Workshop Wednesdays Vol.49
Workshop Wednesdays vol. 49
If you are anything like me, you could do with a dose of good news and positive inspiration. I’ve worked very hard this week to source the most uplifting stories and incredible photographs to hopefully put a smile on your face and maybe even brighten your day…
“DON’T DO IT,” he said. “You’re too tired. It’s not worth it.”
“Jamie McGuinness, our guide and expedition leader, looked hard at me with sunken, bloodshot eyes. He had slipped off his oxygen mask and removed his sunglasses. Several days of gray stubble covered his chin. His skin had a sallow, corpselike pallor.
We were sitting on a pile of rocks at 27,700 feet on the Northeast Ridge of Mount Everest—the Chinese side, away from the crowd in Nepal. A couple hundred feet below us was the GPS waypoint that could solve one of the greatest mysteries of mountaineering. New research indicated that legendary British explorer Andrew “Sandy” Irvine may have tumbled and come to rest at that spot. Was his body still there?
Almost a century ago, while descending this ridge, Irvine and his climbing partner, George Mallory, vanished. Since then the world has wondered whether one or both of them could have made it to the top that day, 29 years before Edmund Hillary and Tenzing Norgay were recognized as the first to stand on Everest’s summit. Irvine was thought to have been carrying a Vest Pocket Kodak camera. If that camera could be found, and it held snapshots of the summit, it would rewrite the history of the world’s tallest peak…..”
Make sure you click the link below to see what happens!
Iconic Photographer
– Laurent Ballesta
Marine scientist, Underwater photographer & Pioneer deep diver…Dare to go where nobody has been before
“Here I was fortunate to be able to find a treasure of an extraordinary biodiversity that even the local that I am never suspected existed. To take these pictures, my friends and I had to spend more than 600 hours of observation and diving up to a depth of more than 200 meters.
This kind of dives required ten years of preparation during which time we improved the equipment and security measures. During these years, my photographic technique also improved considerably when dealing with the constraints encountered – using a super endoscopic macro lens and panoramic photo stitching, to maximize dusk level light in zones beyond 150 meters requiring sensitivity of up to 100 000 ISO.
It was an environmental exploration ahead of an artistic achievement. A journey without leaving France – exciting, stressful, exhausting but always a fascinating quest for a biodiversity which is both eroding and unfolding before our hallucinated eyes. And even if I can’t stop it eroding, I hope to be able to contribute to its enhancement. May you enjoy it while looking through this portfolio.”
“…If there’s one thing about dogs, they know how to live. It’s not quite true that dogs rule the planet—though, as Jerry Seinfeld says, an observer might think so after watching humans bending to scoop up dog droppings. But it sometimes seem that a pup’s outlook on existence, in its simplicity of wants and its simplicity of virtues (loyalty and empathy chief among them) represents a life-form that has things figured out.
There are exceptions. Dogs can be like humans. Some dogs are nuts. Some are skittish, or inappropriately exuberant, or lazy…They sit when you say “Sit!” and come when you call “Come!” and raise their front paw to shake your hand, just because they know you like it. These are animals who can drive a herd or guard a home or nose out a felon in hiding. And yet the things they will do for our amusement! Skateboarding, skydiving, dancing on their hind legs. They can balance things on their snouts and wear women’s clothes….We blanket a clan that encompasses hundreds of breeds, from affenpinscher to Yorkshire terrier. The world’s largest dog (Great Dane) is 40 times the size of the smallest (Chihuahua). The breeds have their traits and we celebrate them as only humans can, chronicling the instincts of Buck, the sled dog, in Call of the Wild; and the courage of Old Yeller, a black mouth cur; and the fellowship of the Jack Russell terrier in My Dog Skip. In terms of integrity it’s not the breed that matters. It’s the doghood.”
The Best Of…
Photo Contests!
The World Photography Organisation is a global platform for photography initiatives. Working across up to 180 countries, our aim is to raise the level of conversation around photography by celebrating the best imagery and photographers on the planet. We pride ourselves on building lasting relationships with both individual photographers as well as our industry-leading partners around the world.
The World Photography Organisation hosts a year-round portfolio of events including the Sony World Photography Awards, the world’s leading photography competition, and PHOTOFAIRS, international art fairs dedicated to photography.
Be sure to check this out – it’s amazing!!
Story of the week
One of the smartest things we did when setting up HP nearly eight years ago was to get professional help with the website. Initially it was a predesigned effort, however, properly tidied up from the back end by the very talented Brodie and Jak from Work Train Web. A few years in, we had a budget to get a brand new beautiful website designed and we enlisted their help again of course as we were very happy with the results so far… We’ve had lots of mini updates since then including a more recent one (have you seen it yet? Our homepage slideshow is HUGE!!)… And for the last few years we have organically ranked in the top 3 for family portrait google searches. This is a pretty big achievement as most businesses have to pay a small fortune to get to the top. In our case, it has just been good management from the beginning a lot of SEO attention, consistent content updates and Work Train Web’s expertise!
ANYWAY – that is the back story as to why we love our web guys so much! And to top it off – Brodie and his beautiful wife Sarah visited the studio last week with their 12 day old baby boy, Jason. It was an absolutely beautiful shoot and I’m so excited to share all of the photos very soon…
“Thank you Hannah for helping us to feel so comfortable, safe and feel incredibly at ease and natural in your hands. You’re a true professional, and provided not only a phenomenally engaging experience which produced some truly memorable moments, but that what you also provided was deeply relationship building for our new family, creating and fostering an opportunity for us to share emotionally with each other. It was truly exceptional, strengthening our bond with each other, and my wife could not be separated from her state of happiness after being in studio with you since. Thank you so much, from Brodie, Sarah and Jason.”
Best Wishes From HP!
Send big hugs and lots of love out there to everyone near and far!
Best Wishes,
Hannah, Olivia, Angela, Nic and Charlie
The Hannah Photography Team