Ya mon! Come to the Bahama's....feel the love!
The images in this slideshow were taken by me, Crystal Nadeau, during the 2010 week.
This years experience was exceptional (if you don't include the fact that I got sick overnight and missed being at the Governor General's tour! Can't someone photoshop me into that group shot?)
We were fortunate to have Michael and Tina Timmons (teach us about Fine Art Photography and how to prepare prints for competition) and Steve Bedell (shared his knowledge on portraiture in natural light), as our instructors! OUTSTANDING!!!
My roommate, Theresa, was from Bermuda...so I got to make a new friend! We hung out together on the first day, and were immediately practicing our portraiture on each other, and it was fun to meet up with friends I made from last years school!
The hotel was a buzz with excitement right from the first moment we got there...the band that plays each night is alot of fun as they really get the crowd involved...the Junkanoo band on Saturday night is NOT to be missed...not to mention a bar that doesn't ever close! The weather was perfect, a balmy high 70's low 80's most of the time, with a teeny tiny bit of rain in the middle, but mostly at night!
The abandoned building next to the hotel was still abandoned and in my personal opinion is absolutely the perfect shooting gallery...with all it's white walls, the roughness of the concrete, the blue graffitti paint, the black burned wall over the deep utility sink (eveidence of some past fire), the broken windows, the grunge textures everywhere (perfect for layer masking over anything and everything), the naturally taking over plant life...I could go on and on, but suffice it to say, it ALL WORKS to make the space come to life in my images...it's the coolest place to take a model! This year, the bathroom was a hot spot for portraits! (See the couple I found on the beach in the mirror, and Steve Bedell won a bunch of awards for his image of Kenny Love, the Director from the Bahamain side...who was actually SITTING on the toilet...lol). If it weren't for the fact that The Director's have side excursion's planned for us, I would probably never leave the hotel! Why would I? Everything I need is right there! :>)
There is so much to do and see here. I can assure you, if you are considering a place to take a class in professional portraiture this IS perhaps the most perfect place to do so! And I've been to NEIPP three times...and will continue to go there too! So, it's definitely the unique experience that keeps drawing me back to Nassau. The small class size allows for more intimate learning experience with the instructors. Be sure to bring plenty of hard disk space, and or thumb drives and CD's DVD's so you can take LOTS of photos, cause you will!
Feel free to contact me directly at 603-232-1377 (Studio) if you have any more questions!
