one of my favorite things to do was to teach at the Maine Media Workshops. It was especially rewarding when I had a good group of photographers.

This year was no different and with a good group of photographers we spent a great week together shooting and discussing their images.

My workshop is called “Stretching Your Frame of Mind”, and I teach people how to incorporate the elements of visual design into their photography.

As I’ve done in the past when I get back home, I put together a post that’s made up of entirely their photos taken over the course of the week. These photos were taken at locations I’ve been going to for many years, as in the photos taken at Pemaquid Point lighthouse…along with a photograph that calls for a production; as in the photo the class did together of Ghost face…a character in the Scream series.

Enjoy the show:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime…FYI, I’ll be conducting one in Puglia, Italy September of 2027. Let me know if you’re interested.

JoeB

A location that had always been on my bucket list to conduct a workshop was held in Sicily. We based out of Palermo for three days, then Catania for another three days.

While shooting in Palermo, we took early morning and afternoon trips to Trapani, and Cefalu’. After a leisurely private motor coach ride to Catania, we spend the day relaxing and shooting around the city center. We also spent time shooting in Ortygia and Taormina.

The workshop was once again full, many who have taken my online courses, and I can speak for everyone when I say that Sicily was everything we all expected. The food was always an interesting dining experience, the people were warm, friendly, and didn’t mind their picture being taken; right out of central casting. The villages we shot in were all by the sea, and as picturesque as one would imagine; just like the postcards.

As usual, I select hotels that are centrally located with photo opportunities virtually right outside the door. Many were no more than a twenty minute walk. The group always traveled to the other locations by a private bus, comfort being one of my main concerns.

Each day during the critiques, I was always looking forward to seeing how people were seeing things so differently when given the same subject matter. So many of the photographers have taken one to seven other workshops with me and as a result I love observing how their eye and their ability to see rather than look at things has improved so much.

I have written several posts about my workshops, and I always like to show some of the images my fellow photographers were shooting. I realize that there are a lot of photos to look, but I’ve actually narrowed down the amount by half!!

I wanted to give you a visual feeling for the country as well as showing you some of the remarkable images taken by my class.

I hope you’re as impressed as I am.

Enjoy the show.

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Visit my website at www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Be sure to watch for my upcoming workshop schedule at the top of this blog.

JoeB

In my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshops I conduct around the planet, I teach fellow photographers how to incorporate the elements of Visual Design and composition into their imagery. Negative Space, Vanishing Point, Perspective, Tension, form, Shape, Pattern, Texture, Light, and Color are all permanently affixed to their new ‘Artist Palette’ I use to teach in my online classes. Unfortunately, the founder passe away and the school closed.

I spend extra time on LINE, since it’s the most important of all the basic elements of Visual Design. You see, nothing would exist without Line, planes, trains, automobiles and even people all have an “outLine”.

In my workshops. we also spend time on Silhouettes, and Shadows (Shadows are your best friend). In the photo of the two young girls, Stephanie was given the color red and the word “indifference” to use in a single photo. It’s a wonderful example of what the title is all about.  Not only does this photo contain several elements from her ‘Artist Palette’, it’s also a perfect example of how shadows can make a huge difference in our photography. it’s certainly a benchmark for workshops to come!!!

The following is a slideshow from one of my workshops. A first class collection of Lines, Silhouettes, Shadows, and all the elements tof visual Design they all brought with them.

Enjoy!!!

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Visit my workshop at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out any up and coming workshops. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

One of my most favorite of all the workshops I’ve conducted was the one in Paris…“Boy oh boy do I love Paris.”

I had led a group of my fellow photographers to Provence for one of my yearly workshops. We met in Arles and for three days photographed many of the areas where Vincent Van Gogh roamed the streets and countryside looking for subject matter including: Arles, Avignon, Saint Remy de Provence, Les Baux, and Chateauneuf de Pape.

From there we traveled by van to Nice and for the next three days photographed this beautiful city by the sea, a sunrise in the magical village of Eze, then a train  one afternoon to Monte Carlo.

