Back to the Blog

Sorry for no blog postings lately ... we have been very busy getting things ready for the program in September. So far all has gone well.

The last day of July, so I will get another Photo of the Month in. This time we are going to do a repeat of the work of our co-ordinator, Richard Beland. We featured a macabre shot of Iggy Pop a few months back, and this time we will have a much more pleasing photo, of Natalie McMaster, famous Canadian fiddler.

Richard shot the cover of her 2011 album “Cape Breton Girl.” The shot above shows Richard’s favourite shot of the shoot ... although Natalie liked another pose, and chose it instead (you will see it if you Google the album title.) Richard related an interesting story about shooting these images, which were taken at the end of the day when the lake was mirror calm.

Natalie is standing on an egg crate, which is sitting on the soft sand of the lake bottom. Every few seconds it shifts, making it highly unstable. So there is a photo assistant standing in the water, just out of camera on either side of her to prop her up between shots. Natalie’s instructions to them were to the effect of: in case of disaster, let her fall into the water, so long as they keep her concert violin from getting wet.

No disaster happened, but taking chances like this resulted in a great shot.
-----
Another accolade for Richard: He was chosen as one of only 20 Canadian photographers exhibited for the Canadian North by Northeast Music Festival held last month. Several of Richard’s photos were chosen for the exhibit.

More free stuff!

Free is good, isn't it? I like free. It is my favorite price.

This week we want you to be aware that you can get free tickets to Exposure, a consumer photography show in Toronto at the end of this month. I went last year, and I think it cost me $10 or $15 to get in (I wasn't smart enough to get the free deal). Canon, Nikon, and a dozen or two other vendors of photographic equipment show up, carrying things as varied as photography bags and knapsacks to tripods and lighting equipment.

The main sponsor of the show is Henry's Photography the national camera chain, and they have a great feature where they sell all their demo and used equipment at trememdous price reductions. I didn't buy anything last year, so I really can't say whether it is best to get there on Friday, when selection is best, or Sunday, when they might start making better deals to clear stuff out. You are on your own with that one.

The other great feature of the show is that there is a nearly continual series of tutorial lessons given by famous and talented photographers. I sat through a great session by one of the Toronto Star photographers last year, and viewed some of the amazing shots he had created over the year.

The other treat is that Yours Truly will be attending the show. Lambton College Digital Photography has booked a booth for the show, and I will be manning it. Richard Beland, our photographic wizard will be in and out, but I should be there most of the time letting the Toronto market place know about the new program at Lambton.

Here is a link to the show web site. If it interests you, scroll down to the very bottom of the first page to get to the link to the free ticket.

I hope to see you there. It runs May 25 to 27.

Software from the Cloud

Suddenly, it all changes.

Until recently, we have been telling students looking to enroll in the Digital Photography program at Lambton College that purchase of Adobe Creative suite 6.0 would be a requirement for completion of the program. At a student cost of $799 ($2599 value) this was a significant chunk of money, especially if you are buying a camera and a computer for the program.

But now there is an option. You can purchase the "Creative Cloud" software for only $29.99 (student pricing) a month on a one year purchase. It appears that the charges will be billed monthly to a credit card, in US dollars (so the number may bounce around a bit with currency rate fluctuations). There is a month-by-month non-educational version, but I suspect that educational will require an annual commitment.

Apparently you can end a yearly commitment early, but only by paying a fee. That is never good news, so I wouldn't recommend planning on ending the second year of the program after 8 months (when term 4 ends). Besides, you will need this software if you are going to being working in the field.

So you have a decision to make. The $799 price gives you the software license eternally. But in two years, there will be a CS7 out, and it will cost about that much to upgrade. If you buy the Cloud, then you will pay $716.76 over two years, and will automatically be upgraded to the new version. You will also be out of school, and the cost will jump to $49.99 a month, so after two more months, you will have paid more for the new software. It is possible to run for several years on software that has been upgraded ... many photographers are still using CS1 to CS3 to this day. That is one reason Adobe is pushing the Cloud. I suspect (personal opinion only) that the Cloud will be the only way available for using Adobe software in two to four years.

