More U of M

Rather than just show you the shots, I though it would be nice to see them in their spreads.

   

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University of Manitoba - Annual Report 2006/2007

University of Manitoba - Annual Report 2006/2007
The majority of shots in this report are mine. A few were pick ups from previous years.

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Wine glass

wineglass
Originally uploaded by ianmcc

IRCOM House

IRCOM House
Originally uploaded by ianmcc

Shots like these are fun. We take all sorts of people and get them to do things in the background. It's kinda organized chaos! But it's also very close to choreographing movement for film or video.
When it all comes together, and we get something that looks great it's very gratifying.

Homage

What do you do when you have to shoot a business portrait with a guy, a Bentley and a gravel parking lot full of used mid size American cars? You reference Funky Cold Medina!
I wasn't worried about ripping Ton Loc since his cover is a more overt "homage" to one by Donald Byrd.
 Even Blue Note ripped it off again:

While everyone at the shoot laughed when I brought up Ton Loc's Loc'ed After Dark, it's what I had in my mind, 'cept it had to be a skinny horizontal.
Now that I look at it, I didn't even come close, but it was in the back of mind. This is the difference between "homage" and "ripping it off".
I've had too many instances where someone would have been holding the album cover and asking me to move an inch to match the angle. Sure you can google or iStock something to help you find a place to start, but make it your own. Before the net, designers had to draw what they saw in their mind, then we worked together to realize that vision

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The end of summer

Took these with my iphone. Kinda sums up the end of summer.
That patch of green is where the pool once was. As I predicted, it took all summer to get everything done.

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Another view of the gate

Another view of the gate
Originally uploaded by ianmcc

Needed a wider view and a close focusing lens but still kinda neat. If the guys in the pic could see it now,...

April Raintree

April Raintree
Originally uploaded by ianmcc

First clips from Canon 5D Mrkll. Convergence racheted up a few notches

Without further ado: Reverie

Vincent Laforent got his hands on a prototype and shoot a short film with it. As I mentioned to others, this is a game changer of a camera. 1080p with sound in a Dslr form factor. Watch the short to see what it can do in low light. Coupled with some of the lenses we still guys take for granted, you get a look you simply can't get with off the shelf video.

Convergence is coming from the DLSR side of things, where I honestly thought the video side would get closer, first.  This is even better, as a stills photographer, the tools remain the same shape. Laforent  was so effected by his experience with the 5D that his changed his site from Laforent Photography to Laforent Visuals.

Something tells me the Canon Booth at this upcoming Macworld is going to be even MORE crowded that usual!

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Google needs more Power!

Hiding in Plain Sight, Google Seeks More Power - New York Times


On the banks of the windswept Columbia River, Google is working on a secret weapon in its quest to dominate the next generation of Internet computing. But it is hard to keep a secret when it is a computing center as big as two football fields, with twin cooling plants protruding four stories into the sky.

The complex, sprawling like an information-age factory, heralds a substantial expansion of a worldwide computing network handling billions of search queries a day and a growing repertory of other Internet services.

Years ago I read about Google's need for cheap power and the cooling issues these data centres need. Now their plan to take these centres out in the ocean has brought the need in the public eye.
But after reading about this in Wired 3 years ago I thought about this.

Google needs the following
-Cheap power
-isolation for security
-colder climates for cooling

Um Manitoba Hydro, have you thought about maybe giving Google a call?

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Andrea

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The Jill Greenberg controversy

As NewsBusters reported Saturday, a freelance photographer hired to shoot John McCain for The Atlantic's October issue has not only admitted to taking a rather sinister picture of the Arizona Senator that she hoped the magazine would use on its cover, but also generated some truly disturbing and disgraceful images of the presidential nominee which she proudly displayed at her website.
Atlantic's Editor 'Appalled' By Lib Photographer's Altered McCain Pics | NewsBusters.org

This is a right wing website so the reporting has an edge, but the facts remain. Not only did Greenberg dupe McCain to pose for unflattering pics, she photoshopped them like a highschooler and then threw them up on her spash page of her website. She's since pulled them down, now that she's been condemned by virtually everyone. Ironically she's probably done more damage for editorial rights aka freedom of speech, that a McCain presidency would. I can see editorial clients demanding outtakes and making you sign your life away in fear of something like this happening.

Most of the editorial jobs I get we're trying to make people look good, not bad. If after the brief from the photo editor, I don't do what I've been hired or act unprofessionally while shooting for that magazine, the consequence is I won't get hired again. Greenberg, who is a top editorial shooter, probably thought she could act this way and get away with it. I don't think she's going to be busy for awhile.

