Yukoner Paul Nicklen piles up photo awards

Yukoner Paul Nicklen piles up photo awards
Yukon photographer Paul Nicklen has had a lot to celebrate this month — even without Christmas.
Full Story:
http://links.cbc.ca/a/l.x?T=jncickhjpedeaolaehldghfhda&M=32

[excerpts]

The Christmas 2010 issue of Outdoor Photographer magazine named Nicklen one of the world's 40 most influential nature photographers; he is featured in the cover story in the January 2011 issue of Photo Life magazine; and earlier this month, Up Here named him Northerner of the Year.

Earlier this year, Nicklen won first prize for nature photography in the World Press Awards, and he had two images selected for inclusion in the International League of Conservation Photographers' 40 Best Nature Photographs of All Time auction.

[...]

Nicklen grew up on Baffin Island in Nunavut, studied marine biology at the University of Victoria for four years and then worked as a wildlife biologist in the Northwest Territories for four years.

He now lives just outside of Whitehorse, but he travels the world, taking photos and writing for National Geographic.

He's passionate about the wildlife he photographs and feels his images are a way of helping to preserve what he loves.

"Recently, we influenced Parliament to vote against oil tankers in the Great Bear Rainforest on the B.C. coast because a team of photojournalists … went in there this summer," he said. "We've been working on a lot of different campaigns."

My Bolivian photos

My photos of Nunavut

My photos of the Northwest Territories, Canada

Some of my interesting photos

Last lab in the world that processes Kodachrome to close on Dec 31

'Last Kodachrome' end of an era http://ow.ly/3utxK last lab in the world that processes Kodachrome to close on Dec 31 #film #photography

[excerpt]

The photography show is called "The Last Kodachrome" but the last Kodachrome images aren't in the show. They are still in Pat Willard's Nikon camera.

They will have to come out by next week because the last lab in the world that processes the famed color film, Dwayne's Photo in Parsons, Kan., is discontinuing it at the end of the year. The last rolls to be processed must be there by noon, Dec. 30. After 75 years, all that will be left of Kodachrome is the Paul Simon song, and a state park named after it in Utah.

There will still be a sister film called Ektachrome, but Willard, a fine art photographer in Redwood City, is not buying it.

"I'll probably do only black and white," he says, lowering his tone to a funereal whisper. "There's no color like Kodachrome."

When the Eastman Kodak Co announced that the last rolls were hitting the shelves, in June 2009, Willard bought 40 rolls, at $8 apiece, and stuck them in the fridge of his townhouse in Redwood Shores. Then he contacted Ann Jastrab, director of Rayko Gallery, proposing a juried exhibition for Kodachrome prints.

Fifty photographers nationwide, plus a few from Canada, northern Europe and South Africa, sent in portfolios. Twenty-one photographers were selected and 45 prints are in the show, which opened Dec. 17 and, after a Christmas break, will reopen Jan. 4. Included are four prints of Willard's abstract expressionist work.

Read more: http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/c/a/2010/12/24/DD0C1GOFON.DTL#ixzz19EbB6Jy6

Sizing a Sensor: No Easy Way

Sizing a Sensor: No Easy Way
By DAVID POGUE
Sensor size is important in pocket cameras, but figuring out
that size among various products is baffling.
http://www.nytimes.com/2010/12/23/technology/personaltech/23pogue.html?nl=technology&emc=cta1

Slide Show: Pocketable Cameras for Low Light
http://www.nytimes.com/slideshow/2010/12/22/technology/personaltech/20101223-pogue-ss.html?nl=technology&emc=cta1

This week, you get two columns in one.

One is about new pocket cameras that take sharp pictures in low light without the flash — a magnificent moment in the evolution of cameras, thanks to an unusually large light-sensing chip.

The other column is about a shady scheme that's being perpetuated by the world's camera companies.

Portrait of a photographer at the end of an era

Portrait of an artist at the end of an era
Behind The Lens; Mayor's criticism of cost for council photosstings
By Kelly Egan, Ottawa Citizen December 17, 2010

[excerpt]

The mayor may have been motivated by frugality when he criticized a $13,000 bill the photographer submitted to the city, but it sure came out wrong.

An "aghast" Watson told reporters: "These kinds of expenses are the kinds that get my blood boiling and we'll just have to do a better job."

Media being what it is, before long the yammering hordes were yelling "ripoff" and "Walmart, anyone?," the story turning into an attack on Couvrette's professional abilities.

Well, if you know anything about Couvrette, 59, who has photographed more of "official Ottawa" than anybody in 35 years, he's not one to suffer in silence.

In the waiting room of his studio on Gladstone Avenue, Couvrette is firing back. "We had people, literally, saying I was a crook."

First of all, Couvrette has photographed every city council reaching back to Marion Dewar. So, there is some history, not to mention, presumably, satisfaction with his work. And the city signed a contract, which spells out how and how much, before this council was elected. (He also notes his rates to the city haven't gone up in 10 years.)

Secondly, he says he offered the city a price of $2,725 if the councillors and mayor came to his studio on a given day. No go with this busy bunch.

Read more: http://www.ottawacitizen.com/entertainment/Portrait+artist/3990976/story.html#ixzz18aV8HsOS

Emphas.is: Seeking a new funding model for photojournalism

Emphas.is: can crowd-sourcing work for photojournalism? - Seeking a new funding model for photojournalism
http://ow.ly/3qcFr

[excerpt]

As news organisations make cutbacks, photojournalists, many of whom are freelancers, have been struggling to find enough commissions. Co-founded by Tina Ahrens, a photo editor and consultant, Karim Ben Khelifa, a photojournalist and Fanuel Dewever, a business consultant, http://www.emphas.is/ is seeking a new funding model for photojournalism, an often costly and time-consuming trade. 

Ben Khelifa explained to the Editors Weblog that his inspiration for the initiative came when he was pitching an ambitious project that he wanted to carry out, but despite the fact that everybody he spoke to showed great interest in the project, he couldn't find funding. He had the realization that there was a serious demand for photojournalism, and that if media organisations weren't prepared to fund it, maybe the public would be. The public, rather than editors, would take on the role of information gatekeepers.

Crowd-funding for news has already been experimented with, the best-known example being Spot.Us, a start up based in California's Bay Area, founded by David Cohn with help from the Knight Foundation. Ben Khelifa only discovered Spot.Us after he started researching for his project, however. 

Photojournalists will make their pitches to Emphas.is, often in the form of a video, and a reviewing committee will decide whether or not to accept these, based on their viability. A cost will be set - Khelifa said he anticipates $5000 as an average- and the pitches will be put on the Emphas.is site. The public can then view these, and if they choose to contribute a minimum of $10, they will be invited into a private community where they can communicate with the journalist.

Festival miroir sur la francophonie nordique

DSC_0558-v2, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor .

"Festival miroir sur la francophonie nordique" celebrating the 25th anniversary of the L'Association franco-culturelle de Yellowknife. The first known hot air balloon flights in the Northwest Territories took place in Somba’Ke park next to Yellowknife City Hall. Aug. 14, 2010 ©2010 George Lessard

PHOBAR: Urban Word of the Day

December 12: PHOBAR

-adjective, Acronym for "PHOtoshopped Beyond All Recognition." A play on the the more popular acronym FUBAR: "Fucked Up Beyond All Recognition," PHOBAR refers to an image, usually a photo of a person, that has been retouched and airbrushed with digital image manipulation software on a computer so significantly, that the person in the photo is barely recognizable.

Of course she looks perfect in that photo, she was PHOBAR.