Talk it over with your parents or significant others who might be financing you in school. The ability to spread payments out over the two years may make it appealing. Feel free to contact us at the college if you have questions. Details on the offer from Adobe are here. (There is a good FAQ page to look through).

Oh yes, Lightroom is still not included in the Cloud, so you still are going to look at another $89 for purchasing it (at student rates).

Free magazine

Here is a deal for students who have signed up for the Digital Photography program at Lambton this fall ... and those who are still considering it ... and anyone else who is into photography.

You can get a free subscription to this magazine. It is available online, but it is cool to be able to see the great shots full size in your hands on paper. I've been getting it for nearly a year now, and no negatives (like advertising spam or the like). They seem to make their money by selling ads in the magazine, and want people who love photography to get it.

To subscribe, just go to http://www.photonews.ca (not .com) and find the "subscribe for free" button in the upper right corner.

Enjoy.

Photo of the month

Photography + Imagination = Art

 

The photo of the month this month comes from the strange and inventive mind of Erik Johansson, a young Swede now living in Germany.

If you go to the TED (Technology, Entertainment and Design) video here at 3:41 in he shows how he does it, through imaginative use of Photoshop and two rather ordinary photos.

Another cool example of his work is Mind Your Step here. But a better view of it comes here, on his own blog.

The Lambton College Digital Photography Program will teach you the Photoshop and Photography skills needed to do this kind of work. The Imagination component is something that you will have to develop on your own (although our projects will help get you started on thinking outside the box ... or lens, in this case.)

Photo of the month

This month, our photo of the month is a special one. Not only is it a great photo, but it was taken by Richard Beland, who has been building the photographic courses in Lambton College’s Digital Photography program. He is slated to be the professor who will be teaching students in the program this fall, so we felt it was important to show you some of his work.



His take on the shot shown here:

"My shoot with the infamous stooge himself, Iggy Pop, was one of my very first professional shoots. I knew Iggy loved to perform shirtless, so I asked him to take off his shirt for some shots. I wanted the purest Iggy. Even though he first seemed a little reluctant to do so, he quickly warmed up to the idea, dropped his shirt, and effortlessly slithered into Iggy mode; when he squeezed his own nipple, though, he really outdid my original request." -Richard Beland

(A print of this photo, and several others by Richard, are available at RockPaperPhoto.com.)

Matte or glossy

This is an interesting topic, since it used to be something photographers dealt with when ordering prints. You could get them with glossy or matte paper (shiny or less-reflective). Now the question rears up with computer screens.

Most Macintosh computers now come with a glossy screen. It provides more vibrant colors and richer blacks, to many users. The biggest shortcoming with the glossy screen is that when you are in bright light, like outdoors on a sunny day, the screen becomes a mirror, with the glare making it almost impossible to see text or the image on the screen.

 But most photographers prefer a matte screen. The colors and blacks on the glossy screen can be misleading, and the matte screen provides you with a closer look to what you will get on the prints that many users consider the final output for their photography.

So our recommendation is: matte screens on your Mac Plus. But ...

You decide

Our recommendation is only that. A recommendation. You don’t have to have a matte screen. Or even a Mac Plus. You need a computer you can bring to class (sorry, an iPad won’t cut it). A PC is acceptable. We recommend the Mac because most pro photographers use them, but not all. If you want to go with a PC, this is okay. You just have to know that the course will deal with Mac key commands and instructions, and you will have to convert (it isn’t that hard). Don’t think you need to buy a new laptop just to take the program.

The same applies to the recommended cameras. You can substitute other makers. Canon is every bit as good as Nikon, and is favoured by just as many pros. We chose Nikon arbitrarily, since we want to build our collection of loaner lenses as quickly as possible, and thus can only offer one make. Nikon lenses will not fit on a Canon. But so long as you don’t need to borrow school lenses, the Canon is fine. As are many other makes. The camera must be a DSLR, and you need to be able to access a manual mode, and shoot 10 minutes of video. (And if you can’t do video, you can buy, rent or borrow a video camera for those second year courses).

If you want to know if a particular camera or computer  will be sufficient for the program, feel free to post a response to this blog below, or email either Richard or Don to get an opinion.

