Creativity & Education

Here is an interesting video we just received from Adobe about the value of a creative education.

For more on Sir Ken Robinson views on creative approaches to education check out this link.

Silver & Light: Ian Ruther

Here is a video brought to our attention by First Year Students Bradford Burk and Ian Robinson.  This is an amazing story about photographer Ian Ruhter and his wet plate collodion van.

It is great to see older photographic techniques used in interesting and innovative ways to create beautiful, stunning and inspirational images.

For those that need a break to recharge your creative juices and to put things back into perspective, spend eleven minutes and watch this video!

For more about Ian and the wet plate collodion van watch this video too.

Pricing For Photo Shoots

Here is a great article from A Photo Editor on pricing and negotiating photo shoots.

This will be an ongoing series of articles from A Photo Editor, definitely a great read for those starting out in photography.

Instant Film Makes A Comeback

Here is an interesting article for all you photo hipsters out there, instant film is making a comeback.  If you are interested in finding out more about this genre of photography check out the links below.

Fuji Instax 
Polaroid Z340
The Impossible Project
Lomography

Music Licensing For Photographers

Here is an interesting article from PDN magazine about a wedding photographer who got into a lot of trouble for using copyrighted music in a wedding video he produced and published on Youtube.

Photographers using copyrighted music in slideshows and videos is becoming an all to common practice and one that can lead to being sued.  It is funny that photographers seem to get so up in arms about usage rights of their images but many of them turn around and use music they don't have rights to use.

A few years ago we stumbled upon a great site that we recommend to our students, it is a Canadian company (respect!) that licences music specifically for photographers called With Etiquette.    

The great thing about the site is that you are supporting up and coming artists and the pricing is very reasonable.  Creative people supporting creative people something we should all do more of.  

Photoshop Banned In Cosmetics Ads?

Here is an interesting article from Business Insider about the use or over use of Photoshop in cosmetics ads and how the UK and the US might ban this advertising practise.

The Holga Addiction

For those that have never heard of the Holga check out this article by Peter Balkwill, reprinted in the Ottawa Citizen this weekend.

It talks about this light leaking plastic film camera that get so many photographers addicted.

Abelardo Morell Book & Documentary

One of the very first photographers we look at in our History of Photography course is Abelardo Morell, we are very please to have his book Camera Obscura at the LRC.

This book has some of the most visually interesting images we have ever seen.

We are also please to have a documentary about Abelardo Morell, Shadow of the House, at the LRC.

This documentary looks at Morell's creative process and follows him on his journey back home to Cuba for the first time since he escaped.

Thanks to Nancy Boughner for sending us the link to this great article by photographer Colby Brown, Google+: The Survival Guide for a Photographer’s Paradise.

The article lays out the basics of how this new social network, Google+, works and how a photographer can harness it for their own benefit.

A great read for both the novice and professional photographer!!

The Peregrine Glove

Here is a cool piece of gear, the Peregrin Glove, originally designed for gaming but a smart photog saw some possibilities for editing in Photoshop.

Click here to read the article from the Canadian Women Photographers Network on how the glove performed while using Photoshop.

feature shoot

Here is a very cool site that "features" work from up and coming photographers and established photogs, feature shoot.

This site has great images, informative article, interviews and great resources.

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.

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.

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.

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 

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.

How Multitasking Affects Human Learning

As instructors issues of students not paying attention in class and specifically surfing the web while in class usually comes up every year.

Many students defend such behaviour because they believe they are effect multitaskers.   However, recent studies have shown multitasking actually hampers the brains ability to learn and in the end makes one less productive.

A recent NPR interview with Russel Poldrack, a UCLA Psychology Professor talks about how bad multitasking is especially in a learning environment  Listen Here.



Ultimately what confounds us the most is why students who choose to surf the internet or work on other things in class seem to care very little for their instructors and more importantly their fellow students who find their behaviour distracting.

So when you are working on other things in class just remember this you are wasting your money and someone around you is looking at you and wishing you would start being more respectful toward others.

Feel free to leave a comment to this post below.

F8 Magazine

Great new online Photo Magazine recently launched, F8 Magazine.

There are great articles on documentary photography, photo-journalism and photographic education plus some great photographs.

The article on Alicia Rius - Discovering the Magic of Abandoned Places and the EFTI Photography School are great reads.

What We Are Reading

For months now we have been posting interesting articles in our Interesting Reads and of course posting new and current Books from our LRC in the Books section of our index.

Within the Program we are always trying to promote our students, grads and alumni to read and stay current on trends and issues in photography.

To help further promote this we have added a WHAT WE ARE READING section in our sidebar.   This is directly linked to our Google Reader account and will have the articles we think you should be reading right now.

Man Ray Exhibition Vancouver

Thanks to Professor Andrew Balfour for letting us know about this article in this Saturday's Globe and Mail.  The article talks about a current exhibition at the Museum of Anthropology at the University of British Columbia, Man Ray, African Art and the Modernist Lens.

This show put the spotlight on Man Ray's photographs of African objects and discuss how he and other artist of the time helped transform these artifacts into art.