This story is developing as we speak so look for more response this week.

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4 guys on a backdrop

two different takes on the idea, in one afternoon.
one on location, one in studio.
one a sales team, the other a band

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Upper Ft Garry, what all the fuss is about

Upper Ft Garry

I was in the park yesterday, on assignment for the Wpg Fdn, photographing the Friends of Upper Ft Gary. I think you'll find that most of us zoomed right by this little green oasis at 60km, never giving it a thought. I had only previous been in this park, scouting it as a possible location. But yesterday, the sun was shining, it was 20C and the big trees in the park still had their leaves. Enter the park from Fort St and it's a wonderful space. I hope it gets the TLC it deserves.

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RED Takes Aim at DSLR Market, Photographers Salivate

RED Takes Aim at DSLR Market, Photographers Salivate | Gadget Lab from Wired.com

Just today James emailed me a link to the thread where Jim Jannard mentions the next product as a DSLR-killer. Worth wading through the fanboys jumping up and down to read Jannard's teasers. The biggest being the obvious one, unlike Nikon and Canon, Red has no legacy tech to support and trun the idea of a DSLR on it's head.

This "announcement" (more like teaser) pretty much confirms the path I predicted way way back when the RED ONE was just theory how many years ago. I enjoying being right, I just wish it didn't take so long!

While Wired has wish list of features they'd like to see here, I don't think this stuff will be cheap, compared to a $499 DSLR. Think more like a top of the line Canon or Nikon, in the $3000 area. They hint that they'll drop the bomb sometime in the new year, wouldn't that be cool if Jim Jannard walked out on stage with Steve Jobs with his new toy?

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Broadway Assinboine, 9-Sep-08

Broadway Assinboine, 9-Sep-08

Air me is a free app for the iphone that automatically uploads photos from your iphone to Flickr. It adds the map co-ordinates, the location and even the weather when the photo was taken. Hit the pic to figure out where this was taken.

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It will be here sooner than you think!

CHRISTMAS!!!

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Liam in the basement

Liam in the basement
Originally uploaded by ianmcc

Liam was helping me test my new umbrella-softbox. Shot with a SB800 on a lightstand camera left with a D300

Panasonic LX3 Demo

Panasonic LX3 Demo

Kev hooked me up with a demo unit of the new Panasonic LX-3. Probably rebadged as a Leica as well, the hopes pinned to this camera are that it could be a poor man's Leica, with some features perfect for intrusive street shooting.

While I only played with the camera for a couple hours, here's my feedback

Pros

• physical switches for things you'll want to change on the fly. Things like aspect ratio, focusing style, and exposure mode. Even a joystick to adjust Fstops and shutter speeds while in diff modes. I quite like this.
  
• 16:9 ratio coupled with the 24mm giving  you a real cinematic vista.
• that same 24mm 2.8 is Leica glass, so it's sharp and it's F2.0 VERY NICE
  
• the camera is small and light Half the weight of a Canon G9
• endless ways to customize the kind of file you create, emulating film looks. Some of the B&W modes are very tasty!
• there are provisions for a optical viewfinder to go on the hotshoe. So you can shoot without the LCD
• 

Cons

• Lens cap, I am SO gonna lose that. A "keep cap" tether is such a throw back, but necessary.
• File noise. As predicted, Panasonic's legacy of producing files with excess noise continues. Kinda a shame in this day and age.
• The noise issue isn't a BIG deal if you can work with it, you'll see my example online look fine. Only when your up close does it show and on higher ISO's
• I set the ISO on auto and haven't really looked at the EXIF data to see what I captured things at. I just wanted to see how the camera handles.

It's a SWEET camera and I am sure once you delve into all the menus you can get anything you want in terms of look and feel. you can get all DPreview-ish here on the specs.
If I had a spare $500 laying 'round and was going on a trip where I don't want to lug an SLR, this would definitely be the camera to look at.

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Little Brother by Cory Doctorow

Little Brother » Download for Free

Probably the most fun I've had reading this year. Geeky enough to satisfy, yet explained in plain enough English that anyone could handle. It wasn't till I was finished that I realized that it was written and aimed for the teen market! I can't imagine the effect this book would have had on my 17 yr old self. It's like what Punk Rock said to us back in the day. If you're a  wannabe hacker ( and you know what a hacker REALLY is) and/or want to know what it's like to be a 17 yr geek in the near future, then I urge you to read this book.

Doctorow is a HUG proponent of creative commons so if you hit the link you can download the book for free. But really, you should buy it and show support for this kind of fiction.

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