Photo of the month

Once we get the Digital Photography program rolling we hope to have a Photo of the Month that will show a truly great image that one of our students takes. Of course, until September it is impossible for us to do this (no students yet, although the applications are starting to roll in).

And even then, for the first year there may be months when a photo just doesn't come in that merits the honor (but we expect in second year the competition will be fierce as our students start to show their chops.)

Therefore, this week we post a photo taken by Jamie Beck, of New York. She owns the copyright to this image, which has been posted extensively across the Internet. We link here to her own site where you can see more of these amazingly creative images.Do go to the site. The full impact of the picture may not appear here on the Blog.

And yes, we do know how to do this, and plan to offer tutorials in the program.

All About Lambton College

Students are starting to list Lambton College's Digital Photography program as choices for their school destination for September 2012 (it is not too late to get your name in ... just go to www.ontariocolleges.ca to make your choice.

What we find interesting it that of the first 16 names on the list, only one is from Lambton County, with the rest from other parts of the province ... as far away as Oshawa and Barrie. This means many people will not be really conversant with the college, and will live far enough away that a trip to the college will not be a simple task. So we are going to try and bring the college to you, with an aerial tour of the college, courtesy of Google maps.

Later we will do another video tour that takes a look at facilities within the college, but this one just looks at how nicely the college fits into our small city environment.

Christmas Wish List

With Christmas coming on quickly, here are some Photography related tips for you to print out and leave lying around where Santa might see them. Feel free to circle or check the ones that most appeal to you.

1. A camera. This will be the “best Christmas ever” present if you can swing it. We have posted earlier about suitable cameras (and the under $500 amateur models just won’t cut it). The Nikon D-7000 with a 18-105 lens will run about $1500.
2. Okay, so that won’t work. How about a tripod? You can pick up a useful one for a tad over $100, and fairly good ones at about double that. Things to look for are the ability to pan, for taking motion pictures, and the ability to get the camera on and off the unit quickly. Portability is important ... you need to be able to lug this around easily. And durability is important as well. A tripod gets tossed into a car trunk and jostled about. A cheaper unit will just have to be replaced sooner.
3. Software is always cool. Getting a copy of Adobe CS 5.5 is probably out of the question at $899 student pricing, but Lightroom is only $99 for students. It has a wealth of features designed for professional photographers, and getting started on the program will be a plus for students.
4. If you already have the software, how about the book? A really good series for learning the Adobe programs is Classroom in a Book. Lightroom 3 is available from Amazon for $40 (also available at better bookstores). Photoshop CS5 Classroom in a Book is even cheaper, at $30.
5. Our final suggestion is for buying a camera back or case. You can spend anywhere from $100 to over $1000 in this area, and it really is a matter of personal preference. So the tip here is to get a gift card at one of the major camera stores, like Carman’s or Henry’s. Then the budding photographer can make his or her own choice.

Time to Apply

As we approach the end of 2011, it is time to think about applying to your college choices. You do not apply directly to Lambton College to attend the Digital Photography program here. Instead you want to apply through the OntarioColleges.ca website, which allows you to apply to any of Ontario’s community colleges. You will be able to apply to up to five different programs, with a maximum of three at any one college. You do not have to apply with all five choices.

It is important that you apply before February 1, which is known as the Equal Consideration Date (ECD). This means that any applications in now, or that are added up until that date, will be considered equally (not first come, first served). After that point, colleges will track the date of application, and earlier applicants will be preferred over later ones. This is important in Photography programs, which historically fill up quickly.
Fanshawe, Mohawk, Georgian, Algonquin and the Toronto area colleges tend to fill up by the Equal Consideration Date, or soon after. You may be “wait listed” with these colleges if you apply late, only getting a spot if someone who applied before February decides not to attend. Newer programs like Durham College in Oshawa, which started last year, and Niagara College in Welland, which started a few years ago did not fill by the ECD, but there is no guarantee that this will happen again.

