Prince Edward Island Visitors Guide
Being busy is good but that often comes at the expense of keeping this blog updated. Here is a quick post with a few of my images that you’ll find in print this summer. Earlier this week, I received some of the 2013 marketing materials and was pleased to see some of my images making the cut. Here are a few scans of those pages – including the cover of the PEI National Park Visitors Guide.
Motivation
Late last week, it was asked in a group forum what was everyone’s “must have” photographic piece of equipment (excluding the camera itself). While I understand the bases of what was being asked, I was too focused on the words because “must have” is very different than “nice to have”.
So I type this from my bed watching the sun rise from my window knowing that I should be outside. And after reading this growing list of “can’t live without” gadget suggestions, my opinion strengthened that I (and you) don’t actually need to buy any of these – we only need the motivation and desire to get out of bed.
Today’s Image – Exposed Coral Reef on Haena Beach, Kawa’i Island
It’s so easy to delay the task of processing images. Knowing that the image files will still be there tomorrow is a great encouragement for procrastination. By accepting an invitation to share a small slideshow with the local photo clubs, I now have a hard deadline to prepare 3 weeks of images from a late 2012 visit to Hawai’i. This presentation will discuss the locations visited, the resulting images, and how some of the images were created.
If you’re local to Prince Edward Island, The PEI Photo Club meeting in Charlottetown will be May 28th and the Red Sands Photo Club meeting in Summerside will be June 10th.
Imitation, Flattery and Identity Theft
Unlicensed content is used every day while the copyright holders do what they can to prevent it. It’s an endless cycle that can’t be stopped but the importance of creating and sharing should outweigh any fear.
However, sometimes the infringement is so obvious, you find yourself asking how anyone could think it was a good idea. I wrote about my involvement with the TinEye brand before. It’s something I’m proud of which made for an entertaining and shocking morning after reading that the TinEye robot was rebranded as a bug finder in his very own video game. Stealing an established brand/mascot/logo from a company designed to find copied images might not be the brightest idea.
It’s not my battle to fight but the game developers response will be interesting.
Persistent Vision
For a website primarily dedicated to Prince Edward Island, I have been talking a bit too much about Canada’s Rocky Mountains after spending the second half of March in Alberta. An odd time of year to travel during their muddy melting spring weather but I’m pretty sure we experienced all 4 seasons ranging from high winds, -20°C mornings, +5°C afternoons, blue skies, and storms that left me knee deep in snow.
Focused around an invitation to an event called Persistent Vision, my trip started at a weekend seminar organized by Darwin and Sam, who brought over 100 photographers to Bragg Creek. Although admittedly super hesitant to fly across the country, I’m so glad I was pushed into going. Not only for the presentations but for allowing me to see old friends and meet new ones. Excuse me for the name dropping but here are some links and portfolios worth visiting:
It was great to finally meet Dave Brosha and John E Marriott. Two well known Canadian photographers who I have worked with in the past on design related projects but always over email. It can be a weird feeling to know someone having never met them. I also had the opportunity to meet those I had previously only known through their blogs and Facebook activity: Wayne Simpson, Ian Mcgillvrey, John Fujimagari and Lori Maloney. Plus a reunion with those I traveled to Iceland with last June. Royce Howland, Scott Dimond, and Branimir Gjetvaj. And of course David duChemin – the main speaker for Persistent Vision and someone I first met 5 years ago on a trip to Vancouver. I’m pretty sure I’ve read every blog post of his since.
May our paths cross again some day.
Today’s Image – Mount Rundle and Sulphur Mountain
On the last day of Persistent Vision, everyone piled into cars and travelled into Banff to gather at Vermillion Lakes for sunrise and sunset. The morning visibility was almost zero with the fog and snow but it nicely cleared up for the evening. It’s always interesting to see how quickly the weather can change. Created on the same day, this next image was from that morning near Bow Falls.
Is Subscribing by RSS Dead?
If actions speak louder than words, the concept of subscribing to your favourite websites by RSS would appear to be spiraling down a dead end path. A long list of companies abandoning the technology that could be headlined by Apple discontinuing support for RSS in it’s mail client and a few months later, Google announcing the closure of Reader. With two major companies dropping support, what are users to do with all those little orange icons we see on most websites?
How do you subscribe to your favourite websites?
Facebook, Twitter, G+, Pinterest, etc, etc can all be fun, but I really do not want to depend on social networks for content subscribing. I also do not want to bookmark and visit sites daily looking for possible updates.
Email subscriptions would seem like the obvious choice (we check that daily anyway) but unfortunately, not all websites offer email subscription support.
But they could using a third party service and maybe Blogtrottr is the strong contender to fill this replacement need. With a basic account, you provide all the websites you’re interested in, and Blogtrottr will email you when new content becomes available (or on a schedule of your choosing). With the combination of email filters, this service has the potential to be great for all those lost and left out in the cold by Google. I’m still kicking the tires but will let you know how it goes. So far, so good.
