Atcon Construction Deh Cho Bridge over the Mackenzie River

DSC_7622, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

Signs...

When I shoot... I lie to also shoot any signs associated with the sight....

The building of the Deh Cho Bridge over the Mackenzie River on Sunday May 17th, 2009 with the Merve Hardi ferry the second day of crossing in the spring. Photo ©2009 George Lessard

http://www.flickr.com/photos/george-lessard/sets/72157618411102596/


Recent (this spring) and earlier photos of the new Atcon Construction bridge over the Deh Cho in Canada;s Northwest Territories will give Yellowknife (the territorial capital) a year-round link with the rest of Canada and replace the summer ferry and winter ice road.

DSC_7622

Kakisa River bridge replacement project on the Mackenzie Highway

Kakisa River bridge replacement project on the Mackenzie Highway, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

Kakisa River bridge replacement project on the Mackenzie Highway at Km 169.8 in Kakisa, Northwst Territories, Canada
Taken on Sunday May 17, 2009
Photo by ©2009 George Lessard
DSC_7583

Bahamian Fifty-Cents

Bahamian-Fifty-Cents, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

Remembering the Bahamas.... that and the Bahamian $3 banknote.

Mexican photographer's images of the blind win $50, 000 Grange Prize

Mexican photographer's images of the blind win $50,000 Grange Prize
http://www.cbc.ca/arts/artdesign/story/2009/05/26/grange-prize.html

The Grange Prize
http://www.thegrangeprize.com/grange-prize-home

The Grange Prize, launched in February of 2007, is a unique partnership
between the Art Gallery of Ontario and Aeroplan. It brings together a
public institution and a private enterprise whose common goal is to engage
the public in a dialogue about contemporary photography.

Each year, The Grange Prize recognizes the work of Canadian and
international contemporary photographers, awarding $50,000 CAD to a winner
chosen through an online public vote from among two Canadian and two
international artists.

The winner of The Grange Prize is announced at an awards ceremony held at
the Art Gallery of Ontario each spring.

The Grange Prize works each year with a different partner museum in a
country other than Canada. This partner museum launches the Prize in that
country, and helps garner public interest and enthusiasm for the four
artist candidates. All four artists participate in residencies as part of
the Prize program, and are featured in exhibitions both at the AGO and in
the partner country. The Grange Prize partner museum for 2009 is Centro de
la Imagen in Mexico City.

In 2009, the AGO entered into a cultural partnership with the Mexican
government. The Consulate General of Mexico assisted The Grange Prize in
establishing the curatorial panel and facilitated the relationship with
Centro de la Imagen. The Ministry of Foreign Affairs of Mexico will also
ensure that The Grange Prize is promoted through their embassies and
consulates around the world.

Monitor Calibration and Profiling

NOTE: Many articles about monitor display calibration exist online, but please be informed that some writers don't distinguish between CRT and LCD monitors when they expand on any given technique. While both monitor types often use the same calibration techniques, some techniques are unneeded or cannot be performed on many platforms that carry LCD monitors.

LCD monitor tests
http://www.colorwizzard.com/lcdtest/index.html

  These tests require Internet Explorer 5.1 or higher, browser options must be set to allow for JavaScript and cookies support.

LCD monitor test images

Welcome to the Lagom LCD monitor test pages. With the test images on these pages, you can easily adjust the settings of your monitor to get the best possible picture quality. Additionally, there are a number of test images that can help you to judge the image quality of a monitor. You can check the images on this webpage or put them on a usb stick and try them in the computer store like I did when I created these test patterns. These test images are much more revealing regarding monitor shortcomings than ordinary photographs.
http://www.lagom.nl/lcd-test/

Monitor Calibration and Profiling
http://www.drycreekphoto.com/Learn/monitor_calibration.htm

How to Calibrate Your Monitor
In order to see images the way they were intended to be seen, your monitor might need to be calibrated. If you're a web designer, digital photographer, or graphic professional, this is especially important. You don't want to spend hours choosing the perfect subtle color scheme only to see a mis-matched mess on someone else's monitor or coming out of a printer. Here's how to calibrate your monitor so that what you see is what you get.
http://www.wikihow.com/Calibrate-Your-Monitor