Many of the photographers had taken my online classes with the BPSOP, and studied the elements of visual design with me. There were so many that had been on prior workshops, and some as many as three, four and five before coming again with me to Provence. It ‘s always like a family reunion with several people returning to shoot with me again, and this time it was to celebrate my 70th birthday…which we did!!!

All I can say is that there were so many great images that it was difficult to get it down to the number I finally wound up with. I realize that it’s a lot of photos to look at, but it was the best I could do to reduce the size to what I consider a good representation of the area, the light, and the people.

Enjoy the show:

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com<, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagraam.com/barabanjoe.  Watch for upcoming workshops and come shoot with me again, or for the first time.

JoeB

Last January, I lead a photographic cultural tour to Cuba. It was a great experience not only for the group that was full, but for yours truly as well. BTW, it was my eight time!

It’s a fantastic country, with wonderful, friendly, and engaging people. The photo opportunities range from the cultural events we go to as part of the tour, as well as the “dawn patrols” and afternoon to late evening shoots we all go out shooting on our own.

I’m going again next January 3rd, and you might think that after being there eight times I would have seen and photographed enough to fill a long slideshow to the family. But as I often quote a 19th century French novelist named Marcel Proust to my online class with the BPSOP, and in my own “Stretching Your Frame of mind” workshops I conduct around our planet, “The only real voyage of discovery is not in seeking new landscapes, but in having new eyes”.

One could keep going back to Cuba and find new photo opportunities each and every time, and I’m looking forward to doing just that. Here’s a slideshow of photos not that I took, but those from my group. As you can see, they’re truly indicative of the kinds of subject matter you see when you’re there with me. I would put a lot of these images up against the majority of self-professed professional photographers that are out there right now.

Enjoy the show:

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I hope these images reach down into the soul of every photographer out there looking for places to see and photograph while inspiring you to join me. If Cuba has always been on your bucket list, I strongly suggest you see it before it changes forever as our government’s relationships with theirs becomes more and more open.

I can guarantee you as I did with all the photographers work you’ve seen in both these posts, an experience you’ll be talking about for years to come. Come join me next January 3rd. as I see things again with new eyes. For those that are interested, I can tell you that my group fills fairly quick. If you’re interested, you can send me a n email to joe@joebaraban.com.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Not long ago I conducting my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop with the Pacific Northwest School of Art on Whidbey Island, and a big part of my workshop deals with what I call Chasing the Light. As in all my workshops I encourage shooting in the Golden Hour. This refers to the time right after sunrise, and the time right before sunset. In the forty-two years of being an advertising and corporate photographer, I can safely say that 75% of every photograph (outdoors of course) I’ve taken during that span of time has been shot during these hours.

I tell my students that LIGHT IS EVERYTHING; you find the light and you’ll find the shot.  When we’re out on location together, I help my students gain a better understanding and sensitivity to light as it affects all the elements on their Artist Palette…which I also give them during the workshop.

The light is just softer, warmer, and prettier. Notwithstanding the fact that the shadows become dominant and long, and as I always tell my students…”SHADOWS ARE OUR BEST FRIEND”.  They should be embraced, not feared as some would have you believe. For one thing, Form, being a basic element of visual design, comes to us with only two dimensions: height and width. It’s the shadows that add Depth, the third dimension.

After scouting Deception Pass with my Sunpath readings and my Morin 2000 hand bearing compass before the workshop started, I knew where there would be a glow in the water as a result of being backlit I took the class there to shoot, but before we went we gathered a couple of props to be used after the sun had set over the water, hiding all the beautiful scenery one will find there.

The photograph above is one that was taken by an online student. He and his girlfriend came over from his home in the Netherlands to take my workshop.

A really nice photograph, and an even better model. That would be me!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe.  Check out the workshop schedules I put at the top of this blog. They fill fairly quick then I take the description down. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

As I write this, today marks the anniversary of my workshop on Whidbey Island. The unique locations for photographers to photograph, and the quality of the light. Both of these came to bear when I took my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop there for a week. As I always say both in my workshops and my online class with the BPSOP, LIGHT IS EVERYTHING!!! You find the light and you’ll find the shot. In this case finding the light at a wonderful location is just about as good as it gets.

