Ascough / Terakopian Workshop Update

Jeff Ascough showing his workflow using Aperture 3. Watford. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

What a fantastic week it's been. After filling in for Joe Buissink who was unfortunately marooned because of the ash cloud, I have met some extremely interesting people during our workshops in Watford and Edinburgh.

Edmond Terakopian talking with a delegate after one of the presentations in Watford. Photo: Ian Rudgewick-Brown

As you can see from the previous post, the combination of top wedding photographer Jeff Ascough who approaches his weddings with more of an ethical photojournalistic approach than I have seen from some of my colleagues and my background as a photojournalist and news photographer, has been very well received judging by the sea of kind and positive comments and the superb Q&As.

Here are some images from the workshops in Watford and Edinburgh.

Jeff Ascough talking about business practices in Edinburgh. Photo: Edmond Terakopian

Edmond Terakopian talking on the subject of studio portraiture. Edinburgh. Photo: Jeff Ascough

Edmond Terakopian talking about directionality of light. Edinburgh. Photo: Jeff Ascough

Workshop!

This volcanic eruption in Iceland has certainly messed up many peoples plans, causing air travel to cease in Europe. One person who fell victim to the ash cloud was colleague Joe Buissink who has been trapped for days and alas cannot make the "Ascough / Buissink" workshops in the UK. Ok, so that's the bad news.

Good news is that all is not lost and when Jeff Ascough rang to see if I could help out, I jumped at the chance. So the workshops aren't cancelled and in fact the first one was today.

Jeff has very accurately been described by many as one of the very top wedding photographers in the world. If you haven't seen his work, I urge you to do so immediately; it's stunning.

Although I'm not a wedding photographer but a photojournalist, Jeff and I actually approach our differing subjects in the same journalistic way. Over the next few days I'll be presenting my work, approach and workflow at the workshops. So, let these workshops now be known as the "Ascough / Buissink who has been marooned because of volcanic ash and alas cannot make it / Terakopian" workshops. The small surprise I have in store for attendees is that I do actually shoot weddings too, so will be sharing my work and thoughts.

The four dates in Watford (April 20th to 23rd) are sold out, but there are a handful of places still for the Edinburgh workshop on the 25th and 26th of April. So if you fancy some great photography and conversation, BOOK NOW!!

_________

Some feedback from Twitter, FaceBook and emails:

[Big thanks for all the kind words folks; much appreciated :-) Edmond]

I genuinely loved your presentation and seeing your amazing work was fantastic.

really enjoyed your session and loved your work.

Back from the Jeff Ascough Seminar. Joe B couldn't make it, but more than happy to see the work of and hear Edmond Terakopian.

back from a kickin' 2 day seminar with Jeff Ascough and Edmond Terakopian

you were superb (as was Jeff). Great to have met you: i really enjoyed hearing your stories and seeing your stunning work.

Hi Ed, saw you at the Ascough seminar yestdy. Loved ur work & found your genuine & no-nonsense personality v inspiring! Thank u.

enjoyed your talk yesterday, Armenian images were incredible...

Had a great time at the Jeff Ascough seminar.Wonderful to be treated to a session with @terakopian. Incredible photojournalist

@terakopian joined us today at the seminar and provided us with a great talk on his work and workflow!

@terakopian Once again, thanks for the seminar today! Your work is fantastic!

@terakopian Great presentation today.

I wanted to thank you for sharing your experiences and images with us at the ' Ascough-Terakopian ' seminar yesterday. Recalling the not too distant history of Nagorno Karabagh and the Armenian earthquake, I found your images both powerful and thought-provoking and appreciate the time you took in presenting to us.

Just had a great workshop with UK photojournalist Edmond Terakopian, really nice guy & great photographer.

Just been on a two day seminar with Jeff Ascough and @terakopian. Awesome images from both, and Ed has a new, firm fan! (nice guys too :))

Thanks again for an amazing 2 days, I was holding back tears during your earthquake sequence. Beautiful work.

