The Canon & Vimeo contest page is live!

Please check it out - and see the videos as they come in

(You can enter NOW but have almost a month before we hit the first deadline.)

There is also a forum page for you to ask any questions and to share insights with others.

These the prizes that the winners will be able to choose from (total of 6 winners.)

So here are the rules…

And now let me translate them for you in plain english as best I can:

You can enter as of January 15th (now)  but there is no rush - you have just under a month to enter your submission for Chapter 2 - the first deadline is February 11, 2010  at 11:59.59 p.m. E.S.T…

Here’s how the competition works:

Canon gave me a still image to interpret into a short film.   My short film then ends on the still image below.

This image is your "starting point" for chapter 2 - your interpretation of it need not be exact or literal...

Now it’s YOUR turn to interpret the image above into your own 2-4 minute film- and end on YOUR still image… (more…)

I just wanted to point you to a cool series of posts from some notable photographers on Robert Hanashiro’s SportsShooter site that he’s been sucessfully publishing (and sharing generously) with others out there for a decade.

Here is an excerpt of my post:

I’ve always found it interesting to study how a career takes shape. It’s a very interesting mix of things you try to make happen, things that fail to happen, and a convergence of events often completely out of your control that many call luck.

When I was 15, I was naïve enough to send my work over to Cornel Capa at ICP to ask him for his advice on what to do with my career. He sent me a very kind handwritten letter basically telling me to keep at it – and that things would inevitably happen. I cherish the letter to this day.

At the age of 19 I was rejected thirteen consecutive times during my first round of internship applications. I then sent out a half-hearted application to the Reuters News Pictures Photo Desk in Washington DC – to work as an editor – at the behest of my placement counselor late in spring – only to have it turn out to be one of the most important internships of my career.

Many of the other breaks that have happened in my career were more picture-driven. I’ve made maybe a dozen images throughout my 20-year career that I am proud of, of which maybe 3-4 are sports images.

Most of them were a result of a very special secret formula that I have learned by watching many of the very best sports photographers out there…

Please continue to read this article on SportsShooter here.

I’ve been debating a bit on whether or not to post this one - but I think it’s necessary - so here goes:

New technology is great.  It allows us to do things we previously thought impossible.  It empowers us to “push the envelope” if you will.

That being said, one of my favorite axioms came to mind after I read the PDN Article at left, namely: “Just because you can - doesn’t mean you should.”

First - I should say that I don’t know Jason Lam (the person selling these helicopters) nor is this aimed at him or critical of him.  Jason has EVERY right to sell his services and helicopters - unequivocally.

But I do think it’s a tad bit irresponsible for PDN (and perhaps Jason’s site as well) to fail to mention two very key things in their article/site:

1. Flying a remote control helicopter over New York City (as in the island of Manhattan) is ILLEGAL. (w/o a special permit - which is virtually impossible to obtain due to safety concerns.)

2. It’s extremely dangerous to fly such a helicopter (1. in general and 2. especially over a heavily populated place such as NYC.) Think of a flying blender if you will… if the operator/pilot makes a mistake the thing will crash or worse maim someone.

God forbid an errant radio signal interferes with the helicopter’s signal and the thing goes haywire (these things don’t exactly float down if you catch my drift.)

What I’m trying to say is:  you can kill someone (or yourself) if you don’t know what you’re doing.  Trying to fly a helicopter and trying to take pictures as well - is more that twice as dangerous! (more…)

Following yesterday’s post - I found it interesting that when I clicked on an image on Gawker.com - it led back to the Life.com / Getty Images site.   The words “For personal non-commercial use only” were clearly put on the bottom of the linked image.  Although I do not know if Gawker paid to use this image - I highly doubt it.  If they had I’m sure that the disclaimer would not be there. hmmm… 

As I mentiond - Life.com encourages the use of their images on blogs, e-mail, and social networking sites “for free.”  As you can see Gawker runs ads on their pages… so clearly they are a COMMERCIAL publication as they derive revenue from those ads.   They should be paying to use this image. 

While the usage rights are very clearly spelled out in their terms of service - I think this goes to show how dangerous printing those words “free” can be…   (more…)

 Today Life.com and Getty Images “joined forces to provide you instant access to millions of breathtaking photographs - for free.”  … “When you find a photo you like, you’ll be able to share it, print it, and sometimes even buy it.”

I was a bit surprised at first when I heard of this - after all the Time Life collection has always been highly regarded in the photography world as one of the most important historical collections of the 20th Century.  

