Workshop

I have just finished the workshop “Fine Art of Digital Printing” with John Paul Caponigro and Mac Holbert and I cannot say enough favorable things about the whole experience. Both John and Mac are extremely knowledgeable about photography, digital workflow, Photoshop, and the printing process; I mean extremely high quality fine art printing. On top of that, they are also very eager to share what they know, not only with the workshop participants but anyone who cares about her or his work. I am leaving the workshop with many useful technical and programmatic knowledge, not to mention many fine prints I was able to make there. But the best thing for me was my one-to-one meetings with John Paul and Mac who pointed out not only the technical glitches in my prints but also made me realize that I have to separate somewhere my emotional response from my technical process of producing fine prints. Now, I am not suggesting that either man told me that my prints were not of good quality, to the contrary they both said they were quite good, very good. But, and here is the rub, in my haste to visually articulate my ideas I have overlooked minor details that detract from the final quality.

I also realize now that I should have brought a more cohesive body of work to show rather than selecting images of various types. I made that choice with the assumption that I might need to present different types of photographs that show different technical questions/challenges as well as my varied interests. After John Paul’s presentation on presentation, I realized that my assumption and the resulting selection of images were wrong as they did not tell him enough about what my work is about. He was right. Thank you John, thank you Mac.

As part of the team, Arduina, John’s lovely wife; and Ming, Mac’s right hand (and the left hand as Mac called him) were always there with a smile to help with any problems that we might have had. With a great sense of humor and responsibility they greatly contributed to the total experience. Thank you Arduina, thank you Ming.

The venue for the workshop was the Hallmark Institute of Photography. The institute has impressive facilities, well equipped and extremely well maintained and presented. The people of Hallmark we had a chance to meet and interact, Gabe, Mark, Vance, were fabulously friendly and accommodating. Their hospitality and easy going manner contributed to the quality of my experience immensely. Thank you Gabe, Mark, Vance.

The participants at the workshop were a very good bunch of people with varying styles and talents. I have a feeling that I will communicate with quite a few and exchange ideas. I am looking forward to that. Thank you all for your company and sharing your work with me.