be all about "after shooting", touching on downloading, backing up, cataloging and post processing. But for now, I wanted to share some of the images I captured from the practical session, some of the students in action and some of the models in action!

For those who missed out, don't worry!! I'm going to hold the workshop again in September, after the craziness of school is done, and just before the leaves change, giving you the opportunity to master your camera for those beautiful fall pictures of your family. The dates are: September 14, 18 and 21st. Visit HarryNowell.com for more info or contact me!

"J" The Adorable Little Runner ~ Ottawa Family Photography

A week ago I was so excited to be able to wander around downtown Ottawa for a fun and FAST family session. We met on Sparks street, stopped in at Darcy McGees, visited the National War Memorial and ended at the Canal. Although, I'd have to admit that I'm lying when I say "wander", as little "J" was one fast and busy little toddler! Mom and Dad had him in his special Jackson Family tartan outfit, which was so darn cute, it was unbearable :) He had me running like a nut with a camera stuck to my face! It was tiring, but definitely worth it because I got my workout in an some adorable shots in the process! Thanks again for the fun evening!

Learn To Use Your DSLR Creatively And Capture Your Kids For Life ~ Ottawa Photography Workshop

Are you frustrated with the images you are taking of your kids?? Are they blurry, often of the backs of their heads as they run away, cheesy and predictable? Do you own a nice Point and Shoot or a Digital SLR, but have no idea how to use it other than in the Auto Mode (green box)? Do you want to learn how to shoot like a pro? Then I am happy to tell you that I have a workshop for you!

I'm proud to announce my new workshop for Moms - Photographing Children!! (Actually, it's not only for Moms but for Dads, Grand-mas, Grand-pas, Sisters, Brothers, Aunts etc... you get my point!!)

The workshop is broken down into 3 parts. During the first part, I cover the basics of how a DSLR (or nice P.S.) works in everyday language, so it's easy to grasp the concepts of Aperture, Shutter Speed and ISO (I promise NO MATH will be used during this entire workshop!!). I will go over basic composition, basic lighting, and explain the different types of lenses and how they work.

The second part of the workshop is using your camera creatively to capture the lives of your children, in every detail and emotion. The idea is to teach you how to use photography to tell stories by taking photos in a creative ways. The approach is to steer clear of predictable photos ("smile for the camera") and frustrating yourselves by "posing" active, and busy kids!

The third part of the workshop is reviewing the photos that were taken based on the "homework" I gave in the previous session; Teaching the basics of post processing images using Photoshop Elements or Lightroom. I will also go over storing/cataloging and backing up of your image files, and introduce digital scrapbooking or album design.

It's a 3 day workshop taking place on: Tuesday June 8th, 6-9 pm; Saturday June 12th, 9-3 (I will have "live" models here to apply all the skills you have learned); and Tuesday June 15th, 6-9. Location TBD, but it will take place in Central Ottawa.

Contact me, or visit the workshop website Harry Nowell.com to register! Space is limited!

I'm Back and Jumping for Joy! Chelsea Family Photographer

I'm back from my two week un-planned vacation due to a hard drive failure and I couldn't be happier! I kind of missed being “connected” and felt a little like I was missing out on things, but honestly I managed to get a lot of things done around the house that needed to be done, and I can’t say enough about the weather we had, so really the timing was perfect! In the end my hard drive was totally dead, and as a result I purchased a new computer.

During that time, I shot one family and two newborns, so I have a little catching up to do! I will start with the awesome Chelsea family I had the pleasure of shooting over the weekend. It was the perfect time for them as they had their family visiting from out of town, and they wanted to take advantage of this to capture some memories of 3 generations of women! The weather was perfect, they were great sports and here is their sneak peek!

Spring is here, at least to me it is! ~ Ottawa Family Photographer

Spring is finally here!! Ok, ok, maybe not according to the calendar, but to me when we reset our clocks, the snow is melting and the crocuses are starting to break through the ground - that signifies spring to me! Spring, summer and fall are the best times to capture your families memories because we can all get outside and PLAY!!

In order to celebrate the changing of the seasons, I'm offering 15% off of everything I offer - session fees, prints, digital images - EVERYTHING!! That is not all, join my Facebook Page and/or follow me on Twitter and receive an additional 10% off!

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