@terakopian Such an inspirational pleasure to meet you at Jeff Ascough's seminar.

yes brilliant, got a lot from it. Can't wait to get my camera out! @terakopian was brilliant too!

Another great day with @terakopian and Jeff Ascough. V inspirational. The thought/depth behind each image is phenomenal

@terakopian Thanks again for today's inspiring seminar, I really enjoyed your work & your thoughts. Look forward to following your work.

@terakopian thank you for your talk and insight into your work yesterday . It left me motivated and keen to get out taking pictures!

just got back from 2day seminar/masterclass wedding photography with Jeff #Ascough and guest speaker Edmond @Terakopian ; well done lads!

2 day seminar with Jeff Ascough & Edmond Terakopian was superb - thanks to both for taking the time out to speak to us all

Twas a pleasure to meet you in Watford last week and to hear you speak, many thanks for stepping in

I attended your photo presentation yesterday in
Edinburgh. I didn't get a chance to speak to you so I would just like to
say a big big thank you for sharing your wonderful work. I particularly
liked the black and white projects at the beginning - what amazing images
so beautiful and so emotional.

I was one of the attendees at the Jeff Ascough seminar at Watford. I just wanted to thank you again for the fabulous slides and explaining your photographic process. It was very interesting and I am really glad that Joe didn't make it as I think I probably learnt more about photography in general that if he was there. Also, I must say that your iconic pictures of the London bombings are a gift to all of us, to never forget what happened.

The seminar was superb and getting Ed to stand in for Joe B was a master stoke. His presentation was amazing.

Thanks so much for an amazing seminar Jeff, I've never taken so many notes before; my hand was killing me from writing down so many inspiring, useful and brilliant things!! Ed was superb and hugely inspiring so many thanks for inviting him.

I enjoyed the two days and came away with a lot. Ed's Armenian earthquake presentation and his photographs of the London bombings most definitely put the photographing of weddings in perspective.

creativelive.com

Worldwide Free Creative Education

Top chaps, friends and colleagues Chase Jarvis and Vincent Laforet have teamed up with a host of other photographers and educators to bring to fruition the world's first live and free internet educational channel creativeLIVE.com Do pop by and have a look; it's well worth registering.

Is There A New Leica Coming?

Leica Making The World A Smaller Place

Found a very neat website setup by Leica sharing images taken on Leica cameras by photographers from all around the globe. It's based on Google Maps and well worth exploring as there are some nice images on it.

However, one thing did raise a question; in the text it says, "Each of them was equipped with the same Leica camera". The fact that it doesn't mention what camera and the way the map is used would lead me to guess that there's a new Leica camera around the corner and it has GPS built in.

Check it out: //travel.leica-camera.com

Focus On Imaging 2010

Doesn't time fly?! It's already that time of year where we all move up to Birmingham for a few days. It's Focus on Imaging at the NEC.

I'll be at the show on the SnapperStuff stand (C41) talking about ThinkTank Photo bags; by far my favourite bags. Like them so much I'm on the design board! As a special treat we have the president of ThinkTank Photo, Doug Murdoch joining us, so do pop by and say hi. Reliable sources do tell me that the brand new ThinkTank bags will be there to see too! We'll also have the Enlight Photo’s Orbis ring flash and arm with the CEO James Madelin.

Also, every day at 1pm, I will be talking about my work and my workflow and how Aperture fits in with how I do things. With the release of Aperture 3, the role of the application has increased and become more vital. Pop by the Apple Solution Expert Demo Theatre (stand E54) every day at 1pm.

Hope to see you there :-)

Pictures Of The Decade

I'm pleased to share the news that the Press Association (PA) have named one of my pictures from the London bombings as one of the ten news pictures of the decade. My thanks go to one of our industry's top picture editors Martin Keene at PA for including my image in his selection. I'd also like to extend my thanks to Phil Coomes for featuring this on the BBC's excellent blog on photography, Viewfinder.