Pantone
Digital designs demand accurate on-screen colors. Even the most advanced monitors require adjustment for different lighting conditions and environments to maximize their performance. Calibrating your display lets you control what you see on your monitor and ensures colors are accurate and consistent day-to-day, image-to-image, or on multiple systems for print, Web or video output.
http://www.pantone.com/pages/pantone/pantone.aspx?ca=2



Digital Focus: Calibrate Your Monitor
Dave Johnson
Apr 22, 2003 2:00 am
Feature: Calibrate Your Monitor for Digital Images
A friend called me the other day with a digital photo problem. "I just printed a photo on good paper, and it doesn't look like what's on the monitor," he complained. "Why not? How can I get them to match?"

My buddy's problem stems from the fact that the two output devices--the printer and monitor--are calibrated differently. If you want what's on the screen when you edit a photo to resemble what comes out of the printer, then you need to correct one or the other so they're in agreement. It's easier to adjust the monitor (printers don't come with calibration tools), so that's what we'll do.

If you don't mind spending money, there are a few programs designed to help you calibrate your monitor. Pantone's OptiCal is the mother of all such programs--but at around $200, it's probably better-suited for true graphics professionals. LightSurf Technologies' $50 Colorific is a much more affordable color-matching and monitor calibration system
http://www.pcworld.com/article/110070/digital_focus_calibrate_your_monitor.html

The Seven Levels of Photographers: A Spiritual and Satirical Guide.

The Seven Levels of Photographers

A Spiritual and Satirical Guide. I summarize this into 2 levels here.
© 2007 KenRockwell.com

Full text here

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/7.htm

[excerpt]

Artist: Top Level 7 (equivalent to "Heaven" in Christian mythology)

This is the highest level.

An artist fixes his imagination in a tangible form called a photograph. He captures the spirit of place or person, real or imagined, in this photograph and the viewer responds to this.

Whore: Level 6   

A whore is an artist who sells his soul by accepting money or drugs for his art.

By lowering himself to this level his vision is compromised.

Amateur: Level 5   

People who earn less than half of their income from photography are amateurs. This has nothing to do with the quality of their photography.

Snapshooter: Level 4   

This is my mom and most people. These people want memories, as opposed to photographs or cameras.

Professional: Level 3   

A professional photographer is a person who earns his entire living (100%) from the sale of photographs.

Rich Amateur: Level 2  

These are amateurs who, by having too much money, buy lots of equipment which can fetter their freedom of expression. They are mostly men, and many are old or retired.

Equipment Measurbator: Bottom Level 1 (equivalent to "Hell" in Christian mythology)

These men (and they are all men) have no interest in art or photography because they have no souls. Lacking souls they cannot express imagination or feeling, which is why their images, if they ever bother to make any, suck.

These folks have analysis paralysis and never accomplish anything.

Online Expert or Armchair Photographer: Level 0 (these guys don't take pictures so they aren't a level of photographer.)

This level never existed before the internet, because cameras were never as exciting as sports cars or missiles for men to research.

Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/flickr-creates-new-license-for-white-house-photos/

Official White House photos are now officially in the public domain, thanks to a licensing change made quietly over the weekend by the Obama administration and the photo-sharing site Flickr.

The White House began posting striking photos of President Barack Obama from its official photographer Pete Souza to the Web 2.0 site in early May. The White House chose to license them using the ultra-liberal Creative Commons Attribution license that lets people reuse, reprint and remix the photos just as long as they credit the original photographers.

But as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other online commenters noted, that license won't work — even for Obama's official photographer — because government works can't be copyright.

Someone must have been listening, because sometime over the weekend, the licenses changed, and now the photos are labeled "United States Government Work" and link to an explanation on copyright.gov. The White House, however, continues to use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license for all third-party content published on the www.whitehouse.gov site.

The change marks a first for Flickr, which to date has not had a license for government works, other than a "No Known Copyright Restriction" license that is used on photos from its Commons project, which includes photos from some of the world's greatest museums and libraries. Those photos include ones from the Library of Congress, for instance, that never were copyright since they were made or paid for by the federal government

Flickr, a Yahoo-owned property, did not immediately respond to a request for comment about the change and whether the license will be available for other portions of the federal government.

