Great Commentary from June’s “In Search of the Real Greece” 2011

My son and I just returned from a week in Santorini learning how to “make” photographs with Glenn (http://greekislandworkshops.com). We explored every nook and cranny of the island going many places tourists never get to see. I think one of my favorites was our trip to an abandoned tomato factory. It was here that I learned to look beyond the ruins to see the beauty that laid beneath. I have especially enjoyed “photo-shopping” those pictures in black and white. I could have never done that without the lessons Glenn gave on Adobe Bridge and PhotoShop.

We enjoyed a lot of good food and great wine that week. The island is beautiful and Glenn’s knowledge of the people and history helped open a new world to us.

Jane & Nicholas Jennings

Price Reduction: Greek Island Workshops in Photograhy June 2010

Join Us!  Chase the Light!!

We Have Discounted Our June 2010 Photography Workshops:

• “In Search of the Real Greece” (June 4-June 10)  Santorini / Thirasia / Anafi

• “Sail the Wine Dark Sea” (June 13th-June 19th) Samos / Marathi / Patmos / Lipsi / Leros / Kalymnos  ..aboard a 50 foot Yacht!

for more information, contact:

Glenn
Glenn@Greekislandphotography.com
http://Greekislandphotography.com
(415) 459-2001   Glenn/Cellular 

Testimonials from our Satisfied Students!

My wife Rose Steiner and I of the Greek Island Workshops in Photography will be in a few group shows this April and May!

MarinMoca, “ Make it Shine”  500 Palm Dr., Novato, CA. ( Novato Arts Center at Hamilton Fields)
   Reception : Friday April 23 , from 6-8 pm.    April 23- May 23
Rose has a new painting in this show.  It is a MarinMoca (Museum of Contemporary Art) artist member show.  The gallery is beautiful.

Marin Arts Council Open Studio Preview Show,  901 4th St., San Rafael, CA.
   Reception: Sunday April 25th from 3-5 pm
Both Rose and I are showing new work.

Studio 333, “Open Studio”  333 Caledonia St. Sausalito, CA.
   Open Studio Reception: Friday April 30th from 6-9 pm
   Open Studio: May 1-2, 8-9 from 11am – 6pm.
Both Rose and I will be showing new work.

San Geronimo Valley Community Center,  “20th Annual Spring Art Show”
   Reception: Friday May 7th from 6:30-9 pm.  May 7-16
Rose has a new painting in this show.  This is a really fun show, 100 artists and 100 appetizers.  I have no clue as to how much wine and, of course, live music.

   We hope that you can join us at one of the shows!

Best,
Glenn Steiner + Rose Steiner
Steiner Studios / Greek Island Workshops in Photography on Santorini

Mystic Symbols of Earth's fertility and the passing of the tides

In Search of the Real Greece – Tony Harding’s New Award

Glenn Hi Just thought you might be chuffed to know the silhouette shot where you “held the thistle” at September 09′s “In Search of the Real Greece” on Santorini scored a prize and publication in Australian Photography magazine. Your motto was “Amateurs take a shot, pros create a shot!!” Regards to yourself & Rose,  Tony Harding

Student Tony Harding's award-winning shot taken at "In Search of the Real Greece 2009."

Have a happy Easter! Kalo Pasxa! Kαλό Πάσχα! Froehe Ostern!

Have a happy Easter! Kalo Pasxa!  Kαλό Πάσχα!  Froehe Ostern!

from Glenn + Rose Steiner, Greek Island Workshops in Photography

Have a happy Easter! Kalo Pasxa! Kαλό Πάσχα! Froehe Ostern!

Let the Summer of Love not become the Winter of our Discontent!

The CAMFED (http://camfed.org) fund-raiser at SPACE Gallery was a howling success.  Over 80% of the artwork sold.  All of the proceeds will be donated to CAMFED whose mission is to educate and empower the young women of Africa. 

