Welcome to the Shelley Harvey Fine Art Nude Tour! I would like to thank you all for your encouragement and support and look forward to creating with you over the course of the weekend.

I have been heavily involved in photography for the last four years. My passion was ignited when I was a 9- year-old and attended a school holiday programme on photography at Waitaki Boys High School. Unfortunately, photography was not available to me in school nor recognised as a subject until well after I had left. Five years ago, I went back to secondary school as an adult student to achieve my Level 2 and Level 3 in photography. This was to achieve skills in Photoshop – a platform that was completely foreign to me at the time. A year later I was most fortunate to be introduced to Scott Fowler, who became my mentor (and still is). With my skill set as a hairdresser and makeup artist, he included me on most of his incredible Otematata Workshops. Encouraging me to further my skills as a photographer (one of my very first images from his workshops won gold in an international salon). With Scott’s temporary retirement from hosting workshops, he has given me his blessing to take on this wonderful opportunity – to pass on my knowledge to you all, and mentor you through the process of becoming the best you can be.

Our imaginations are our only limits when it comes to creating art from our photography!

We will be joined by an experienced fine art nude model over the weekend and will be running through a variety of different ideas and concepts. If you have any ideas you wish to try or any artists’ work you wish to emulate, then please bring along visual aids to help assist the model with poses.

I will be working alongside and assisting you in model etiquette, posing techniques. I will teach you how to work with textures and different techniques in Photoshop to create a finished work of art. I will share with you my photoshop editing tools that I find work well for me.

The factors that make Fine Art Nude photography an actual art form are the same things that make other genres of photography qualify as fine art. It is discrete, using control of light, form, texture, exposure values and composition all working together or taken separately. Fine Art Nude photography makes an artistic statement. The human form is interesting, sometimes complex, sometimes simple, and always beautiful. Showing these aspects to others is what makes this genre art. We are not here to exploit or degrade the beauty of the human or the human form.

I am hoping the weather is going to be kind to us, as most of the photography will be done outdoors and indoors using natural light. We are lucky enough to have the Shearers Quarters at Totara Peak Station on the edge of Lake Benmore, which will be our home for the weekend.

Dinner will be potluck, with the house having fully equipped cooking facilities. I anticipate early morning starts to make the most of the light of the day. That will then give us the evenings to work on our post processing and let our gorgeous model relax.

Most importantly we are here to have fun and enjoy the passion we all share, learning from one another as we go.