Lock-out at Journal de Montréal still on going...

Early Saturday morning January 24th 2009, management at the Journal de Montréal locked out 253 of its employees, mere minutes after an agreement with the union not to launch a labour dispute had ended. The lockout apparently came during the night, late enough that workers would still contribute work to the paper, but early enough that management could sneak in a note to readers about the labour disruption.

Both sides, naturally, blame the other for failing to negotiate. In reality, both sides have held firm on their demands since the contract expired on Dec. 31, and a lockout has been all but inevitable.

Journal management plan to continue publishing during the lockout. The union is also planning a publication called Rue Frontenac.

In what has become the norm for journalist labour disruptions ever since the Journal de Québec’s incredibly successful MédiaMatinQuébec, the union built ruefrontenac.com, a website which they will use to continue working as journalists. Unlike MMQ, there are no plans for a print version of the paper. Right now the website contains a video with black-and-white pictures of locked-out employees. 

This lockout dispute are the result of management demands for changes to the existing contract that the union has refused to consider. They include:

• Increasing the work week from 30 hours (4 days) to 37.5 hours (5 days), with no extra pay
• Laying off 75 employees
• 25% pay cut for classified employees
• 20% reduction in benefits for all
• Clauses that would give new hires fewer rights than existing employees
• Flexibility to reassign workers to do multimedia work for the website

Workers that are in lockout declare outright that anyone who does their work (24 Heures employees, Journal de Québec employees, or those of mysterious fly-by-night news agencies) are scabs, and they call on advertisers and readers to boycott the paper.

This last issue is creating a big problem in the world of press photography. 24h as since lost an employee. My friend got hired to become the spare photographer. Since, I have seen a lot of people talking bad about him. His only trying to feed is 2 kids and pay for is apartment.

What would you do?

Source: Fagstein blog

Sébastien D'Amour - wedding and lifestyle photography artist.

It's official...

I am moving to Montreal, Qc.

I am leaving the Ottawa area to pursue the market in Montreal and also to pursue a little lady that I cherish.

I will still offer my services in Ottawa-Gatineau area at no extra cost.

I will miss all my friends from this amazing area.

Best of luck, 

Sébastien D'Amour - Wedding and Lifestyle photographic artist

Snowboarding at Massif, Qc

Hi everyone, 

I just wanted to give you some news. I went snowboarding with 3 friends this week-end.

We went to the Massif near Quebec city, Qc, Canada. We had a blast. 

We stayed at the cousin's place of my friends. We got there late friday but then relaxed with some Wii and beer. Saturday, we went skiing all afternoon. I suggest that if you go to the Massif, that you get there early to spend the full day. The chairlift ride is about 10 minutes but you can go down for about 20-30 minutes.

The view from the slopes is amazing. I can only imagine if we would have gotten so better weather!

Here are some images of the day.

Sébastien D'Amour - Wedding and lifestyle photographic artist.

If you love african animals...WOW

I found this website about African animals photography.

I did not know this guy and I can tell you that he provoke a lot of emotions with his photography.

http://www.nickbrandt.com/

Sébastien D'Amour - Wedding and lifestyle photographic artist

tiltshiftmaker.com

Hi everyone, 

I wanted to share a cool find on the web. With the craze of tiltshifting lens going on right now. I was thinking about purchasing a TSE-90mm f2.8 for my Canon 5D MarkII. I was doing some research about the lens when I found this on a photography forum.

http://tiltshiftmaker.com/

Here are some results that I have done with some of my pictures. It's not perfectly the look I am going for but I could get use to using this tool instead of purchasing a 1600$ can lens.

Of course, you cannot use this effect for every shot. You need a shot looking down on the subject to properly create the effect. Photos that capture details of an overall scene usually work better than those of a single subject. 

Cheers, 

Sébastien D'Amour - Wedding and lifestyle photographic artist

Original

Processed

I will not post the original images of the other trials since you can see them on this blog in other section.

Classy girl post

Michelle

Cynthia

Sometimes we just have fun!

How is everyone?

I am great. I have been reading up on marketing and other business related subject!

I will let you know about my findings pretty soon.

I just wanted to share a little moment that I lived before my trip to Mexico. This is the last shoot that I did for stock before leaving for Riviera Maya.

We had done about 90 minutes of business and lawyer related images since the model is a law student at Ottawa U. We finished the shoot with some great fun images.

I just wanted to share some of those while reminding everyone to shoot for fun and enjoy what they shoot. This way your passion will shine through even more.

I always find a way to get the fun out of every wedding or photosession that I have.

Sébastien D'Amour - wedding and lifestyle photographic artist

A little course on lighting with Marie Claude Hamel and Patrick Cormier.

Hi everyone, 

I just wanted to share some quick images from the day that I spent with Marie CLaude Hamel and Patrick Cormier on various studio lighting possibilities. 

We made 6-7 different lighting situation in studio from some reference images.

Patrick and Marie Claude are very knowledgeable about studio lighting.

I have learned various basic lighting and more advanced lighting techniques during this day!

This is a basic 2 light setup. It's the "sandwhich" technique as I like to call it. One light to camera left and One light to camera right!

This is a more complexe litghing setup. You need at least 5 lights for this setup. 2 lights behind the model at 45 degree angle, 2 lights in front of model at 45 degree angle and 1 ring flash in front. You can add a 6th light behind the subject to create a light halo on the background.

Enjoy and Have a great day, 

Sébastien D'Amour - wedding and lifestyle photographic artist.