As for ordinary web surfers, there is still no way in Flickr to add your work to the public domain — the Attribution license is still the closest you can get. Being president, it seems, still has its privileges.

See Also:

• Presidential First: White House Floods Flickr
• Obama to Get Back BlackBerry at Last, Toughened by NSA
• Web Will Be A Major Communications Tool Under Obama Presidency …
• The Obama Campaign: A Great Campaign, Or The Greatest?
• 5 Signs President-Elect Obama Is a Geek

Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos

Epicenter The Business of Tech
Flickr Creates New License for White House Photos

http://www.wired.com/epicenter/2009/05/flickr-creates-new-license-for-white-house-photos/

[EXCERPT]

Official White House photos are now officially in the public domain,
thanks to a licensing change made quietly over the weekend by the Obama
administration and the photo-sharing site Flickr.

The White House began posting striking photos of President Barack Obama
from its official photographer Pete Souza to the Web 2.0 site in early
May. The White House chose to license them using the ultra-liberal
Creative Commons Attribution license that lets people reuse, reprint and
remix the photos just as long as they credit the original photographers.

But as Creative Commons, the Electronic Frontier Foundation and other
online commenters noted, that license won't work — even for Obama's
official photographer — because government works can't be copyright.

Someone must have been listening, because sometime over the weekend, the
licenses changed, and now the photos are labeled "United States Government
Work" and link to an explanation on copyright.gov. The White House,
however, continues to use the Creative Commons Attribution 3.0 license for
all third-party content published on the www.whitehouse.gov site.

The change marks a first for Flickr, which to date has not had a license
for government works, other than a "No Known Copyright Restriction"
license that is used on photos from its Commons project, which includes
photos from some of the world's greatest museums and libraries. Those
photos include ones from the Library of Congress, for instance, that never
were copyright since they were made or paid for by the federal government.

Yours truly....

_MG_0439, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

In Chelyabinsk, Russia on assignment for CESO ceso-saco.com
with
Yudin Andrey Nikolaevich
Chelyabinsk, Russia
Email: sunfoto@mail.ru
Telephone: 8(351)33-73-88 Fax:
Cell Phone: 8-908-080-23-88
Web Site: www.sunfoto.ru

Наш адрес: ул.Колхозная, дом 36, кв. 201 Ост."Ул.Краснознаменная" (проезд трамв.) или ост. "Пр.Победы" (проезд маршр.), начало Северо-Запада
Телефоны: 233-73-88 (моб)

Yours truly...

_MG_2697, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

In Russia on assignment for CESO ceso-saco.com

Photo by
Yudin Andrey Nikolaevich
Chelyabinsk, Russia
Email: sunfoto@mail.ru
Web Site: www.sunfoto.ru

Наш адрес: ул.Колхозная, дом 36, кв. 201 Ост."Ул.Краснознаменная" (проезд трамв.) или ост. "Пр.Победы" (проезд маршр.), начало Северо-Запада
Телефоны: 233-73-88 (моб)

The Megapixel Myth & Film vs. Digital Cameras

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/mpmyth.htm

[excerpt]

The Myth

The megapixel myth was started by camera makers and swallowed hook, line and sinker by camera measurebators. Camera makers use the number of megapixels a camera has to hoodwink you into thinking it has something to do with camera quality. They use it because even a tiny linear resolution increase results in a huge total pixel increase, since the total pixel count varies as the total area of the image, which varies as the square of the linear resolution. In other words, an almost invisible 40% increase in the number of pixels in any one direction results in a doubling of the total number of pixels in the image. Therefore camera makers can always brag about how much better this week's camera is, with even negligible improvements.

This gimmick is used by salespeople and manufacturers to you feel as if your current camera is inadequate and needs to be replaced even if the new cameras each year are only slightly better.

--------

Film vs. Digital Cameras

http://www.kenrockwell.com/tech/filmdig.htm

"I find that it takes about 25 megapixels to simulate 35mm film's practical resolution, which is still far more than any practical digital camera. At the 6 megapixel level digital gives about the same sharpness as a duplicate slide, which is plenty for most things."

Vancouver 2010 invites Canadians to share their photos and words ..

