Tuesday, January 17, 2012

From the desk of the intern

 

 Hello there it's Devon again. Sadly today is the last day of my internship but before I bid Avant-Garde Images adieu, I thought I'd write one last blog post.

Yesterday Peggy and I went to the Martin Luther King Jr. Day parade downtown Naples, Florida for a photo walk with her photography club, Understand Photography.

I got to use her infrared camera which was so cool! It makes green things white and mixes up all the colors.  It was a lot of fun to use.  It was an old camera that Peggy had converted through this company:  www.lifepixel.com .

I have had an amazing time here and I am so grateful to Peggy for everything she has taught me. It has been an awesome two weeks and I have learned so much!

Wednesday, January 11, 2012

Pelican Bay Photography Show and Competition

 Our blog followers all know that we offer photography classes at our studio under the name of "Understand Photography" here in Naples, Florida.   We've had tremendous success with our  photography workshops and now are offering them out in the community.  We have several workshops scheduled at the Pelican Bay Foundation and two workshops at the Naples Art Association this January/February.  Our workshops range from beginner to advanced, portraits to nature to artistic photography.  We now have six regular photography instructors!  

Check out our photography meetup site and join us - it's free to join!  www.meetup.com/understandphotography
Click on CALENDAR to see our selection of workshops. 

The Pelican Bay Foundation kicked off their season with a photography show and competition.  Peggy put together a team of judges with different specialties:
Sara Timmons - Portraits, Landscapes and Travel
Cathy Nocera - Digital Manipulation
Gordon Campbell - Nature and Travel
Erik Keller - Photojournalism and Editorial
and of course
Peggy Farren - Portraiture

The five of us (actually six since Devon the intern tagged along) had a wonderful time perusing all the photographs that the Pelican Bay residents submitted.  There are some incredible photographers in Pelican Bay!  It was tough, tough, tough to make the decisions but we chose winners in each category.  The next night Pelican Bay hosted a Photography Show and Peggy talked about the winning pictures and why they won.  

Pelican Bay Photography Show and Competition


It was a great experience and we are looking forward to spreading the fun of photography throughout the community!  Please think of us if your club would like to put together a fun photography excursion out into the Everglades or on a boat back into the 10,000 islands.  We can come to your country club for basic classes too! 

Monday, January 09, 2012

This was a nice thing to receive in our inbox just now!!

We are so lucky to have such wonderful clients!  We LOVE our weddings in Southwest Florida!   Thank you for the honor of this award!!
--- Peggy and Helen

Thursday, January 05, 2012

From the Desk of the Intern....

Hello there, this is Devon.  I'm interning here at Avant-Garde Images/Understand Photography for a couple weeks as part of my school's internship program. So far I've been here for 3 days and I've already learned a LOT. The first day I worked on the computer a bit then went over to Peggy's studio because she had to take some head shots for a bank. When we got there she showed me a little of how to use the studio lights, which was much simpler than all the internet tutorials make it out to be. It was cool to watch how she posed them, which is something I never really thought about for head shots.

One of my pictures from the Studio Model Shoot
The next day I got to work in Photoshop Elements for the first time. It was a little tricky to get the hang of but once I got going it wasn't too hard. I designed two ads that day, one for a photography trip to St. Augustine and one for image sensor cleaning. But the best part of the day was going to the studio model shoot. It was SO much fun. Each group got three turns of 6 minutes with the models. I was so excited to use the studio lights, also extremely nervous, but it ended up being really fun and not too difficult because everyone was so helpful. Some of the pictures turned out quite well and I'm very glad I got to be a part of it.

On the third day we had to get up early to go the Von Liebig Center downtown where Peggy was going to be part of a question answer session. It was really interesting to listen to all professionals there. After that we went back and I worked on editing the pictures from the model shoot. I ran some errands to the post office and to a clients house to deliver some pictures. So far I've had a great time and I can't wait for another week and a half! :)