News

I still owe this blog a lot of writing for which I already have content. However, I think that this note is worth sharing before I get to the other stuff.

One of the reason why I am hired is for my quick turn around of images and high yield. Quick turn around is a product of getting most things right with lighting and capture so that minimal, if any, additional processing is required and high yield offers the client more content for the same amount of time or less shooting time and image bulk to sort through to get what they want. How do I prove that I am confident in my work straight out of camera and my yield? Give clients unaltered, original pieces of film. A 36 exposure roll yields eighteen business cards assuming that everything works out. A roll of film is normally about $14. Processing only without mounting through Don's Photo is a shade under $10 a roll so each business card's production cost is about $24. However, I managed to find a large cache of expired film at McBain Camera. On top of that, a bulk spool of slightly expired Provia 100F happened to be available. 100foot spools tend to be half the price per frame of pre-rolled film. And McBain Camera's policy for selling expired film is to sell it at half price so I am getting a total of about 75% off of the film cost. Leanna's still my preferred business card model so she'll be featured on pieces of the new business card concept for the foreseeable future. I realize that he likely won't see this entry but I'd like to thank Leanna's father for lending me his Nikon F-301. I don't own any 35mm film bodies that are worth shooting anymore so the F-301 has made this first roll possible.

After an extremely busy week during which I left my voicemail box full and untouched I finally decided to empty it. I'm getting back to e-mail slowly, a piece at a time. The week was booked pretty solid with large format printing, shoots, and discussing business with a new-found colleague in the printing industry who also does importation and distribution (who's professional relationship with Jonathan's father hold several similarities to my relationship with Jonathan . . . which, contrary to what Jonathan's girlfriend believes, I am not Jonathan's second girlfriend . . .). Anyhow, a few photos with more details to follow. 

The long-awaited replinishment of my canvas veneer is at hand - shipment due Wednesday morning. Sorry for the delay and thanks for your patience . . . all matte printing orders that require this veneer along with the scheduled switch back to glossy black on the Epson 9800 will be complete within the next two days.

September 28th to October 1st, 2006 I shall join an estimated 160,000 people at Photokina, a biennial imaging event with over 1,500 exhibitors. The event takes place at Koelnmesse, arguably the premier exhibition grounds in all of Europe. The event opens on the 26th but I leave Edmonton the afternoon of the 28th and arrive 6am September 29th. I have confirmed that there will be fee-based wireless internet access available on the fair grounds and I shall be bringing a few cameras along with my laptop to provide semi-regular updates to my weblog hopefully lending insight to items of interest from the point of view of a working photographer and large format digital print maker with a background in desktop and enterprise computing. Check out Photokina's website and the associated exhibitor list. If you have a specific request for information about technology slated for exhibition please e-mail me or leave a comment on this entry and I shall try to accomodate your request.

The graduating classes from the 2006 Bachelor of Design and Bachelor of Fine Arts programs at the University of Alberta are holding their annual Silent Art Auction March 9, 2006 and the event runs from 6:30 to 10pm that day. The art auction will be located on the third floor of the Fine Arts Building (112 St. and 89 Ave.) If you have any questions you may send them to bdes_grad[a]hotmail.com. Proceeds benefit the graduating BDES and BFA students and there will be food and prizes. Or something.

Dong forwarded these photos to me just over a month ago so I suppose there's nothing new about this news. But that makes four consecutive entries starting with "new". Here's the story as quoted from my request to Dong for commentary:

"Well, it was the middle vehicle that started to smoke up just as the family pulled up and parked their van.  Apparently the smoke came from the undercarriage . . . The vehicle to the left of it was a dark green Honda Odessey, one of our doc’s car and the other one was a pathfinder, one of our senior therpist’s car.  The whole thing was whack!"

Dong also adds that "[t]he photos were taken with a piece of shit 2.0 MP HP camera.  Piece of shit is an understatement."

http://www.defenselink.mil/news/Oct2005/20051012_3025.html

I can see the university spinoff company's tagline now . . . Less human, more bomb!

http://mgno.com/

The guy's in an office tower with internet access and diesel generator backup with an OC-3 connection. Possibly one of the few buildings with electricity and internet connectivity in the area. Talk about up time!

His fiance is a professional model and she's on OMP. She's hot, check out her page:

http://www.onemodelplace.com/model_list.cfm?ID=85637

Brian Zinchuk, the only photojournalist with whome I semi-regularly communicate, was just nominated for three provincial newspaper awards in the Saskatchewan Weekly Newspapers Association Better Newspapers Competition:

• Best News Story - Norma Jean Mooswa kills six at Cochin sentencing
• Best Hard News Photo - fatal semi accident at Battleford, semi jumps overpass
• Best Columnist of the Year

He also adds that of the twenty four awards available at this level to him and his newspaper, his newspaper, Battlefords News-Optimist was nominated for nine awards and he was a significant contributor in the pieces involved in two of the other awards: Best Front Page and Best Overall Paper.

I referred to Brian in a previous entry and he's also commented on it. I'm sorry Brian, you've told me before and you've repeated it . . . which newspaper do you work for again? I did a Google search for your name but it came up in some of the oddest places, the first hit was a link to this blog. Congratulations, Brian. Good luck with the awards.

Edited: Added the formal name for the newspaper competition and also the name of his newspaper.

I can't say that I saw the fire with my own eyes but there was a lot of smoke around Whyte Avenue at about 1am. The smoke was spewing out of the top floor of a building that I believe houses The Funky Buddha and Hub Cigar. The Funky Buddha is a pub/restaurant-type establishment and Hub Cigar sells a variety of cigars as well as many specialty publications, mostly magazines, of international origins. I submitted some of these photos to the Edmonton Journal. Perhaps the photo editor may find a use for them.

Running into this photo opportunity was not planned. I was heading out to meet someone on my way home and, having a shoot today I had brought my camera to the studio. I avoid leaving my camera equipment in the studio so I brought it with me expecting to head home right after my meeting. Whyte Avenue around Calgary Trail was blocked off by police and fire trucks as well as some other emergency response vehicles. I parked my motorcycle, grabbed the S2 Pro and the 70-200/2.8 VR and started shooting. All photos were taken at F/2.8 and ISO 1600.

Not sure of the exact spelling of the store name. Anyway, Shirley Potter's appears to be seeking a new warehouse-like location to move to in order to combine all three floors of the current floor into a single-floor building. While they are planning a move, ALL of their fabrics are priced at 40% their regular prices. I was told by an employee that they may continue reducing prices until it is all gone but only up to a point where it would be more profitable for them to sell the fabric than to make costumes from it. I just picked up some irridescent, shear, chiffon-like fabric for about $8/m which is roughly what it would cost at Wal-mart for a narrower width and poorer-quality material. The store does not appear to have a website. I believe its address should be about 106 St. and roughly 102 Ave. in Edmonton.