Action & Sports Photography
January 25th, 2012Earlier this month in the Digital Photography program, students were taken to Vancouver Phoenix Gymnastics and Burnaby 8 Rinks for some hands-on experience shooting action using strobes. While instructor Ian Hylands was away on assignment, Christopher Morris filled in, and later wrote a blog post about shooting action which included some shots from the day...
http://christophermorrisphoto.blogspot.com/2012/01/sports-and-motion.html
Follow Christopher's blog for lots of great stories from the field and the classroom.
Here are some great shots from the week-long course:
Photo of Kira Hallwood by Rodrigo Ceballos
Photo of Guy McVey from Dojang by Jens Kristian Balle
Photo of Nicole Hopkins by Ester Bueno
...and here is a video (shot & edited by our studio manager Jeff Bell) highlighting the action!
Related posts:
VanArts Photography Dept. Produces Video for Project Limelight
January 6th, 2012
VanArts is very proud to have recently contributed our skills and resources to help promote Project Limelight Society, a new organization that has developed an artistic community program for youth living in Vancouver's Downtown Eastside. Their vision is to support kids as they pursue their passion and education in the performing arts.
Project Limelight was founded by sisters Donalda Weaver and Maureen Webb (pictured above, left to right, with Board Member Carmen Amos), who each have substantial experience as Casting Directors for our local film & theatre industries. Maureen has been connected with our Acting Department through the William Davis Centre for many years, and through this connection she was introduced to key members of our Digital Photography department: Program Director Christa LeCraw, Studio Manager Jeff Bell, and DSLR Video Instructor Scott Hastings. These three joined forces to direct and produce promotional videos for Project Limelight in our professional top-floor studio space overlooking the Vancouver skyline.
A top-notch line-up of actors, musicians, politicians, and various professionals across many industries were brought into the studio to be filmed for this project, including Vancouver Park Board Chair Constance Barnes, legendary folk-singer Valdy and his daughter, actress Chelah Horsdal (Rise of the Planet of the Apes, Supernatural) Sweatshop Union hip-hop artist Kyprios, D.O.A's Joe Keithley, and actors Cory Monteith (Glee, Final Destination 3), Kacey Rohl (V, Red Riding Hood), and William Davis Centre at VanArts alumnus Aaron Douglas (Battlestar Galactica, The Bridge), along with many others.
Here is one of the videos that was produced by our VanArts team:
We also produced a behind-the-scenes video of the shoot, with cinematography by Andy Matheson, a part-time student from our DSLR Video Production course.
Huge thanks to everyone who made this production possible!
Read more about Project Limelight, see more videos, and offer your support to them by visiting http://www.projectlimelightsociety.org/
Part-Time Courses 2012
January 3rd, 2012If your New Year's Resolution for 2012 is to learn some new skills or explore the arts, VanArts presents its annual part-time courses throughout the year which typically meet once a week in evenings or weekends.
For a list of courses, click on any of the following links by category:
Click on any course to learn dates, times and costs. We hope to welcome you into our part-time courses in 2012!
Questions? Contact us at 604-682-2787 x104
VanArts' Grad Survey shows High Placement Rate
December 16th, 2011VanArts is proud to share our most recent survey of graduate and placement statistics, with very promising results for our grads finding work relevant to their field of study. Surveys were conducted six months after our last two graduating classes, and the average job placement rate was 88%!
According to school president Alan Phillips, "This high placement data speaks volumes about what a great job VanArts is doing at offering first class, industry-relevant education."
Nude & Figure Photography
November 30th, 2011Last week our junior students in Digital Photography had their first experience shooting nudes & figures with their instructor Aura McKay. Here are a few samples of the beautiful work by Joel Krahn, Angela Victory, Luc Dumas, Kelsey Hale and JoAnn Jurovich.
Related posts:
Nude Figure Photography at Ironworks Studios
Photography Student featured in Transworld Snowboarding Magazine
November 23rd, 2011Congrats to our current Digital Photography student Severin Samulski (smsamulski.photoshelter.com) for getting a series of photos published in the world's largest snowboarding magazine & website, Transworld Snowboarding!
