We love seeing our portrait photography displayed in homes and our commercial images used in marketing materials. They look so much better out in the open than hidden on our multitude of hard drives (random fact: we have 13 Tera-bytes of hard drives). We recently printed a set of 72 inch and 24 inch gallery wrap canvases for a client of Vancouver taken from a boat during her son’s wedding.
Here are Jason and Lexi showing them off in our studio …
Jason spent five days at Imagine Explorations on Vancouver Island this summer getting trained and inspired by Aurthur Rainville. Aurthur has a studio in New Bedford, Massachusetts that specializes in fine art master portraits. A few things that Jason took away from the training was to continually look for inspiration in non-photographic genres, to explore various non-photoshop techniques to create altered images and to push himself to explore more personal and spiritual aspects of photography.
We make it priority to do several business and/or creative training activities per year, as well as regular coaching. Continually improving and being inspired is a priority with us and Jason was not disappointed with Image Explorations. Here are some of the photographs he took while at IE …
The training was opened with a welcoming ceremony from First Nations people.
Arthur Rainville teaching.
Main hall where people ate, had the tradeshow and also hosted joint activities.
All of the following images were done during joint photography times and were a combined effort between classmates, the teacher and models.
Jacki, our great administrative assistant, is going to be taking maternity leave soon so we are hiring someone to assume her position during her leave. Revival Arts Studio is growing and continually evolving portrait, wedding and commercial photography studio in Abbotsford, BC. It is an exciting time at our studio and we are looking for someone to share in the joy we get from creating images and working with amazing clients.
This position is based in a home office atmosphere, complete with the chaos of a young family and the perks that come with it. This approximately 20 hour per week job offers flexible hours and the office atmosphere is laidback yet focused and busy. You must be a hard worker who is able to work without constant supervision.
For the right person, extensive training will be provided and the job description will be tailored to suit their skills. However, this position does not involve assisting or shooting at portrait sessions. If you aspire to be a photographer, this job is not for you.
Please view the pdf to see more details.
Interested? Please send us an email introducing yourself with your resume attached. Not interested but know someone this would be perfect for? Then please pass it on. Resumes will be accepted until June 10th.
Solitary
Merit, Judge’s Choice
Client: Private portrait for Abbotsford family
Congratulations to Jason on his most recent photography awards! At the Annual Image Competition of the Professional Photographers’ Association of Canada (PPOC), held recently in Mont-Trembant, Quebec, Jason Brown had 3 images accepted and exhibited in the National Print Salon.
This was Jason’s first national professional photography competition so we weren’t sure what to expect. It is an honor and encouraging to have the judges recognize the technical and artistic skills that go into his images. We value being continually challenged to produce better quality work which in turn means our clients have award winning art to display in their homes and to represent their businesses.
This year’s competition received 1047 entries and was judged by a selected panel of master photographers from across Canada. There are over 925 photographers who are members of the Professional Photographers’ Association of Canada (PPOC). With the recent proliferation of photographers, hiring someone who is a member of a professional association such as PPOC demonstrates that they are dedicated to their craft and committed to a high standard of excellence.
Each photographer is allowed to enter four images into the competition. Out of those images, we guesstimate that about half of them don’t even get accepted. There are four levels: unaccepted, accepted, merit and excellence. It is very rare to receive an excellence as it means that the image is virtually flawless. This year there were about 20 awarded to the top photographs entered from across the country and Jason received one of them. At the end of the competition, each judge chooses one image out of the 1047 entered as their favorite. Two judges chose images of Jason’s.
All three of Jason’s winning images were exhibited in the National Image Competition and will be published in a coffee table book. We are printing up samples of the winning photographs and will have them hanging in our studio later this week in the hall of competition prints. If you come through, we’ll show them to you and explain a bit more about the process of preparing an image for competition.