As a brand new program, Lambton’s Digital Photography program is not expected to be full on the ECD, but it still makes sense for you to use Lambton as one of five choices you make, in case you are not selected in any of the other programs. In early December five colleges (Fanshawe, Humber, Seneca, Niagara and Algonquin) all had more than 50 applicants. This is still well under the numbers that will be enrolled in those programs, but there are nearly two more months to enrol.

To learn how to enrol in Lambton and other colleges, select the 22 minute Applicant Tutorial video tutorial on the Apply tab of the OntarioColleges.ca website (in the upper right corner of this page).

Choosing Your Electives

One of the things you do if you sign up for the Digital Photography program at Lambton College is choose your two General Electives. These run in the first and second semesters, so you need to pick one before September and the other in December, for the second term.

There are over 100 different courses available to you, in four general areas. (The Arts in Society theme is restricted for Photography students, because our entire program is in the Arts.) You can find the complete list of Gen Ed courses here.

The courses you choose are up to you. I would probably want to pick one of the three History courses, but I know some people would rather have a hot fork pluck out their eyes than study history. If you are one of those, you might prefer Politics (there are three) or the Media Law and Ethics course. All of these courses would be useful if you are aiming to work as a newspaper or magazine photographer.

There are a lot of Psychology courses in the list you might want to choose from. Psychology is the study of people, and the more you can learn about how people operate, the better. There are a few Ethics courses from the Philosophy department, if you want to understand that area better.

Some fun courses live in the Social and Cultural Understanding theme. One is a conversational French course, another is a course on Ojibwe languages. A course on the History of Gardens is available for the green thumbs in the group, or you might want to look at the Sociology of Women.

One course that could be a lot of fun is perfect for Photography students. HAT 3033 Field Study has a boring title, but in fact a major part of this course is a week-long visit to a major international destination. In the past this has been Costa Rica, now it is Haiti. The instructors in the course are quite willing to have photographic presentations rather than written essays as part of the course evaluation. Check in with the college a few weeks before term starts, and we can update you on the destination this year, and give you an idea of the costs for the trip. Fundraising helps with the amount you need to pay, but there are special fees for this course.

If you are a jock (are any photographers athletic?) you might want to take a Gen Ed in Physical Education. If not, the Phys Ed department also have courses in Person Wellness and Stress Management. The latter is one that will be useful if you get into a busy freelance position.

In the Science theme interesting courses include Alternative Energy, Environment, and Sustainable Development.

Finally, note that you can take your Gen Ed courses online. Digital Photography students have seven or eight hours a week of online work from your hybrid day classes, plus homework and assignments, so be careful about adding another three hour of online activity. Younger students often have trouble with fully online courses, and you can easily fall behind when you don’t have any scheduled sessions with an instructor. However, if you feel you can handle it, online courses will allow you more schedule freedom.

(All courses listed may not be available each term. New courses may appear. Check the listing, and feel free to ask for advice.)

A trip to Chicago???

One of the fun things about developing a new program is planning the activities and experiences that will make a student successful in their career. At Lambton College, we are determined that Digital Photography students don’t have memories of their education being cooped up in dreary classrooms. Part of this will be handled with our hybrid teaching model, where theory classes will be online and lab classes will be on campus. But another big goal of the program is to get students out of school altogether, shooting images in the community, at events, and even on field trips.

Just for fun we planned out a second-year trip to Chicago, and how exactly this would work. The trip won’t be mandatory, but when you see the low prices we have come up with, we expect very few students will opt for the alternative assignments that will be allowed.

Sarnia is located close to Port Huron Michigan, and students would be required to get to the Amtrak train station there on their own. The train leaves at midnight, and we would leave on a Wednesday night/Thursday morning. The train has several cars, so students who want to nap, could do so in one of the main cars, while those who want to party could hang out in the snack car. The trip takes about seven hours, so it should be about 1 p.m. when we roll into Chicago.

In Chicago there are many sights to see, including the El (elevated railway), fantastic architecture, and great museums and cultural attractions. We would schlep off on foot from the Amtrak station through downtown to the Chicago Youth Hostel, taking pictures as we go. We could drop our bags at the hostel, and then have a free evening in Chicago. Taking pictures until dark, and then you will be on your own ... this hostel does not have a curfew. Just get back in time to get a bit of sleep before the Friday activities.

