Seventh Annual Macro Photo Conference 2020
Sponsored by TAMRON and HUNTS PHOTO
This is a unique annual photo conference dedicated to macro photography. I’ve always wanted to design a program where professional photographers would come together and teach their skills in macro photography and post processing techniques to those who want to learn, and advance their macro photography to the next level.
This Macro Photo Conference will have plenty of how-to lectures and five hours of photographing with over 100 set ups to photograph. The speakers will be available to help participants with composing subjects and technical aspects. So you need to bring your camera, macro lens, and tripod. The Macro Photo Conference is for all skill levels.
Speakers will have their books available, and will be happy to sign them for you.
Tamron will have a tech rep on hand with lenses available for you to try out, and Lensbaby will provided lenses to try out, and Ann Belmont and Jackie Kramer will help you with the Lensbabies.
There will be a limit of 120 participants, and it should sell out quick. Last year we had participants from 23 different states and Canada.
Location:
Spartanburg Marriott
299 North Church Street
Spartanburg, South Carolina, 29306
(864)586-1211
Dates: October 24th and 25th 2020
Times: Saturday 8:00am to 6pm – Sunday 8:00am – 3pm
Cost: $199
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For those flying in, best airport is the Greenville-Spartanburg International Airport.
The hotel group block room rate. Standard room with breakfast buffet voucher, $135.
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Speakers
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Mike Moats
Mike is an international award winning professional macro photographer. His images and articles have been published in Outdoor Photographer Magazine, Natures Best Magazine, Shutterbug, PC Photo Magazine, Nature Photographer Magazine, Photolife, Whisper In The Woods, Michigan Game Finder, NANPA’s Expressions Books, Pure Michigan Book, Tamron’s blog,and Fujifilm’s Newsletters. Mike has won numerous local and international awards, and is a member of Tamron’s “Image Masters”. Mike offers many options to learn about macro photography. http://www.tinylandscapes.com
Presentations
The Properly Equipped Macro Photographer
As a pro macro photographer I am asked many times what is the equipment that I use. In my program I will cover the camera, lenses, tripod/head and all the accessories that I use to make my living. Controlling depth of field, and finding character.
Post Processing Tips and Tricks
Mike will cover processing tools and keeping it simple to creatively enhance your images . Smart Photo Editor, Nik Software, Topaz, Photoshop Elements.
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Jackie Kramer
Presentation:
Creativity in Action - From Start to Finish
Thoughts and ideas, paired with photography, post-processing, and a dry cappuccino are the ingredients that go into Jackie's images. Take a journey with her as she walks you through the process of making artistic macro images steeped with depth and meaning.
Jackie has been photographing the natural world, with an emphasis on flowers, since the age 16. She is at home in the field shooting wildflowers, in botanical gardens, private gardens, and in her home studio, i.e. the kitchen. While she has expanded to include portraits and weddings, she remains an avid floral photographer. Jackie has received international acclaim for her images from the International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY), the North American Nature Photographers Association (NANPA), Professional Photographers of America’s International Photographic Competition, and named Competitor of the Year (‘17 and ‘18) by the Jacksonville Professional Photographers Guild. Her work has been published in several magazines, including Photoshop User, Portfolio, LensWork, and The Photographer (Texas School), and on the cover of NANPA Expressions 2019.
Jackie also maintains an active Facebook group, Phlorography - Artistic Floral Photography, with over 6,300 passionate floral photographers from around the world. She is committed to supporting other photographers and using photography as a medium to build relationships and enrich others' lives. Website, https://www.luvblooms.com/
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Charles Needle
Presentation:
“Creative Macro Photography”
Learn how to create unusual and striking close-up images both in the field and in your own backyard and/or home studio. Award-winning fine art photographer and workshop leader, Charles Needle, will guide you through all the necessary steps to take your macro photography to the next level. He will cover more advanced topics, such as selective-focus macro, "shooting through" with a telephoto lens, close-up lenses/diopters, wide-angle macro, and macro with specialty lenses, such as the new Lensbaby Velvet lenses and a Taleidoscope lens. Charles will also discuss specific methods for shooting water droplets, reflections on iridescent glass, mylar, and abstract close-ups of everyday household objects.
Charles Needle is an award-winning, California-based fine art photographer, author, speaker and workshop leader with a unique eye for design and artistic interpretation. His popular “Art of Nature” creative macro workshops have attracted students nationwide.
In 2011, Charles was selected as a finalist, among 15,000 entries worldwide, in the International Garden Photographer of the Year photography contest, sponsored by The Royal Botanic Gardens, Kew (London, England). This exhibition traveled throughout the United Kingdom. He was also a semi-finalist in the 2014 Nature's Best Photography Windland Smith Rice International Awards photo contest.
A popular Mike Moats Macro Conference speaker in 2015 and 2017, Charles has authored three cutting-edge instructional books: Tiny Worlds: Creative Macro Photography Skills (Amherst Media, January 2015), Impressionistic Photography: A Field Guide to Using Your Camera as a Paintbrush (March 2014), and Creative Macro Photography: Professional Tips & Techniques (2011).
An accomplished speaker, photography juror and teacher with international workshops in Monet's Garden (Giverny, France for 22 years in a row, with exclusive private access), Keukenhof Gardens (Holland) and The Butchart Gardens (Canada), Charles is a FujiFilm USA Talent Team member and North American Nature Photography Association (NANPA) Showcase Award winner eight years in a row.
Charles’ photographs have selected for publication in Nature’s Best, Outdoor Photographer magazine, Nature Photographer magazine, Inner Reflections Engagement Calendar, The Chicago Tribune, SELF Magazine and are in private and public collections nationwide and abroad.
