This site serves as the professional portfolio for a digital photographer who specializes in panoramic landscapes and 360 degree digital video capture for commercial websites. He has written texts on the techniques that he uses, and he also offers workshops and apprenticeships. The pages include a gallery of beautiful, color-saturated images of monuments, cityscapes and landscapes, examples of his in-the-round digital video work for the Louvre, as well as for luxury hotels and restaurants, a catalog of images and other material for sale, and a very technical explanation of his work, including information about adjusting colors to compensate for computer use, etc. The images on the site are copyright protected, they cannot be used.
Although the site includes a pedagogical component (instructions in digital web photography techniques and optics) it is far too advanced in both language and content for any casual users. Students will be able to enjoy the images on the site, however, and the amazing 360 degree panoramic photos of restaurants, hotel rooms and bathrooms could be visually engaging while providing practical language practice. The Louvre photo sequences could be better accessed from the Louvre site, but it is interesting to have a peek at the person responsible for the work, and can give students a school-to-work connection, as they gain an idea of the type of work involved in creating the images they access on the web.
Type of Material:
Collection
Recommended Uses:
Stimulus for class activities and independent writing
Technical Requirements:
In order to access the 360 degree photographs, one needs QTVR (Quick Time Virtual Reality), which is available to download on the site.
Identify Major Learning Goals:
Practice French
Target Student Population:
Learners of French
Prerequisite Knowledge or Skills:
Basic French
Content Quality
Rating:
Strengths:
The site is visually elegant, with a black background offsetting the colorful images. There is a wide range of images available for examination. It is a professional presentation, it appears that the photographerÂ’s work is highly specialized and he exhibits great pride in his craft.
Concerns:
The language is completely authentic, but the text pages explaining techniques of digital photography are highly technical and written in complex language. The website is frequently updated, the links are in working order, but it is a commercial site, and is meant to showcase the talents and work of the photographer. The links are also of a commercial nature (to the modeling agency for a model used in some work, to the specialized professional bookseller where his book is available).
Potential Effectiveness as a Teaching Tool
Rating:
Strengths:
The site is not specifically designed as a teaching tool, but it is an authentic window into French professional life that could profitably be used by instructors in creative ways in crafting lessons based on the image content. The images are enthralling, and students will particularly enjoy taking the 360 degree tours of different sites, moving the mouse to circle around a whole image from the inside of it. It's amazing! Students may use the site for independent examination, and it could be used to stimulate discussion, to promote narrative invention, as well as for basic descriptive practice with house and home vocabulary at levels from beginner through advanced.
Concerns:
The site is not designed as a teaching tool, so instructors will need to use imagination in order to integrate it into meaningful lesson activities.
Ease of Use for Both Students and Faculty
Rating:
Strengths:
The video is stunning, the site is easily navigable, with many drop-down boxes providing information about the pages. The site showcases the work of a master of digital photography for the web, so the color and design features are impeccable. Advanced French learners will navigate with ease, lower-level learners will need guidance in terms of some terms. There is no audio component.
Concerns:
None
Other Issues and Comments:
None
Creative Commons:
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