#74 Loose Ends

Posted on May 30, 2008 by admin

The week has raced by – bursting a bit. Some highlights:

My feature on the Passivhaus styled house in Ottawa Magazine hit the newsstand.
A small feature on Bluesfest got handed in to an editorial client. It features Feist, Ben Harper and JJ Cale.

Feist at Ottawa Bluesfest – ChelseaGallery.ca

filing and paperwork – not my favourite
I was asked to be a moderator on the fun and large photo news site PhotographyVoter.
A really fun stock assignment for the government was agreed upon in principle – waiting the official go ahead.
I am teaching a custom course based on my Urban Landscapes photo course.

A diversion for you today – a story on a man who took a Polaroid a day for 18 years! The story is both fun and sad.

#72 Marathon Photos

Posted on May 26, 2008 by admin

It was the National Capital Marathon weekend In Ottawa, Canada. I had three jobs:

cheering for my girlfriend and friends
shooting for stock agencies
shooting for the blog

My hat goes off to everyone doing it – the elite who work hard to achieve winningly fast times and those who work hard to achieve finishing the race at all.

Below are a few photos of the event:

Ottawa Marathon - HarryNowell.com

HarryNowell.com

Nice work, everyone!

Shooting sport events is some of my favourite work. Check for my sport event photo workshops and experience the fun!

#71 New Microsoft technology – boggling

Posted on May 25, 2008 by admin

My brother, who oversees some Cisco hardware development, keeps me in the loop with some cutting edge technology.

He sent me a link about some cutting edge developments from Microsoft’s R&D department – Microsoft Live Labs. It’s a presentation showcasing how visual data can now be viewed, morphed and displayed. It has applications for social networking and collective online projects. Welcome to the future. It’s boggling.

The technology is brought to you in part by Seadragon who are developing ways to overcome limits of bandwidth and large amounts of data.

Photosynth, also discussed in the link above, is a revolutionary new way of accessing and collectively archiving photos and data on a global scale – enormous volumes of information at your fingertips.

Welcome to the future,

#70 Photographer’s Beware… updated!

Posted on May 22, 2008 by admin

Remember my link a couple of days ago about “… a large US based oil firm that has asked the public to donate photos to the company…”?

Lightchasers told me the oil firm has eased up a little – check the update. It’s still not GOOD… but not so bad.

#69 Bluesfest and the media

Posted on May 21, 2008 by admin

Ottawa Bluesfest is coming. It’s a fine time of the year for me. Shooting this fine festival is the easy part.

The challenging part is finding the photos a market. Media passes are granted with the expectation that the photographer (that’s me) will get the event (that’s Bluesfest) press and media attention.

Ottawa Bluesfest

Feist playing to her fans. Shot on a panoramic film camera.

My Bluesfest photos have been licensed to a range of media outlets over the years. My favourite usage was by the federal government to promote tourism in Canada. A generic concert shot showing off the Bluesfest stage, below, was printed in the LA Times, NY Times and Boston Globe:

Ottawa Bluesfest

Tomorrow I meet with a client about some Bluesfest imagery in anticipation of Bluesfest’s 15th anniversary.

#67 Prize awarded

Posted on May 19, 2008 by admin

Congratulations go out to Deanna S. who correctly answered the first photo blog contest at HarryNowell.com!

The question:

I asked for the appropriate lens for a tricky assignment. See blog post #66 for the complete question.

The answer:

A large apertured, moderate telephoto lens would get the shot well! I would choose an 85mm f1.8 lens to let as much light into the camera while still allowing a moderately fast shutter speed. A mid range zoom – 80-200mm – with a wide aperture of f2.8 would also be a good choice.

Deanna wins a print from ChelseaGallery.ca! Competition was fierce with the first two correct answers arriving minutes apart. Stay tuned for the second photography blog contest at HarryNowell.com in June.

Nice work Deanna,

Harry

#66 Contest day!

Posted on May 15, 2008 by admin

Blog contest (prize to be awarded!):
You are at a small festival and watching a local jazz musician getting intimate with his sax. You were lucky enough to get a front row view. The jazz man is 3m (10 feet) from you. It’s 8pm and the daylight is fading. The stage lights are starting to shape the light.

sax player

If you were doing an available light (no flash), photojournalistic portrait of the sax player from the waist up, what lens would you use?
I don’t care about the brand. I want to know the focal length & aperture. Zoom or fixed focal lens? Why?

Need help? Check this Exposed! article for ideas. It describes some shooting ideas and a photo from the Ottawa’s Bluesfest extravaganza!

Answers: The first reasonable and fully correct answer will receive a ChelseaGallery.ca print like the one mentioned yesterday. Please submit your complete answers via e-mail: Harry@HarryNowell.com.

The winner will be contacted by e-mail. A mailing address is needed to send the prize! Correct answer and winner will be announced next week.

Good luck,

Harry

#65 Tomorrow

Posted on May 14, 2008 by admin

Tomorrow (Thursday, May 15th) is quiz day on the blog.

I will be posting a skill testing photo question on this blog in the late morning, early aftrenoon. The answer will be available within my Exposed! articles. The prize is this 9.5″ x 14″ print from ChelseaGallery.ca – framing and matting not included!

Blog Quiz Prize

Study hard! Send your answers as instructed tomorrow!

The first reasonably correct answer will be contacted and your print will be delivered to the address you provide.

Good luck,

Harry