Winter in the Canadian Rockies eBook

I am pleased to announce that Winter in the Canadian Rockies is the newest eBook in David duChemin’s Craft & Vision library and the latest in the Print & Process series.  In this monograph I set about to capture the spirit of Canada’s most striking mountain range in the heart of winter. Photographers of all levels, and geographic persuasion, will hopefully find inspiration and insight in this body of work, and the accompanying discussions.

In the eBook, I discuss in detail the joys and difficulties of working in the cold to capture the abstract and artistic beauty of this magical place. I also discuss my tips and techniques for both winter and abstract photography. I love winter photography and hope to inspire you out of hibernation to see the best the season offers.

Winter in the Canadian Rockies – Print & Process is available now as a downloadable PDF for just $5USD.

Special Offer on Craft and Vision PDFs

For the first five days only, if you use the promotional code ROCKIES4 when you checkout, you can have the PDF version of Winter in the Canadian Rockies for only $4 OR use the code ROCKIES20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more PDF ebooks from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST January 22nd, 2011.

Advertisement

Travel Photo Contest – Let the Judging Begin!

Thanks to all of those who entered the June through August LLTL Travel Photo contest. There were 105 entries in all. Our judge, David duChemin will have a hell of time picking a winner from these fine images. David is on the road at the moment and so it make take a few weeks before we get the final results but the wait will be worth it. Stay tuned!

©Darwin Wiggett

The Print and the Process Monographs

David duChemin over at the Pixelated Image has created a couple of new “Monographs” that are part of his Print and Process series. The premise of The Print and Process Monographs is to give images a place to stand on their own followed by a discussion of the creative vision behind the process. In essence the photographer creates a body of themed photographs and then gives personal anecdotes about the why and the how in the making of the images. David’s first monograph was on Venice and it had an underlying them of loneliness. David states in the introduction:

Venice is visually stunning. It’s also considered one of the most romantic cities in the world. And I was there alone, not to shoot the romance, but the loneliness. After a series of Italian workshops, I stayed in Venice to pursue a personal project, one that became these images. I was alone— even lonely—in Venice, and wanted I to shoot the city as I experienced it: through the lens of my solitary presence there, in my loneliness.

What I like about the monograph was not only the engaging imagery but also how David’s mindset helped capture a visually cohesive mood. As well, I loved reading about his creative voice in the making of the images and also getting some of his gritty little tech tips in the making of the images.

Today, David is releasing his second monograph in the series entitled Safari. This monograph is essentially a fish out of water tale of David in Kenya on safari shooting wildlife, landscapes and journalistic people scenes. This is not the David we know! I love his tales of having to stretch himself and move beyond his visual expectations. I could totally relate with David’s struggles to slow down, take it in, and get to a deeper foundation photographically rather than just machine-gun through the trip. There are great lessons in the monograph for anyone who just fills memory cards full of shallow images due to the novelty of the adventure. I especially like David’s new concept he calls “Layers of Impact” which he describes as:

a photograph goes from mediocre to good to great depending on the strength of the layers of impact. You can do this two ways. The first is to multiply the layers of impact, as in a well-composed (layer one) photograph that has a beautiful moment (layer two) captured in beautiful light (layer three). The second is to have one layer so strong that you really need nothing else, as in a grab shot of a moment of such intensity, that nothing— not even focus nor so-called perfect exposure—would increase the impact.

I really enjoyed David’s discussion and concept of Layers of Impact and will adopt his thinking in my shooting.

Beyond the personal growth and creative challenges David faced in Kenya there were the practicalities of gear choice and use. Anyone who travels and anyone who goes on safari agonizes forever about what to bring and what to leave behind especially given weight and baggage restrictions. I learned a lot from David’s experience and will use Safari as a reference for my own travel packing.

And finally The Print and the Process Monographs give us photographers something else to think about. That is, the PDF (or eBook)  as a mechanism to publish our own stories or themed work. There is great power in the PDF with vast distribution over the web where our work can reach many eyes beyond what we could ever expect through traditional book publishing. The e-publishing model allows us to share more personal work, more specialized topics and smaller projects with others. David’s Safari has reignited in me the desire and need to learn programs like Adobe InDesign and Adobe Acrobat Pro so I can share some of my stories as PDF eBooks with the world. I recommend anyone interested in being  inspired by another photographer’s work check out both monographs by David.

If you use the promotional code SAFARI4 on the link below when you checkout, you can have SAFARI, A Monograph for only $4 OR use the code SAFARI20 to get 20% off when you buy 5 or more books from the Craft & Vision collection. These codes expire at 11:59pm PST JULY 11, 2010.

Of course readers of this blog know they can also get  20% of any combo of 5 of David’s Craft and Vision e-Books until July 30th by using the code CDNLAND20

Click here to see all The Craft and Vision Titles.

©David duChemin

Travel Photography Photo Contest

June – August 2010 LLTL Travel Photography Photo Contest

Theme – Travel Photography

For the second LLTL photo contest of 2010 the theme is Travel Photography. Anyone can enter from any country with photographs from any where in the world. Send in your photographs showing landscapes, cityscapes, people, wildlife, culture or anything you encountered in your travels near or far. This is pretty much an open competition for anything you have photographed while traveling out and about.

