I was happily browsing through the Canadian Geographic website today to look for screen shots of the Paris article and I came across the most comprehensive account of the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition (outside of the Cape Farewell Canada website) that I have seen. Check out the images, videos and stories.
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Climate Change – Youth in Utrecht
It took me three planes, one train and a short taxi ride but I have arrived back in Holland.
Oddly enough I was contacted by a friend of mind who was by a great coincidence doing a presentation to the University College Utrecht on Youth Engagement in Climate Change. So, somewhat jet legged, I cycled the five minutes over the dining hall and listened to David Noble from 2 Degrees C talk about Youth Engagment. His talk about what youth are doing to help stop Climate Change was well done and contained many of the images that I created in Bali last year. It prompted some great discussion amongst the students and got people thinking about how they can be active and make a difference.
Cape Farewell Images
I realize that I have been very very silent on the Blog front since returning from the Cape Farewell Voyage. My excuse shall be that I needed time to absorb all the information and visuals that I was bombarded with for two weeks aboard a ship. And of course some time to edit the 9000+ images.
For those of you that are not aware of the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 08 a bit of information. The British Council of Canada organized an expedition for 28 international youth to travel to the Arctic to learn about climate change. Cape Farewell is an organization that was started by David Buckland, a British artist, who realized that we needed to communicate the problem of Climate Change much better. So for the last seven years he has been taking artists into the North to inspire them to create something about Climate Change. The British Council of Canada took this idea and ran with it to create a youth expedition. Focusing on the fact that by changing a few young minds, they will return to their schools and make changes that will build into a great movement.
The British Council engaged me to shoot and document their project and what an experience it was. Working with 28 incredible youth and an incredible team of professionals, we spent two weeks traveling from Iceland – Greenland – Baffin Island. All the time discussing the growing issue of Climate Change. The days were packed with Scientific measurements and art projects to draw attention to this issue that will affect all of us. But, enough blather from me, why not check out the blogs, images and creations of this fascinating voyage.
There are preparations to create a traveling exhibit of these images. Stay tuned for more information….
CNN coverage of the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition
Some of the images from the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition have been used on CNN’s website. Check it out
Cape Farewell – Off tomorrow
A quick post from my hotel room in Iceland. Tomorrow is the official start of the Cape Farewell Youth Expedition 08. As some of you know I have been engaged to cover this expedition for the British Council of Canada and we embark tomorrow night for Greenland and then on to Baffin Island before stopping in Iqaluit. It is going to be an incredible journey teaching and learning about climate change as 28 students from around the world come together on a ship to spread the message about climate change through a unique interaction of Art and Science.
Please check out the daily images and blog here. Image gallery is located on the left of the screen.
Talk to you in a few weeks.
Canadian Geographic goes to Paris
A few of my Paris images were picked up by Canadian Geographic to illustrate their story on that lovely city. Available in Canadian stores or check it out here. (The two images on the right page are mine).
North America Bound
Off again!
On the way to my previous hometown, Montreal, Quebec. I will be away from Europe for two months, spending time in Montreal, PEI and in the Arctic working with the British Council of Canada on their Cape Farewell Youth Voyage. A wonderful opportunity to work with inspired youth in an incredible part of the world on an issue that affects everyone.
Cape Farewell’s sixth voyage, in September 2008, is the first to originate in Canada. Its expedition includes Canadian youth from high schools representing every province and territory in Canada, as well as a number of international youth.
In addition to the 16 students from Canada, there will be students from the United Kingdom, Germany, Ireland, Mexico, Brazil, and India. Joining these 28 young students are 18 adult mentors, scientists, educators and staff. Moreover, the ship’s master and crew of 30, including a doctor, are active members of the expedition and highly experienced in Arctic voyages.
Cape Farewell, an innovative program designed to raise awareness of climate change, is the brainchild of British artist David Buckland. He has led five highly successful expeditions to the high Arctic, including four for artists and scientists and the inaugural youth expedition in September 2007.
Scotland
These images have been hidden in the bowels of my website for a couple of weeks now and I figured that it was time they were published on this blog. Earlier in June/July I had the wonderful opportunity to travel through Scotland and England with family and friends. See some of those images here.
Photoshelter – Pro Stock
You might notice a new little widget to the right of this page. I have recently joined the Pro Stock collection of Photoshelter. Photoshelter is a service that promotes the policy of ‘fair trade photography’. Let me explain a little, the last few years has seen a boom in the sales of Royalty Free imagery and microstock agencies. It is no secret that this policy has benefited very few professional photographers and sites like iStock Photo which sell images for pittance turn around and give photographers a pittance of that pittance. The big boys in the stock industry, (Corbis and Getty) have welcomed the huge increase of amateur photographers that are willing to sell their images for nothing, and in the process have effectively cut the bottom out of the stock market and making it much harder to make any money on stock.
It is nothing new that our industry is changing and many of us, including myself, welcome that change. We must adapt and diversify but the microstock and Royalty Free has certainly brought the quality of our work down. A photographer that I respect greatly, Vincent Laforet, has more to say on the state of our industry here.
So we get things like Photoshelter and Digital Railroad. Both which offer photographers the option to set their prices and receive respectful amount of the final sale price (70% and 80%) respectively. It is my hope that more and more art buyers that are searching for stock imagery will recognize this effort of ‘fair trade photography’ and use more of these two services.
If you wish to see what I have in the collection, click on it below or on the right. I am in the process of adding plenty more so check back.
Portfolio 2008
A portfolio process is a long and painful process. Your ego will be trampled to the point where it walks out the door, leaving you crying in a dark room because IT doesn’t want to be abused any more.
The process takes many hours of culling and editing and seeking opinions you respect. Then you spend hours in front of a computer screen working on images. At which point you find the best printer you can find, (Maarten Wouters at M*G!C), the best paper you can find, (Ilford Gold Fibre), and you watch the cash take the same route your ego did two weeks before. Once it is printed you spend more hours fitting it into your book and then removing every speck of dust from the prints as if they were disease.
One of the questions you must solve is, how many images should I put in. Anywhere from 10 – 50 images can be found in a book, but I believe in the saying ‘Less is More’ and my wallet wholeheartedly agrees. Between 20 – 25 images is the maximum. Any more then that and the client needs to be a family member or your best friend because no one else has that amount of patience.
After 8 years of traveling and photographing 5 different continents, what made the cut? See Here.