Report-First Open Workshop, 28 November 2009

Workshop in progress at Jacob's Pro Lounge. Photo: Ghene Snowdon

Photography is alive and well, and talent and passion are in abundance. This is my conclusion after my first open workshop which took place at the end of November. It was kindly organised by Ghene Snowdon of Photosocialise and I'm forever thankful for the wonderful folks at Jacob's for letting us use the Pro Lounge in their New Oxford Street branch.

The idea behind doing a one-off workshop was to see the interest from photography enthusiasts and I have to say that I was left very enthused myself. The day went superbly with an introduction of my work, lots of Q&A, a briefing and then some street photography by the attendees of the workshop. We then had a quick edit session and a projection of the collective works.

The feedback has been so great and the suggestion of a series of workshops has been made several times, that I'm pretty sure we will get together a series for 2010; watch this space! If you'd like to see more workshops, please make a comment, adding any suggestions for what subject matter would interest you.

I'd just like to share with you my favourite top five images of the day. In the end it was between two images for the top place, and you can see them below:

First Place: Harry Engels

Runner-Up: Antje Bormann

Also in top five: Carlo Nicora

Also in top five: Johan van Eck

Also in top five: Matilda Egere-Cooper

Here are, in no particular order, some comments from Twitter on the subject of the workshop; many thanks for all the kindness :-)

"thank you for the talk. Very interesting and inspiring - look forward to the next one"

"Thanks to @terakopian for the great Workshop! "

"@terakopian well fone fella. A good workshop worth attending."

"@terakopian excellent workshop. thank you!"

"@terakopian Also re the workshop, I'd happily have paid double. Really enjoyed it and would happily do another."

"Back from an inspiring workshop with @terakopian. This is my achievement; as it turned out, runner up of the day: http://bit.ly/5VALHD"

"@terakopian Hey Edmund! Enjoyed today, looking forward to the next one x"

"@terakopian it was a great workshop!! well done!! so glad I came :-)"

"@terakopian thank you very much for the useful workshop! I hope you run it again (and again)!"

"@terakopian Hi Ed, great workshop on Saturday, really enjoyed it and the chance to see other people's take on street photography."

Finally, a couple of blog posts regarding the workshop:

The Round Peg

750 x 500

Canon Boy & Nikon Girl - True Love?!

ABC News' Person of the Week

Conservation Through Photographing Decline

Daniel Beltra, a photographer who has dedicated his career to documenting the inhumanity of man to his surrounds has been named by ABC News as their "Person of the Week". There's an excellent video showing just why this accolade has been afforded Beltra; to see the it, please click the link at the top of this article.

What Would You Do If You Won The Lottery?

It's a question often asked by people. Sometimes the answers are more predictable but occasionally they are completely unique and full of character. To mark the 15th anniversary of the National Lottery, I had the pleasure of photographing 15 lottery winners who have spent some of their winnings on the quirky to the life-changing. Its been a fascinating journey that has taken me all over England, Scotland, Wales, Ireland, and all the way to Canada. The shooting of the project took around five months, sometimes spending days getting to location. Its been an absolute joy to do, and I'd just like to send a big thanks to all who helped from the Camelot press office, and the kindness and patience shown by all my photographic subjects.

Meredith Davies from Carmarthenshire won £2,069,730 in October 2004. He set up a stud farm with around 25 Welsh Cobb ponies for £100,000. Photographed with his partner Kate Chester.

The project will be exhibited at the Fulham Palace Gallery from November 14 to 22 (check the gallery's opening hours, on their web site). The exhibition is spread across two huge rooms with some of the images being printed by Metro Imaging to over 2 meters across. Its going to be well worth seeing.