Today’s Image – Ice Space Bubbles
To infinity and beyond… plus all those other deep space references. The common images coming from Abraham Lake deep in the Canadian Rockies along the North Saskatchewan River are bubbles caused by methane frozen in a crystal clear man-made lake. The prime time is January and February but as spring draws near, and the ice begins to melt and refreeze, the ice will crystallize and crack. If not covered in snow, the effect can be equally interesting.
Canadian Pacific
Prince Edward Island lost it’s rail service in 1989 and by 1992, all of the tracks had been removed making way for the development of the Confederation Trail – a 470 kilometre recreational hiking/biking trail reaching all corners of the island. So I don’t see trains very often and when I do, they are usually underground pushing people through concreate tubes under a city. However, here I am in Alberta staying at a place with a railway for a backyard and a cargo train every other hour. Less annoying than one might expect.
Today’s Image – Morant’s Curve
On my first drive up the Bow Valley Parkway from Banff to Lake Louise a few years ago, I came across this vantage point overlooking some tracks. I was a little kid and wanted to see a train.
After convincing the rest of the travellers with me to sit and wait it out while not knowing how long it may take – the distant whistle was heard within an hour. I have since learned from Darwin’s How to Photograph Banff eBook, that this is called Morant’s Curve.
Returning to the Canadian Rockies
After almost three years since my first visit to the Canadian Rocky Mountains, my bags are packed and I’m ready for a return trip at possibly the most unexpected time of the year – during that muddy season between winter and spring. For the next couple weeks, I’ll be working from a small lodge tucked away in the mountains with fingers crossed for great light, interesting weather, and a little bit of luck. But before I start that journey along the Icefields Parkway, my first stop will be Cochrane (oopoomoo blog headquarters) and then on to Bragg Creek to help out at the Persistent Vision party. If you happen to be in the Calgary area, join us on Saturday, March 16th.
Today’s Image – Pyramid Lake, Jasper
Pyramid Mountain is a well known location north of downtown Jasper that is easily accessible. When I was here in the spring of 2010 for the first time, I was very much overwhelmed with this foreign-to-me landscape that simply doesn’t exist in the maritimes. It’s hard to ignore those early morning reflections. It will be fun to be back.
Blurb Book Review – Comparing Sizes and Papers
Blurb is the modern day photo album and gone are the days of plastic sleeves displaying boxes of 4×6 prints with hand written messages on the back. Blurb books are perfect for family, personal, memory and vacation books. But what about fine art? or what about for resale?
I have a growing book collection from some of my favourite photographers. I only have so many walls to enjoy prints, so for me, books provide an easier way to support and enjoy the images of other photographers. But this also means – that for no other reason than desire – I also want a book of my own.
Many photographers would love to be published and because only the most successful will ever get picked up by a publisher, the self-publishing market is growing and becoming easier and easier. Arguably, Blurb has become the leader. Maybe even more so now that they have embedded themselves in Adobe Photoshop Lightroom.
I have several mid sized Blurb books printed between 2006 and 2012. They have been consistent and I can’t see any significant printing changes. In December of 2011, I stepped it up and took a chance by ordering four large 12×12 160 page books with the heaviest paper and all of the upgrades – for a grand total of $187.42 CND each. Definitely more pricy than anything equivalent in a bookstore.
12x12 Proline Pearl Blurb Book
I was satisfied with the results and throughout 2012, I created two alternatives of the same book but at a much smaller scale of 8×10 120 pages and 7×7 80 pages. In the end, I had a sampling of almost everything Blurb had to offer. Here is my non technical review.
Your Photography Website
This post is for the other photographers – in particular, those in business.
I have had this blog post half written for more than 6 months and could never pull the trigger on the publish button. The topic felt too specific for a generalized statement and because of that, something didn’t feel right to justify a blog post rant. However after an interesting discussion tonight with onOne‘s education manager Brian Matiash, it gave me that needed incentive to complete this post because I’m not the only person who judges ones brand partly based on presentation. There are companies like Brian’s and surely future clients browsing portfolios also judging you on how much consideration was applied to the website.
But first, lets be honest. Everyone is hopefully more critical and focused on the details when it comes to our own industry. Chefs with food, contractors with houses, doctors with health, etc, etc, and designers like myself with websites. We are all trained to care about different things and rely on others to fill in where we choose to focus less attention.
Two summers ago, I had a small presentation at a PPOC (Professional Photographers of Canada) seminar on web technologies to discuss the elements of a reliable website. Although much has improved since then — there is still more work to be done. Poorly implemented websites are still common and with all the photographers in the world so focused on perfecting their images, they often settle for presenting them in a substandard way.
So in a world where art, design and images are so very much subjective, here are some details to consider: