An experience at the Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa
Barbara. 'Brooks in a Week' workshop
(NOTE: There are no enlargments on the article
photos, please see gallery links at the end)
The Brooks Institute of Photography is in Santa Barbara California
and has a reputation of being one of the most respected photography
schools in the United States. This reputation extends beyond the
borders of the US and in recent years has reached New Zealand through
the New Zealand Institute of Professional Photography. Every year
one of the qualified members of NZIPP is awarded the Bob Tulloch
Scholarship and wins assistance to attend the 'Brooks in a Week'
workshop held each year during the Californian summer. I was the
2007 winner and travelled for the first time to America to make
new friends and extend my knowledge of photography. This is an account
of my journey and my experience at the Brooks Institute of Photography.
Brooks Jefferson Campus
After a 12 hour flight from New Zealand I arrived in Los Angeles
with the intention of spending a few days here to see a few sights
and take a few snaps. I stayed at a motel in Long Beach, which turned
out to be a long way from Hollywood but certainly had its own attractions.
Highlights included the Queen Mary ship and the Russian Submarine
experience. California is certainly the land of the car but I have
chosen not to drive and join the millions of sole occupants you
commonly see on the roads of the western world. Putting my hypocritical
environmental attitude aside I am really terrified of crashing on
the more 'wrong' side of the road.
Queen Mary and the Scorpion at Long Beach
The Amtrak train proved to be comfortable and reliable as we headed
north in the three hour train journey to Santa Barbara. Happy to
relax and enjoy a beer and a meal letting someone else do the driving.
This big metal goose certainly blows its horn a lot!
Amtrak California train at SB
Santa Barbara is an affluent coastal town mostly of wonderful
Spanish architecture. The warm dry climate means it is a popular
summer holiday destination with an expansive beach and marine scene.
Budget accommodation is nearly non existent but there are plenty
of excellent hotels, motels, cafes, pubs and restaurants. It is
very easy to see why Californians place Santa Barbara as the place
to come. The University of California has a large campus in Santa
Barbara so combined with the large student body of Brooks the town
has a young vibrant student feel to it. It pays to book early for
accommodation and expect to pay a lot more in the weekends.
I can't believe how many homeless people there are in America
and Santa Barbara has its fair share living this lifestyle. A walk
along the beach at sunrise revealed many homeless sleeping on the
beach and I spoke with a few who were awake and sober. The general
consensus was that if you are going to be homeless you may as well
be on a warm Californian Beach. Santa Barbara is a wonderful place
and I would love to revisit it one day.
Spanish Architecture of Santa Barbara
A safe, on time arrival on the Amtrak train to a quiet Spanish
style station near the main 'State' Street Santa Barbara I strapped
on my Mac Pack and followed the crowd to the beach for a gander
(look). I was greeted at the beach by a sight indeed. Some very
passionate activists were protesting against the war in Iraq and
had placed thousands of white crosses and as many American flags
on the beach. Each cross represented an American Soldier killed
in Iraq during the current war and there were nearly 4000 of them.
They do this every Sunday in a sober reminder of the tragedy of
war and an indication of the growing anti war movement in the United
States adding further crosses each week. People in America are very
open and easy to speak to. I discovered after talking to one of
the protestors that many of his ranks were Vietnam vets. Later I
was to discover that many of the homeless were themselves affected
by that campaign. The question is will the warm Santa Barbara beach
play an after hours host to the current soldiers in the future?
Memorial crosses on SB beach
I walked 30 minutes to my motel just off East Beach passing numerous
artists who had set up exhibition on the reserve adjacent to the
beach. This seemed reminiscent of my home beach in Mount Maunganui,
New Zealand. The Pacific Crest Motel was clean and I really enjoyed
my week there. The hosts were very friendly and accommodating, even
going so far as to find me a chilly bin (cooler) for my beer so
I could enjoy the company of a friend around the pool.
