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Dates for March Basic Photography Workshop (weekend version) published

The workshop dates are Sunday 6th and 13th March 2011. This is a full 2 day workshop

The essence of portrait photography

What a rainy day today! Makes me think of ‘Happy Rain’ 😉
Staying at home to catch up on deadlines and taking a short break to share some thoughts about Portrait photography – one of my favourites.

A couple of months ago, I did a shoot for Olga Slavkina, who is a Branding Specialist based in Brussels and works internationally. You can find the Q and A at this link.

Happy reading! No point going out with this vertical constant stream of water falling 😉

Schmoozy Fox

Children Photography

Working with children in a studio is another matter.  Their attention span is limited plus they don’t usually feel comfortable in a new place and more so at a studio.  To get round it, I engage them into my world of photography by explaning what I do and let them play with my lights and camera (under supervision of course!).  Most kids want to look like adults and I treat them as such.  Checking with them on how they wished to be photographed is a good way to remove that shyness barrier.  Having a flurry animal – my friendly cat (all kids love flurry animals) helps them to relax.

A few months ago I shot for Anne-Marie and her sister as a birthday present from their mother.   At the end of the shoot, she told me that she throughly enjoyed the session and had fun at the same time.

Cecile, Tony and little Sarah

Tony is a good mate of mine who now lives in Paris with Cecile.  A few months ago, as the godfather of little Sarah I did a shoot for them at my studio in Brussels.  Studio shoot is one of the things I really enjoy doing.  Why?  I can set the lights the way  want, take my time to compose and direct the shoot.  Best of all?  The lighting is always perfect.

Adobe Lightroom Version 3 Demonstration in Brussels

Are you shooting thousands of images and can’t find your images back?
Are your images disorganised and in different folders or hard drives on your computer?
You don’t have a digital workflow?
Are you are looking for a reliable, user friendly and affordable software to post-process your images?
You would love to add more impact or dynamism to your images?

Does any of the above sounds familiar? Look no further!

Join us this evening for a preview of Adobe Lighroom Version 3. The demonstration will be led by the photographer Michael Chia

Place : Hotel Silken Berlaymont Brussels
Date : Thursday, 21st October 2010
Time : 7pm-7.25 registration
7.30-8.30pm demo/presentation
8.30-9pm drinks

The event is sponsored by
Adobe
Creatif Image
Hotel Silken Berlaymont Brussels

Participation to the event is free of charge. Due to the limited seating capacity you need to register for the event.

To register go to http://www.michaelchia.com/lightroom

Uncle and nephew team

Last weekend, I had the pleasure of having my nephew Etienne Desbois helping me out as assistant photographer for Virginie and Pierre’s wedding in Normandy, France

It was Etienne’s first real life assignment. For a 16 year old kid, he has accumulated lots of technical photography knowledge! What he needed was some practical experience.

I picked him up in Lille and took the 3 hour drive to Normandy. Unfortunately, a pebble hit the windscreen of the car 😦 resulting in a cracked windscreen and 300euros poorer to replace the windscreen.

Outdoors, it was not easy to shoot because the weather was grey and cold. But we did managed to get some reasonable shots that we could use as backdrop to the wedding.

Etienne handled some of the group and dinner shots while I fiddled with the video montage. We had set the video up to run smoothly on the dell projector rented by the couple. Unfortunately, the clip came out a bit on the dark side because a group before us had fiddled with the projector’s settings…. Lesson learned! Be the first to show the projection before anyone else.

new friends

Today, I got acquainted with Linton Kwesi Johnson and Llyod Errol.  They will shift my parodogm somewekse.

stay tuned!

What is my photography ‘style’ ?

Creators of aesthetic works are blessed with a curse to define their style. To me, the definition of a style is similar to adding an ‘-ism’ to a noun. Surealism, realism, journalism and etc, becomes categorisation of a work. Find a noun and add ‘-ism’ to it. Simply said – generalism?

So how can one put a reference on a thought process? With ‘Dreams in Dreamland’, the work is linked to the Lemarchand box. I was quite surprised that people actually read the text and searched further into my inspiration for the series of photographs.

My image building blocks are drawn from childhood memories. Or rather, my mental capacity to revive them. There were no borders. I recall impressions. Coming home then, with my latest masterpiece, drawing or photo, everyone would say how good it was. But now, as an adult, if I brought into existence something similar, do I receive the same compliments?

Not at all. The viewer today has expectations. What are they built on? That we have seen better? Or rather, exposed to and influenced by what is considered capable of being accepted?

At times, forgetting my early state of existence becomes an unattainable invisible pursuit. As a species, it is inevitable that we cannot help but be linked to the past. Darwin has proven this. Our destiny is to evolve. Evolving from a set of DNA patterns entrenched in the human cell. So we shall evolve from a set sanity process that reasons, carrying traits or past experiences to another plateau.

What I record are chance encounters. While in a state of self awareness. Whatever touches, sees or affects me is traceable. A small quantity of residual evidence. Sufficiently discernible to reveal a path that leaves compelling effects. Just enough. To bring into existence mental activity, a spark to produce an optical ideal of likeness of a recollection.

Happy, Happy, Happy Rain!

Friday!!!!  I look out the window and what do I see?  Rain!  Wonderful, beautiful, refreshing rain!   Life-sustaining droplets pattering on my window panes.  What if they were falling stars?  Perhaps they are.  And I could make a million wishes and get away with it.  I think this image sums up my feelings and thought for the day.