We were shooting at one location late one afternoon in June when the sun disappeared behind a large bank of dark clouds, and it looked like we were done for the day. We were heading back to the offices and classroom when I looked over and saw that there was a small hole between the horizon and the dark clouds. One of my students that was familiar with the area told me about Admiralty Head lighthouse, and that it was high enough in elevation to catch the sun break through the clouds before it set.

I immediately thought to myself about Eddie Adams, a famous Pulitzer Prize winning photographer. He once said, “When you get lucky, be ready”. This has been my mantra for the last fifty-three years, and it has helped me take some incredible photos; so off we went chasing the light, my favorite pastime!!!

When we arrived, the temperature had dropped significantly, and the wind was howling at us. It was mighty ‘freaking’ cold up there that night and I have to take my hat off to the students that went with me. As they say in Texas, “Sometimes you just gotta cowboy up”.

While working with another one of my students I said  that Light is so fleeting that it will change in just seconds. I took this shot and had her run with me around to the other side to show that the time it took for us to get there the light and color  had changed dramatically.

As I always say, “Never stop shooting until you can’t see anything, because as long as you can see it, you can photograph it!!!

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop schedule at the top of this page and come shoot with me some time.

JoeB

As usually, I like to write a post and show my student’s images.on one of my workshops, and here’s one I love to show since several of therm will “stand the test of time”.

The Maine Media Workshop is the granddaddy of them all, and was founded in 1973. Since then, there’s been several that have started up and has used Maine as the benchmark to a successful and professional organization with improving student’s skill as just one of their main objectives.

My workshop is called “Stretching your Fame of Mind”, and it’s the same material we cover in my online class with the BPSOP. The big difference is that I’m teaching and working in the field, and the classroom discussion is live with all the participants interacting among themselves.

I’m proud of my class this year and rightfully so, as you’ll see in my slideshow of their work taken throughout the week. All photos were taken by my  class.

Enjoy the show.

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/baraban. Come shoot with me sometime.

JoeB

Soumyajit, who lives in India, just asked me ,”How do you decide the the correct zoom range when you have a restless subject as this one.” I’m not sure I’m understanding “zoom range”, so I’ll go on the premise that she wants to know the best composition and the best way to frame this very weird critter.

For me, the basic problem here is the lack of believability. It doesn’t feel natural, and the reason is that she says she used a black t-shirt to hide the background; therein lies the problem. Why would there be light just on the spider and not anywhere else? That is, if she was trying to make this look like he was in his natural environment.

The area right under his left legs (camera left) is very confusing and hides his legs, so I would work on making this composition more of what I refer to as a “quick read”.

If the zoom range means how big or small to make him in the frame, I would want to not only make him larger, but I would also want to make it easier for the viewer to see all of him. Perhaps showing scale as well. Right now I have no idea how big this guy really is. He could be the size of a quarter or he could be large enough to swallow the entire city of Tulsa Oklahoma…at one sitting.

One of the pearls of wisdom I often say to my students is to, “consider the scene and its outcome”. Did this photo do/say what you intended?

Visit my website at:www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshops at the top of this post, come shoot with me sometime.

Thanks Soumyajit for your submission, I hope this helped.

JoeB

I had conducted my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” workshop at the Maine Media Workshops in Rockport, Maine. One of the locations I took my class was Pemaquid Lighthouse, and it was always a great way to introduce the class to painting with light.

Sitting in the shadow of the lighthouse at Pemaquid Point with an incredible view, my class and I enjoyed lunch provided by the workshop. I had taken them there to scout the lighthouse, and with my software called Sunpath and a hand bearing compass called a Morin 2000, I showed them how to determine where the sun was going to rise (to the exact degree) and when it would hit the horizon. By the way, it’s a hell of a lot accurate than any app you can put on your phone.