My first introduction to the Brooks School of Photography was
through the workshop administrator Marshall Dennen who was very
hospitable and welcoming. The Brooks school has three campuses,
two in the hills overlooking Santa Barbara and computer labs downtown.
Marshall kindly picked me up from my accommodation and took me to
a social evening for students at the Montecito campus. A few great
Californian wines and a good chin wag with like minded people. I
may as well start as I mean to continue!
The Climate is warm and dry in Santa Barbara during the summer
and not once did I see any rain in the two weeks I was in California.
Coastal areas are much cooler then even just a few miles inland.
Later I was to feel the heat as I journeyed up through the central
valley of California to the Yosemite National Park. Firstly I needed
to hone some more photography skills in the 'Brooks in a Week' workshop.
The tutors and programme of the annual 'Brooks in a Week' workshop
differ from year to year. It is held when the regular student body
is in summer recess. The tutor was Tim Mantoani, based at the Jefferson
Campus. The programme for the week was 'Shooting for Publication'
with some studio lighting for good measure. The last two days of
the workshop were with Jim Di Vitale in the computer labs and covered
Raw workflow through to some handy advanced Photoshop techniques.
Tim Mantoani is a Brook's graduate who has a commercial studio
in San Diego California. He has shot environmental portraits of
sports stars with a client base that extends to magazines such as
Sports Illustrated and the New York Times Magazine. I found Tim's
style of teaching to be relaxed and very well communicated. It soon
became apparent that the workshop was well planned out with a great
mix of lectures and student centred learning by means of activities
and assignments.
Tim Mantoani demonstrates a light meter at Brooks
In the first day we looked at studio lighting. Firstly we covered
in detail the theory of shadow edge transfer and specular edge transfer
in strobe lighting. Both of these transfer theories have a direct
result for a subject due to the type of lighting in terms of contrast
and exposure. It looks at the distance to the light source and various
obstruction apparatus such as soft boxes and reflectors. If you
think the light meter is a thing of the past then you are forgetting
about the virtues of incidence metering. This is when you take a
reading at the subject to calculate the required exposure settings
in camera and the required lumens of the light. As you add lights
around a subject to achieve a desired result you can use the same
readings to fire the correct amount of light. We used a studio car
shoot to demonstrate multiple lights all metered correctly to give
us a perfectly exposed shot across and around the car. Very interesting!
We also covered the theory of reflective metering and how the camera
works on 17% grey. How to shoot for blacks and whites by using exposure
compensation after a reflective in camera reading. The f stop theory
of exposure and light became clear in all of the workshop students
minds and next we were to put it to the test in the studio.
Students meter and direct Lorin at Brooks
Full time degree students at Brooks are employed as teacher aids
and charged with assisting tutors and students. Victoria Hein (Torry)
was one of the fantastic helpers with a huge amount of passion for
photography. Lorin was a keen model dressed in sporty tennis gear.
Lorin has modelling experience and aspires to do more modelling
to help fund her education at Brooks. I can't imagine a better place
to find the required contacts to achieve this goal. She was a great
model and very patient as all the students got to direct and shoot
her image. Everyone got to take incidence readings and adjust the
lighting to learn by practice. All the 'Brooks in a Week' students
are encouraged to bring their own cameras which seemed to range
from consumer branded DSLR's to professional cameras and glass.
My intension was to travel light and less expensive so I took my
trusty and reliable Nikon D70S and the very versatile and amazingly
sharp 18-200 VR lens. This combination never lets me down, having
said that I did experience problems with one of my memory cards
which was sorted with Scan Disk Rescue Pro software.
My shot of Lorin in the Brooks Studio
Day two and we were set our first assignment. Tim challenged us
to shoot a series of magazine photos to fit the required formats
and theme. Cover shots, motion shots, double page spreads and insert
shots with negative space for text and headlines. The theme was
'Santa Barbara where the camera meets the sea'. We started the shoot
with the farmers market in State Street where the students moved
in different directions capturing photos. I moved on to the pier
to find an amateur photographer keen to help me get my theme shot.
