Mac Education pricing

Well it's summer and our first ever group of students have moved on after a successful initial completion of the Lambton Digital Photography program.  We wish them well and most certainly will be in touch!  Don't be strangers.

September isn't too far away and we will have a new class of first years!  The registration numbers are looking great, so we will see you soon.

For those who are looking for their Mac laptops for the program, you may not be aware that Apple has special education pricing that you are eligible for.

You can purchase your equipment anywhere, and we are certainly happy if you support a local business, but you might also want to take a look at the Apple offers.

We are not endorsing this or any vendor, but simply making you aware of the option if it interests you.

LINK to Back to School Offer from Apple

Front Page photo

Angela Smolders who just graduated from the Lambton College Digital Photography program has her photography featured in today's National Post newspaper.  You will find her photos on the Front page and page 3!  As well as additional images on their website (link below).

The images are of members from the Lev Tahor Jewish sect, who have been in the national news over allegations of child neglect.  While in Guatemala Angela spotted individuals who appeared to be those who fled from Canada and photographed them in the small village where they have relocated.

Angela showed great photojournalistic instincts that led to the national newspaper following her lead and assigning two reporters to investigate the story that accompanies the images.

Great work by our Dean's Honour list grad! Way to go!

An interesting twist is that both Lambton faculty Dave Chidley's Canadian Press images, and Lambton student Angela Smolder's exclusive images appear with the article.

Link to the Online Story and Additional Photos

Our First Graduates

It was a memorable day as the Digital Photography program had our very first graduates receive their diplomas at Lambton College's 47th Convocation on June 14th, 2014.

Our initial two years has been an exciting time as we have had endless "firsts" as the program developed and grew.  From breaking in our brand-new studio, to the New York City field study, the learning experience has been unforgettable.

We are proud to see our ground-breaking initial class make it through.  Ten students made it to the end of their two-year program education and we wish them all the best in their future endeavours.

Convocation was an exciting milestone as four of the students were in attendance to receive their honours.  Included in the grads was the very first student to register for the program, Mary Miller.

Our first registered student Mary Miller stops under the lights, mid-stage to pose for a photo with her Diploma

Joining Mary on stage to receive their diplomas were Spencer Drake, Karah Schultz and Angela Smolders.

Spencer Drake who was involved in many extra curricular activities at the school including the Students' Administrative Council gets a hug from Lambton College President Judith Morris. 

Our first Graduates, l-r Karah Shultz, Mary Miller, Spencer Drake, Angela Smolders

Angela Smolders was recognized with a Dean's Award for her academic standing in the program.

Faculty Dave Chidley, Mark Russell and Program Coordinator Richard Beland were in attendance to participate in the Convocation and congratulate our grads!

Great job!

Our first Graduates, l-r Spencer Drake, Coordinator Richard Beland, Mary Miller, Angela Smolders, Karah Shultz and faculty Dave Chidley

Lambton Digital Photography featured in Sarnia Journal newspaper

The Sarnia Journal newspaper, this week published a feature article on the Lambton College Digital Photography Image Challenge.  The feature and images were also posted on their website virtual newspaper, and a Gallery of the 12 winning images can be found in the Photos section of the website.  

The article is very complimentary to the quality of the images our students produced.  Thanks, to the Journal for recognizing our students and their work! 

Link to Virtual Newspaper

Sarnia Journal Website

Two-page feature article with photos from the Lambton College Digital Photography Image Challenge. 

Image Challenge Awards presentation event

The Lambton College Image Challenge awards were presented at a fun gathering of students and faculty at Paddy Flaherty's Pub on April 22nd.

Winners were announced and received their awards, and everyone got to relax just a little, as the semester comes to a close.  Here are a few photos of the festivities and our overall winners.

Thanks to everyone involved from the judges, sponsors, faculty and of course the students for making the competition such a tremendous success.

Students applaud one of the winners.  Photo by Joan Elliott

Students gathered for the presentation of Image Challenge awards.  Photo by Joan Elliott 

Faculty Dave Chidley (left) and Richard Beland present one of the category winning awards to Nathena Lightheart.  Photo by Joan Elliott

Dave Chidley watches as Richard Beland shows a keepsake photo composition of thousands of individual images taken by the second year students before presenting a copy to each of them.   Photo by Joan Elliott

The Overall Image Competition - Geri Freeborn Memorial Award Winners:
Kaityn Eastman, Second Year and Christina Duizer, First Year (on the right).    Photo by Joan Elliott

Image Challenge Winners

Lambton College Digital Photography program Image Challenge

The Image Challenge is our print competition where students submit their best work from their portfolios at the end of the term.  Each image is judged and scored with the top score in each category and overall winners being declared.  