All photos can be viewed at snowboarding.transworld.net/1000164028/featuresobf/whistler-opening-day-2011
VanArts' Mission for Excellence
November 18th, 2011At VanArts, our mission, newly displayed in our front lobby, is "to contribute to the development of the individual student's artistic and career potential by bringing together world-class instructors to teach, inspire, motivate and pass their knowledge on to students and support the development of their talents and realization of their dreams in the visual, media and performing arts."
As fulfillment of this mission, we have recently received some encouraging comments from students and graduates in our full-time programs.
Britton Nosbisch, currently studying in our Visual Effects program, says, “While living in Nashville, I spent 18 months doing research on schools for Visual Effects. As part of this research, I flew out to Los Angeles twice and applied to another school in Vancouver. The schools I investigated in downtown Hollywood (not a very glamorous place) were in the area of $80,000 in tuition and the facilities were comical at that price compared to the Vancouver schools I looked at.
After deciding upon Vancouver and being accepted to a major school there, I discovered some testimonies by many of their graduates who had been very frustrated with the large numbers of students & intakes being held every few months. It began sounding more like a big-name factory pushing people through to collect their tuition. After staying up all night reading these comments, I took another look at VanArts, which had only two intakes a year and more reasonable class sizes. I sent them an e-mail and got a call from their Director of Admissions within 10 minutes. She thoroughly listened to my dilemma, explained what they have to offer, and asked if I'd like to speak with the Head of the Visual Effects Department. It was great being able to do this so quickly, and I was impressed by his knowledge of the industry, of Maya software across both gaming and film platforms, and the fact that all of the instructors are working professionals from the major studios.
Overall, I was simply encouraged by VanArts to make the best decision for myself and what I was looking for in my search for a school, and after 8 months of the program here, I can assure you I've become more confident in my investment every day. The one-on-one time I get with professionals that are excited to help me succeed is simply unmatched!”
As for our graduates, the stories speak for themselves. A graduate from our 2D Character Animation program wrote us saying, "As a current intern with a high profile studio in Hollywood, I realized how much I learned about Story in just one year at VanArts. I am better prepared than most of the others who attended four-year programs at other schools. Go VanArts!"
...and contact us today to get started on your own!
Head of Photography featured in Documentary Series
November 16th, 2011
Ian McGuffie, Head of our Digital Photography Department, has been featured as an interviewee in a series of documentaries entitled Snapshot: The Art of Photography II, produced by the Knowledge Network.
Each episode of this six-part series put focus on a different photographer, and Ian is included in the episode about Fred Herzog. The interview clips were shot here at VanArts on the balcony of our top-floor studio overlooking the Vancouver skyline.
The entire episode can be watched here: www.knowledge.ca/program/snapshot-the-art-of-photography-ii
Project from DSLR Video Course
November 15th, 2011The Fall 2011 session of our new Video Production for DSLR Photographers series of part-time weekend courses has just recently completed, taught by instructor Scott Hastings. Here is a sample of one project that was completed in the course's first weekend by student Jimmy Sira, also starring some of our full-time staff and students.
This series of intensive weekend courses is designed to introduce the fundamental concepts of video for DSLR photographers. Through classroom discussions, visual examples and hands-on workshops we discuss how to add DSLR video to a photographer's repertoire.
The next session of dates for this course is now posted online and open for registration starting in April 2012! Click here for more details.
Career Update from UK Photography Graduate
November 15th, 2011
Thomas Strand came to VanArts from the UK and graduated from our Digital Photography program in 2010.
Since graduating, he has been sustaining his career in London through photography and video production, doing corporate events with some interesting clients such as Barclay's Bank, creating portraits, film set stills, and working on future charity funding for people with brain injuries. Thomas' long-term goal is to focus on documentary filmmaking, and plans on traveling to China to continue working on a piece about the Xinjiang Province.
Great to hear from you Thomas, and we continue to wish you the best in your career!
Check out Thomas' website at www.thomasarnestrand.com