Vancouver 2010 invites Canadians to share their photos and words ...
... Nunavut, Northwest Territories and Yukon. In addition to the Cultural
Olympiad's government and corporate partners, CODE is proudly supported by
the Canada Council for the Arts and the National Film Board of Canada. ...
<http://www.vancouver2010.com/en/news/news-releases/-/66648/32566/r4a56k/vancouver-2010-invites-canadia.html>
Vancouver2010.com - News Releases
<http://vancouver2010.com/>

Photographic best practices guides

Best Practices for the Business of Independent Photojournalism

This best practices guide, put together by the National Press Photographers Association in the U.S. is divided into two sections: the first for those who hire independent photojournalists and the second to guide photojournalists in their business practices. Each section has five clearly laid out points to consider and steps to take during business transactions to ensure fairness and professional respect. A PDF version is available at the link below. Link» http://www.nppa.org/professional_development/business_practices/best_practices/

Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines

Universal Photographic Digital Imaging Guidelines (UPDIG) is a group of industry professionals who are working towards creating worldwide standards for the commercial use of digital images. The introduction of the document states: "These 12 guidelines -- along with the accompanying Best Practices documents -- aim to clarify issues affecting accurate reproduction and management of digital image files. Although they largely reflect a photographer's perspective, anyone working with digital images should find them useful." Link» http://www.updig.org/guidelines/index.php

 

Leica S2 with 56% larger sensor than full frame

 

http://www.dpreview.com/news/0809/08092301_leica_s2.asp

 

GigaPan robotic panoramic camera device

* Creating a panoramic experience *
Richard Taylor tries out the GigaPan http://gigapansystems.com robotic camera device which builds hundreds of pictures into a panoramic experience. http://gigapan.org
Full story:
http://news.bbc.co.uk/go/em/-/2/hi/programmes/click_online/8004657.stm
Most Popular
http://gigapan.org/searchGigapansList.php?keywords=&sort=popular

Partners

GigaPan was developed by Carnegie Mellon University in collaboration with NASA Ames Intelligent Robotics Group, with support from Google

Epic 100 now available to fit larger point and shoot digital cameras and smaller DSLR cameras
 
The GigaPan Epic 100 comes with fully integrated software, the GigaPan Stitcher, which automatically combines photos to create gigapixel panoramas and uploads them to GigaPan.org. Specially designed to fit larger point and shoot cameras, the Epic 100 is also compatible with several small DSLR cameras. The Epic 100 can support a camera and lens combination of up to 3 lbs. See below for a complete list of features. For a list of compatible cameras visit our camera list.

For a camera to fit on the GigaPan Epic, it should be no more than approx. 111 mm wide (left to right) and 45 mm deep (front to back)

For a camera to fit on the GigaPan Epic 100, it should be no more than approx. 148 mm wide (left to right) and 69 mm deep (front to back)

Video Reference for Gigapan Users
http://gigapansystems.com/site-three/videos/youtube-video-tutorials-2/youtube-video-tutorial-4.html

History of Photography

http://photography.nationalgeographic.com/photography/photographers/photography-timeline.html?source=email_photo_20090416&email=photo

Mile zero: Chelyabinsk, Russia

DSC_7052, originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

This is the mile zero post for the region. All distances on regional maps are measured as starting here

These images were taken from atop the highest building in Chelyabinsk, Russia and show the panorama, size of the city and some of the many factory around the town. Photo by George Lessard

Call For Submissions / CONTACT Photography Festival

Call For Submissions / CONTACT Photography Festival 2009 / Contact918 / Toronto, ON / Deadline Date: Thursday, April 30, 2009
 
For CONTACT Photography Festival 2009, 918 Bathurst is launching a new initiative called CONTACT918

918 Bathurst is a new centre supporting culture, arts, media and education in downtown Toronto, Canada. We are an inclusive centre that supports academic, artistic, health, personal and professional career programming with an emphasis on personal development.  As a facility for educational opportunities, cultural exchange and special events, we invite people, groups and organizations to contact us with program ideas to be held in our venue. 