Those who don’t party too hard can get up early to take advantage of the great early light to take photos of the area. The famous Buckingham Fountain (illustrated above) is one attraction within walking distance, as are the El, the Art Institute, Lake Michigan, and other sights.

We will have some organized activities later in the morning, including visit to the Field Museum, where hopefully we will have permission to photograph the exhibits, including “Sue” the recently uncovered Tyrannosaurus Rex on display there. Another activity here might be a visit with the staff photographer at the museum, to learn about the challenges of this type of photographic career.

Another group activity will be a trip to the Willis Tower (you might know of it under the old name of Sears Tower). The Skydeck, a quarter mile up, will give us great shots of the city and its famous skyline (pray for clear skies). The Shedd Aquarium is just a short bus ride away (bus passes will be included) and photography of the aquatic life is allowed (no flash).

The Saturday morning tour will involve the Art Institute. This famed art gallery has a strong collection of photography, as well as such painted classics as American Gothic, shown here. We will have to be back at the train station by 4 p.m. (check out is 11 at the hostel, for those who slept in) so there will be some more free time available for shooting the city.

The train ride back takes 7 hours again, and gets us into Port Huron at midnight. Then you have all day Sunday to rest up for another week of photography at school starting on Monday.

So what would all this cost? The train travel is dirt cheap, currently $28 each way. The youth hostel is also affordable, at $59 each. (That’s for two nights, not each night.) You will be sleeping in a dorm of 8 or 10 though. A three day bus pass is $12, and figure another $50 for admissions into the attractions (hopefully less, when we get group rates). You will want another $75 for your food and snacks over the three days (or more than double that if you want to experience Chicago fine dining or a stop at the clubs.)

All totalled, the low end cost of the trip would be $250 per person for three days of fun and photography. Now all we have to do is work out a trip to New York so that first year students can join in the fun.

(This field trip is all currently conjecture. There is no guarantee that such a trip will be a part of the Lambton College experience. However, the developers of the Digital Photography program are determined to build this type of experience into the program.)

Well, we knew it would happen. Almost a year before the Digital Photography program starts at Lambton College, and already our preferred list of Nikon cameras is changing. The list available here, shows the Nikon D3100, D90, and D7000 as the three cameras we recommend, from most economical to most useful.

Well, we have to abridge that listing (if you are reading this blog from the archives, it may already have been updated). We will still accept the D90, but really don’t recommend it as a middle option. The camera was released in 2008, which means that it will be a four year old model by the time the program starts, and six years old by the time a student graduates. Instead we would like to recommend this years new D5100, which is a more powerful unit than the D90.

The D90 is not going away (yet): officially it is the D5000 that will be retired by Nikon. That particular model was released in 2009, a year after the D90, and the two sat fairly close together in the pricing strata.

But let’s not talk of the old models, but the new one. The D5100 looks to be a better fit in the mid-range. We still urge students to get the D7000 if their budget will allow it, since it is the top of the line model (other than the professional models). You will probably be able to run a business, or get a pro job, with a D7000 for a year or two, before you need to fork out the price of a used car for a professional camera body. (Seriously. It costs over $8000 to get a D3X. And that doesn’t come with a lens.)

The D5100 has a higher resolution than the D5000, 16.2 megapixals compared to 12.3 for the D5000 (and D90). There are three movie resolutions instead of 1, including full 1080. The LCD hinges off the side of the camera, rather than the back. Most users prefer the side hinge.

For more details on the system, visit this review.



(Photo credit Nikon Canada).

Career Paths

My father started working for Ontario Hydro as a lineman when he was 18 years old, and retired after about 40 years. He made good money, for a high school dropout. And he provided his family of four children with a sufficient, if not ample income. I don’t know about the early years of his career, but for the last 25 years or so, he hated every day of his work.

That is a decision all young people need to make. There are jobs that will pay you a lot of money, provide a good pension and a stable cash flow. They may or may not stimulate you intellectually, and you may wind up hating the job, but have to keep doing it in order to feed your family and/or buy your expensive toys.