I think that it’s great to allow people to enjoy it - to view the images that are all too often inaccessible or hidden away and decaying in dusty filing cabinets. Yet there always has been a certain cache to these photographs - in fact I bought a limited edition Margaret Bourke Wife print a few years ago as a gift for my wife.   Now if anyone can legally print and share these images online for free - I do have to wonder: does this move lessen the inherent value of these images? (Granted making a low resolution print off of a web gallery doesn’t equate the value of a true black and white enlargement - but as we disseminate more an more of our content online (and no longer in “printed” form) I think the distinction between the two will become less relevant.)   However, does making them available “for free” to some in effect “cheapen them.”  Will people intrinsically value the use of an image a bit less now? (more…)

Had a really close call with a very very close family member today - as close as it gets.    Could have been fatal - but turned out ok.  Head traumas are so dangerous, and when mixed with internal bleeding can turn on a dime.  

Any way.  All is good.  Everyone is fine. (Broken skulls excluded.)

Things have been incredibly busy for me over the past few weeks - and the outlook for things has been awesome.  And just like that all could have come crashing down.

I’m being cryptic on purpose because I really don’t want to get into personal matters on a public forum.

The point of this post  is simply to remind me (and you) to always keep an eye on what is important in life: family, friends - and all else is far secondary - if even on the radar.   Be safe out there.  Always make a point to “seize the day,” but make more of a point to spend as much time with your loved ones - no matter how crazy busy you are.

Being busy is a voluntary thing.   So is spending time with family.  Make a point of doing the latter.  

Family and friends are all that matter in the end.  

Peace.

(No probing comments please on this post.)

I just wanted to put up a quick public thank you to everyone for visiting  - and for all of the comments.    

539,380 have visited this blog since Saturday and 211,935 today alone - and that’s nuts.  The most amazing thing: my server (Rob Haggart’s to be exact) is still up  - as are both the Canon and SmugMug servers that are serving up the massive amounts of data…

Just to put things in perspective… (While I can’t really assume that everyone visiting this site has been here to see the video and downloaded it - but the numbers are showing that 98% or so or the visits are to both of those videos) I think it’s safe to assume that between that (and the fact that people are visiting the Canon web site directly from other articles/blogs etc from around the world) let’s assume for a minute that the 89.4 MB has been seen “only”  211,935 times  (and that does not include all of the other sites linking to the video directly… sites that undoubtedly send much greater traffic to them than this little blog does…)  To put it in perspective - today alone: a minimum of 18,946,989 Megabytes …. almost 19 TB alone have been transmitted - I know Smug Mug is up to 3.8 TB of bandwidth for the behind the scenes video - today alone…  these numbers are nuts to me. 

Anyway - thanks for all of the kind words.  My apologies for not getting back to the comments today - I will do so tomorrow.  It’s 10 p.m. and I’m going to catch up on rest - so that I can be at maybe 90% tomorrow - it’s been a very long - but invigorating - ten days!  And this looks to be just the beginning…

I just received confirmation from Canon: “barring any last minute technical difficulties” the video will be live within the next 12 hours…  (I will link to it from this Blog) 

SmugMug has stepped up to the plate as well - and they’ve agreed to host the “Behind The Scenes” video on their servers at no cost… so this site will remain advertising-free as a result (I don’t need to raise cash to pay for bandwidth as a result of their generous offer).

There is also a pretty incredible announcement coming up from them on this blog… within the next hour or so…   One that almost trumps the release of this video in my opinion- an announcement that you all have a chance to benefit from…

If you choose to subscribe via RSS to this blog - you’ll be the first to hear of it and the release…  my life has been on hold for almost a week - so I’m eager to get this out!    We’ve gotten over 250,000 hits on this blog since Saturday - and the numbers just keep rolling in. 

For now - enjoy this 12 second clip “teaser” of the behind the scenes video  - to be launched simultaneously with the “Reverie” film…  

WITHIN THE NEXT TWELVE HOURS…

See it in gallery on SmugMug

One of the things I’d really like to accomplish with this blog is to start up an ongoing discussion on some of the themes and ideas I presented in the “Cloud is Falling” article.   I’ve already heard from a few hundred of you via e-mail - and it looks like a solid bet that there will be some sort of “workshop” or gathering as result - perhaps as early as this fall. 

I’ve already had some pretty excellent people offer to participate - editors, publishers, agents, and photographers - not to mention some of the authors behind the blogs that have influenced me… (more…)

Well the interweb never ceases to amaze me…. but somehow my friend Andrew Hetherington found my blog (that I decided to put up just before midnight last night - and that I haven’t told a single soul about or sent a single e-mail out yet) and has already written a post about it…

Well - I guess I’ve been outted for now… the blog was supposed to start this coming Monday - but it starts NOW - Merci Andrew (more…)