images – Photography, aviation and flight simulation

« A hymn to beauty, this is what photography is for me »

Cover of Matthieu Ricard's book "An Ode to Beauty" — Cover of Matthieu Ricard’s book “An Ode to Beauty”

Matthieu Ricard is a Buddhist monk who spent over forty-five years in the Himalayas. Throughout the years, he has produced many photography books. He is a man of immense talent and what he produces is of a very high quality. His new book “An ode to beauty” is no exception.

For thirty years, he photographed with two Nikon FM2 cameras and then switched to a Canon EOS-1Ds and a Canon EOS-5D. The Canon lenses used for his pictures range from a 12-24mm zoom to 100-400 mm. Landscape photography requires that he adds graduated neutral density filters to his lenses in order to reduce the contrasts between sky and earth.

When Matthieu Ricard comes back from a trip, he says: “I work on the images so that I can recapture the feeling, the emotion, the colors and the light that I saw with my own eyes”.

Like many experienced photographers, the author studies the work of other photographers in order to always learn something new. About Matthieu Ricard’s images, Henri Cartier-Bresson wrote: “Matthieu’s camera and his spiritual life are one, and from this spring these images, fleeting and eternal”.

“An ode to beauty” is made of human situations, facial expressions and the changing lights of landscapes. The composition is well thought through.

Matthieu Ricard is clearly an expert: technically demanding photos are very well executed. There are, on his images, numerous magical moments, where the photographer had only a very short time to react. It is the case, for example, of a photo where the sun rays hit an ideal part of a mountain chain at the same time as a rainbow colors the dark clouds in the background.

It is a unique book, made of exceptional images reproduced with great care. Most images demand a lengthy contemplation. There is no “Photoshop” effect and saturated colors here: everything is perfectly balanced.

Thanks to this book, the reader can look at the planet Earth in a very different way.

For more photography books, click on the following link: Other photography books

Title: An ode to beauty
Author: Matthieu Ricard
Editions : YellowKorner
©2015
ISBN : 978-2-919469-86-4
All of Matthieu Ricard’s photography rights are given back in totality to his association Karuna Shechen: www.karuna-shechen.org

Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi

(Un précis sur le droit de la photographie au Québec et au Canada)

For those of you who can read French, here is a very interesting handbook. The author, Jean Goulet, is a lawyer by profession and was a full time teacher at the University Laval Faculty of Law in Québec. Himself an amateur photographer, he decided to develop on the many legal questions pertinent to amateur and professional photography.

The author skims through national and international legislation and takes a moment to discuss the Berne Convention. He uses real life examples in order to help the photographer understand the legal consequences of his actions when taking a picture.

Mr Goulet uses Canadian, Québec, French, American and English jurisprudence to highlight the legal aspects in the Aubry, Théberge, Snow, Roby, Ateliers Tango argentin, Xprima affairs, etc.

The reader is informed as to copyright, counterfeiting, reproduction of photos legal limitations, as well as monetary compensation granted regarding defamation. The amateur or professional photographer can learn about the legal obligations pertaining to filming of taking pictures during a show or a theater piece. Details are also provided for anyone interested into photographing animals, expensive private properties, people on a private or public lot, political figures, etc.

Many other aspects are brought forward in this really well done handbook but I cannot present them all in a short article. All you should know is that it is easy to find the information you need and that reading this handbook will help you to take informed decisions before taking pictures.

Here are few points, among many more present in the book that a photographer should know:

[My translation] “The right to take pictures in a private property exists as long as the property owner gives you his authorisation, or is non-existent when the law strictly forbids it”.

[My translation] “ Everybody possessing a personal and exclusive right on his image, nobody can photograph a person and transfer the photo in the public domain without the person’s personal consent, if the photographed person can be recognized and if that person does not hold in the scene a role that is only an accessory role ”.

As well, [My translation] “ If the photographed person is a minor, the photographer will have to obtain the full consent from the child’s parents in order to publish the photo; if the parents cannot come to an agreement, the case will have to be brought to Court (a.604 C.c.Q) ”.

When it comes to copyright: [My translation] “ Photographers hold a copyright as soon as they have used the camera shutter, this copyright protecting their economic rights and including a moral right that they keep even if they have sold copies of their original work, unless they have explicitly gave up that privilege ”.

[My translation]: “Owner or holder of rights, the independent photographer still remains the only master of the photography he created. It is the basic rule when it comes to ownership or rights linked to photography”.

Title : Grand angle sur la photographie et la loi
Author : Jean Goulet
©Wilson&Lafleur Ltée, Montréal, 2010
ISBN : 978-2-89127-972-7