Judging took place in the Digital Photography studio and was conducted by three respected photography experts; Leonard Segall, Executive of the Sarnia Photographic Club; Petro Tiahur professional commercial photographer; and veteran Sarnia photojournalist Glenn Ogilvie.

The judging was intense and took over six hours to complete.  The competition was very close and many of the winners are separated by extremely small scoring margins.  

The competition involved a total of 130 images entered into seven categories

-22 first-year students must enter four separate images.  They have four categories to choose from (Nature, Portrait, Commercial, Un-classified)

-10 second-year students must enter five separate images.  They have three categories to choose from (People, Places, Product)

We held an exciting awards ceremony held April 22^nd at Paddy Flaherty’s pub on the waterfront in Sarnia.  After the ceremony we were treated to a live band courtesy of Angela Smolders and the staff at Paddy Flaherty's.  It was a great time, thanks to everyone involved!

Thanks to sponsors who generously provided prizes for the student winners:

-Camera Canada / Forest City Image Centre

-Vistek

-Carman’s foto source, Sarnia

-Paddy Flaherty’s

The Overall Competition winners receive a plaque and financial Scholarship Awards from The Geri Freeborn Memorial fund.  The winners are decided by the total score on all their images entered in the competition. 

The Geri Freeborn Memorial Awards were created by program faculty in honour of a former Digital Photography student who passed away suddenly in January 2013. At age 57, Freeborn was the oldest student to enroll in the College’s Digital Photography program. She has been remembered as a hard working student who was creatively driven.

Congratulations to all our students.  The level of competition and quality of your entries was superb.  

All of you have made us all proud! 

The winners are:

First Year Competition

Overall winner – Christina Duizer

Second Place - Jessica Dillon

Third Place - Elizabeth Bosma

First Year Category Winners

Portrait – Jessica Dillon

Commercial – Christina Duizer

Nature – Alexa Coupland

Unclassified – Nathena Lightheart

Second Year Competition

Overall Winner – Kaitlyn Eastman

Runner up – Fera Kennedy

Second Year Category Winners

People – Jeff McCoy

Product - Fera Kennedy

Places – Angela Smolders

 

One image from 1st Year Overall Winner - Christina Duizer  "Tea Tower"

One image from 1st Year Overall 2nd Place Winner  - Jessica Dillon  "I'll Drink to That"

One image from 1st Year Overall 3rd Place Winner - Elizabeth Bosma  "Transfixed"

1st Year Commercial category winner - Christina Duizer  "Pulleys"

1st Year Nature category winner - Alexa Coupland  "Frosty Tree"

1st Year Portrait category winner - Jessica Dillon  "Roar"

1st Year Unclassified category winner - Nathena Lightheart  "Universal Beauty"

One image from 2nd Year Overall Winner - Kaitlyn Eastman  "Beautifully Broken"

One image from 2nd Year Overall Runner Up - Fera Kennedy  "Not Einstein" 

2nd Year People category winner - Jeff McCoy  "Strength of Character"

2nd Year Product category winner - Fera Kennedy  "Balloon Girl"

2nd Year Places category winner - Angela Smolders  "A Warm Invitation"

Image Challenge Judging

The Image Challenge is a print competition where our students submit their best work from their portfolios at the end of the term.  Each image is judged and scored, with the top score in each category and overall winners being declared.  

Judging took place on April 17^th in the Digital Photography studio and was conducted by three respected photography experts; Leonard Segall, Executive of the Sarnia Photographic Club; Petro Tiahur professional commercial photographer; and veteran Sarnia photojournalist Glenn Ogilvie, now with The Sarnia Journal.

The judging was intense and took over six hours to complete.  Many of the winners are separated by extremely small scoring margins, is some cases, less than 1%.  

Students had the opportunity to sit in the judging session and listen to the judges comments, and the experience was very educational for everyone.  

Thanks to the judges who toiled over the images!  It was very generous of them to commit a full-day to our students.

The winning entries will be posted very soon, so please visit again to see the fantastic winning images.

