Earlier today, we shared a time-lapse put together by an amateur storm chaser that captured 10 tornadoes touching down in Minnesota over the course of one chase. But time-lapses come in a few different varieties.
There are the ones that manage to turn an hour of footage into about 5-minutes of excitement — like the tornado time-lapse. And then there are majestic time-lapses that capture some of the most stunning vistas you may never have the chance to visit in person. Doug Urquhart and Paul Zizka’s short film “Mountains in Motion” falls squarely into that second category, and it’s got the film festival awards to prove it. Read more…
Model train enthusiasts often photograph their miniature locomotives placed in realistic dioramas, but for his project titled “The Canadian: Ghost Train Crossing Canada,” photographer Jeff Friesen decided to use the real world as a backdrop. He photographs the train in various outdoor locations across Canada to capture its scenic journey. In some of the photos, its difficult to tell that the train is a tiny model rather than the real thing. Friesen says that his goal was to document the beauty of his huge country in a creative way. Read more…
A big win for photographers in Canada: as of today, you now officially own the copyright to all your photographs regardless of whether they were commissioned. The development comes as a result of Canada major copyright reform bill (Bill C-11) taking effect this morning. One of the stated goals of the new copyright law is to, “give photographers the same rights as other creators.” Read more…
Officials over in the Canadian city of Winnipeg want to reduce gun violence and the number of firearms floating around, so they’re turning to… photography? The police department has partnered up with camera store Henry’s Photo and camera company Panasonic for a program called “Pixels for Pistols”. Through the end of this month, anyone can trade in their gun for a digital camera. Read more…
A 16-year-old aspiring journalist named Jakub Markiewicz was arrested last month at the shopping mall Metropolis at Metrotown, the 2nd largest mall in Canada. After photographing security guards arresting a man, he was unable to comply with multiple demands to delete the photographs he had taken… from a film camera. Read more…
Donalee Moulton over at The Lawyers Weekly has an article describing how EXIF data is beginning to be accepted as valuable evidence in courtrooms — at least in Canada:
Traditionally, a photograph was a picture of one point in time. It could only tell what someone was doing, or not doing, at a particular moment on a particular day. What came before or after was unknown. This uncertainty meant that even what appeared to be a damning image had little value as a piece of evidence because there was no context [...]
Digital photography does not pose the same problem. In some cases, the metadata are enough to counter the snapshot argument by demonstrating that an activity was performed repeatedly or for a lengthy period [...]
Apparently judges are considering EXIF data to be relevant in personal injury lawsuits, in which photos could “prove” that the plaintiff isn’t too injured or depressed to function properly. Hopefully the courts are aware of how easily EXIF data can be faked.
Winter is just around the corner, and the Canadian government has plans for a crazy photographic science project to welcome it. The goal of the effort will be to capture images of a single falling snowflake. They plan to use an extremely fast (and presumably expensive) camera that’s capable of capturing detailed footage of the flakes as they float down to Earth. Read more…
Photography lovers in Canada may soon be caught in the crossfire of the music industry’s fight against piracy. The Canadian Private Copying Collective is pushing for a new tax on memory cards that would be based on the capacity of the cards — $0.50 for 1GB or less, $1 for 1-8GB cards, and $3 for any card with over 8GBs. Law professor Michael Geist writes,
The financial impact of the levy would be significant. A 2GB SD card currently sells for about $6.00 and this would add an additional dollar or almost 15% to the cost. Given that the levy would remain static (or even increase) but the costs of SD cards are dropping by roughly 30% annually, the percentage of levy in the overall cost would likely gradually increase over time. Moreover, music plays a small role in the use of memory cards. A recent report indicates that digital cameras are the primary market for SD cards with smartphones the second biggest (and fastest growing) market. Music is a small part of the equation, yet the CPCC is demanding payment for every memory card sold in Canada regardless of its intended or actual use.
You can read more about the current state of Canada’s private copying levies here.
