Canada's Tar Sands: "We've got Neil Young!"

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Monday January 13, 2014 · 12:15 PM PST

2014/01/13 · 12:15

The title was my reaction after listening to Young on CBC radio with Jian Gomeshi. Young is beginning a benefit Honour the Treaties Tour with Diana Krall. He wants Canadians to think for themselves, he is only telling them what he has seen and what he knows about the tar sands. He sympathizes with the workers up in Fort Mac but he is doesn't want his grandchildren to find themselves in the hole that they are digging there, a hole so deep they won't be able to see the sky.

Tar Sands and Boreal Forest

At a press conference in Toronto before his benefit concert for the Athabasca Chipewyan First Nation and its fight against the big oil and the Canadian government, Young said

“It’s the greediest, most destructive and disrespectful demonstration of something run amok that you can ever see,”

“Get a grip and understand what is really happening,” he said. “It is hypocritical, some of the things that are being said by the leaders of this country. It’s embarrassing as a Canadian to have to listen to some of this stuff. It’s all marketing, it’s all big money.

“This oil is all going to China. It’s not for Canada. It’s not for the United States. It’s not ours. It belongs to the oils companies and Canada’s government is behind making this happen.”

Agathena

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Monday December 23, 2013 · 9:27 AM PST

2013/12/23 · 09:27

no image description available — "Oiling" 2012, hand-knotted carpet by Faig Ahmed, Azerbaijani, born 1982.
Showing at Seattle Art Museum,
"Quite different from the traditional prayer rug shown in this gallery, "Oiling" is nevertheless part of the same regional tradition. The artist Faig Ahmed uses his knowledge of ancient carpet-making designs and techniques in decidedly contemporary images such as this. Appearing as though a traditional rug's pigments are melting on the wall, "Oiling" refers to both the artistic flexibility of oil paints as well as the swirling patterns of an oil slick on water."

My daughter's Christmas gift to me was a trip to Seattle. We live in a small town but we are originally from a big city, so every now and then we love to return to a large metropolitan center, either Vancouver BC or Seattle WA. My favorite image from the trip:

"Oiling" 2012, hand-knotted carpet by Faig Ahmed, Azerbaijani, born 1982.
Showing at Seattle Art Museum,
"Quite different from the traditional prayer rug shown in this gallery, "Oiling" is nevertheless part of the same regional tradition. The artist Faig Ahmed uses his knowledge of ancient carpet-making designs and techniques in decidedly contemporary images such as this. Appearing as though a traditional rug's pigments are melting on the wall, "Oiling" refers to both the artistic flexibility of oil paints as well as the swirling patterns of an oil slick on water."

More than that there's the order into chaos as the rigid pattern which turns into a flow of color. Read More

22 Children Die of the Cold in Afghanistan Refugee Camps

Agathena for Team DFH

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Saturday March 03, 2012 · 5:13 PM PST

2012/03/03 · 17:13

Driven Away by a War, Now Stalked by Winter’s Cold

We have to consider why these camps of misery were created. Was it because villagers felt that only Kabul was safe from strifing and bombing? I was unaware of these camps. My interest in photography makes me turn to the New York Times photography section LENS. Have a look:
http://www.nytimes.com/...
At least 22 children have died in camps in Kabul in the past month, including 14 at the Nasaji Bagrami camp, above. This winter has been especially cold in Afghanistan, with several snowstorms.
Credit: Andrea Bruce for The New York Times

stevej

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Saturday May 14, 2011 · 8:38 AM PDT

2011/05/14 · 08:38

A dramatic fall in cost is only one of the reasons why a democratization of photography has taken place. In this post I want to take a step back and look at some of the huge changes that have occurred over the past few years.

Originally posted at: The Democratization of Photography | Minimalist Photography 101

stevej

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Friday April 22, 2011 · 7:22 PM PDT

2011/04/22 · 19:22

I am often asked if there are any low cost or free online tools for image editing. The best free online picture editing software that I've come across is Picnik. It does all of the important basic stuff such as exposure, color, red eye removal, cropping but it also does a lot more.

Originally posted on my blog:Free Online Picture Editing – Picnik | Minimalist Photography 101

In this example not only were the alterations made, in this case a vignette, noise and desaturation were applied but the before and after split was also handled by the Picnik software. In other words by selecting the before and after filter the software takes the latest version of the image and the original version to get the two images. It is possible to have a gap of any width and any color between the two images and the before and after text can be varied.

