This weekend is the New Art Festival in the Glebe which will be attended by many artists and some photographer acquaintances:
Louis Helbig – renowned for his aerial photos of the Alberta Tar Sands (see below)
Helene Anne Fortin – traditional B&W portraits
Worth a visit!
Louis Helbig: "This abstract image details oily tar floating on Suncor’s most recently created tar pond (lake)."
I got an email from one of our photo course students, Prasad. He is looking at film cameras and is wondering about the future of film. He said:
“Hey Harry- what do you think is the future of film in cameras? Will I still be able to buy a roll of film say 10 years from now? Is there a chance people will revert back to film or are we on this out-of-control digital train ride for ever…”
My answer?
I believe film will always be available and used although it will be a small niche market. Film has qualities that digital does not and will always have an artistic market. Some photographers like Helene Anne Fortin still work exclusively in film.
I draw parallels between the digital-film transition and the colour-B&W transition when colour film became prominent years ago. When colour film became widespread B&W did not disappear. It has remained a prominent, although small, product. I believe the same will happen for film.
From a business perspective I believe digital rocketed to success partly because of camera manufacturer’s foresight and sales projections…
I’ll use Nikon as an example – Nikon developed their prominent ‘professional’ grade F series film cameras starting in 1959 with the F1.
The F2 came out in 1972.
F3 – 1980
F4 – 1988
F5 – 1996
F6 – 2004
That’s six camera redesigns in 45 years.
Cameras were made so well that people did not replace cameras very often. Fast forward to digital and Nikon has produced three ‘pro’ digital cameras (D1, D2, D3) in ten years and that number at least triples if you include all the versions: D1, D1H, D1x, etc.
Digital camera development allowed manufacturers to sell far more cameras… and what has that done to profits? Read this article from 2006 – “Canon and Nikon Profits Rise“:
It’s no wonder digital camera sales rocketed! I believe manufacturers saw dollar signs and set their sales and marketing machines to sell the ‘best new tools‘ in photography. “Gotta have one!” They were billed as money saving tools – “no film and processing!!”
In reality, most photographers now recognize digital costs more when you include depreciation, increased expectations from clients, increased peripherals, etc.
Ok, ok, I am way off topic. What about the future of film?!
I believe that once digital camera sales taper off – I’d expect that in the next three to ten years as digital technology growth eases up – camera manufacturers will ‘rediscover’ film and there will be a renaissance in film cameras, film and processing partly because a market will be created to replace slowing digital sales.
What do you think? Visit Prasad’s Facebook page – Harry Nowell’s Alumni Photo club – Facebook log-in may be required – to see more ideas.
Photographed with a Nikon FM2 (film camera) that was produced from 1982-2001. Shot on film with minimal post processing - colours are enhanced slightly - that's it!
It was a good weekend for running the National Capital Marathon events. Cool and good weather.
My assignment at the Ottawa Marathon event was head of cheering for my wife and friends. I used to shoot more sports events as part of my work. Times have changed and many people offer photo work for free or almost free – prices plummetted and I now do other photo work (as well as jobs like head cheerleader for my wife). Times change – you’ve gotta keep moving.
While cheering for my wife, I shot parts of the marathon and half marathon on Sunday.
Congratulations everyone and thanks to the volunteers and organizers!
Some excerpts, below:
Ottawa Half Marathon start photo 05/10
Ottawa Half Marathon Winner 2010 - Lawton Redman (6960)
Ottawa Half Marathon photo - working hard!
Ottawa Marathon Photo
Ottawa Half Marathon Photo 2010
Ottawa Marathon Photo 2010
Ottawa Half Marathon Pace Bunny Photo 2010
Ottawa Half Marathon Photo 2010
Police support - Ottawa Race Weekend 2010
Ottawa Race Weekend photo 2010
Ottawa Half Marathon Smiles - 2010
I will be picking up a new set of cards from Artopix on Thursday – it’s a part of the business that is growing at Harry, Inc.
