24 octobre, 2005
No wonder Carl Lewis runs fast..he's vegan !
The world famous afro-american sprinter Carl Lewis has written a very good preface for a book on vegetarism. This athlete has been vegan for years and is a living example of veganism being an healthy option. If you were concerned about your health on a vegan diet, it's one worry less now!
18 octobre, 2005
War Photographer
Yesterday I went to the photo-club which I'm member of because the main subject featured on the program really appealed to me: It was about James Nachtwey, a war reporter.
The documentary we were shown was even stronger than what I expected at first. Images of death and suffering are something I will never get used to, and it doesn't seem like he does get used to it either.
What really surprised and impressed me, is the fact that he works so close to his subject: he uses a 50 mm in situations where other reporters use a 500mm, while hiding on a roof tops. In Palestine,for instance, he stood nearby kids throwing rocks at the israeli soldiers, while these were firing back with bullets and launching tear gas...and he didn't appear to wear a bullet-proof jacket !
With his courageous attitude of really sticking to his subject, he manages to capture emotions in a way that I never saw before.
Such an attitude might be considered as voyeuristic, as he stands so close to people in deep despair and suffering, but on the opposite, his attitude makes him stand out.
His interview and images carry a very harsh reality, but always with a sense of respect and humanity. In my opinion, this guy is an eternal optimist: He still believes Art will rescue humanity from its own hell.
Anyway, my words are not strong enough to tell you how much I worship this guy...as a photographer, I'll always remember the first lines from the movie:
"If your photos aren't good enough, it's because you aren't close enough".
The documentary we were shown was even stronger than what I expected at first. Images of death and suffering are something I will never get used to, and it doesn't seem like he does get used to it either.
What really surprised and impressed me, is the fact that he works so close to his subject: he uses a 50 mm in situations where other reporters use a 500mm, while hiding on a roof tops. In Palestine,for instance, he stood nearby kids throwing rocks at the israeli soldiers, while these were firing back with bullets and launching tear gas...and he didn't appear to wear a bullet-proof jacket !
With his courageous attitude of really sticking to his subject, he manages to capture emotions in a way that I never saw before.
Such an attitude might be considered as voyeuristic, as he stands so close to people in deep despair and suffering, but on the opposite, his attitude makes him stand out.
His interview and images carry a very harsh reality, but always with a sense of respect and humanity. In my opinion, this guy is an eternal optimist: He still believes Art will rescue humanity from its own hell.
Anyway, my words are not strong enough to tell you how much I worship this guy...as a photographer, I'll always remember the first lines from the movie:
"If your photos aren't good enough, it's because you aren't close enough".
17 octobre, 2005
One day-trip in Paris
Yesterday I felt like I could offer myself a kind of of early birthday present..
Ok it's a lame excuse..the true reason is I really wanted to go back to Paris sooo badly -last time I was there I couldn't even get out of the bus, argh - and the latest Thalys promo - 38 euro for a return ticket - is such a steal !
It will definitly look like a typical 'japanese tourist day': shooting film all day long !
Come here late November for the pics !
Ok it's a lame excuse..the true reason is I really wanted to go back to Paris sooo badly -last time I was there I couldn't even get out of the bus, argh - and the latest Thalys promo - 38 euro for a return ticket - is such a steal !
It will definitly look like a typical 'japanese tourist day': shooting film all day long !
Come here late November for the pics !
Noir et Blanc
Pour les lecteurs et lectrices francophones, je tiens à signaler que le numéro de novembre du magazine Réponses Photo est consacré au Noir et Blanc.
Comme à l'habitude, un dossier très complet et accessible à tous.
Pour celles et ceux que le Noir et Blanc argentique intéresse plus spécifiquement, je ne peux que recommander l'excellent ouvrage Noir et Blanc: de la prise de vue au tirage
Comme à l'habitude, un dossier très complet et accessible à tous.
Pour celles et ceux que le Noir et Blanc argentique intéresse plus spécifiquement, je ne peux que recommander l'excellent ouvrage Noir et Blanc: de la prise de vue au tirage
12 octobre, 2005
Silver photography is not dead yet
Since January 2005 I'm getting more and more into photography. At first I experimented with my digital camera, but I quickly felt the limitation of this all-automated stuff...push buttons device are easy but can also be very frustrating (some people could do an analogy with some OS developped in Redmont, but this isn't my style..). I quiclky switched to black and white with a good old Pratika camera. I enventually got myself a Canon EOS 33V along with a Tokina zoom 28-70 f2.8 and I realize I really got good value for my money (this zoom is such a steal for less than 300 euro!)