The next morning we met at 3:30AM for the drive to Pemaquid. I wanted to be there an hour before sunrise to give us enough time to set up. That day dawn began at 5:05AM, with the actual sunrise coming at 5:27AM at 81 degrees. I knew we had twenty-two minutes before the sun came up to paint the lighthouse with my RedLine tactical flashlight. I had the class set up and shoot while I ran around and showed them how to paint while keeping their camera shutter open.

It was a beautiful morning, and the class really enjoyed the experience. Afterward, we had my traditional breakfast at Moody’s Diner in Waldoboro, Maine.

What fun!

JoeB

In my recent Paris Workshop, that incidentally was a huge success, I had ask the class to photograph the Eiffel Tower sometime during the week. Since it’s the most iconic structure in France, or any country for that matter, I thought it might be fun to have a juried exhibition and award a special memento to the photo that was judged (I stayed out of it) by  three independent people (artists in their own right) as being the most unusual and creative photograph taken during the course of the workshop.

Several photos were taken after our farewell dinner at Procope, the oldest restaurant in Paris. A private coach picked everyone up after a fantastic meal and great wine and went to the Eiffel Tower at sunset ( 9:41pm) for one last shoot. I gave the first place winner a Crystal Eiffel Tower made by Swarovski.

The second, third, and honorable mention are the first three in the slideshow. All the rest were finalists.

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Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out future workshops at the top of this blog.

JoeB

I was invited to bring my workshop to the Julia Dean Photo Workshops in Hollywood, California. It was my second time, and it’s always a special treat to teach there because after all it is LA, and the weather can’t be beat for shooting pictures; not to mention the great staff at the workshop who are very professional and accommodating to me and the students.

I teach an online class with the BPSOP, and I also conduct my workshops all over the world. I took one of my workshops to the Getty Center to photograph the wonderful architecture, and once we were there they spread out looking for the ‘elements’ of visual design found on their new ‘Artist Palette‘ (they began working on it the first day of the workshop), as well as ways to incorporate the Theory of Gestalt into their photos.

While working with Rina, one of my students, this is one of the shots she took. Not only is it about Line, Texture, Pattern, Negative Space and Perspective (all of these found on her ‘Artist Palette’), but it’s also a great example of one of the concepts of Gestalt I also teach called “The Law of Common Fate”. I’ll be sharing this concept with you in a coming post, so stay tuned.

Visit my website at: www.joebaraban.com, and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my new workshop schedule at the top of this blog. Come shoot me sometime.

A really good photo Rina!!!

JoeB

“STRETCHING YOUR FRAME OF MIND”

When you sign up for my online class with the BPSOP, or consider taking my “Stretching Your Frame of Mind” digital photography workshop I teach around the globe, this is the first part of what you’ll read in my workshop overview:

THE ARTIST’S PALETTE:

Imagine yourself standing at some location with an artist’s palette in your hand. A recently stretched canvas is waiting on an easel, and a jar full of cleaned brushes sits on a small table next to you. Cobalt and Ultramarine Blue, Raw Sienna and Burnt Umber are positioned side by side while Chromium Oxide Green, Cadmium Red and Yellow lie together opposite them; Mars Black and Titanium White sit in the middle. They all have been squeezed from tubes and anxious to be mixed together.

Now, imagine that instead of all those wonderful pigments on your palette, there are the elements of visual design and composition.  Terms like: Vanishing Point, Negative Space, Perspective, Tension, Color, Light, Texture, Pattern, and Line, have been etched into the aged wood.

Everyone knows what happens when you mix red and blue, right? You get purple. How about when you mix blue and yellow together? Green, right again. But, what happens when you add Tension, a few Patterns, and Perspective together while taking your daughter’s portrait during an outdoor birthday party? Or Negative Space, some Texture, and a Vanishing Point when you’re composing a street scene in a small Tuscan village? Or a small fishing town, like the one shown below that I shot while with my class at the Maine Media Workshop.

What happens? Well you’ll get the picture.

Check out my website at www.joebaraban.com and follow me on Instagram: www.instagram.com/barabanjoe. Check out my workshop description at the top of this blog. Come shoot with me sometime!!!

JoeB