May 19, 2011
Thursday, 9am-5pm
CES/AIA LU 7 units
This program introduces the art and technique of architectural photography with a digital camera. The objective is to learn specific techniques for taking digital photographic images of architecture, including landscapes and city views. Emphasis is placed on specific skills that will enhance each participant’s photographic ability. The program will review the most useful digital camera settings, features, and menus. Using your own camera, you will gain experience with group shooting exercises, learning the basics of composition, new ways of using light, perspective relative to the camera’s point of view, and other techniques. For more advanced shooting, participants will learn professional lighting techniques, and then, in the evening, how to set up a shot at dusk — the “magic hour” – using tungsten lighting. Skills to be taught via classroom lectures, group photography shooting, and lab workshop sessions include enhanced ability to compose and critique architectural photographs, how to frame architectural images through the camera lens, and specific techniques and strategies for architectural photography.
Coordinator: Click the name for more info
A California native, Michael Arden is a teacher, communicator, world traveler and master photographer. His work has been published in books and magazines worldwide, and his work is in great demand.
Arden’s talents were nurtured in a family of artists. His mother Melba sang opera; his grandmother was the preeminent cellist of her time, and his great uncles were the world famous Cherniavsky Trio, musical masters with a cult following in the early twentieth century. “From the earliest days of my childhood, my family instilled in me a respect for the creative process and the will to define a unique perspective in the world. I learned to ask questions, to connect with the people I met – and to translate that connection into visual work that reflected both something of them and of me.”
Arden received formal photography training at Santa Monica College, and earned a B.S. in Environmental Studies from University of California-Davis and a Masters in Spiritual Psychology from the University of Santa Monica. A gifted lecturer and teacher, he has been a professor of photography at the University of Southern California for more than seventeen years.
In 2010, Arden completed SameSex, Recipes of Love, a book that captures images of gay couples and families and some of their favorite recipes. Some of the couples in the book posed multiple times over the ten-year span of the project. “I wanted to capture the essence of gay relationships over time,” said Arden. “The book grew out of my own search for a meaningful relationship – and became a testament to the enduring power of love between people.”
Arden’s work has been published in numerous books, including Celebrity Bedrooms and Beach Cottages; magazines including Architectural Record, Interior Design, California Homes, Global Architecture, Los Angeles Magazine, Los Angeles Times Magazine, Frontiers and Genre. He has produced a line of greeting cards and calendars, and photographed the Gay Games in New York (1994) and Amsterdam (1998), and the March on Washington in 1993. He was the official photographer for the California AIDS Ride for a number of years.
Arden has received numerous (over 100) Gold Nugget Awards and AIA Awards for his images associated with architecture and received a third place prize for his submission to the Los Angeles Nude Exhibition.
Arden lives in Hollywood, California with his life partner John Sonego. The couple have adopted three brothers, currently ages 17, 13 and 10. The family also includes three dogs and seven fish.
Necessary items.
Participants need a 35 mm DSLR (Digital Single Lens Reflex) camera.