Agathena for The Medium and the Message

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Saturday April 16, 2011 · 7:53 AM PDT

2011/04/16 · 07:53

Holland Point, Victoria BC on the strait of Juan de Fuca

It sits on the south end of a peninsula, at the south end of Vancouver Island. It faces the majestic Olympic Mountains in Washington State. I played on the beaches on the other side of this point with my sister, brother and neighbour kids. For my seventh birthday my mother organized a weiner roast on the beach. I was so happy that night I told my mother I wanted to be 7 years old forever. Today I live in downtown Victoria, the beach is a long walk or a short bus ride from my apartment. One day recently when I was looking out to sea, a man stopped to say "Isn't it beautiful!" I felt compelled to say "If you think that, you should have seen it when I was a kid. The beach was alive, schools of porpoises swam across, there were sea lions on the rocks." He said, "It's still beautiful."
Read More

Photography is Problem Solving

stevej

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Friday April 01, 2011 · 8:46 AM PDT

2011/04/01 · 08:46

Photographing shadows cast by venetian blinds is one of my many photographic obsessions. For many photographers direct sunlight and the resultant strong shadows are the enemy and are consequently to be avoided. To others of us though, they represent an interesting problem that requires that we at least attempt to work towards a solution.

Crossposted on my blog:Photographing Shadows | Minimalist Photography 101

stevej

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Tuesday March 29, 2011 · 2:40 PM PDT

2011/03/29 · 14:40

This is a very simple creative photography exercise that is almost a form of meditation. The biggest problem with working visually is the massive influx of data that our brains are required to process just to keep up. Of course much of this attack is intentional, is to keep us off balance, to make us more susceptible to buying crap that we don't need. As human beings, let alone photographers, we need something to counteract this onslaught.

Originally posted on my blog:Creative Photography a Meditation | Minimalist Photography 101

stevej

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Tuesday March 22, 2011 · 8:31 AM PDT

2011/03/22 · 08:31

Split toning originated with film photography but like most things can now be done digitally. As with other toning processes it works based on a black and white version of the photograph it is being used on. The tone (shade of gray) determines how much color is added back. In the case of split tone the initial tone also determines which color is added back.

Crossposted on my blog Split Toning | Minimalist Photography 101

stevej

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Friday March 18, 2011 · 11:05 AM PDT

2011/03/18 · 11:05

Understanding Modernism the Painless Way

Crossposted on my blog: http://minimalistphotography101.com/...

First of all lets define a thing. A thing, in this context, is something that doesn't have a name or a purpose. If it is made up of different materials, shapes and textures that is a bonus.

While we are defining stuff, lets add a definition for seeing. Seeing artistically is different than seeing where you are going so that you don't walk into a wall. It means to see objects and their relationships to each other as if for the first time. From a painter's point of view this would mean painting a picture of the actual scene in front of them and not some generic scene imposed by the brain to save itself work.

stevej

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Monday March 14, 2011 · 12:45 PM PDT

2011/03/14 · 12:45

symbolism spelt out in letter dice and an egg timer

Crossposted on my blog

The Aesthetic

I like photographing geometry. I am attracted to images where parallel lines, circles, squares feature strongly. This extends to the third dimension with the simple volumes all appealing, i.e spheres, cubes, cones and pyramids. I also possess the photographers love of and obsession with light. This combination is probably to be expected of someone who claims to have an affinity for minimalism.

stevej

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Saturday March 05, 2011 · 6:37 PM PST

2011/03/05 · 18:37

Here are some photography sites that I like. They are web sites that show the work, thoughts and opinions about photographers. They are not resources in the free editing software, online storage, photographer's tools sense of the word. I may write that post at a later time.

Crossposted on my blog Minimalist Photography 101

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Canada's Tar Sands: "We've got Neil Young!"

Seattle WA, Photo Diary

22 Children Die of the Cold in Afghanistan Refugee Camps

The Democratization of Photography

Free Photo Editing - Picnik

My Home Town, Victoria BC Canada

Photography is Problem Solving

Photography; Meditation and Abstraction

Photography; Split Toning

Photography: A Thing, Seeing and Modernism

Photography - Thoughts about Symbolism

Good Photography Websites