I was at Artopix before Christmas and Claude introduced me to some new products – including the cards. I did a test run early this year and have just ordered a second batch. Cards will be available soon at some outlets in Ottawa/Gatineau. You can contact us directly, too for pricing.
Claude used to run a traditional lab – I would bring much of my E6 film processing to Centre de la Diapo – a partner business to Artopix. But, of course the photo world has changed drastically in the last ten years with the introduction of the web and digital cameras. Many working photographers (me included) were forced to change business models and workflows.
And I saw Claude’s business transform, too. He had to. He now provides many new products for business promotion and the public.
Artopix supports this site – we have four supporters – and helps keep the blog and newsletters coming regularly – please support them!
New photo cards
New Photo Cards
We ran out of time in the last post about Lee Kraemer’s Ottawa Photography course – Innerscapes.
To summarize:
People said:
“Different than many courses out there! Using the camera to explore the ‘innerscape’ is very useful. A good way to grow inside… if you allow that growth to happen!”
“The opportunity to use my photography to try to tell a story about an issue I’m grappling with – it helped open up some new insights for me… Lee creates a very supportive environment for this exploration.”
“Very helpful – a way to find various ways to look at the work around me can only improve creativity. I am very glad I took it.”
Yay!
Thanks Lee and for all participants for sharing!
Lee Kraemer - Ottawa Photo Course
A week ago we were lucky enough to have Lee Kraemer visit Ottawa to deliver her Innerscapes photogrpahy course. This workshop is a popular session for Lee but the first time she has brought it to Ottawa.
I enrolled on the course as a participant and was challenged to look at what makes me tick as a photographer. The session encourages people to delve inside and look at the creative process differently.
It was a challenging course over the weekend with different outcomes for different people – we:
More to come…
Past student, Yan – he’s taken a few sports photography courses in Ottawa and supports the Canadian field hockey team when they travel – sent me a link to some of the brave photojournalistic efforts from the Thai Red Shirt conflict.
It’s amazing work and represents an amazingly stressful photo job!
Thanks Yan! – Check the photos.
If you’ve been reading for a while you know I like dogs.
A lot.
So it made me smile when a fine artist friend emailed me a National Geographic video of a dog and an orangutan being best friends. That was my smile for the day!
Oh dogs…
Tigger on the Photo Blog
Biscuit on the photo blog
We just finished two sessions of the popular David Trattles Social Documentary Photo Workshop. It’s popular for good reason.
We heard directly from many of the students:
• “Thank you for a great course. I really enjoyed the time with David and learned a lot! He is a very colorful and inspiring personality.”
• “He is an awesome story teller and his pictures were inspiring. His perspective is so different and it served to remind me that the reason behind wanting to pursue this is to enjoy and build on something that I love.”
• “The course was great. Dave just further proved that there are no rules to photography. I was very intrigued by his shooting technique.
Everything I have ever read said avoid the ‘hail mary’ shot. Use the view finder and be very careful framing your image. Dave seems to have shot blind so much that he a great sense of the picture he will capture knowing the angles of his camera.
He had me laughing all weekend. Too many great stories. It was well worth the time and I am glad I took it.”
And there are some blog posts that tell more:
We hope to have Dave back for a session in the early fall.
Below are a couple of photos from the workshop (Thanks Diane and France!):
David Trattles photo workshop - Ottawa
A couple of weeks ago we ran a Custom Photo Course just north of Ottawa at Eleveage Catarqui. Valerie wanted better photographs for the farm and her dogs.
She worked well and learned lots:
“I am happy to report that I remember what you taught me and that I am using it on a daily basis. I find that my photos are getting better and I rarely have to fix them in Photoshop. I put more thought into it and it seems to be paying off.”
Thanks Valerie! See her photos below.
She also sent a couple of her favourite photo websites – related to DOGS!:
Elevage Cataraqui
Elevage Catarqui