Of course, I considered going for a digital camera, but considering the price for a good digital DSLR and all the problems encountered to get decent prints at home or worse -at a minilab- I prefered staying on the safe side with silver photography. Sure it's a lot of work and you don't get to see everything immediatly right after you shot it, but on the other hand, it's really lots of fun and the results are quickly encouraging.
It might seem odd to some of the readers to start shooting film in 2005, when major industry players such as Kodak and Ilford have discontinued ranges of silver photography related products.The digital photography market is certainly a very lucrative business and silver photography (especially B&W) is becoming more of a niche market. Anyway, in a world were digital images (using 'images' and not 'photography' on purpose) have become common place, quality B&W pictures get the goods, especially among youngsters. The prophets announcing the death of analog photographys should look at history and read about the announced death of radio when TV arrived, death of theatre when cinema appeared..
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti digital (it would be quite ironic), I really think both techniques can coexist.If you feel like it, please review my pictures posted on flickr.
PS:The internet also carries some quality information regarding silver photography, both on the technical and artistic side. Digital Truth is an excellent reference for those who are brave enough develop film at home, and Photosig is a great place where you can critique other's people work and post your own pics for review.
Of course, I considered going for a digital camera, but considering the price for a good digital DSLR and all the problems encountered to get decent prints at home or worse -at a minilab- I prefered staying on the safe side with silver photography. Sure it's a lot of work and you don't get to see everything immediatly right after you shot it, but on the other hand, it's really lots of fun and the results are quickly encouraging.
It might seem odd to some of the readers to start shooting film in 2005, when major industry players such as Kodak and Ilford have discontinued ranges of silver photography related products.The digital photography market is certainly a very lucrative business and silver photography (especially B&W) is becoming more of a niche market. Anyway, in a world were digital images (using 'images' and not 'photography' on purpose) have become common place, quality B&W pictures get the goods, especially among youngsters. The prophets announcing the death of analog photographys should look at history and read about the announced death of radio when TV arrived, death of theatre when cinema appeared..
Don't get me wrong, I'm not anti digital (it would be quite ironic), I really think both techniques can coexist.If you feel like it, please review my pictures posted on flickr.
PS:The internet also carries some quality information regarding silver photography, both on the technical and artistic side. Digital Truth is an excellent reference for those who are brave enough develop film at home, and Photosig is a great place where you can critique other's people work and post your own pics for review.
05 octobre, 2005
Linux for Human beings ?
Some years ago I was already getting sick and tired by constant crashes of my pre-installed OS: you name it, Windows 98. I was using a budget computer bought from the local supermarket, and like the overwhelming majority of desktop users, I just asked my machine to flawlessly perform sipmle tasks like word processing and internet browsing. (Back then, I couldn't even dream of playing videos and all that fancy stuff I've got now)
I spent an awfull lot of time trying to install and re-install, tweak my OS but I could never reach a quite stable configuration and therefore was stuck in the cycles of "format-reinstall" every 3 to 6 month. In a moment of deep despair, I called a friend of mine wich already told me about Linux and its qualities.
So, we painfully tried to configure Debian on my machine, but the X-server wouldn't configure right (apparently my intel vga chipset was not suported out of the box) and I couldn't picture myself using my computer with a Konsole instead of a nice graphic interface.
So, I carried on with Win98 until I bought myself some new hardware and installed Win XP.
I must admit I was impressed by the newly acquired stability of this product, but was also surprised by the huge amount of RAM used by the sole system start up !
Later on, I also discovered the "format-reinstall' cycle was not complete history...the most irritating part of this whole thing, is that when I had a tiny problem with a component of the OS or one of the software, Windows won't give me the opportunity to see what's really going on and provide me with an appropriate way of fixing the problem adequately...you want an example ? ok, here it is: For no reason that I could think of, the file manager 'explorer.exe' started to crash every now and then (which is REALLY a pain in the a**) so I tried to find a solution on various tech support forums but all these cheap hacks didn't work..so, I tried to repair the OS by
re-installing the system files using the installation CD. I did it..and it crashed at boot up with a neat BSOD !Man, I was soooo angry..lucky me my data are not located on my C:, but I had to reinstall the OS, all the programs + the drivers...I couldn't take it anymore!