Technically speaking, I decided to carry identical kit to all the shoots. This would help keep the same flavour across the shots. I packed everything into a ThinkTank Photo Airport International, including a Change-Up and Skins pouches to use when on location. Camera kit consisted of two Canon 5D MkII bodies (5D for the first shoot as I didn't have the Mark II yet!). Lenses were the Canon 15mm f2.8, 16-35mm f2.8L II, 35mm f1.4L, 85mm f1.2L II and the 70-200mm f4L IS. Looking through the images, it looks like my favoured lenses were the 16-35mm and 85mm.

Sue & Peter Busby from East Yorkshire won £1,660,769 as part of the Tesco syndicate who scooped £18,268,465 in July 2005. They purchased a luxury, top of the range Lunar caravan for £14,500. With their dog Jasper by the shore of Derwentwater, Northern Lake District. Keswick Camping and Caravanning Club Site, Keswick, Cumbria.

The many thousands of RAW images, occupying many gigabytes of storage were backed up across several drives, including the brilliant Sonnet Fusion D800 and in the 'cloud', giving me peace of mind. All the editing, captioning, colour corrections, raw conversions and output were done on Apple's Aperture and finishing touches added on Nik Software's Viveza and Sharpner Pro 3.0. The ultimate compliment came from master printer John Cleur at Metro Imaging when he said that the files looked great and needed very little work done to them before printing!

Thea Bristow, who won £15 million in July 2004, features in this landmark exhibition and is pictured flying over her 13-acres of woodland – a purchase which meant the land was saved from housing development. Over 300 new trees have been planted and a walkway built through the woodland before it is opened up for the public to enjoy.

So, don't forget to check out the exhibition from November 14 to 22 at Fulham Palace Gallery, Fulham Palace, Bishop’s Avenue, London, SW6 6EA.

First Open Workshop

A montage of images of me at work, ranging from 1994 to 2009

I'll be having my first ever open workshop on November 28th, 2009. The general themes will be photojournalism and street photography. It's going to be most suited to intermediate and advanced photographers, both amateur and professional. Although having done many workshops, lectures and presentations in the UK and abroad, this is the first ever open one, meaning anyone can book and pop along.

Part of the workshop is also a portfolio review, so if you think your work might benefit from some one to one attention, you can also book this.

I'll be showing some work from my 20 year career as a press photographer, answering any questions you may have and then getting down to the actual workshop, so make sure your batteries are charged and your cameras ready!

The business and booking side of things is being dealt by Ghene Snowdon, so visit the Photosocialise site to make bookings.

As it's a first and there's a recession, we've decided to keep it mega cheap. These prices will definitely never be repeated again, so if you're interested, do make a booking sharpish - places are limited and are booking up already!

To see a report from the workshop, click HERE.

Kew's Seed Bank Hits 24,200 Species

Kew Seed Bank 2009 - Images by Edmond Terakopian

Kew's Millennium Seed Bank partnership celebrates banking its 24,200th species, a Yunnan banana seed - a pink wild banana from China which is an important staple for wild Asian elephants (Musa itinerans). Royal Botanical Gardens Kew is celebrating collecting, banking and conserving 10% of the world's wild plant species. Kew's Millennium Seed Bank, Wakehurst Place, East Sussex. The seed is banked inside the vault which is kept at minus twenty degrees centigrade.

Must admit, I thoroughly enjoyed this assignment. Its astonishing to see the size of the project and how much has been achieved already. It still leaves 90% to be collected though, so visit their web site and see if you can help out.

At work with my 5D MkIIs and Think Tank Photo bag and pouches

Photographically speaking, I took a couple of Canon 5D MkII bodies and mostly used the 15mm f2.8 Fisheye, 16-35mm f2.8L II, 35mm f1.4L, 50mm f2.5 Macro and the 85mm f1.2L II.

What really surprised me was how well the cameras and lenses behaved, but more so the batteries; I was going from minus 20 degrees centigrade (which reached minus 30 near the coolers because of the wind chill) to hot and humid greenhouses and then back again to the arctic temperatures. After having shot over 1000 RAWs, both cameras' batteries showed full power! Astonishing.

