Archive for the ‘photography’ Category

Last October, my partner and I went to the marriage of two great people. Alex and Miriam had a lovely little wedding in Montreal, and we had a great time (despite the tragic fact I missed the OCFF conference and several sleepless nights ecause of it).

This wedding was different in a couple of ways. First, it was at an athletic club. Now I’m more used to the Ottawa Y kind of athletic club. But Club Sportif MAA ain’t like that. Montreal makes EVERYTHING beautiful, know what I mean?

One of the more fun tihngs about the wedding was that rather than the standard wedding photos, Miriam hired a friend who is by day a commecial photographer to do the wedding. He set up a mini-studio, with the whole white-background thing, lots of complicated flash equipment, an assistant, etc. etc.

Then he got people to come in and do whatever they felt like in front of the background — indulge their supermodel fantasies, pretend they were riding in a peloton on invisible bikes (Alex and Miriam are both seriously athletic) or just doing silly funny things.

Last month, we got a thank-you card from Alex and Miriam, along with rints of some of the photos. It was wonderful to see the photos. But it got me thinking about how digital has changed so much. I rarely print photos that I make any more. Usually, the only time I print images is to send them to my parents, who don’t do the digital thing.

But there’s something compelling about the printed photos that may only in part be due to the professional composition of the images and the memories of the event they bring. I feel like I’ve been missing something. Am I right? Should I start getting some of my images printed? If so, what do I do with ‘em to maximize my and others’ appreciation of them?

Help me out, folks.

I spent the better part of a decade working at post-secondary institutions in communications. Which means that I did a lot of work around politicians visiting campuses. New buildings, new labs, funding announcements, safety blitzes, policy unveilings… I’ve done ‘em all.

And one evergreen part of the event is the walkabout. This is the part of the event where the politician, accompanied by his or her entourage as well as officials from the institution, leaves the podium and then wanders around an area looking at stuff that’s related in some way to the announcement.

Talking about water purification? Check out this demo: EcoVu water purification.  Announcing new money for education? Hit a classroom or computer lab. Health care announcement? Check out a nursing lab.

This gets done for a couple of reasons. The most important one from my perspective has always been that it’s hard for TV to cover an announcement with just pictures of the politician speaking. You need stuff on tape that the reporter can write over. And in some cases, the politicians are actually interested.

But this morning’s Daily Intel slide show is the epitome of the photo-op: A History of Obama Feigning Interest in Mundane Things. If you’re a communicator or a political aide, view and chuckle knowingly. Or weep. Or both.

Obama feigning interest in a screw

I’m happy to point anybody who floats past Flacklife to a new Web site that’s just gone online from my brother-in-law Shane. Shane and his fiancee Dorothy just moved back to Halifax with their gorgeous huskies Qimmiq and Inuk, and he’s a great photographer.

His new site, Expressions of Nature, has tons of his images, one of which has pride of place on our living room wall:

Check out his site, and if something appeals, order a print. You’ll be happy.

Ciao,
Bob.