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BCHS photography students learn from top Canadian photographer

It was a trip of a lifetime for just about a dozen Barrhead Composite High School students.

It was a trip of a lifetime for just about a dozen Barrhead Composite High School students.

Earlier this month, 14 portrait photography students left for Vancouver to take part in five days of photography instruction with one of the city’s best photography studios.

Every year for the last seven years, students enrolled in the portrait photography course go on a week-long trip where they receive instruction from a top photography studio. The majority of the trips (five) have been to the Vancouver area, while the others were to New York.

This year the class visited Beaumont Studios in the False Creek area of the city.

Bruce Tyrrell, BCHS Com Tech teacher, said the location was perfect, allowing them easy access to public transit and a number of venues outside the studio to photograph.

“We were able to work with a number of different photographers. The kids had lots of studio time,” he said, adding one of most educational parts of the trip was the critique.

In two different sessions, students picked five of their best photos from all the various sessions and had them critiqued by professional photographers, including Pooya Nabei.

“He is quite a high level photographer on the Canadian scene right now and the kids were just thrilled to be able to have a workshop with him,” Tyrrell said.

In addition to the studio sessions, Tyrrell, who is a Vancouver native, said he wanted the students to be able to experience and photograph places outside the typical city experience. Students went to Granville Island for a night photography session, as well as to Stanley Park, English Bay and Lynn Canyon Park where students got to photograph a swinging suspension bridge.

“We really lucked out when we went to English Bay, with just the most amazing sunset,” he said.

While working at Beaumont Studios, the students were able to catch up with BCHS alumni Heather Decksheimer who is now living in Vancouver and working as a model and voice over artist. For those who don’t remember Decksheimer, she was also a contestant on Big Brother Canada, in Season Two.

Henriette Akkerman, a Grade 11 portrait photography student, said she gained valuable experience that she would not have been able to get elsewhere.

“Working with all the photographers and models, it shows you all the processes you have to go through when working as a professional photographer,” she said.

Her classmate, Topanga Kosterbok, Grade 11, agreed, saying she was thrilled to be able to learn from a photographer as accomplished as Pooya Nabei.

“The whole experience was wonderful and I have never been to Vancouver before. It is such a beautiful city,” she said.

That is something Tyrrell has heard after each photography trip. He said although the trip’s main purpose is to learn more about photography, it has the added benefit of expanding students’ horizons.

“Many of the students have never really experienced life in the big city and haven’t even been on a bus or a train before,” he said. Kosterbok and Akkerman said this was the first time either of them had used public transit before.

As for how the students and the school pays for the trip, Tyrrell said it is through the sale of the photography photo packages.

Unlike other schools that bring in professional photographers to take the standard graduation photo in a mass one or two day event, the portrait photography class takes the photos. About half of the funds go towards the annual trip the other goes towards buying equipment for the Com Tech program.

“That is why the course is by invitation only. The kids have to apply, but only the best photography and graphic arts students are accepted,” he said. “Since the students are responsible for taking professional quality graduation photos, we have make sure they are ready.”

He said having the students take the graduation photos is also a good learning experience.

The purpose of the course is to teach students, from the beginning, everything a professional photographer goes through from arranging a photoshoot, to learning how to take the photographs and properly editing them, to the business behind running a successful photography business.

That is why the process of taking BCHS grad photos is different from the traditional model.

“Our graduation photos are more personal. Each grad student gets a personal photo session with the students in the studio photography program,” Tyrrell said, adding most of the time the students work in pairs with one of the more experienced photography students taking the role of photographer and the other being their assistant.

The photo session includes a specialized studio sitting that is usually an hour or more and includes the typical graduation gown photos, plus a session that tells people something about the student. The grads do not pay for the photo session, just the pictures they want.

“We have had students bring in their horse, or pickup, whatever it is they want, and it is up to the photographer to arrange for all the props and come up with the concept for the shoot,” he said.

Because of the work involved in taking graduation pictures for more than 130 students the class starts scheduling photography sessions as early as October.

“We are really proud of the program. It is hard to believe that this quality of work is being done by high school students,” Tyrrell said, pointing to some of the student’s work. “A lot of the professional photographers we have in the area are students who started out in our program.”


Barry Kerton

About the Author: Barry Kerton

Barry Kerton is the managing editor of the Barrhead Leader, joining the paper in 2014. He covers news, municipal politics and sports.
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