Abelardo Morell Documentary

One of our favorite photographers Abelardo Morell is featured in a new documentary Shadow Of The House.

Morell is best known to our students from History of Photography class because of his creative use of a Camera Obscura. This documentary showcases Morell's creative process and talks about his new photo project by documenting a journey back to his native Cuba.



This video is on our wish list for the LRC so for our students look for it there soon.

Deeks, Hewson, Graveline | Alumni Update

Our Homes Magazine Winter 2011 edition has three of our Alumni's work Jessica Deeks, Sandie Hewson and Lynda Graveline.

Check out the magazine's online edition to see some of their great work and check our their websites too.

App - OptimumCS & TrueDoF

Here are two apps that we have given a try OptimumCS ($1.99) and TrueDoF ($0.99).

OptimumCS calculates maximum sharpness when a large depth of field is required, with the ability to defined a focusing area.  TrueDoF calculates maximum depth of filed and is more in-tune with digital camera formats smaller than 35mm, both take into consideration diffraction.

The interface for both apps are rather intuitive, and as their website states these would be great tools for photographers interested in architectural and landscape photography.

App - Massive Dev Chart

Massive Dev Chart is designed by Digital Truth Photo and is an app for the iPhone, iPad or iPod and retails for $7.99.

This app houses over 8000 black and white film processing times for developers, stop and fix baths and a custom timer for your own special processing times. The app even has a darken mode to enable you to use it in the dark without affecting your film.

It is great to see film finally entering the digital age.

Time Lapse Blizzard

Here is a cool time lapse video from Vimeo user Michael Black of the recent blizzard affecting the east coast.

Kodachrome vs. Digital Capture

Thanks to Denine for sending us this interesting food photography link.

The foodies at Chow.com did a comparison photo shoot using digital capture and kodachrome film. The results are very interesting and once again make us say "mama don't take my kodachrome away!".

Clark Vandergrift - Digital Compositing

When our students return from the Holiday Break they will start exploring Digital Compositing, the art of combining multiple images to create a single seamless image.

Above is some compositing inspiration from a great Maryland based photographer, Clark Vandergrift. The video is the making of his 2010 Christmas card.

Check out more of Clark Vandergrift's amazing images at his website.

Shinichi Maruyama High Speed Images

Very interesting high speed camera images by photographer Shinichi Maruyama.

Here is a Holiday video from the web design team at Torchbox done using iPads.

PDN Wedding Edition Supplement Free

PDN Magazine is offering a free digital Wedding Supplement, this 25 page magazine is full of useful tips and great images.  For those interested in wedding photography I would recommend giving this a read.

You can download the PDN Wedding Supplement here.

Pummelvision

Most of us store and share our digital images online using Facebook, tumblr, or flickr, Pummelvision is a free online service that creates a video using every photo you have taken and posted online.

It is really interesting to see your life pass you by in a blink of an eye, give Pummelvision a try it is very cool.

Wired's RAW File Favorite Photo Bloggers

Recently Wired magazine's RAW File came out with a list of their favorite photo bloggers, making the list Ottawa photographer Tony Fouhse.

Check out the Wired article and Tony's blog for some great images and some very interesting reading.

Adobe XD Holiday Video

Here is a Holiday video from the Adobe XD team in San Francisco, below is the making of video.

ER, Studios and Labs Closed

The ER, Studios and Labs are now officially closed to all students till Monday January 10, 2011.

All the Faculty and Staff in the Program would like to wish our students and everyone a happy and safe holiday break.

Megan Bird | Alumni Update

Alumni Megan Bird is working on a new project called Haus Of Bird.  She is looking for collaborators for her upcoming projects and the Haus of Bird will be a database of professional and up and coming professionals to help with hair, makeup, wardrobe and propping.

The Haus of Bird will launch in the Spring of 2011, contact Megan if you are interested in collaborating.

Wafaa Bilal - 3rdi Photo Project

Thanks to Jen Hladkowicz for sending us this really interesting link, Wafaa Bilal an Assistant Arts Professor at New York University has had a camera implanted in the back of his head.

This art project started yesterday (Dec 15, 2010) and will transmit one image per minute to his website 3rdi for one full year.

For more info on this project listen to Nora Young's CBC interview with him here.

Epson RedSea Winners Announced

The Epson Red Sea underwater photography competition has wrapped up and the winners have been announced.

Visit the site to view some amazing underwater images.

App - blueSLR

The blueSLR app is an extremely accurate GPS encoder for your photos and a remote shutter for your DSLR.  The blueSLR app is free and the device to attach to your camera is $149, click here to view specs.

Besides being a really really cool app and device it was even cooler to find out that it was locally grown. It was developed by a couple in Ottawa, respect!

We will be ordering a couple of these devices in the new year and are very happy to support a local company.

Shakodo - Photo Business Resource

Shakodo is a website to educate Professional Photographer, Amateurs, and Clients about how much to charge and what is a fair price for different types of photographic jobs.  We have registered with the site, which is free by the way, and have looked around the site the last couple of days and our interest is definitely peaked.

The site's main goal is to create a public forum where people can discuss fees and business practices in hopes that photography remains profitable for photographers and fair for the client.  I would recommend all our students and other photographers to register with the site and participate in this free open forum.

Here is summary of why they created the site, click the image to link to Shakodo's About page.

Preliminary Portfolio Interviews 2010 - Day 4

Day Four finished off well there were many great images and a few laughs to, thanks Flegg.

