Seminar Presenters

Gary Goldberg — Photographer

Gary has been working professionally in photography since his graduation from NYC’s School of Visual Arts more than 18 years ago. A transplanted New Yorker, Gary is best known for his edgy, colourful portraiture. His commercial clients include RJ Reynolds, Pepsi, IBM and Sony Records and his images have appeared in the likes of Vogue, Rolling Stone, Vanity Fair, New York Magazine and the Village Voice. Gary’s classes are always popular, and his instruction, insights and sense of humour are well-appreciated.

John Beebe — Photographer

John Beebe is an internationally-exhibited portrait and editorial photographer. His subjects cover a wide gamut of humanity, ranging from celebrities to street people, business people to teachers and politicians to cowboys. John’s work has been featured at the United Nations; last year he was invited by the Democratic National Convention to produce, print and exhibit on site a series of large-scale portraits of convention attendees. He is based in Toronto and New York.

Sarah Moffat — Photographer

Sarah Moffat has been exploring cameras since childhood. Now, with over 15 years of professional experience, Sarah's knowledge has spanned across the camera world to include motion picture film, and video, still photography film and digital, and underwater. She has worked in a vast number of situations from large movie sets, to personal documentary interviews, to covering live broadcast events, to photographing everyday life, landscapes and print. The list is endless. Winning various recognition for her work over the years while staking new titles by developing and defining new positions, Sarah has been marked as one of the industry's finest.

Matthew Nayman — Cinematographer, Director

Growing up in a “CBC family” gave Matt an immediate start in the media. By age 16 he was making films and learning everything possible about cinema, editing and special effects. With a Bachelor of Fine Arts in Film Production from York, Matt found himself working as a freelancer, shooting and directing TV pilots, music videos and short dramas. Matt has been nominated for the Canadian Society of Cinematographers Student Awards and Montreal’s Young Cuts Film Festival. “Film gives us all the great things about photography, 24 times a second,” says Matt about his passion. Incidentally, Matt’s brother is a film critic with a Toronto weekly, prompting Matt to quip, “I make the movies, and he explains what’s wrong with them.”

Gary Ray Rush — Photographer, Educator, Gallerist

Gary Ray Rush is an accomplished photographer specializing in corporate, portrait and fine art photography. An experienced educator, Gary’s passion for teaching equals his love for capturing outstanding images. “I truly love the process of discovery that is inevitable when looking at the world from the viewpoint of photography” he explains. Gary's portraits grace the walls of many boardrooms and institutions and he is published in newspapers and magazines locally, nationally and internationally; his fine art hangs in homes and offices around the globe. Gary is also the director of The Elaine Fleck Gallery a leading contemporary fine art gallery situated in the heart of Toronto's art and design district.

David Black — Photographer

David Black studied photography at Ryerson where he developed a love for black and white images and the work of Lewis Hine, Robert Frank, and Aaron Siskind. The desire to learn more about black and white photography led to a job assisting in the studio of noted Canadian portrait photographer V. Tony Hauser. Assignments during this period included a six-week photo shoot in the Andes Mountains of South American and the Annual Report for the Bank of Montreal. After branching out to shoot on his own, David earned a business degree from York University.

David has never met a camera he didn’t like and currently shoots with Canon, Nikon, and Olympus digital models. He prefers artificial light over daylight and uses Elinchrom strobes for most of his portraits. He used a PC for years but now is doing most of his post processing on a Mac. You can see more of David’s work at www.daveblack.ca

Andrew Collett — Photographer

When a scene captures Andrew Collett’s eye, it’s because he has had a vision of what it could be at its best. It could be at four in the morning when the mists rise from the night-cooled land; or, at seven in the evening as a thunderstorm batters a distant line of dark trees. Andrew’s goal is to capture a scene in exactly the circumstances when experience tells him it will be suffused with the most intense emotion. He works hard to grasp a fleeting feeling one which lives for just a brief moment in a masterstroke of light, colour, shape, perspective… and timing. Gathered from the land, he brings moments to life and fashions into them into fine images that are celebrated in interiors of all kinds, where the echoes of what he has experienced will resonate for years to come.

Donald Lee — Photographer & Educator

Donald Lee has been involved in photography for more than 30 years, both as a working professional photographer and as an educator with a solid background in traditional and digital imaging and output.
Donald has been published nationally and internationally. He is currently head of the Photographic Services Department at The Banff Centre where there is a constant challenge to be both creative and a clear communicator of ideas and vision, in an environment fostering excellence in the arts, leadership and the environment.

Holly Thomas — Vistek Customer Relations, Photographer

Holly’s been peering through a viewfinder since Grade Four. Her hobby became serious when she took up formal studies at the Sheridan College Applied Arts program, where her work appeared in numerous galleries. Holly has been published in the likes of Eye Weekly, Now and Travis. “I love the effect of light on people and objects, how it can enhance normal objects”, she explains. No wonder she enjoys capturing an eclectic range of subjects that includes portraiture and local bands, to land and cityscapes. “It’s peaceful, solitary and allows me the time to study light”.

