Biography
Mark has been involved in photography over thirty years. He is a past member of the Professional Photographers Association of British Columbia (PPABC) and the Professional Photographers of Canada (PPOC), having held accreditations in a number of disciplines including travel editorial and stock photography. For his work, he has received awards on several occasions, including first in class (pictorial) at the 2007 PPOC Image Competition, with a second image selected to hang in the PPOC National Loan Collection.
Mark conducts workshops locally in visual design and composition, as well as digital colour management and workflow. He also conducts an annual location workshop in Provence, and has provided instruction at various workshops in France and Singapore. Currently he conducts a popular course in digital printing offered through Bryan Peterson's on-line photography school at www.ppsop.com. Mark's work may be viewed at www.pacificlight.ca
Workshop(s)
Travel Photography: Beyond the Cliché
Creating compelling travel pictures is no easy task. Witness the times we have all endured the tortuous pleasure of sitting through a friend’s travel slide show, where each image is accompanied by the phrase, “This is us in front of the [insert name of well known travel icon here]”.
Good travel photography goes beyond predictable clichéd sunsets, mountains and monuments. Great travel photography seeks to capture the essence of a destination, what writer Lawrence Durrell called the “Spirit of Place”.
Join me for an hour where we look at ways to capture that Spirit of Place using the elements of great travel photographs: composition, lighting, colour, and a sense of the moment. We’ll look at how to break this challenge down into the basic elements of good story-telling; ensuring that we leave each stop on our travels secure in the knowledge that we have an interesting story to tell. Along the way we will answer the question, “What’s the SINGLE most important thing I can do to improve my travel pictures?”
Travel, international travel in particular, is fraught with new challenges which conspire against our goal of great travel images. We will look at what equipment to take, how to pack so that it arrives safely, what to leave at home, and how to combine quality family vacation time, with quality photography time; no small challenge in and of itself!