Fighting off a Rhinovirus, Rose and I put on our Saturday night best and headed down to 1141 Polk Street to the Gallery.  Jennifer Robertson, our Camfed host, warmly greeted us by name at the door.  Bagging twin glasses of Chardonnay from the bartender, we danced up the stairs to a Hip-Hop beat.  The DJ mixed the tunes together, the perfect cocktail for a hip scene of grooving and giving.  Surrounded by enthusiastic artists and patrons, one could only hope that the work would sell.  Many stopped and stared.  Judging the massing crowd and the state of the economy, I knocked down the price of my print from Marathi to knowing smiles and acknowledgements.  As the SPACE wine gallery filled, the Rhinovirus took its personal toll.  I faded and chose not to spread the wealth among the artistas.  We killed our Chards and left the gallery, feeling half-empty and half-full, joyous but exhausted into the stormy night.  Squinting skyward through rain splashed specs, one could make out a few stars shining through the darkening clouds. 

That glass changed to very full this morning when I learned that the archival pigment print sold.  Some lucky guy has a Greek print at a great price, his reward for being proactive, helping people in need.  Somewhere in a land far away, seven African girls will receive an education, with the potential of changing the world in their own good time.

A White Rose for St. Valentine's Day!

The Metaphysics of Photography: The Art of the Unseen

 The Metaphysics of Photography:  The Art of the Unseen  by Glenn R. Steiner , Greek Island Workshops in Photography

     Light, one of the great radiant forces in our universe, is invisible.  That is to say that light radiation itself cannot be seen unaided by the naked human eye.  It may only be seen once photonic energy has struck something of substance or has passed through it.

     The artist’s world has ever been defined by light.  The painter works with paints made of dye and elemental compounds applied by brush onto surface textured and without blemish.  The sculptor shapes the earth and its materials with his hands into meaningful creation.  These are things of substance, of paint and clay, illuminated by light.  Yet, only the photographer is fluent in perceiving, carving and revisioning the radiation we call “light.”  Invisibly, it enwraps our world, powering all photographers’ artistic imageries, both natural in source and artificial.

     In nature, light energy exists everywhere around us.  Light fills the ether of space, cast out from the stars, racing to the earth, striking mother Earth’s atmosphere and far beyond.  As the darkening world turns and the hush of night becomes day, our first sensation is soft light.  Our atmosphere incandesces with gentle rounded illumination.  Darkness, the absence of “seen” light, becomes violet turning bluish, and then softly brightening until we can perceive it.  This is the chromatically cool worlds that we see during the times of awakening light.

     With the coming of first light, collimated radiant energy punches directly through the atmosphere to be perceived as the warming yellow-red rays of day.  Raking across the Earth’s surface at angles close to the horizon and then later, rising higher, we can see this point source focused light giving sharp, golden relief to the natural reality that is.

     Light serves the ardent artist scientist.  We, photographers, add and manipulate to the existing reality to create new ones mirroring the artist’s inner psyche.  The experienced artist paints with artificial light to great effect in their own works, emphasizing that which is important, leaving dark that which is not. 

     Like a modern day Prometheus, some photographers bring light sources themselves into the act, to direct the eye and to tell their tale.  An example of this might be an electrician holding a lit lightbulb.

     Studio photographers retreat to their own darkened sanctum sanctorums to create.  Eschewing all “natural” light, studio photographers exert the most complete control.  Employing artificial spot lights, large window light boxes, fiber optics and myriad other tools, studio shooters bend light to their will, using opaque scrims to feather and diminish and mirrors to enhance and embellish.  Their worlds are ones of the most exacting perfection where no lit detail remains that is not intended.

     All photographers are painters of light:  the alchemists of the invisible, the sorcerers of the unseen.

-©Glenn R. Steiner 2010

Happy New Year from the Greek Island Workshops in Photography

Xronia Polla kai Kala!
Rose’s and my best wishes for a successful and prosperous new year!
-Glenn,   http://Greekislandphotography.com

Happy New Year! © Glenn Steiner 1983

Kalo Xristougenna, Merry Christmas!

Kalo Xristougenna!

Merry Christmas from Glenn + Rose Steiner, and the Greek Island Workshops in Photography!