It’s Friday! As much as I like making photographs I also love searching and sharing awesome photography. Every week I share some of the things that caught my attention or inspires me.

• Photographer Replaces Landmarks With Souvenirs(via Design TAXI)

  Photographer Michael Hughes travels the world and takes pictures of landmarks by replacing them with souvenirs.

© Michael Hughes

• Permanent Link to Surreal Portraits Created by Painting Developer Onto Photo Paper (via PetaPixel and Beautiful/Decay)

  Yes these are photographs and they have been created by photographer Timothy Pakron. He created the “Silver Print” series in a darkroom by hand painting photo developer into photo paper to reveal specific and desired aspects of the face in the photographs.

                 

© Timothy Pakron

• Lomography and the ‘Analogue Future’ (via TIME LightBox)

  The TIME has an interesting article on Lomography and how the analog-only photography company seems to benefit from the technology and Instagrams’ filters.

• DIY: Make Easy Photo Transfers on Wood (via Photojojo)

  Here’s a little DIY project that I’m planning to try in the few days. Apply the photo transfer technique onto wood pieces. Follow these easy steps from Photojojo.

This month complimentary desktop calendar is a photo of a lonely tree in the city of Akureyri, Iceland’s second city.

To download the May 2012 free calendar desktop wallpaper, simply choose one of the two sizes below depending on the size ratio of your computer display. Enjoy!

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Below is a quick selection of what not to miss. For the full listings visit the website and enjoy the festival!

(these are excerpts from the website)

Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces

This two-venue exhibition, “Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces”, brings together images from around the world to explore the ways we perform and articulate our identity in public, and the tensions that arise from the occupation of public space. In an age of social media, global urbanization, protest and revolution, photography plays a crucial role in mediating our understanding of socio-political issues and conflicts. From street photography to appropriated web imagery, conflict photojournalism to conceptual projects, the works in this show challenge and redefine our perception of the public sphere.

The artists showing at the Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art expand the boundaries of street practice and the shifting parameters of public space to make visible unseen aspects of urban existence.

Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces
Museum of Contemporary Canadian Art
(952 Queen St W)

Public: Collective Identity | Occupied Spaces
University of Toronto Art Centre
(15 King’s College Circle)

Berenice Abbott: Photographs
Art Gallery of Ontario
(317 Dundas St W)

Featuring more than 120 photographs, and a selection of books and documents never-before-shown, this is the first exhibition in Canada to cover the many facets of the American photographer, Berenice Abbott (1898 – 1991).

Lynne Cohen: Nothing Is Hidden
Design Exchange
(234 Bay St )

Scotiabank Photography Award 2011 Winner Exhibition. With the exception of a handful of architectural exteriors dating from the early 1970s Lynne Cohen’s art has largely been confined to investigating the interiors of domestic, industrial, leisure, and educational institutions. Her cool, deliberate, beautiful, and intriguing images, precisely executed, and infused with uninflected light, reveal a great deal about the scope and limitations of our abilities to control chaos and make sense of the external world.

Larry Towell, Donovan Wylie Afghanistan
Institute for Contemporary Culture, Royal Ontario Museum
(100 Queen’s Park)

This exhibition brings together recent images by Larry Towell and Donovan Wylie, two acclaimed Magnum photographers who have explored the consequences of the armed conflict in Afghanistan from very different perspectives.

Sleeping Soldiers - Tim Hetherington
Billboards on Lansdowne Ave at Dundas St & College St and across Canada

In remembrance of the British/American photojournalist and filmmaker, Tim Hetherington, who was killed in April 2011 while on assignment in the besieged city of Misrata, Libya, the Festival presents Sleeping Soldiers.

Glass Ceiling - Jill Greenberg
O’Born Contemporary
(131 Ossington Ave)

Jill Greenberg’s Glass Ceiling project is about the “setup” of being a woman. Working with a synchronized swim team, Greenberg photographs the women in their their work attire—swimsuits—with the addition of high heels.