To learn more about Charles' work, including his workshop and private lesson offerings, visit www.charlesneedlephoto.com.
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Ann Belmont
Presentation:
Creative Flower Photography: Creating Flower Portraits with Artistry and Emotion
Learn to see and photograph flowers in a more artistic way. We will explore ways to awaken your creative spirit and follow your heart in creating beautiful flower portraits. Anne will share her unique way of looking at flowers and finding her subjects, helping you to isolate beautiful and often unnoticed details in your subject that create impact and emotion. We will explore workflow in the field and cover some essentials for capturing flowers - light, aperture, selective focus, composition and backgrounds - as well as how to use Lensbaby lenses to create more artistic and evocative images.
As a flower photographer, Anne’s greatest passion lies in seeing and capturing the beauty of flowers and other botanical subjects up-close. It is the small, often unnoticed details that draw Anne to her subjects - the patterns, textures, curves and unique personality of each subject. It is her belief that if we slow down and look at nature in a more contemplative way, we will find subjects that convey impact and emotion, causing the eye to linger a little longer. Some of those subjects might even have stories to tell. With a lifelong involvement in the arts and her deep love of nature, photography became a perfect way for Anne to share her vision of the natural world with others. Her first career as an art therapist has shaped the way she views art and the creative process, and has reinforced her belief in the healing power of both art and nature in our lives.
On any given day you will find her at her favorite place to photograph, the Chicago Botanic Garden. She was commissioned by the Garden to do a solo exhibition of her orchid photography, displayed in 20 larger-than-life panels during the 2015 - 2017 Orchid Shows.
Anne is on the Out of Chicago Photography team, organizing and presenting at their conferences. She presents programs and teaches workshops on flower photography at conferences and groups throughout the country. She is a writer for the learning community Visual Wilderness, where she writes about flower and macro photography. Anne partners with Lensbaby, and is passionate about using and promoting their creative lenses to enhance the artistry of photography. She is firmly committed to the idea that we should never stop learning, growing, experimenting and having fun with photography. Website, https://www.annebelmontphotography.com/
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Harold Ross
Presentation
Sculpting with light; a Transformative Process
Join Harold as he presents Sculpting with Light; a Transformative Process, which outlines his image-making process using light painting on a small scale (still life, for example). Harold will explain the numerous advantages of light painting, as well as his “Six Principles of Light in the Studio” which is designed to help the audience understand the simple yet powerful physical attributes of light. He’ll also bring along the small number of lighting tools he uses, and he’ll explain how simple and inexpensive they are. He’ll also touch on the amazing power of enhancing dimension and depth through specialized (yet simple) masking techniques in Photoshop. These masking methods are akin to painting and drawing, and are not taught as photographic techniques anywhere else. Harold will be using his images to convey the transformative nature of his image-making process, which allows one to transform an ordinary subject into something remarkable!
Shooting sessions:
Also, please join Harold during the afternoon shooting sessions of the conference. He will have a dedicated area to provide attendees with the experience of light painting using his simple yet powerful methods and lighting tools.
BIO for Harold Ross:
Harold’s 40-year photographic career began in fine art (he has a degree in fine art photography from MICA) and as a teacher. He then owned (for 30 years) a commercial studio producing images for advertising.
For the last few years, Harold has gone full circle, now concentrating entirely on fine art photography as well as teaching.
For almost 30 years, he has been specializing in Light Painting, a technique involving "painting" the light over a long time exposure. Harold refers to his image-making process as “Sculpting with Light”.
His work mainly involves still life, but he also makes photographs of larger scenes as well as landscapes (shot at night of course).
His large scale color work has been exhibited, collected, and published in the U.S. and internationally in Photo China Magazine, the Italian magazine Progresso Fotografico, Ukraine Photographer, and The Journal of the Royal Photographic Society in England, among others. Here at home, his work was featured in LensWork #93, #121 and #137, and Professional Photographer Magazine, Digital Photographer, and Popular Photography, among many others. Also, his work was recently featured in a LensWork Monograph. Digital publications include The New York Times LENS blog, Boing Boing, aCurator, LENSCRATCH, Colossal, Photigy, Luminous Landscape, and more.
In 2011, Harold was invited to participate in an exhibition of landscape photography in Inner Mongolia, China along with 10 other American and 20 Chinese photographers.
He was also chosen as one of four photographers to exhibit in the inaugural FRESH exhibition at the prestigious Klompching Gallery in New York.
Harold is influenced by the work of Wynn Bullock, W. Eugene Smith and Irving Penn.
He is also influenced by the paintings of Rembrandt, Carravaggio and Willem Kalf.
Gallery representation: Susan Spiritus Gallery, CA., and High Noon Gallery, Beijing.
Harold lives in Lancaster County, PA, where he produces work and teaches workshops
in his process.
To see Harold’s work, please visit www.haroldrossfineart.com
5 Comments
May 8, 2020, 3:18:19 PM
Mike Moats - It's sold out but email me at macrogeekmike@yahoo.com and I'll add you to the waitlist.
May 8, 2020, 3:15:41 PM
Scott Maze - I love in Columbia SC. Would love to attend..
Apr 30, 2020, 8:05:07 PM
Mike Moats - Yes, email me at macrogeekmike@yahoo.com and I'll add you to the waitlist.
Mike
Apr 30, 2020, 8:00:09 PM
Tiffany Englander - Hi, I just discovered the tiny landscapes macro photo conference. I was wondering if there was a wait list as I discovered this too late to register? Thanks & be well!
Jan 18, 2020, 9:35:44 PM
Jacki Spearly - 3rd time! Cant wait!