Friday, May 28, 2010

The prestigious Sony World Photography Awards are now open for entries. The festival will expand to four major cities across the globe throughout 2010 and 2011, visiting San Francisco, Mexico City, Shanghai and London. Professional and ‘serious enthusiast’ photographers are invited to join the Professional competition and will be judged on a body of work. The 14 professional categories are arranged into three genres - Commercial, Fine Art and Photojournalism & Documentary - and new categories include Lifestyle, Still Life, and People. The Open competition, which replaces the amateur competition, has been created for the growing number of people with a love of photography. It has nine categories, and is judged on a single image. The 2011 competition closes for entries on 5 January 2011. Winners of the Professional and Open categories will each receive their trophies at the Sony World Photography Awards ceremony in London on 27 April 2011.

Website: Sony World Photography Awards

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Allworth Press has published the third edition of The Law (in Plain English) For Photographers by Leonard D. DuBoff and Christy O. King. Providing essential and legal advice for aspiring and professional photographers that can mean the difference between a photographer’s success and ruin, the book is written “in plain English” for better understandability. The third edition has been expanded to include analysis of key digital issues, new cases on fair use and copyright infringement, post-9/11 rules for shooting in “sensitive” locations, and updates to right of publicity laws protecting images of famous people even after death. The Law (in Plain English) For Photographers is available for pre-order and sells for $24.95.

Website: Allworth Press

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Olapic.com has announced its online service of collecting and sharing high-quality wedding photos. Guests can upload the digital photos taken at any of the bridal and wedding events, and members are able to organise, store and print each photo for keeps in an album or placed on other social networking sites. In addition, Olapic.com offers commitment-free partnership plans to enhance the wedding planner’s and photographer’s portfolio. Users can register for a free trial version, as well as upgrade their account to plans starting at $55.

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Award-winning photographer Marci Sandler is to lead “Creating Photographic Art,” a two-day photography workshop sponsored by Homeland Photographic Gallery, St. Croix, US Virgin Islands. The workshop will teach participants to create high-quality, fantasy and exotic images. Workshop courses will be held on 19 and 20 July from 9:00 a.m. – 5:00 p.m. at Select Temp Staffing, and will include lunch. An optional half-day trip and location shoot is available to participants on 21 July. Photographers will have an opportunity to venture on a four-wheel drive trip to Tide Pools with Sandler where they will shoot with a model in an exotic tropical location and create images to further enhance their portfolios. The registration fee for the two-day workshop is $195. The optional trip to Tide Pools is an additional $125. or general information about the workshop and to register, visi the website below.

Website: Homeland Collections

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A collection of 19th century photographic portraits of Russian Royalty goes under the hammer at Bonhams Books, Maps, Manuscripts and Photographs sale on 8 June in London. Among the most notable items are two finely hand-coloured cabinet cards of Alexander II and his wife Maria Alexandrovna; a hand-coloured card of the future Alexander III as Tsarevitch; pictures of Alexander III and his wife Tsarina Maria Fedorovna who fled to Great Britain after the revolution and then settled in her native Denmark where she died in 1928; and a photograph of Alexander II lying in state. The sale begins at 2pm in Bonhams’ flagship saleroom on NEw Bond Street.

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Thursday, May 27, 2010

Insight Guides and The Independent on Sunday have announced a travel photography competition in which the winner will receive a photographic commission worth £3,000. Any UK-based adult who thinks his or her photography is a cut above the average holiday album can enter by submitting three images that, having been taken since 1 January this year, capture the essence of a destination, using ‘earth’ as the theme. Photographers have until Friday 10 September 2010 to submit their entries, and the winner will be announced in the travel pages of The Independent on Sunday along with the winning portfolio. For further information, entrants should visit http://www.insightguides.com as terms and conditions apply.

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International Garden Photographer of the Year (IGPOTY) is reminding interested photographers that the submission deadline for its spring seasonal competition is 31 May. Part of IGPOTY’s brand new format, ‘4 Seasons’, the theme of the spring competition is ‘Spring into Life’. If this sounds interesting, visit the IGPOTY website via the link below to enter your work. All entries will also automatically go through to the main IGPOTY competition at the end of the year.

Website: IGPOTY

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The Imaging Science Group of the Royal Photographic Society (RPS) is organising another Good Picture Symposium, open to all, on selected technical aspects of digital imaging. As 2010 is the 100th anniversary of infrared photography, the organisers have taken the opportunity to celebrate this by including some IR topics including “Infrared in the Surveillance Society”, “Digital Infrared Thermography in Medicine”, “How Infrared Sensing Might Help Us Manage the Resources of Planet Earth”, “Infrared Imaging – The Fever Screening Dilemma” and “Practical Options For Infrared Photography”. Other topics include the use of colour appearance models in imaging and a look at Canon raw conversion options. The Good Picture Symposium is taking place on 4 December at the University of Westminster, Regent Street, London. Admission costs £64.

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Garage Studios are showing Kevin Mason’s Your Life Is My Vanity Project, from 29 to 31 May between 10:30 am and 8:00 pm. The project, which spanned thirty weeks of photoshoots over eight months, plots the important physical and emotional transformations as Kevin’s subject Georgie Hobday turns seventeen. Your Life Is My Vanity Project is presented by sponsors Garage Studios, Brighton’s biggest Photography Studio and Training Centre as a series of prints and original polaroids and features over 120 images curated by both Georgie Hobday and M.Halls, a limited edition book of the work will also be available at the exhibition and online at the website below.

Website: Your Life Is My Vanity Project

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Hama has announced the retail availability of the new “Varadero” camera bags from Samsonite. The collection comprises seven models, which feature clearly labelled compartments for empty and full batteries and memory cards. Padded handles, removable shoulder straps and a pleasantly soft fleece interior lining are the hallmarks of the new bags, which are priced from €39.99 to €59.99 depending on model.

Website: Hama

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