PowerPoint Presentations:

John Bower, noted Hoosier photographer, currently offers three masterful PowerPoint presentations for libraries, museums, schools, and other groups. These lively, professional, informative, and entertaining audio-visual events appeal to all ages, and all segments of the population. Spontaneous audience participation is common, as Bower brings to life little-known, underappreciated, yet fascinating, facets of our shared Hoosier heritage. He reveals to viewers buildings, objects, and places they may have never noticed before—ephemeral cultural treasures, that are vanishing due to neglect, vandalism, or demolition. While many of these places are right in our own backyard, they are often not in our daily thoughts or conscious awareness.

To find the subject matter Bower feels so compelled to capture on film, he, along with his artist wife Lynn, has traveled over 65,000 miles in recent years—visiting every city and town in Indiana. His photographs have been displayed in museums and galleries throughout the state—and in five published books. His presentations utilize modern, up-to-date multimedia equipment.

Each program last approximately 45-50 minutes, with ample time for questions and answers afterward. The cost for one of John's presentations is very reasonable. For details, email him at john@studioindiana.com or phone toll free at 877-547-5073.

Capturing the Soul of Indiana—a celebration of our overlooked cultural heritage

This is John's most popular presentation. In it, he takes you on a memorable visual journey of Indiana's disappearing past. Using images from all five of his books, you'll travel up and down Indiana’s backroads, exploring fascinating, out-of-the-way places. Learn about the captivating stories behind his haunting photographs of forlorn houses, farms, towns, and vehicles. Discover majestic handcarved stone angels, poignant children, and proud soldiers, weathering away, unnoticed, in country cemeteries. Enter hidden attics and other unexpected spaces to see what's usually unseen, and marvel at forgotten businesses, homesteads, and stores that have become virtual time capsules.

The Spirit of Hoosier Enterprise—celebrating Indiana's vanishing businesses

In this presentation, John concentrates on his most recent books (After the Harvest and Silent Workplace), but he also includes sneak previews of future projects. If your organization has hosted the presentation above at some time in the past, this is a good follow-up to bring you up-to-date with his latest work. You'll visit, up-close, soaring grain elevators, factories made of crumbling brick, closed-up general stores, a tannery, an opera house, plus many more intriguing businesses that are no more. You'll discover a wide range of commercial buildings once vital to Indiana's economy, such as the Studebaker factory and old railroad buildings. Also included are empty churches and schools that have been bypassed by time and progress.

How to take better photographs—with any camera

In this fun, engaging, and informative slide presentation, Hoosier photographer John Bower offers practical ideas and techniques for improving your own photographs. This not a discussion of complicated technical issues, such as depth-of-field or f-stops. Instead, Bower shares simple things you can do to improve composition, using easy-to-understand design elements and principles when looking through your viewfinder. Find out how to use both the foreground and the background to best advantage, and how to frame your subjects with tree branches, arches, or windows. Learn that capturing your subjects working, playing, or interacting creates more compelling pictures than static poses—and much, much more. Bower uses his own photographs, plus those of celebrated photographers, to illustrate his main points. He has a helpful summary of the presentation, that he uses as a handout.