Coming Together

It’s such a gratifying feeling when, after working so hard for more than 2 years, the efforts of a whole team of people come together. I’m talking about a major four-day conference for photographers called CAPA Photo Expo that came to an end on August 3. Since then, we’ve been receiving accolades and arresting photos from the 200+ participants.

The photos below are an attempt to share the event with you, and features just a few of the eleven gifted photographers who presented.

Joel Grimes is a well-known photographer who was our keynote presenter on the first morning. He reminded us that every human being is built with the desire to create. A camera is one of our tools, our computers and related software are other tools, and we can use these tools to fulfill our vision.

Brenda Tharp was our keynote presenter on the second morning. She ‘spoke to our hearts as photographers’ with encouragement and inspiration by sharing her landscape and travel photos.

Dave Brosha led participants in four workshops on creative portraiture. The background image on the screen is his lovely 3-year-old daughter while he pauses to answer a question.

Chris Harris is a successful and much published photographer from BC’s Cariboo. He enthusiastically shared his journey of using landscape photography to express his deep emotional responses to the beauty of the region he loves.

Andrea Sirois, who teaches photography at Langara College in Vancouver, demonstrated a technique to create impressionistic photos. She makes  Moving Landscapes by photographing through the window of her car while her husband drives. So, we hired a bus so that the participants could give it a try!

On the last night of the event, we had a banquet with a great meal, awards to celebrate and a blues band. The Harpdog Brown Trio had us dancing to their rhythmic beat while others were busy taking advantage of a great photo opportunity.

Kasandra Sproson, one of the event organizers, has fun creating images with her iPhone. While all of the photographers had their ‘big people cameras’, we enjoyed creating with smartphones as well, thanks to the inspiration and instruction provided by Teri Lou Dantzler.

Although there were continuous opportunities to learn photography, one of the highlights of any event of this type is the friendships, sharing and learning together that takes place.

One delegate wrote, Well done, organizers! Much inspiration from the speakers and attendees too, met some neat folks from near and far, and lots of ‘assignments’ to keep me busy for a long time.

Our team of organizers are all so thankful for the ‘coming together’ of years of hard work, planning and decision-making. It was all worthwhile when we saw photographers so engaged with each of the speakers, the photos they created and the warm feedback received.

Probably the best way to tell you about the Photo Expo would be to feature some of the incredible photos that were created by the people attending. These photos really tell the story of the inspiration and instruction they received.

For Photographers

An event like this really is a worthwhile learning experience. Many of the photographers who came have many years of experience and yet left with new ideas and purpose. The amount of talent in the room created a buzz whenever they got together and sharing of ideas and techniques was ongoing.

If you couldn’t be there, check the links of the photographers above. Each one was invited for a reason and has much to share. And consider that, while you’ve spent a lot of money on your photo gear, have you invested in your own photographic learning?