Then there are other jobs, where working is fun. They may not pay as well, but you will have a variety of experiences and actually enjoy going to week every day. Digital Photography falls into this category.
You almost certainly will not come out of any Photography program and land a big, well-paying job. We will teach you the basics of the field, but experience is only gained one way, through sweat equity. You will probably run through a few low paying jobs before you make your break. I spoke to a Georgian College photography grad last year, and he was working for a film production company. As a “gopher” ... they guy who goes for coffee, who goes for supplies, who builds sets and does whatever work they want and need on the production sets.

He told me his bosses have had other photography grads attempt the job, but they were put off because it is menial work that seems beneath someone who had just finished two years of expensive schooling. But this lad is smart, and knows that this job is just the first step on what may be a long string of jobs that he has. He is keeping his eyes open, and watching what others do. Some day one of the other staff at the company will be sick, and he will fill in on their job, and prove he can do it. That is how one moves up. I suspect that in two years he will have a decent paying job for this company, or another one in filmmaking.

The point is that he has chosen a career where he is having fun. Even as a gopher, he is learning and growing, and every day is different with different challenges and different rewards. Like most jobs at the start of a photography career it is low paying, but exciting. It will lead him to new levels and someday he will be making decent money. But he will never have a boring job.

Interdisciplinary Project

Wow, those are big words. Really popular ones in education, too. But what they actually mean is people working together from more than one course. Most of the bigger colleges don’t have an opportunity to do this, but Lambton College is small enough that we can.

Here’s an example: our Digital Photography program plans to team up with students from Hairdressing, Esthetician, and Fashion Business to do professional model photography. The models aren’t professional ... yet, but our students work together to help them build a professional style modelling portfolio of photos. The Digital Photography students will compose two members of a team. One will do lighting for the shoot, using the college’s professional lighting equipment. The other will do the photography with his or her digital camera. Both will work on the post shoot processing, retouching the files and color correcting them.

Students from the Hairdressing program will do the model’s hair before the session, and then be on hand during the shoot to make sure that not a hair is out of place. Esthetician students will do the model’s nails and makeup, and again, be at the shoot to do retouching if needed. The Fashion Business students will coordinate the entire affair: help the model choose clothing and accessories for the shoot, scout out locations, and finally they will be stylists for the shoot, helping with posing and other fine details.

This project is one of the special topics that Lambton’s Digital Photography program will offer.

Buying a computer from Apple

Last week I looked at the process of buying a computer at an auction. That didn’t work so well, so this week I will tell you about the method I used. I purchased direct from Apple, and had the computer shipped to my home.

I ordered an iMac desktop computer, although students in the program will need to get a MacBook laptop. It means you will have a smaller box to lug in from the door when the courier delivers it. I ordered the computer on a Friday, fairly late in the day.

There was a deal at the time, it might still be going on when students are buying their computer for class in the summer of 2012, offering me $100 worth of iTunes or iApps purchases for buying an educational computer. They shipped this card separately from the computer, and I got it on the Tuesday following.

The computer was shipped on Thursday, and they promised it would come by 6 p.m. on Friday. They lied. It sat in Calgary (don’t ask me why it went from California to Tennessee to Alberta on the way to Sarnia) for three days. But on the Monday it started to roll, and by 2:30 p.m. it was at my front door. You might find the FedEx tracking document posted below interesting.

After that I had to set it up, but that is another blog.

Purchasing locally

Future Shop is the only Sarnia store I know of that sells Mac computers, and they only sell the small 13 inch screen (according to their website, maybe they can order the bigger ones). I would be very cautious about getting this size, because it just isn’t very much screen space for dealing with Photoshop and Dreamweaver. (My new desktop iMac has a massive 27 inch screen, along with a second monitor).

You can buy/order Macs from MacOutpost in London, on Wharncliffe just south of Horton. I have information about a place called P-Town Tech in Petrolia, about 20 miles outside of Sarnia, but haven’t been there. And there is a new Apple corporate store in Waterloo, Ontario, a couple hours outside of Sarnia, but without the hassles of driving through downtown Toronto.

But for me the courier system worked just fine, other than the anticipation of waiting so long. Shipping was free.