Focus on the Rainforest by Daniel Beltra

Press preview and soft opening of photographer Daniel Beltra's exhibition Focus on the Rainforest with The Prince’s Rainforests Project and Sony exhibition, Nash Conservatory, Kew Gardens, London. September 30, 2009.

Daniel Beltra, Focus on the Rainforest from Edmond Terakopian on Vimeo.

Winner of this year's Prince's Rainforests Project via the Sony World Photography Awards, Daniel Beltra, has his new exhibition is opening to the public from October 3rd to December 6th, 2009 at Kew Gardens. The theme is the project shot for the PRP, Focus on the Rainforest.

The exhibition is a collection of very graphical and interesting images from the Amazon, Democratic Republic of Congo and Indonesia, depicting deforestation around the world, and showing some of its effects to our environment.

Beltra's list of awards is impressive. He has two World Press Photo awards, winning Best of Photojournalism and International Photography/Lucie contests and is a fellow of the International League of Conservation Photographers. He has also won the Global Vision Award from the Pictures of the Year International contest, to name but a few. His career began by being a photojournalist in his native Spain and he has shown the same journalistic approach to documenting the state of our environment, concentrating on man's effects on it.

His love of nature and the environment drove him to freelance for Greenpeace for the past 20 years. He is represented by the prestigious Reportage by Getty Images.

The standard of photography is stunning, and only outdone by the versatility shown by Beltra's approach. Images taken from the air showing natural beauty and toxicity of the human condition are only matched by the sensitivity and respect shown to the subjects of his photographs on the ground. He is equally at home in the air with his Canon 100-400mm lens, as he is on the ground with a 24-70mm on his Canon 5D MkII.

I can't recommend this exhibition highly enough; definitely put aside some time and go and see it.

If you'd like to be kept up to date with his projects, become a fan on Beltra's fan page on FaceBook or visit his website and follow the blog link there.

Conflict Photography

How does one cover a conflict? The conventional way is to show either frontline action with soldiers or the effects it has on human life by photographing death and suffering of people caught up in the conflict. Both, very powerful ways of documenting our inhumanity.

I came across a third way, which had I not seen it, but only been described the method, I would have automatically have suggested that it would not work. It was of the remains of war and specifically the places, or spaces which are abandoned as war settles in and destroys.

Furniture is seen in the living room of a house that was damaged during the Hezbollah-Israel summer war 2006, in Bint Jbeil, south of Lebanon.

The project is called Abandoned Spaces by photographer Dalia Khamissy. I first saw the project at her presentation at Photo Forum in London. It was a unique and surprisingly emotional look at the Lebanon war of 2006. The reason I say emotional is because there isn't a single person in the photographs, but the spaces which they have left abandoned, destroyed by bombs and gunfire, speak so much about who they were and how they lived during happier and more sedate times.

You can see the project HERE and there is an interesting article on her work HERE.

Beatles Abbey Road Album Cover 40 Years On

Today was 40 years in the making; the famous cover photograph by Iain Macmillan of the Beatles' album Abbey Road was taken 40 years ago today at 11.35am.

I was given the assignment by Polaris Images (NY) and just knew it wasn't going to be a smooth one. The first thing is, that its just a zebra crossing if the Beatles aren't on it! Regardless, I picked up my gear and made my way there.

The original cover by photographer Iain Macmillan, seen on a CD

Arriving over an hour early, I started making some nice pictures of some of the fans and chatted with some friends and colleagues I hadn't seen for a while.

As the time approached, it became obvious that this was going to be an absolute nightmare. Although today was 40 years in the making, the Police in their wisdom had sent one officer down to control hundreds of fans, the traffic and try to help facilitate the media. The road wasn't even closed until after the whole thing was over (at which point around 10 officers turned up).