L-R. Leonard Segall, Executive of the Sarnia Photographic Club; Petro Tiahur professional commercial photographer; and veteran Sarnia photojournalist Glenn Ogilvie, look extremely serious as the look over one of the cateories. photo by Spencer Drake

Program co-ordinator Richard Beland displays an image for the judges to view. photo by Spencer Drake

Some of our students watch and listen, somewhat nervously as the judges look at their images.  photo by Spencer Drake

As our judges toil, faculty members Dave Chidley(far left),  Don McCahill and Richard Beland (far right) tabulate the results.  photo by Spencer Drake

Our judges Glenn, Petro and Leonard, take a first look as Dave Chidley flips through a category under the watchful eye of Richard Beland (right)  photo by Spencer Drake

Chasing Photography Spirits -by Jeff McCoy

Editor's note: In the following weeks, you will hear and see images from our students themselves: their thoughts and reflections on the course, their work, and the work of others. Come back often to see what is happening in the Lambton Digital Photography program.

Chasing Photography Spirits -by Jeff McCoy

Some may say they were born into photography. I would like to think that I was born into it, but I think I stumbled upon photography instead. In 2010, I upgraded my flip-phone to the iPhone 4 and three months later I was hooked on capturing iPhone images. It was not long after that I enjoyed digitally manipulating them in Photoshop. In 2011, I purchased my first DSLR and was off to become the best photographer I could; I was stopping for nothing.

“Painted River Crossing” digital abstract of the Bluewater Bridge, Sarnia, Ontario 2011. Photo by Jeff McCoy

“Eternity” digital abstract of a decesed tree in Camlachie, Ontario 2011. Photo by Jeff McCoy 

Once I realized how much time it was going to take to learn photography through mass media or other means, I decided the better decision was to enroll in the Digital Photography Program at Lambton College. A friend informed me of the program three-months prior to its launch in September of 2012.  I had gained as much knowledge as possible on my own, but something was missing.

Before College, I enjoyed landscape photography mostly; I would also find myself chasing red tail hawks around our area too. Seriously, chasing hawks became an addiction - ask my kids. I’d pull off to the side of the road on the highway and chase them into the bush on the 402. This lasted only about two months; I stopped noticing the hawks but often think about those days. September 10^th, 2012 was the day I officially registered for College and that was the day I finally met my hawk. Of course I did not have my camera and had to run home for it. For me, the hawk signifies I was on the right path, because I just enrolled myself as a college student.

Jeff McCoy with Hawk that he came across the day he registered for Lambton College Digital Photography

The Digital Photography Program gave me the knowledge I needed to progress as a photographer; it helped me develop my own style, it taught me photography endurance and it taught me how to successfully run a photography business. If I relied on mass media for knowledge instead of the program, my current body of work would show little progress today. 

 L-R image 1 - Portrait of bodybuilder Tim Love after placing 1st in the Provincial Heavyweight Class;  image 2 - Portrait of Cody Kafara; image 3 - Portrait of bodybuilders Rachel Green and Jon Vanderveen;  image 4 - Portrait of Sophia for Esby & Soph Kids Clothing Concepts Spring clothing launch. - Photos by Jeff McCoy

Image left wedding portrait of newly weds Ben and Amy Anisworth

Image Right wedding portrait of newly weds Wayne and Ashley Hartley - Photos by Jeff McCoy

If it was not for Lambton College, the faculty or my fellow classmates, I would not be skilled or proficient enough to have become a successful professional photographer so quickly; in fact, I would not have even considered photography as a career. I look around at my fellow classmates’ work and see great potential in everyone; we have all become adepts of photography.

“The Dancer” from the series Empty Space taken at the OHM Fashion Show in London, Ontario 2014. Photo by Jeff McCoy

Image left portrait of bodybuilder Adam Lagacy. Image right band portrait of Running Red Lights. Photos by Jeff McCoy

This is a quotation that our program coordinator Richard Beland shared with our class; “I can’t help you choose your ideas, but I can help you fine-tune them.” If you are aspiring to become a professional photographer, this program will give you all the tools you need.

In a few weeks, my time with the Digital Photography Program will come to an end, but my photography career will commence.  Below is a snapshot of my body of work, and if you wish to view what I have been building for the past three years, please visit www.StudioKaoss.ca. 

“Peel the Surface” Matched Frequency from the abstract series Expression of Noise taken in New York City 2013. Photo by Jeff McCoy

“Flash of Light” #7 from the abstract series Built in Shadows taken in New York City 2013. Photo by Jeff McCoy