Ok, so hopefully this doesn’t get too long.
I’m really wondering about two things that I wanted to talk about with everyone. They are related…
PIXLS.US Meet-up/Workshops/Collaboration @ LGM2016 (London)
Ok, so the Libre Graphics Meeting next year is going to be held in London (15th-18th April). (Yes, that page still points to last years LGM for some reason).
I was wondering what the thoughts might be around holding some workshops and seminars around f/oss photography in the day or so prior to LGM? A couple of photowalks focused on different things (street photography, landscapes, architecture…)?
I was thinking I could check with the local LGM organizer to see if we could get access to an auditorium, classroom, or some sort of space that would allow us to all meet and learn some fun topics. Strobist setups, model interaction, portraits, processing ideas, etc…
Basically, if we could have access to a space for a day before LGM, would there be any interest in a) attending, and b) conducting a workshop/photowalk/seminar? Or just hanging out with other photographers and talking shop?
Bear in mind, if there is some support from enough people here to be able to fill up a day with activities, I would then probably reach out to further communities outside of here to raise awareness and attendance. I know that at LGM2014 we had a great time with some great folks. @David_Tschumperle, Rolf Steinort, @houz and the dt devs, and a bunch of my fellow GIMPers were all in attendance and fiddling around with things. We had a nice little group for the photowalk pre-LGM as well. (This time around I will structure it more closely if I do one).
Speaking of support…
Sponsorships/Support
So, I’m hoping some members here might have some contacts or experience with approaching organizations/distros that might have some interest in possibly sponsoring this? Primarily I was hoping to offset the costs for travel and attendance for some folks that might not have another means to do so.
If anyone has any information or input at all about who to approach and going about this, I would be very thankful. I’d like to be able to find a way for as many people from the community as possible to attend (though I’d probably try to prioritize those who can present or conduct workshops).
Deliverables
One of the ways that I was thinking we could give back to the community when doing this is to probably try and record our seminar/workshop sessions so that we can release videos of what we’re doing for others to possibly learn from later.
For instance, I think it’d be fun to do an off-camera lighting workshop. If we could have a videographer or two working during this, it might give us some great material to be able to release to the f/oss community. I will most likely try to record a couple of videos between now and then to hone the idea and format.
We could also keep copious notes and turn some of the material into written tutorials as well, hopefully. Basically, just expand the offerings we already have here on pixls.us.
Artwork
Another result of the meeting that would be awesome is the ability to collect and share the (hopefully) liberally licensed imagery for others to use. Sometimes I get sad when I see so many missed opportunities for f/oss projects to have pretty imagery available to them. Let’s help change that by providing uncompromisingly good images for the communities to use and showcase.
In Conclusion
I’d love to hear everyone’s thoughts around this! Don’t be shy! Let’s hear it!
