Heather Goss, Author at Exposed DC

Free Photography Classes with Exposed + KCDC

August 15, 2014 By Heather Goss

Exposed DC has an exciting new opportunity for photographers! We’re partnering with Knowledge Commons DC, “a free school for thinkers, doers, and tinkerers – taught anywhere, by anyone, for everyone.” We’ve sought out some of our most talented contributors to teach a series of photography classes sponsored by Exposed DC. We’ll have three classes in KCDC’s September 2014 session, and we’ll have more in a special Exposed DC intersession later this fall. (Note: Classes are one day; you’ll have two opportunities for each type of class.) Registration for September will begin shortly – we’ll add those links when we have them, but you can save the date now for the following great learning opportunities:

Street Portraiture with Jim Darling

Students will learn how to approach strangers in public and take their portrait. We’ll go over fundamentals of portraiture, how to pick a subject, tips to approaching a stranger and asking to take their picture, and composing a great shot. After the discussion, the class will hit the streets to try out what they’ve learned.
Location: WeWork Chinatown
Wednesday, Sept. 10, 6:30-8:30pm (registration opens Tue., Sept 2) and Tuesday, Sept. 16, 6:30-8:30pm. (registration opens Mon., Sept 8)

Street Photography with Gerry Suchy

This course will explore the fundamentals of street photography, its history and how it is different from other types of photography. After a brief discussion of the nature and practice of street photography. I will lead a group of “wanna be” street photographers on a photo walk, pointing out likely subjects and how best to capture that image. The course will require that the student have and be comfortable using a digital or film camera. The person signing up for this course will be someone wanting to stretch her/his creative legs in the area of candid photography in search of the “decisive moment.”
Location: Union Station, 2nd floor, top of spiral staircase
Saturday, Sept. 20, 10am-12pm (registration opens Fri., Sept 12); Saturday, Sept. 27, 10am-12pm (registration opens Fri., Sept 19).

Photographing Airplanes at Gravelly Point with Chris Williams

Our class will take photographs of aircraft on takeoff and approach at Reagan National Airport from Gravelly Point. We’ll go through different techniques to create images of aircraft, discuss what lenses to use, appropriate shutter speeds, creating depth of field, and how to be creative with an everyday scene in Washington D.C. Any type of camera is fine as long as you’re reasonably comfortable with it.
Location: Gravelly Point (those metroing will meet at Crystal City and walk over together)
Tuesday, Sept. 2, 6:30-8:30pm (registration opens Mon., Aug 25); Saturday, Sept. 6, 6:30-8:30pm (registration opens Fri., Aug 29).

Michael Andrade’s “In My Eyes” at The Coupe

July 15, 2014 By Heather Goss

Katie Alice Greer of Priests, by Michael Andrade

Last Thursday night photographer Michael Andrade opened his photography show In My Eyes at The Coupe in Columbia Heights. We’re familiar with Andrade’s intense concert images, as he was part of the Instant DC collective which joined our team at Exposed a few weeks ago. He’s been following and photographing bands from D.C., Maryland, and Virginia.

You can enjoy his work, along with paintings inspired by Andrade’s work by street artist Rose Jaffe, in the coffee shop and bar section of the venue through September 1. We asked Andrade a few questions about his photography:

[Read more…]

Share What You Know Through Exposed DC

July 1, 2014 By Heather Goss

Exposed has always considered its mission to connect photographers with opportunities. Our next project will do that two-fold: Giving skilled photographers an opportunity to learn how to teach others, and giving very new photographers a place to learn something new about taking images.

Let’s start with the teachers. (We mean you, so keep reading.) Each of us loves a certain thing about photography that we do all the time. It might be taking pictures of all the luscious things at the farmers market every Sunday morning, or developing your own film, or setting up a tripod at sunset for that perfect Harvest moon photo.

Exposed DC wants you to share that thing you love. We plan to sponsor some classes through Knowledge Commons DC, a “free school for thinkers, doers, and tinkerers — taught anywhere, by anyone, for everyone.” These classes let people in D.C. share their passions with others. In the spring semester, you could sign up for a class on anything from Small Scale Urban Composting, to Intro to American Whiskey, to a seminar on Bruce Springsteen’s “Nebraska” or the lesser known monuments in D.C.

You can teach one of these! You don’t have to be an expert, just a person who’s practiced something enough to give others some great pointers. Our team brainstormed some ideas of skills we’ve seen our photographers display:

Taking great pictures of food
Techniques at Gravelly Point to catch the airplanes
How to make a pinhole camera
Macro photos of flowers (teach your class in a public garden!)
Working with flash / natural light / low light
Working with wide lenses or fisheyes
Experimenting with focal length / panning
Making sunprints
Night sky photography
How to market yourself as a freelance photographer

The classes can take place just about anywhere, classrooms or out in the field. They can be highly specific! (KCDC once had a class on manscaping your beard!) Never taught a class? That’s great – you’re the ones we’re looking for! Exposed will help you with as much as you need: Finding a venue, creating an outline, getting any supplies, and of course, promoting the class. You can also limit your class size to whatever you’re comfortable with.

It’s okay if you only have a vague idea; we can help you figure out exactly what the subject can be. The classes will be taught in the fall semester, and we’re open to sponsoring more than one class. We need to know in the next few weeks if you’re interested, but we’ll have a few months to get everything ready.

Interested? Drop us a line!

InstantDC Joins Exposed DC

June 26, 2014 By Heather Goss

In a city as transient as D.C. it’s not unusual to watch ideas and groups flit in and out of existence, but some of them make their mark. We’ve followed Instant DC since they started their group focused on mobile photography in 2010 with much interest. They’ve run successful projects from independent exhibits in coordination with groups like STRATA, to managing the local photography section of FotoDC last year. Led by James Campbell, Instant DC boasts some incredible local talent, including photographers featured by Exposed many times, like Emily Reid Campbell, Keith Lane, Michael Andrade, Jim Darling, Noe Todorovich, and Patrick Onofre.

That’s why we’re incredibly happy to announce that the Instant DC collective has become part of Exposed DC today. Their writers and photographers will be featuring the best in mobile photography right here on the site (which will see some big changes in the coming months). We’ll also be coordinating some of their upcoming exhibits – tune in next Wednesday for an announcement of an exciting local contest!

If you’re one of Instant DC’s many fans, we hope you’ll follow us on Twitter and Facebook, and keep in touch with our monthly newsletter featuring the artist interviews and gear talk and whatever else we post to the website. We meet up for a monthly happy hour, and have some other exciting events in the works soon. Let’s have James Campbell tell us what’s in store:

I have been extremely lucky to have the opportunity of launching a brand like Instant DC and watch it take on a life of its own over the past 3 years. Believe it or not, we had DC’s first mobile photography exhibition back before Instagram even existed. Becoming part of an organization like Exposed DC is the next logical step in my mind. We will now be able to help Exposed DC curate great mobile photography and highlight trends in the social / connected photography arena. I believe firmly in Exposed DC’s mission of featuring and enabling emerging photographers in the local area and look forward to continuing to plan periodic exhibitions and creative happenings under the Exposed DC banner.

United House of Prayer Annual Parade in Photographs

May 29, 2014 By Heather Goss

Two of our favorite street photographers, John Ulaszek and Chris Suspect, headed over to the United House of Prayer for All People’s annual parade and performance on Memorial Day weekend. They put together this great slideshow of their work — enjoy, and turn on the sound so you can really immerse yourself in the scene.