Toronto Transformed - Harry Enchin
Akasha Art Projects
(511 Church Street St 200)

This portrayal of Toronto merges the present day with yesteryear. These photographic collages juxtapose street photographs from 2008–2011 with documentary images from the City of Toronto Archives.

50 Years of The Rolling Stones: A Rock & Roll Retrospective
Analogue Gallery
(673 Queen St W)

Celebrating 50 years of The Rolling Stones, Analogue Gallery presents a retrospective of stunning images from some of rock and roll’s finest photo­graphers.

Documentaries:

Life In Stills

Ben and his grandmother Miriam, late photographer Rudi Weissenstein’s 96-year-old widow, decide to join forces when the municipality announces plans to demolish Pri-Or, Weissenstein’s landmark photo studio, to make way for a new six-floor residential development in Tel Aviv.

Chasing Ice

In the spring of 2005, acclaimed National Geographic photographer James Balog was dispatched to the Arctic on a tricky assignment: to capture images that tell the story of the Earth’s changing climate.

Ai Weiwei: Never Sorry

China’s most famous international artist, Ai Weiwei, is shown with unprecedented access in this Sundance special jury prize-winning portrait. Artistic consultant for the Beijing National Stadium for the 2008 Olympics and named the most powerful contemporary artist by ArtReview magazine, Ai gained worldwide attention after his arrest and two-month detention by Chinese authorities last year.

It’s Friday! As much as I like making photographs I also love searching and sharing awesome photography. Every week I share some of the things that caught my attention or inspires me.

• Online Color Challenge - How well do you see color?
  
  Who doesn’t like a challenge? Apparently 1 out of 255 women and 1 out of 12 men have some form of color vision deficiency. Want to know if you’re one of them? Take this hue recognition test by X-Rite. Not that want to brag but I got the “You have perfect color vision!” result. The lower score the better, and again, I got 0 as in perfect score! Ok I’ll stop now.☺

  
  

• Brilliant Pencil Vs Camera Series (Part 3) (via My Modern Met)

  Belgian artist Ben Heine is doing it again in his Pencil Vs Camera series in which he mixes photography and illustration. Amazing! Check it out his work on deviantART.

  

  ©Ben Heine

  

  ©Ben Heine

  

  ©Ben Heine

• Top 10 Iconic Places to Photograph

  Oh one day I’ll be able to say I’ve been to all those places!
  

• TIME ZERO: The Last Year Of Polaroid Film

  The death and rebirth of instant film photography are the subject of photographer Grant Hamilton’s documentary TIME ZERO: The Last Year of Polaroid Film. As you know Polaroid discontinued its instant photography products in 2008 but the instant film is still alive today thanks to Polaroid’s lover Austrian Florian Kaps who bought the Polaroid factory in the Netherlands and restarted production with the awesome Impossible Project. The documentary will have its world premiere at the Independent Film Festival Boston this Saturday April 28th, 2012. Coincidentally, Boston was the home of Polaroid’s headquarters.

  Synopsis from the website:

  “TIME ZERO” starts as a eulogy to Polaroid instant film and cameras, sharing with viewers the magic of Polaroid through the perspective of a few Polaroid artists and former employees of the corporation. After documenting the fateful day when Polaroid announced it would cease production of instant film, “TIME ZERO” shares the intense emotions of several photographers as they recount hearing the news…and focuses on a few passionate photographers who decide to start a grass-roots effort to keep instant film alive. The documentary chronicles the passionate efforts of a small team who – against all odds – tried to keep instant photography alive. 

• Couple Pays £750 for “the Worst Wedding Photos Ever” (via Petapixel)

  This isn’t an inspiration but this story got all over the internet this week. Seriously, who’s to blame? The photographers who provided crappy pictures or the couple who clearly didn’t bother to make some research? Didn’t this photographer have a portfolio? $1200 is a lot of money but it remains cheap for professional wedding photography. Prices for a good professional photographer usually range from around $2000 – $6000. You always get what you pay for. In this case I agree the photos don’t even worth a penny.