Whilst the photographers and colleagues from TV had made arrangements and formed a line around 15 meters away from the crossing, the public, armed with their camera phones, naturally had other ideas. I'm all for everyone having a right to see what's going on, but why do this and ruin the chance of a decent picture being taken by the press? I'm sure everyone there will be rushing out to buy the papers the next day, only to be disappointed at the quality of the pictures taken.

My rather messy recreation of the image, 40 years on

Still, in a strange way it sort of added to the "homage" we all tried to make to Iain's original picture. Things have moved on in 40 years and the thought of a major band walking around in a public place are an absolute no no these days. Whilst the original shot is clean and simple, our picture is the exact opposite. Its messy and crammed full of media, the public and a bus (which later broke down and stayed put!).

Sometimes, one just has to step back and think "Let It Be".....

To see all the pictures from today, please visit my Photoshelter page where images and prints are available for purchase. Alternatively, for a smaller edit, visit my Flickr page.

Limited Edition Funkiest Ever Memory Card Holders Known To Mankind

*World Exclusive*

Last year I found myself in San Francisco with work and I really wanted to catch up with my friend (a term I don’t use lightly) Doug Murdoch from ThinkTank Photo (he’s the president of the company and also the chief designer). I first got to know Doug via email after seeing the Speed Demon and the best memory card holder I have ever used, the Pixel Pocket Rocket. In fact, we loved it so much we ordered some custom made BPPA branded ones. We have since kept in touch and this year I’m really pleased to be on the design board of the company.

Doug Murdoch and Deanne Fitzmaurice looking through fabrics

Over the years I’ve had many chats with Doug, Mike Sturm and Lily Fisher, and the reason its a pleasure to be on the design board is that this is a group of talented designers who love what they do, and most importantly want to listen to photographers to ensure that their bags and pouches are the best available. This, I knew, as time and time again, it had been proven to me (apart from a small satchel, all my bags are ThinkTank Photo). What I wasn’t prepared for though, was how much fun the gang is! So, back to my story...

I end up finding a fun pattern!

I hooked up with Doug, Lily and Deanne Fitzmaurice (who won a Pulitzer Prize in 2005 and is an essential part of the company). Now, being from England, they guessed I’d like to go for tea, so that’s exactly what we did! We had a splendid time at a great tea place in SF. During our chit chat and generally catching up, Doug mentioned that they were going to check out a fabric store to see what was new and asked if I’d like to tag along. Now, being a photographer, I’ve never taken an interest in fabrics! Partly out of politeness and partly out of curiosity, I agreed and off we went.

Some of the designs available

This place was huge! There was floor after floor of fabric; every colour, every pattern and every weave you could imagine. That’s when Doug finally revealed the plan; part of the idea was to try a kind of design exercise and make some very limited edition Pixel Pocket Rockets! We split up and spent almost two hours looking at the funkiest fabrics we could find. After we’d picked our favourites, we had a “meeting” and finally chose several patterns to go for. I must admit, against all preconceptions, I had a great time choosing fabrics!

These are all the available designs

Months passed and assignments came and went and eventually I forgot of the “limited edition funkiest ever memory card holders known to mankind”. Then an email dropped from Lily with an attached photograph of these gems! Lily mentioned that 150 had been made. I think you’ll agree, they are fabulous! Lily kindly sent me a few and they are a very treasured item! If you see me on the street and ask nicely, and preferably bring me an espresso, I may show you mine!

UPDATE: The folks at ThinkTank Photo are planning on giving away these funky card holders to anyone who completes a special survey. This is yet to go live, so to keep in the loop, I suggest you visit http://www.thinktankphoto.com/ and put in your email address in the box labelled “Be The First To Know” / “New Product Updates” on the front page. Good luck :-)

Addendum: Good news! The survey is now online. Simply visit the Limited Edition Pixel Pocket Rocket Survey and fill in the short form. Good luck!

Addendum 2: Anyone who was having difficulty before, please note that the link above has been updated. There were some technical issues before which have since been sorted out by the company doing the survey. Good luck!