Talking and encouraging subjects is a big part of photography and
something I don't have a problem with, being a wedding photographer.
By sunset we all met up at a very nice café by the marina
for a pleasant dinner and catch up. As you can imagine the conversation
was centred around the shoot and about cameras. The next day the
second stage of our assignment saw students team up into groups
and head to a pre-arranged environmental portrait shoot at a brewery
and winery. The teacher aids were assigned to assist us. I went
to the winery, which was fitting considering how much I enjoy a
glass or three.
My environmental portrait shot at the Winery
After sorting and editing our photos we all got back together
in class for a critiquing session with Tim that proved to be light
and interesting. This is when honest, safe appraisals are extremely
helpful in photography. Tim Mantoani covered a lot in a very short
period of time and now with our assignments completed it was time
to move campus into the town labs and introduce ourselves to Jim
DiVitale.
Jim DiVatale in the Brooks Computer labs
Jim is a commercial photographer with a long history of seminars
and workshops. He was one of the first to embrace a digital workflow
and works with software developers in updates and releases. He is
an absolute Photoshop guru and works with Adobe in the ongoing development
of techniques and features. Jim writes the Digital Capture Workshop
column for Photoshop User Magazine that goes out to over 100 countries,
and is a three-time nominee to the Adobe Photoshop Hall of Fame.
Wow and can he talk! Jim is a full on tutor with energy to burn,
a big voice with a lot of pace. In the two days we spent with Jim
I am sure we covered a months worth of learning. I did wonder how
a lot of this was going to stick as there seemed to be little time
to take notes. My concerns were unwarranted because I am amazed
at how much I picked up from this workshop.
Jim teaching in the computer labs at Brooks
 We
sat at our own workstations and followed Jim's processes to the
letter. Often Jim would shoot off into an interesting sidestep which
left you gob smacked. I would often be heard muttering 'man that's
cool' or 'I need to use that'. It did stick and I am using much
of the acquired techniques in my work to this day. At the end of
the workshop Jim gave us a DVD with all the notes on it from his
teachings. All in all a very helpful and fun lab workshop and the
time just flashed by. We worked with Lightroom, Bridge and Photoshop
creating montages and artistic impressions. Not once did we use
the built in artistic filters rather making our own brushes, layers
and masks using just about all of the PS tools. I learned something
new about nearly all of the tools in Photoshop. We also touched
on some of the upgraded features in the latest release. I especially
enjoyed the creation of panoramas using the photo merge tools from
Adobe Bridge into Photoshop. I later created stitched panorama images
from five portrait shaped photos captured in Yosemite. Eat ya heart
out Ansel Adam's fans. It is amazing how Photoshop will snap them
together and blend them. We used our own images from our previous
assignments to create photo montages. Cool!.
Yosemite stiched
SF Bay Bridge stiched
SB Marine Line Drawing
Californian Wine Montage
Santa Barbara Blues Montage
The Brooks Institute of Photography in Santa Barbara offers a
range of short workshops as well as full time degree courses in
Photography, Graphics and Filmmaking. All in the place where dreams
come true and the best contacts are made, Southern California. Check
the website linked below and know that this school comes highly
recommended. If you are from NZIPP then the Bob Tulloch Scholarship
will be offered again and presented at the annual 'Infocus' conference.
I hope the opportunity continues for years to come. I encourage
you to apply. Every keen photographer should be encouraged to expand
visions and contacts in the United States. New Zealanders should
book through a travel agent and check your immigration requirements.
If it were not for House of Travel in Tauranga I would not have
been introduced to many of the highlights of my trip. In my next
article I will continue my journey from Santa Barbara to the Yosemite
National Park and on to San Francisco for Independence Day. Happy
shooting everyone! I choose not to publish active links to sites
of interest in case they become inactive. A Quick Google search
here will bring up valued advertisers for your queries on Santa
Barbara..
Andrew Whyte
Link to the Santa
Barbara gallery. Travel
Photography Galleries from this trip to California...
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