David Hemmings — Photographer

A world-renowned bird photographer who is known throughout the nature photography world for creating some of the most dynamic and impressive bird-in-flight images anywhere today. His work has been published on the cover of National Geographic and has also appeared on the cover of numerous nature photography publications. David enjoys teaching and sharing his passion for bird and nature photography more than anything. www.davidhemmingsbirdphotography.com

Denis Rule — Photographer

For more than 35 years, Denis Rule has had a passion for photography. He started his professional career as an underwater technical photographer in the early eighties and now operates a successful commercial studio in Ottawa Ontario. Specialising in portraits, fashion, dance and advertising Denis has mastered the manipulation of light in photography as an artist has mastered the use of brushes on canvas. His creative ability to chisel shapes and forms, highlight the desirable and downplay the mediocre with the use of both natural and artificial light has earned him a place with other top professionals in this field.

For the past 5 years Denis has divided his time between photographic assignments and conducting workshops on lighting for armature and professional photographers alike.

Blake Loates — Photographer

It was during a trip to Nepal that I truly discovered what I believe to be my life's purpose; photography. When I pushed that shutter button for the first time my heart began to race and I felt alive. I knew that I had found something big and amazing and I never wanted it to end. It has been 10 years since my trip to Nepal and everyday photography. When I pushed that shutter button for the first time my heart began to race and I felt alive. I knew that I had found something big and amazing and I never wanted it to end. It has been 10 years since my trip to Nepal and everyday since I have dreamed of being a professional photographer; and now that dream has come true. Today I shoot at least 25 weddings a year and I learn something new with each one. ~ B. Loates.

May-Jun — Photographer

May-Jun is an accomplished freelance photographer. In addition to being a small business owner, her background includes traveling all over the globe for photo shoots. She currently resides in Ottawa, her business Machine Photography specializes in portraiture and architecture photography..

Cindy Burgess — Freelance Journalist/Instructor

Cindy Burgess is a Toronto-based journalist with more than 20 years of experience in all aspects of the broadcasting industry – both in front of and behind the camera. She holds a Master's Degree in Journalism and a Bachelor of Arts (Honours) in English Literature from The University of Western Ontario. Cindy's innate sense of curiosity and passion for storytelling has served her well in markets across Canada, the United States and Central America. She currently teaches journalism at the college and university level, and continues to pursue freelance opportunities at home and abroad. Cindy is also an active traveller, and loves to explore different cultures, activities and ways of life. Her many adventures include storm chasing in Tornado Alley, heli-skiing in the Rockies, sailing around icebergs off Canada's east coast and melting the soles off her sneakers on an active volcano in Guatemala. She draws the line, however, at parachuting and bungee jumping. Go figure.

Michael Willems — Photographer

Michael Willems is one of Canada’s most popular photography coaches and the author of the popular Advanced Flash, Event Photography, and Travel Photography signature seminars. He is a keynote speaker at large events and teaches privately, to small groups, and at colleges and schools including Sheridan College. He also taught for six years as the senior instructor at Canada’s School of Imaging. He writes a regular series of photography articles for Canada’s premier photography magazine, Photo Life, and not least, he writes his own popular daily photography teaching blog, speedlighter.ca. An award-winning photographer, Michael shoots for newspapers, magazines, executives, sports clubs, fashion models, stock sites, government, companies, and families. He has worked in 35 countries on 5 continents; from Iraq to Israel; from China to Nigeria; from Australia to Sweden. He is a member of David Honl’s Round Table. He understands the engineers, because he is one: he has a BSc(Eng) in Electronic Engineering. As a photographer, he is a member of NPAC, is accredited with PPOC, and has earned LPPO licentiate status.

Konrad Czystowski — Filmmaker/Steadicam Operator

Konrad Czystowski has taken the event video industry by storm in a relatively short time. With a strong artistic desire, Konrad moved from acting out the story in front of the camera to capturing the story from behind the lens. As a modern filmmaker, he quickly picked up Steadicam, mastering and utilizing it for multiple purposes, in many various ways, not always those conventional ones. His relatively short (4 years) Steadicam experience has been extremely eventful, as Konrad has strapped his Steadicam vest in places like Japanese shrine, New York fashion show and NFL field. His talents have been recognized when he was announced as one of the TOP25 Hottest Event Filmmakers on the planet by EventDV Magazine, for the second consecutive time this year. In his career, Konrad has travelled across four continents both shooting and sharing his knowledge and skills with the desire to see event video production industry develop and get the recognition it deserves.

Mackenzie Walker — Photographer

Mackenzie is a born and bred Calgarian with a passion and eye for photography. Hailing from a long line of professional photographers, ‘Mack” first picked up a camera at the age of 3… we’re still waiting for him to put it down. Mackenzie has comprehensive photographic experience through professional photo shoots at Weddings, Graduations, Theatrical Productions, Fundraising Events, Architectural shoots, Headshots, Portraits, Commercial, and Family Photos just to name a few. Mackenzie continues to develop his own unique style (which we love!). Along with photography, Mackenzie enjoys travel, design, good coffee and values time with friends and family. Always looking forward to his next assignment, Mackenzie is completely enamored with the photographic arts, and continues to move forward trying to always improve and learn from the people around him. What we particularly like about Mack is his uncontainable and infectious enthusiasm on the job! Always patient, Mack looks forward to every class and teaching budding photographers. Some of his recent work can be found on his website: www.mackenziewalker.ca.