  

  

  

Spring’s here! This month complimentary desktop calendar is a photo that I took last year of the cherry blossoms in Toronto’s High Park. The beautiful cherry blossom trees were given by Japan as gift to Canadians in 1959. The trees should be n full bloom sometimes in April. Check out the High Park Toronto website for updates.

To download the April 2012 free calendar desktop wallpaper, simply choose one of the two sizes below depending on the size ratio of your computer display. Enjoy!

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So winter is officially over and I couldn’t let it ends without spending some quality time in a cottage with a few friends. The chosen place was a nicely located cottage by the river in Chelsea, Quebec close to the beautiful Gatineau Park.

Here are some pictures taken during this wonderful weekend.

The house had a lovely fireplace which added to that charming cottage feel. We made sure to constantly keep it in good working order so we could stay warm at night.

Off course we needed some wood for the fire and we had plenty so we were good for the weekend.

This flower pot was left by itself in the sunroom.

Quality cottage time always includes good food and we sure had our share! But let’s be honest all that matters is the sugar for the morning coffee and tea time in the afternoon.

We even had some olives coming directly from Greece.

There is always old stuff hanging around in cottages. Those vintage roller skates were just awesome.

As was the look of these old knives.

Cottage time also means nature time and during these cold days it doesn’t get any better than a real Canadian winter.

I bet those guys can’t wait for the summer.

Let’s not forget that we were there to celebrate the birthdays of two of my best friends without whom this weekend wouldn’t have been as amazing as it truly was. ;o)

In From The Vault I’m sharing a blast from the past, a picture I’ve created a while ago that I’ve recently stumbled upon.

As you all know today is St. Patrick’s Day and I found a picture of a Guinness beer that I created years ago for a school project. On this day this is what you do – Drink Guinness (or green beer if you’re younger because you think it’s cool) so have a good one! Cheers!

March’s here and so is my monthly complimentary calendar. To download the March 2012 free calendar desktop wallpaper, simply choose one of the two sizes below depending on the size ratio of your computer display. Enjoy!

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1200 x 900

Most professionals in the industry will tell you the benefits of entering photo competitions through out the year. It gives you the opportunity to show your work to the jury which is usually formed by important people in the industry.

Every year PDN announces its photo competition with a set deadline and every year the deadline is postponed to a later date to cash in more money giving the chance to more people to enter the popular competition.

Here’s a look at the 4 deadline announcements:

• January 25th, 2012
• Postponed to February 17th 2012 for an extra $10 on the entry price
• Postponed to February 24th 2012 “due to demand”
• Postponed to February 27th, 2012 “due to popular demand”

PDN isn’t the only one using this sneaky technique as Applied Arts, Flash Forward, Communications Arts all use the fake deadline marketing strategy. Following the original deadline they will either raise the price of an entry or tell you they had to extend for technical difficulties due to popular demand.

The strategy seems to be the norm for any “serious” photography competition. I’m not accusing PDN or any other competitions listed in this post of being evil-minded but to me it does bring some questions regarding the seriousness and intentions of these high profile competitions. With an average entry fee of $50 I’m assuming it is a good revenue for them and with the state of the publication industry they would be crazy not to take advantage of it.

I was just wondering if I am the only one who feel like we are being played and see if anyone else has anything to say on the subject.

And of course, as I have in the past (and won!☺) I did enter this year’s PDN Annual Photo Competition and will probably do the same in the future.

For more information on the subject read the A Photo Editor – My Guide to Photography Contests blog post.

Just because I love you ☺

Get 40% off your order at archive.vincentphoto.com now until the end of the month. Choose from prints, canvas and downloads. Use code LOVE2012 at checkout.
Offer ends at midnight on February 29, 2012.