Azure Grandeur
Excellence, Judge’s Choice
Client: City of Abbotsford, The Reach Gallery Museum
Axis of Strength
Accepted
Client: The Goddess Movement
Jenn has a beautiful Paphiopedilum orchid that blooms once a year and our mutual friend Julie, delivered the flower to our studio so we could photograph it. It was the day before our move so we made the set with the back of a framed print and the reflector out of a white side table. It was a welcome breath of beauty and break from packing. Here’s a photograph of it ….
We are extremely excited to be living in our new home in Abbotsford with a basement office. It’s absolutely gorgeous and as I write this I am looking out the window at bees on the flowers, hearing birds singing and smelling the rain through the office door. After 5 years of working in a windowless basement, it is a little piece of heaven!
Even before we found our new home Lexi was praying for it and has referred to it as “Our angel house with lots of room for lots of people.” Xander has plenty of room for his Lego collection and has a secret closet in his room that makes kids squeal and adults exclaim how much they’d have loved it as a kid.
We’re pretty much set up for now and will be sending out a special studio warming session offer to our clients ASAP. We will also hold an open house but don’t know when yet. As a blog reader or Facebook follower, you will be invited! In the meantime, if you’re up on Eagle Mountain and want to stop in, just drop us a line. If we’re not photographing someone, we’d love to give you the royal tour.
I’m extremely behind with blogging and am looking forward to spending time catching up rather than packing! Keep checking back this week as we have lots to share.
Revival Arts entrance. My (Darcie) desk is behind the bottom right window.
An important part of living in Abbotsford is knowing where to go for stylish products. If you’re expecting or are a new mom, the place for you to go is nine boutique! It is owned and operated by Summer who is a local gal who noticed that Abbotsford was a booming city but had no shop to supply moms when they were expecting.
We recently brought some art over for her to display in the store. We always enjoy going there because she has it well stocked with a wide variety of clothing and products. From maternity undies and stylish clothing to blankets and bottles she has great products. She runs specials every Friday for her Facebook fans and Twitter followers so be sure to sign up for those.
The boutique is on Montrose across from Bishops Centre and next to Pluteo. Here are a few photographs of nine boutique:
If you’re coming to us for a maternity photography session with us be sure to stop in at nine boutique as Summer will set you up with great clothing!
We have another workshop coming up at The Reach Gallery Museum in Abbotsford it’s one that we’ve been waiting to teach for a long time. It’s called “How to Take Better Photographs” and is for the novice photographer with any type of camera (point and shoot or SLR).
Shutter bugs who want to learn some basic skills to improve their photography will be shown how composition and light can be used to create eye catching photographs. This workshop is designed to strengthen the creative and artistic side of your photography. We’re extra excited about this workshop as we will show lots of examples from our portfolio as inspiration.
If you’ve taken our SLR Overview class and we mentioned another class that you should take, this is the one! If you haven’t taken any of our classes before this is a great way to learn some tips and techniques that will improve your photography.
The class is on Thursday, April 15th from 6-8:30pm and the cost is $70. You can register by calling The Reach at 604-864-8087 x0. If you have questions about the content of the class, you can contact us at 604-864-6339 or email. Please register early as our classes fill up and we don’t want you to miss this one. We do not have plans to offer this class again in the near future.
We are cleaning out the office in preparation for our move and will post photographic supplies we no longer need on our blog. Here is a rotary paper trimmer by Rotatrim that will cut up to 18″ photo paper and cardstock. $70 or best offer. We know many photographers who use this exact model who rave about how awesome it is.
We will be updating our samples with our new studio. If we have had a sample of you on display in the last 5 years, feel free to contact us to see if it’s available to purchase for a minimal fee.
The Professional Photographers Association of British Columbia (PPABC) had the awards ceremony for their annual salon last night and Jason Brown won Best in Class for two categories again this year! There are over 200 of British Columbia’s top professional photographers in the association and this year there just under 300 entries in the photography competition. Here are his winners …
High Voltage
Best in Class – Fashion
Azure Grandeur
Best in Class – Architecture
Both of these entries are examples of our commercial photography work and you can see our commercial photographer website here.