This last instalment of the Preliminary Portfolios is an assortment of images from the Day Four Portfolios and for the last instalment we will let the images speak for themselves.

Congratulations to all the students on the completion of their Preliminary Portfolios.  We look forward to seeing you in the New Year, have a good Holiday break.

Blogging 101

Our Program was recently asked to discuss blogging at a Co-Ordinators meeting here at the college.  We were happy to talk about our experiences using social media in an educational setting and as an extra we have recorded a companion tutorial about starting your own blog.

Video tutorials are something our students are used to here in the Program. A large portion of our curriculum is delivered this way through recordings of class lectures, in-class demos, homework and evaluations.  Below are some blogging links and interesting related articles.

Blog Platforms
Blogger
Wordpress
Tumblr

Other Resources
Youtube
Vimeo
Google Reader
Google Analytics

Articles
Inside Higher Ed - Harnessing Social Media
Inside Higher Ed - Professors and Social Media 

Preliminary Portfolio Interviews 2010 - Day 3

Day Three was another good day on the Portfolio front, the students are excited to show off their work, and the Faculty was eager to see their progress. Today we are showcasing our Self-Directed images from the Preliminary Portfolios.

The Self-Directed images are exactly that self-directed, no input is given to the students about these images till the Preliminary Portfolio Interviews.  In total each student is require to shoot a minimum of six Self-Directed images but they must fit the theme of their portfolio.

This gives our students a chance to explore their creative side and the Faculty a chance to see something new from the students.  Day Four has just wrapped up so stay tuned for the final sneak peak tomorrow.

Preliminary Portfolio Interviews 2010 - Day 2

Day Two of the Preliminary Portfolio Interviews and the Second Year student's work continues to be strong.

We do a Preliminary Portfolio in the Program to help our student's become more comfortable talking about their work in front of others.  We also do a Preliminary Portfolio Interview because it helps to further refine their vision.  Most portfolios require some re-shoots which is hard to hear sometimes but is a necessary step in the learning process for any photographer or image maker.

Today we are highlighting one of our favourite assignments from the portfolio, Food Layout.  In this assignment the students learn in Camera & Lighting how to light for food, basic food styling and propping.  Then in Digital Imaging class they start to learn the basics of layout and type.  We teach the basics of Graphic Design as many students who leave our program will have to design their own promotional material and a blog or website for their own business.  Our student then learn how to print for Food in Post-Production which is an art in itself.

Also included int the video is the Self-Portrait's of our Second Years we interviewed on Day Two.  To find out who shot what and more about our students and their work stay tuned for more updates as we gear up for our Annual Photography Exhibition in 2011.

App - Pocket Light Meter

Thanks to Thomas Dagg for tweeting about this great Apple app, Pocket Light Meter the app does what it says and rather well especially for the price, free!!

Interesting Read - Eadweard Muybridge

Thanks to Bowie for sending us the link to this really interesting National Post article on Eadward Muybridge.

The author, Robert Fulford, does a wonderful job of unearthing the vast influences Muybridge has had on photography, art, literature and modern culture.

Although we covered Muybridge in our History of Photography course this article is worth a read, Muybridge is a lot weirder than mentioned in class by the way.

Preliminary Portfolio Interviews 2010 - Day 1

Day One of the Preliminary Portfolio Interviews got off to a good start.

Our Second Year Portfolio is based on a theme, each student must come up with their own theme and integrate that into their commercial assignments and their own self-directed images.  It was good to see the students starting to refine their theme through-out their first six portfolio images.

Like always we can't stress enough attention to the details when shooting, editing and in the final print.   So although we can sometimes be a little hard on our students during their interviews we only do it because we care.

Above is a small sample of images from Day One some Environmental Portraiture and Self-Portraits, there will be more to come over the next three days so stay tuned.  To see all the portfolio images you have to attend our annual Photography Exhibition in the spring, details coming soon.

Preliminary Portfolio Interviews 2010

For the next four days our Second Years will be in their Preliminary Portfolio Interviews.

The Faculty interviews each student critiquing their first six portfolio images, giving feedback on individual images and offering advice on the flow of their portfolio.

Our Second Year's Final Portfolio is due in mid-April right before our annual Photographic Exhibition.

2nd Year Preliminary Portfolio

This video is of our Second Years finishing up their Preliminary Portfolios before Christmas Break.

This time lapse is comprised of nine hundred and ninety-nine still images shot every thirty seconds from 8AM to 4PM the day the portfolio was due and surprise the second year lab was very busy.

The Preliminary Portfolio is comprised of six portfolio pieces Environmental Portrait, Architecture, Food, Self-Portrait and two Self-Directed images. These images will make up their Final Portfolio along with six others due in April.

Our Preliminary Portfolio interview process begins on Monday so we hope all our Second Years are getting some well deserved rest this weekend.

Interesting Distractions - Digital Analogue

Thanks to Matt Usherwood for sending us the link to this cool stop motion video.  The music for this video was all done using sounds from cameras, and the stop motion is the cameras themselves.

The video, Digital Analogue, was done by ftjelly.

Stylish Camera Apparel?

This is a total camera nerd stuff, but lets be honest it is kind of cool.

For those that need a set of cufflinks this Christmas check out these on Amazon.

App - Ansel Adams

The Ansel Adam App for the iPad has been released in the United States only but it will be coming to Canada very soon.

This app will have audio, video and forty of the Master's greatest images that chronicle his life as a photographer, not bad for $13.99.