So I decided to try the much-talked-about Ubuntu distribution..and this was really a BIG surprise: The installation was really neat, no fancy screens like one can have with Mandrivia, but very clear instructions, network and most of the harware recognize out-of-the box (except scanner and webcam, didn't try printer yet).
The installation of the various media players and codecs was also straightforward...I was fully operational with usual desktop applications (word processor, dvd and media players, browser, IM client and mail client) in less than a day. This was really a big difference with all the hassles I encountered when trying to configure Debian a few years ago...
So, for the time being I still boot win xp for applications such as cd-burning and Photoshop, but I really enjoy the rock solid stability of my Ubuntu sytem and its REAL mutlitasking abilities..
So, if you always thought about using Linux but thought it was not worth the hassle, try Ubuntu.
I spent an awfull lot of time trying to install and re-install, tweak my OS but I could never reach a quite stable configuration and therefore was stuck in the cycles of "format-reinstall" every 3 to 6 month. In a moment of deep despair, I called a friend of mine wich already told me about Linux and its qualities.
So, we painfully tried to configure Debian on my machine, but the X-server wouldn't configure right (apparently my intel vga chipset was not suported out of the box) and I couldn't picture myself using my computer with a Konsole instead of a nice graphic interface.
So, I carried on with Win98 until I bought myself some new hardware and installed Win XP.
I must admit I was impressed by the newly acquired stability of this product, but was also surprised by the huge amount of RAM used by the sole system start up !
Later on, I also discovered the "format-reinstall' cycle was not complete history...the most irritating part of this whole thing, is that when I had a tiny problem with a component of the OS or one of the software, Windows won't give me the opportunity to see what's really going on and provide me with an appropriate way of fixing the problem adequately...you want an example ? ok, here it is: For no reason that I could think of, the file manager 'explorer.exe' started to crash every now and then (which is REALLY a pain in the a**) so I tried to find a solution on various tech support forums but all these cheap hacks didn't work..so, I tried to repair the OS by
re-installing the system files using the installation CD. I did it..and it crashed at boot up with a neat BSOD !Man, I was soooo angry..lucky me my data are not located on my C:, but I had to reinstall the OS, all the programs + the drivers...I couldn't take it anymore!
So I decided to try the much-talked-about Ubuntu distribution..and this was really a BIG surprise: The installation was really neat, no fancy screens like one can have with Mandrivia, but very clear instructions, network and most of the harware recognize out-of-the box (except scanner and webcam, didn't try printer yet).
The installation of the various media players and codecs was also straightforward...I was fully operational with usual desktop applications (word processor, dvd and media players, browser, IM client and mail client) in less than a day. This was really a big difference with all the hassles I encountered when trying to configure Debian a few years ago...
So, for the time being I still boot win xp for applications such as cd-burning and Photoshop, but I really enjoy the rock solid stability of my Ubuntu sytem and its REAL mutlitasking abilities..
So, if you always thought about using Linux but thought it was not worth the hassle, try Ubuntu.
Getting Started
OK..my first message on my first blog ever..yeah, i'm already an old hag (approaching 30's..wow, it 's really scarry), and for a long time I really didn't feel the need to create and maintain a blog.
I suppose I always considered this activity like a vague teenage hobby being all about showing your dog's pics to your friend or posing in a wife beater shirt in front of your webcam pretenting you're Eminem..but eventually I realized I really enjoyed browsing through some interresting blogs.
Ok, most of them are still about sharing your problems with people who couldn't care less, but the remaining few did really provide me with valuable information on loads of different subjects, ranging from veganism and ecology to open source software. So, to wrap it up, I'm starting this experience with the hope that sharing content with you will give you some food for thought or at least a good laughter ;-)
I suppose I always considered this activity like a vague teenage hobby being all about showing your dog's pics to your friend or posing in a wife beater shirt in front of your webcam pretenting you're Eminem..but eventually I realized I really enjoyed browsing through some interresting blogs.
Ok, most of them are still about sharing your problems with people who couldn't care less, but the remaining few did really provide me with valuable information on loads of different subjects, ranging from veganism and ecology to open source software. So, to wrap it up, I'm starting this experience with the hope that sharing content with you will give you some food for thought or at least a good laughter ;-)
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