Judge – David duChemin

David duChemin is a world renowned travel photographer, author and photographic educator who has a popular blog and fantastic website. If you do not know who David is check out his links… he is one of my constant inspirations! I am thrilled that he has agreed to judge this photo contest. Equally thrilling is that David has offered readers of this blog a 20% discount when you buy 5 or more instructional e-Books from his Craft and Vision Store. These e-books are only $5 each and are packed full of great information. With the discount you’ll get 5 for the price of 4. Cool eh? To get your discount just use this code – CDNLAND20. Click on the link below to order your e-books.

Click here to visit PixelatedImage.com – David duChemin.

Deadline

Entries will be accepted from June 1 to August 1, 2010. Final deadline is August 1 at midnight MST

How to Enter

This contest is free to enter. Send me a JPEG 400 pixels wide in the horizontal dimension (don’t worry what the vertical pixel dimension is) and set your colour space to sRGB. Please include a link to your website and a direct link to a larger version of the photo if you have one. Also you need to include a short paragraph about the photo either about how you took the image, or why the image resonates with you, or what you are trying to express to the viewer. Also please include the location of where the image was shot. It does not matter when you took the image, with what media, only that you are the artist who took the photo and that the photo is yours in ownership. This contest is open to any one, anywhere in the world, of any nationality.

Send entries to wiggett@telusplanet.net – please only one entry per person. The photo will be displayed on this blog with appropriate credit and a link back to each artist’s website (be sure to include your website info!). No other use of the image will be made by me or the contest sponsors without the artist’s prior permission. The posting photographer retains all rights to thier image implicit or implied. This ain’t no rights grabbing photo contest, I’ll just display your photo here as outlined above. I do reserve the right to cancel the contest and/or prizes without prior notice (what if someone dies and can’t provide their prize or I get abducted by bald-guy loving aliens?). You just never know. I also reserve the right to decline to display any photo I deem offensive or inappropriate (please no travel photos from the Red Light district!).

Prizes

Winning Image

The image judged best overall nets the photographer the following great prizes:

1. Sigma 8-16mm f4,5-5.6 DC HSM LENS

This is the first ultra wide zoom lens with a minimum focal length of 8mm, designed specifically for APS-C size image sensors. It has an equivalent angle of view of a 12-24mm lens when used on digital camera with an APS-C size image sensor. HSM ensures quiet and high speed AF as well as full-time manual focus capability. The lens has a minimum focusing distance of 9.4 inches throughout the entire zoom range which allows photographers to emphasize the subject by creating exaggerated perspectives. This lens has a compact construction with an overall length of 4.2 inches and a maximum diameter of 2.9 inches and is perfect for shooting landscape photography, architecture, building interiors, photojournalism, wedding photography, group pictures and travel photography. List price about  $1200 Canadian. Sponsored by Gentec International.

Sigma 8-16mm lens

2. The photographer also gets A Complete Collection of Craft and Vision E-books (all the e-Books in the Craft and Vision catalog!). Thanks to David duChemin for this great prize!

3. A copy of my book How to Photograph the Canadian Rockies

Second Place Image

The winner of second place gets a $100 Canadian Blurb Gift Card. As many of you know I use Blurb to make special edition books for gifts and portfolio presentation – here is a link to my Blurb Books. I am super happy with the quality of the books especially if you follow Blurb’s color-managed workflow and use premium quality paper. If you ever want a publication quality book of your own photography, I highly recommend Blurb which now has a dedicated Canadian printer and shipper. Blurb is offering reader’s of this blog a $10.00 discount on any Blurb book you make – to redeem just use this code below:

DWP25 (offer valid between 2010-05-25 and 2010-07-30. Promotion only valid for books created by the customer)

Third Place Prize

The winner of third place gets a copy of my book Dances With Light and my undying appreciation (this last thing is worth a lot!).

Good Luck to all!

The Inspired Eye – David duChemin

There is a lot of “how-to” and ‘gear‘ stuff out there in the photography world. It seems that the majority of photographers concentrate on the craft part of photography and few pay attention to the vision part. It makes sense really. Photography is a such  a tool-orientated craft that it is hard not to be distracted by the gear. Photographers spend  most of their time learning and playing with the tools of the craft. If we get good with the tools, then we figure we’ll be great as photographers (I wish!). Learning the tools will only make you a good technician, not a great artist – great photographers have personal style and the vision in style does not come from a brand of camera or a software plug-in. To express your personal vision you need to develop that ability first. One of my favorite writers about vision is David duChemin. David has a number of $5 downloads about becoming more creative and developing your vision. Personally, I think all of them are worth reading, thinking about, and putting into action. There are no magic bullets or short-cuts in David’s e-Books but lots of insight about pathways of creativity. Follow these insights and you’ll be on a more creative journey.

Forget buying a new photo gadget; head over to the Craft and Vision store and pick up all of David’s inspiring e-Books. Type inspired25 as a coupon code at  checkout and you’ll get 25% off your order if you buy 4 or more of David’s e-books (just buy them all!).  This offer is only valid Jan 22 and 23, so don’t delay. And if you already own David’s e-Books note that a new one has just been released today (Jan 22) called “The Inspired Eye 2“. The code inspired4 will net you this gem for only $4.

Just go buy this, it's good for you!