For more information visit us at: www.918bathurst.com
918 Bathurst St. Toronto, ON M5R 3G5. 416-538-0868

What:  Contact 918
Where: 918 Bathurst St. Toronto
When: May 9, 16, 23, 30, 2009
Time: 12 - 4 pm

Theme: Still Revolution
Photographers should submit images that will explore the ever-evolving manifestations of photographic imagery that influence the way we see the world today.  CONTACT918 creates an international online forum for photographers, and will be launched live as a digital projection for the Contact Photography festival. It emerges as an exciting digital playground that connects photographers and communities by linking the virtual with the physical.  Live rotating projections will occur every Saturday in May, showcasing the images that have been submitted by a global network of photographers.  Photographers are invited to upload images at www.contact918.com to be included as part of a slideshow, which will run at 918 Bathurst for the month of May 2009. 

918 Bathurst is a new centre supporting culture, arts, media and education in downtown Toronto, Canada. We are an inclusive centre that supports academic, artistic, health, personal and professional career programming with an emphasis on personal development.  As a facility for educational opportunities, cultural exchange and special events, we invite people, groups and organizations to contact us with program ideas to be held in our venue.

To become part of CONTACT918 or for more information visit us at: www.918bathurst.com or contact us at: info@contact918.com  
918 Bathurst St. Toronto, ON M5R 3G5. 416-538-0868
---

GEORGE LESSARD
CESO-SACO  VA # 11799
http://www.ceso-saco.com
Follow my Russian trip on my Overseas Blog at
http://mediamentor-overseas.blogspot.com/
See my interview on Russian TV here
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OtlEjNTb3Tw
See my pictures here..
http://www.flickr.com/photos/george-lessard/sets/72157613820810814/

Information, Communications & Media Specialist
6402135 Canada Inc.

451 Norseman Dr.
Yellowknife, Northwest Territories
X1A 2J1, Canada

Yellowknife Land Line # (867) 873-2662
Yellowknife Cell # (867) 445-9193
SKYPE: themediamentor

Online Business Card:
http://lessardcard.notlong.com

Home Pages: http://mediamentor.ca
Online Activities: http://www.web.ca/~media/index.html
Photos: http://photosbygeorge.notlong.com
Photo Illustrations: http://www.flickr.com/photos/george-lessard/sets/72157603627797568/
Etcetera:  http://www.flickr.com/photos/george-lessard/sets/459582/

My Public Bookmarks: http://del.icio.us/themediamentor

Member:
Canadian Association of Journalists http://www.caj.ca
Canadian Artists Representation / le Front des artistes canadiennes http://www.carfac.ca/
Canadian Artists Representation Copyright Collective http://www.carcc.ca/

Muntada' "Slogans"

Muntada' "Slogans", originally uploaded by The MediaMentor.

Slogans
Muntadas
1987, 8:35 min, color, sound

Slogans is a visual deconstruction of advertising slogans, a literal and metaphorical illustration of the disintegration and loss of meaning of information in the contemporary "media landscape." Appropriating text from a series of familiar print advertisements — "Choose Your Weapon," "Play to Win," "Talk is Cheap" — Muntadas enlarges, digitizes and overlays words until they devolve into abstract mosaics. Accompanied by a banal muzak soundtrack, this display of text as image demonstrates advertising's insidious transformation of language into empty signifiers.

Images: Canadian and U.S. advertisements, 1986-87. Music: Ray Conniff's Greatest Hits. Technical Assistance: George Lessard, Caterina Borelli.

Worldwide photo competition to focus on new ways to portray gender

Worldwide
photo competition
to focus on new ways
to portray gender

Posted on: 18/02/2009

Fellowships and Awards, Photojournalism

Deadline: 01/05/2009

Region: Worldwide

Photojournalists and amateur photographers can now submit images that
"challenge conventional understanding of 'femininity' and
'masculinity' and help to break the mold of male-female 'divide'" to a
photo competition.

The World Association for Christian Communication (WACC) is hosting
the photographic competition, "Portraying Gender." Winners will be
awarded cash prizes that range from US$500 (first prize) to US$200.

The competition is an effort of WACC in collaboration with the online
photo service Flickr. To be submitted, photos must be uploaded on
Flickr.

To learn more and to submit photos go to Flickr:
http://www.flickr.com/groups/wacc2008/